A long-time supporter of women in insurance, generally, and of the Women in Insurance Summit, in particular, Donna Scully (pictured), co-owner and director of Carpenters Group, is a natural fit to lead the charge as chair of the upcoming Summit in London.
Being held on November 7 at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms, the event will bring together professionals from across the insurance ecosystem under the banner of ‘Connecting as a Community’. For Scully, it’s a theme that resonates strongly with her own stated ambition to ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to women in insurance.
It’s a phrase she was introduced to her by her friend and peer Katherine Bryant who runs the Insurance Breakfast Club, she said, and a constant reminder of the need for actions to replace words if meaningful progress is going to be made on diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I). Discussing how she became involved with the Summit, Scully noted how, for years, she found herself an attendee or panellist at conferences where women either didn’t have a seat at the table – or found themselves alone there.
The opportunity presented by the Women in Insurance Summit to bring women from a real range of demographics together to share their experiences has been great to see. In addition, she said, the fact that it’s a truly international event, held all over the world, means that it’s helping to put discussions about women in insurance in the UK on the map. “The other thing is that when you look at these conferences, you get some really great women coming together.
“These are heavy-duty industry leaders who have worked really hard to achieve their success and make their mark. I think they have the determination to make things better for the younger women coming after us. And looking at the agenda of this year’s event, I see you have those women who are still doing that, and still trying to make a difference.”
‘Sending the ladder back down again’ is a central theme of Scully’s own leadership mentality – and that relates as much to social mobility as it does to gender. “I’m looking to pull up more Donnas. That’s not just women, that’s women from a more ‘basic’ background who may not have the formal education they think they need to succeed. Because it just makes it that much harder to be a woman without the right networks, or contacts, or qualifications.”
Exploring the agenda of the upcoming Summit, she shared her excitement about the launch of the Women in Insurance Mentorship Network. Mentorship is key to creating greater equality of opportunity within the insurance market, she said, which was thrown into sharp relief during a recent visit to the Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre in Liverpool where she had the opportunity to speak with students about their journeys and share career advice.
The mission statement of the institute resonates with Scully’s own conviction that education is the golden ticket to opportunity, she said. While there, she met a woman who, having obtained an Open University law degree, now has a scholarship to a Master’s through the Law Society’s diversity programme. “She asked me if I could recommend a mentor and some work experience for her. She wants to do criminal law, which is not my area but I [reached out to my network of contacts] and, through them, put her in touch with the head of a criminal law practice in Liverpool who agreed to be her mentor and give her work experience. That took me about 10 minutes. That’s the power of mentoring and networking.”
The Women in Insurance Summit showcases the power of putting a group of people passionate about supporting the next generation together, and the new mentorship scheme epitomises that. “I think, for me, it’s about helping each other and supporting each other,” she said. “It’s about being available to the women who want to reach out to us, especially as senior women in the industry.
“The big thing for me is that we have more senior women who are a bit more established who are willing to share their experiences with younger women, and that’s your wins and your losses. Sharing what you’ve learned is really our superpower. I think that’s the real theme of this for me – how powerful we are together, how we can support each other, how we can encourage younger women to lean in.”
You can view the full agenda and sign up for the upcoming Women in Insurance Summit 2024 today.
