Elite Women in ReInsurance

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Blazing a trail forward

“The industry is holding on to the good old days and the Mad Man era. It’s hard to change the mindset of the senior colleagues and be seen as a valuable contributor,” says one of Reinsurance Business’ Elite Women of 2024. This is an apt description of the industry landscape.

Anna Ziswiler, market head for Switzerland & Mediterranean, P&C Re, at Swiss Re, echoes this.

“The reality is that women are a minority at the top of the reinsurance and insurance sectors. In addition, when I look around, I still see many more male colleagues have P&L responsibilities, and more women are in advisory roles.

However, for those leading and exceptional performers, such as REIB's Elite Women who have battled against the odds, Ziswiler shares what they embody.

“I expect to see a leading woman in reinsurance delivering high impact, putting her organisation, customers and teams first, and bringing leadership that is inclusive, to listen, care, empower, connect individuals and teams to collaborate and solve problems.”

Kweilin Ellingrud, McKinsey Global Institute director and senior partner, shared in 2023 that women made up over half of entry-level employees in the North American insurance industry but 40 percent at the board level.

Adding more nuance for every 100 men promoted to manager, 104 women are promoted. Ellingrud refers to this as “the broken rung of initial promotions” being eliminated.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2024 reveals that the financial services industry is among the worst at enabling women to rise to the top. Their data shows that women make up 48 percent of entry level positions, but this drops to 21.1 percent at the C-suite, equalling a “drop to the top” figure of 44 percent. This compares poorly to consumer services (62 percent), government/public sector (59 percent), and education (59 percent).

The improvements are happening, but barriers remain for women to achieve parity and be offered the same opportunities as men. A Deloitte study found, between 2019 and 2022,

a rise from 30.8 percent to 32.9 percent of female representation in workforce
an increase to 25.3 percent from 21.2 percent in tech-forward positions and leadership roles

Ziswiler adds, “We can think about how the journey of becoming or being an authentic leader differs for a man and a woman. There are certainly some issues of systemic bias for women to stand out and reach the top, in a still very male-dominated industry at the top.”

According to Ziswiler, these include:

Some (unconscious) mismatch between how women are perceived and the ability, expertise and personality people tend to associate with leaders.
As an example, discussions that tend to be brought up more often in leadership circles and championed by women around the importance of change management, culture and mindset, developing talent (including female talent), growing leaders are perceived as "fluffy" and "soft".
The journey of becoming an authentic leader is shaped by conscious and unconscious verbal and non-verbal feedback that one receives along the way from peers, managers, business partners; and for women, this feedback can be rather contradictory, sometimes conflicting.
The lack of leading female role models.
Women sometimes have their own biases: they sometimes struggle more to be confident, not to feel guilty, and sometimes have limiting beliefs of what it means to be a good professional and a good parent.

These findings highlight why the achievements of REIB’s inaugural Elite Women of Reinsurance deserve a great deal of respect, as they have all managed to ascend to leadership roles despite the barriers in their way.

REIB invited insurance professionals from across Asia-Pacific, North America, and the UK to nominate their achievements and initiatives over the past 12 months, and 50 outstanding individuals made the prestigious final list.

Examples of excellence

The success achieved and challenges conquered by REIB’s Elite Women of 2024 vary as those recognised are at different career points and located across the globe.

Some standout examples are:

A Zimbabwean immigrant who has built a career in the US and is now a vice president of global distribution improving her firm’s approach to managing relationships with key trading partners, including upgrading client strategies and fine-tuning the team’s analysis and reporting. She voluntarily mentors summer interns and participants in an early talent Reinsurance Associate Program.
A senior vice president, head of Middle East and Africa, with over 30 years of industry experience, who is managing a $375-million book. During the last two years, she has re-underwritten large parts of this book and achieved an improved bottom line by making it more robust against natural disasters.
The head of construction and engineering in Switzerland, who has excelled in a traditionally male-dominated line and has proven incredibly successful. In addition to her underwriting skill and client focus, she is also an active supporter of women within the industry.
The chief actuary for the largest homeowners’ insurance company in Florida, during a time where loss experience has been dramatically impacted by social inflation, increasing frequency of hurricanes and large PCS events, and hardening of the catastrophe reinsurance market.

Rising to the top

Tanya Dasgupta is one of REIB’s Elite Women of 2024. As head of Lockton Pulse, Affinity and Digital Solutions in Australia and the Pacific region, Dasgupta has a background in:

strategic growth planning
developing customised digital insurance solutions
spearheading distribution and partnership models across direct-to-market and association groups

With a degree in business management from Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, she has 20 years of expertise and experience working with large, leading global broking firms in Australia and New Zealand, after beginning at a broking firm.

“It’s about being brave, resilient, creative and willing to collaborate to be successful”
Tanya DasguptaLockton Pulse

“I really liked working with clients in terms of visualising their worlds and what they wanted in the complex things in life,” explains Dasgupta. “Getting into a broking firm was fabulous because it gave me a very broad landscape of working through the weeds.”

Her accomplishments came from years of working her way to the top and realising that it was not easy.

“I’ve really rolled up my sleeves, and worked through the ranks, and that has established who I am today,” she adds. “The biggest challenge was being heard and recognised. The race to be acknowledged and be included is a common dilemma faced by many women. I have always believed in being honest and being hungry and curious, to learn more and take up any challenge presented to set new benchmarks.”

And she continues, “I can look back and think about the challenges I faced, and I can resonate with clients. If you don’t do that, there’s a gap in thinking. I’m a very curious person and that helps with solving issues.”

Inspirational leadership

After working for a decade with one of the largest international broking companies in 2023, Dasgupta joined Lockton. The following year, Lockton Pulse, a sub-branch of Lockton Companies, was launched. An idea conceptualised by Dasgupta and a colleague was to develop a digital distribution growth wing called Affinity.

It’s a worldwide business unit helping build products and solutions, offering tailored insurance schemes for buying groups and associations, or client groups.

“It’s been challenging and yet rewarding and a significant milestone professionally that has enabled me to value resilience, creativity, and collaboration even more than before,” she admits.

Affinity is aimed at clients who can buy products and solutions.

“You leverage the buying power because it’s a similar product design,” Dasgupta reveals. “It can provide products and solutions for small to medium enterprises and client partnerships through digital distribution. It was a challenge because the program did not exist.”

Building from the ground up involved:

brand development
technology vendor selection
client partnerships
product development
insurer selection

One key focus was designing a holistic customer experience, from website to policy communication.

“We paid careful attention to every detail, from the aesthetics of branding to the practicalities of UX and UI design.”

Lockton fosters an entrepreneurial environment that allows employees to take charge of projects. Dasgupta’s boldness continues to pay off, earning plaudits within the industry.

“It is very easy to have a settled and comfortable job where everything is going well. It takes guts and courage to take up something which just did not exist from scratch,” she reveals.

“I’m very proud of it. It’s not been easy, especially when something does not exist, and it is just an idea. The execution is the most important thing in terms of how you give life to an idea.”

What is a good leader?

Dasgupta believes a strong female leader is standing out from the crowd, speaking her mind, challenging the status quo and having a positive impact on clients, colleagues and communities.

Other key attributes include:

enabling change
confidence
effective problem-solving
curiosity in bringing new ideas to life

It is also about making effective decisions and showing strength by abiding by them. This will have an overall impact on colleague development and enriching communities,” she explains.

Coming from a migrant family, Dasgupta champions diversity and charities in her community. She proudly supports and volunteers at the Addison Road Community Centre (Addi Road) in Sydney’s inner west suburb of Marrickville.

“It’s a small charity with a huge impact,” she says.

Addi Road works with the community to elevate human rights, arts and culture, and build sustainability. Its primary objectives are to rescue food (over eight tonnes a week from landfills) and fight hunger. It leads in the grassroots when it comes to campaigns such as:

RacismNotWelcome
Die or Die Trying: Escaping the Taliban

Every week, Addi Road Community Centre and volunteers provide food to more than 8,000 people.

“My husband and I organise an annual musical event at Addi Road inviting local musicians, making it a carnival festival that celebrates peace, love and equality. All proceeds go towards the Addi Road Food Pantry,” she adds.

A better tomorrow for ReInsurance

Dasgupta believes more female representation is needed at senior levels. She is a member of the Women in Insurance group, which recognises and celebrates women’s achievement in the sector.

“Diversity is the key to being successful in life. You need diverse communities coming together because if you don’t, you will be siloed,” she notes. “So, it is very important for women, especially younger women, to take on careers in financial services.”

She concludes, “I would like to see more women leaders at C-suites and CEO levels in the future, in insurance, reinsurance, broking and banking.”