Is there still a ‘glass ceiling’ for women in insurance?
Wage equality between the sexes has been constantly debated for decades and while things have improved to some degree there is still some way to go before a balance is achieved. However one senior insurance industry executive says that she has never experienced a so-called glass ceiling in her career. Penn Mutual’s CEO Eileen McDonnell has told Forbes.com that she believes that self-empowerment is the key to rising above workplace challenges. McDonnell is 52 now but has been in the insurance industry for three decades and became VP of Equitable Life twenty-five years ago and has never looked back, holding senior positions at a number of firms before her current role at the top of Penn Mutual. She says her ability to stand back from a frenzied discussion, listen and form a concise and clear view has gained her a lot of respect over the years. She believes that often women accept less than they are worth and she also criticizes the standard teaching in business schools that the wage gap exists: “That teaches girls to expect it and boys to do it” she says. Read the full story.
Doomsday closer now than any time since the Cold War
Scientists say that the world is closer to an end now than at any time since the days of the Cold War. The symbolic Doomsday Clock has moved two minutes closer to midnight in the last three years due to climate change and the increasing threat from nuclear weapons; it now sits at three minutes to Armageddon. The Atomic Scientists in Boston who maintain the ‘clock’ say that their assessment of world leaders shows a sluggish approach to protecting their citizens and there needs to be more in terms of speed and scale to correct the current situation. The group says that greenhouse gas emissions are 50 per cent higher now than in 1990 and the decommissioning of nuclear weapons has stalled. The current Doomsday clock time of three minutes to twelve contrasts with its position of seventeen minutes to twelve in 1991 as the Cold War ended.
Axa offers new cyber ‘clean-up’ add-on
Insurance firm Axa is planning to extend its cyber-attack insurance to new markets including an add-on to enable a clean-up of leaked data following an attack. As the Sony hacking highlighted criminals are not restricting themselves to ‘denial of service’ attacks, now they are stealing data and releasing it to the world. The devastating impact of commercially sensitive information is a big risk but there is also the threat of reputational damage from leaked emails or images being released online. Axa says it can help clean-up this leaked data including private images. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, senior executive Nicolas Moreau also spoke of the risk to infrastructure organisations from the increase in cyber attacks and warned that they: “could be as effective as a bombing of a city”.
