Summer 2015 Bermuda:Re/insurance+ILS 5


Role models


Within the information gathered from those included in the supplement, many shared interesting views on the way in which women are perceived and treated within the re/insurance industry.


Kathleen Reardon, CEO, Hamilton Re, says that she wants to be


a good role model as someone who is passionate about her chief executive and industry role as well as her family. However, she says, senior level careers are demanding and require some sacrifices.


Rebecca Roberts, senior vice president, underwriting, RenaissanceRe


says that she wants to add value to her company and to the influence of women in the industry.


“My aspiration is to continue to add value here at RenaissanceRe. I


have been with the company for 13 years now and the company is in better shape than ever. One of the ways I would like to continue to add value is to play a bigger role in helping women in our company reach their highest potential,” she says.


Reardon adds that achieving senior level positions is possible for women, but she feels that senior level executives could be doing more to help.


“If a senior position is a goal for a woman coming up in the industry, it is achievable,” she says. “There are an abundant amount of opportunities for women who are open to a challenge and raise their hand,” she says. “However, senior industry professionals could offer more encouragement to those women who are less forward.”


Kiernan Bell, managing partner, group head, Bermuda, dispute resolution, Appleby, says: “I am a partner in a law firm that advises the reinsurance industry, and I have been lucky in that women in the firm before me had achieved great success and there was a clear path.


“In the last two decades that I have been working, women have come


a long way—there are now women occupying the most senior levels of the industry as well as in the professional firms that service the industry.


“However, it remains a fact that often I am the only woman in the room. So, I would say that there is still a ‘glass ceiling’—albeit one which is looking more and more riddled with cracks!”


Top talent


In Bermuda there are many examples of women in senior level positions. One of them, Peta White, managing director, head of North America property reinsurance, Markel Re, was recently appointed as co-head of global reinsurance operations. Like many she says she fell into the reinsurance industry.


“After completing my studies, I was contacted by a reinsurer, CAT


Limited, who was looking specifically for Bermudian MIT alumni to join the company. At the time I had very little understanding of reinsurance and my original plan had been to move to Europe


and pursue a career with my mechanical engineering degree. I was, however, convinced to give it a go in the CAT modelling team, if just for the summer, and the rest is history,” she says.


White is a great example of a woman who has striven hard for success, although she says that this has not been without its challenges.


“When Markel acquired Alterra in 2013 and a colleague of mine


left the company to pursue another job, I was given the opportunity by Jed Rhoads, president and CUO of Markel Global Reinsurance, to take on the role of head of US property catastrophe reinsurance,” she explains.


“I knew this would be a challenge, and although it was a tough first


year, getting myself to the point at which I was adding value to the team, it was an amazing opportunity and certainly a defining moment in my career.”


Jill Husbands, head of office, managing director, Marsh, Bermuda


also says she fell into the industry, but says that she instantly loved it, despite being initially discriminated against for being female.


“I fell into insurance rather than choosing it. However, from the


very first day I was passionate about this industry, so I signed up for my professional qualifications and moved forward,” she says.


“I was very lucky that in my first position I had a wonderful mentor who shared so much with me and from whom I learned so much—even though in the early days of my career I was not allowed into Lloyd’s because I am female; how far we have travelled since then.”


For Susan Cross, executive vice president and group chief actuary,


XL Catlin, securing an executive position has led to her involvement in a very complex merger which took place earlier in 2015.


“Certainly, the crises of the late 2000s were a big challenge—then


it was a challenge to survive. Today, the competitive reinsurance market makes it a challenge of thriving. We spent years making very impressive progress, followed by a big leap forward when we brought XL Group and Catlin Group together to form XL Catlin,” she says.


“It is important to me to find enough time to offer educational and mentoring opportunities either through Women in Reinsurance, which I chair, or on my own.” Kathleen Reardon, Hamilton Re


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