“Being promoted to the group management board in January 2011, at that time as the only woman.”
very successful new health strategy in 2012 with particular focus on Asia. She has improved the focus on large transactions with significant increases in the economic profit delivered since 2010. She has delivered all of this while having two young children.
Name: Alison Martin
Company: Swiss Re Job:
Head life & health business management reinsurance and member of reinsurance executive committee
Timeline: 2013—Head life & health business management, Swiss Re 2011—Named head of life & health products, Swiss Re 2006—Named head global life & health risk transformation, Swiss Re 2003—Joined Swiss Re 1995—Joined PwC as trainee
Alison Martin has been with Swiss Re since 2003, when she joined as finance director for the life & health business group. She moved to become chief financial officer for the UK life business in 2005 and was promoted to managing director and head of global life & health risk transformation the year after. In January 2011 she was named head of life & health products, becoming responsible for team of about 400 costing actuaries and medical underwriters, and was promoted to the group management board. She moved to her current position, which was newly created, in July 2013 and now oversees a total of 600 valuation actuaries, technical accountants, claims specialists and inforce management specialists. Martin joined the industry after specialising in insurance, including audit, consulting and transaction services work in 1998 while working at PricewaterhouseCoopers, joining the company as a trainee in 1995. Her successes include delivering a turnaround of the life & health US GAAP results, as well as creating a highly effective, new and diverse leadership team responsible for the end to end value chain of life & health once new business has been written. She led strategy development for life & health in 2011, establishing Swiss Re’s first small inforce management team to protect and enhance value from the inforce as well as developing and implementing a
www.intelligentinsurer.com
Why did you choose to work in this industry initially? Maths has always been my favourite subject. While I was at university studying law, I had the opportunity to do a module on insurance law, and insurance sounded like a very interesting industry. I even investigated becoming an actuary and going into insurance straight away, but following advice from my uncle I chose to do accountancy training at one of the then ‘big 6’ first before entering into any specific industry. Finally at PwC, I had the opportunity to get involved with insurance clients and it all came together.
What has been the highlight of your career so far? Being promoted to the group management board in January 2011, at that time as the only woman. Having the knowledge that some very senior people believe in you is a great motivator to strive to achieve more to justify their faith and support.
What has been the biggest challenge you have
encountered? I would hesitate to say I have had big challenges as I feel I have been fortunate so far in my life. I have a great team supporting me both at work and at home which makes dealing with issues seem easier. It’s fair to say that adjusting to being a working parent over the past two years was probably more of a challenge than I expected; dealing with and accepting the compromises that you have to make in order to be successful both at work and at home took a few months, but I am pleased to say that I really enjoy both roles.
If you had chosen a different profession/career path, what would it have been? If I were to do something completely different, it would have either been to be a professional ballet dancer, as I trained for 15 years between the ages of three and 18, and absolutely loved it, or to be involved in the entertainment business in another capacity, either on stage myself or managing things behind the scenes. I was head of the university student union entertainment team, booking bands/comedians/DJs and running the events which I also really enjoyed.
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