100 influential women in re/insurance
skills in a business setting—to combine the analytical aspect with interacting with people and having a set career path.
What has been the biggest challenge you have Name:
Company: RenaissanceRe US Job:
H. Elizabeth Mitchell President & CEO
Timeline: 2015—President & CEO, RenaissanceRe US 2007—CEO, Platinum Underwriters Re 2003—COO, Platinum Underwriters Re 2002—EVP, Platinum Underwriters Re
H. Elizabeth (Liz) Mitchell joined RenaissanceRe on March 2, 2015 as part of the company’s acquisition of Platinum Underwriters Holdings. Previously, Mitchell was president & CEO of Platinum Underwriters Reinsurance, (now renamed Renaissance Reinsurance US) for 10 years, after being promoted from chief operating officer and executive vice president. Before the Platinum spin-off from St. Paul Companies in 2002, Mitchell was executive vice president of St. Paul Reinsurance, responsible for all North American casualty underwriting. Prior to joining St. Paul Re in 1993, Mitchell was the corporate actuary at English & American Insurance Group, and spent six years at Tillinghast/Towers Perrin after starting her career at the Insurance Services Office. Mitchell has been on the Board of St. John’s University School
of Risk Management since 2007. She has been on the Board of The Institutes (formerly the AICPCU) since 2010. Mitchell is also past Chairman of the Board of the Broker & Reinsurance Market Association. Mitchell is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, and a member of many industry groups. She graduated from College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass, where she was Valedictorian and Phi Beta Kappa.
Why did you choose to work in this industry initially? If you’re a math major, one of the few non-academic jobs in the business world available to you is to be an actuary. When I started out, this was one of the few career paths that was readily laid out for you, as you were coming out of school. What appealed to me about this industry was the ability to use my quantitative
68 | INTELLIGENT INSURER | 2015
encountered? The biggest challenge, by far, was surviving as a reinsurance company after 9/11. That was an event that hit on many levels. It was a massive insurance claim and balance sheet event. It caused tremendous disruption in the market with a massive withdrawal of capacity and many corporate restructurings, leading to the hard market of 2002 and 2003. Even more poignant was the personal tragedy. We all lost many close friends and business associates. Our offices at St. Paul Re were one block away from the World Trade Center. I remember vividly the emotional upheaval. We had a massive underwriting loss, new leadership in the CEO, a change of strategy and the potential for a significant restructuring of our reinsurance operation. Some of our colleagues left us to start new competitors. Holding it all together, keeping a brave face when it seemed like our world was ending—our safety, our homes, our jobs, was the hardest thing I have ever done.
What has been the highlight of your career so far? The tragedy of 9/11 paved the way for the launch of Platinum Underwriters in 2002. Being part of this IPO and building out a new reinsurance enterprise was a highlight of my career. What was so unique about Platinum was that we took the best of St. Paul Re—the best clients, the best business relationships, the best employees—and built a completely new corporate culture, based on prudent risk management and cutting-edge analytics.
What are your career aspirations now? The reinsurance world is changing rapidly, at a rate faster than I have ever seen in 30 years. It is fascinating. I believe that the successful reinsurer of the future will need to be nimble, innovative and provide a superior product. Equally important, to survive, that reinsurer will need to be disciplined in assessing risk and being paid adequately for the risk assumed. My immediate aspiration is to play a part in achieving this
with RenaissanceRe, leading my team through the successful execution of our strategy in the new world. The combining of RenaissanceRe and Platinum promises—and has already started—to bring phenomenal opportunities. I also feel compelled to help others to build rewarding careers, having
been lucky enough to have many colleagues share their wisdom with me along the way. There is a war for talent in the global marketplace and the insurance industry is not the first choice for many college graduates. I am very interested in addressing this problem. We need to find a way to attract new talent to our industry and mentor and train them for the future. This involves some organised, industrywide efforts, in conjunction with the trade associations, which I am excited about. It also involves executives like me investing time to personally mentor and develop our newer employees.
www.intelligentinsurer.com
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