Ruth Estrich has been involved in IASA for 22 years. Her firstexperience with the organization was as a speaker at an annualconference. From there it grew into being a volunteer andeventually she served on committees and the management board. Nowshe prepares to assume the role of president beginning in July.

Estrich, the chief strategy officer for MedRisk, has seen allsides of the insurance world as an IT professional, and a marketingleader. She has worked for carriers and vendors. As she likes tosay, “I’m multi lingual.”

The Year Ahead

Education will be the major focus for Estrich as president ofIASA over the next year.

“I see us growing and moving more into the areas of online andjust-in-time education,” she says. “Much of our emphasis over theyears has been at a national level with our annual conference andat the regional level with in-person conferences. I think we needto spend more energy and time on more virtual kinds of things,using social media to expand our programs, doing more Webinars andvirtual education for our constituents.”

Estrich is excited about some of the new offerings IASA hascreated, particularly the Industry Pulse. As a strategist, she seesthe value of learning quickly where the industry stands on certainissues, what people’s opinions are, and getting it out to a broadpopulation.

“In my job, knowing where the industry stands on a lot oftopical items is important in our planning and development,” shesays.

Estrich also is a fan of the knowledge exchange platform wheremembers can write in questions and get answers from theirpeers.

“Using all the new technology to make information more widelyand topically available is very important to me,” she says. “Theseare things that are strategically important for IASA as we moveforward.”

Rising to the Top

Estrich is often touted as an example of what the volunteerexperience can do for members of IASA.

“I know that in my own career so many years ago I just assumed Iwould spend my career in one place, but it didn’t go that way,” shesays. “Other opportunities came along. The constant through most ofmy career has come through IASA. Experiences I have undergone, andthings I have done for IASA have helped me forward my career overthe years.”

Estrich believes she never would have been able to run themarketing department for Liberty Mutual or CNA—two carriers whereshe got her start in insurance in IT—so she gained her marketingexperience through the IASA marketing committee and then became theChief Marketing Officer of a company.

“Volunteers really need to take advantage of the opportunitiesavailable through IASA not to just help IASA, but to help crafttheir own careers and to have IASA contribute to them in thebuilding of their careers and the ability to make a difference intheir own companies,” she says. “That’s important to me.”

Career Strategy

Estrich maintains IASA is a huge career strategy for manyreasons. The connections established can help people find new jobsand further their careers.

When Estrich joined MedRisk, “IASA came with me,” according toEstrich.

“I was very clear about the work I do with IASA,” she says. “I’mlucky my company supports me with this. Almost every one of us atthe senior team level (at MedRisk) is on the board of something andwe encourage that. We want our senior team to be thought leaders.We want them to hold positions like the one I have at IASA.”

Estrich reports she gained many new skills and a large number ofconnections through her years with IASA.

“I’ve used them many times when I wanted to talk with someoneoutside my company,” she says. “IASA can be an important piece ofone’s own strategy.”