The 2007 "Insurance Woman of the Year," H. Elizabeth Mitchell, was a major in classics--not math--back in college, so she knew she had a lot to prove on the math skills assessment exam for new actuaries required to land a job with the Insurance Service Office when she started out in the industry back in 1985.

"I'm pretty good with numbers," she noted, recalling that she passed the test with flying colors, starting down a career path that has taken her across the Atlantic, as the corporate actuary at English and American Insurance Group, and into several executive offices--culminating with her current position as president of Platinum Underwriters Reinsurance.

Ms. Mitchell, who was honored earlier this month by the Association of Professional Insurance Women, said in her acceptance speech that the Woman of the Year award is "important not because it's being awarded to me, but because it's a visible face out there for everyone to see that women can be successful and can inhabit the executive office."

In a recent interview, Ms. Mitchell said her first piece of advice to young professionals is to consider obtaining some kind of advanced professional credential.

Becoming an actuary, she noted, "gave me a very deep technical and broad training into the insurance business--not only the numbers but also the economics and the distribution. How the system works, why it works, what the laws associated with the business are, etc."

In addition, she said, "it proved that I had made it. I had taken exams that were regarded as very difficult, and once you've got that credential, no one can take it away from you, and you become an expert."

Ms. Mitchell's second piece of advice was to always be open to, and looking for new professional experiences--especially those that do not involve switching companies. She advocated the value of making lateral as well as vertical moves.

"When I was at St. Paul, I started out in the international department and moved to the nontraditional underwriting department," she recalled. "I wound up in the North American casualty writing department, not because I had direct experience in the casualty business but because it was recognized that I had this breadth of experience across large sections of the insurance and reinsurance business, and that those skill sets could easily be adapted for casualty business."

She also had some advice for the perfectionists and overachievers in the industry. "You have to prioritize and you have to not do everything perfectly," she cautioned. "You have to release that project when it's due. Good enough is for most perfectionists better than most people's work products."

Her final words of career advice were for people to be honest with themselves about their strengths and weaknesses. She said it does not serve anybody well when a professional claims to excel at something that is outside the scope of their abilities and preferences.

"If you're not a great salesperson, which I am not, then it's always going to feel uncomfortable to cold call. To this day I hate cold calling, but it's helpful to realize that because I'm never going to go into a job that forces me to do something that is so unnatural and unpleasant for me," she said.

As a manager, Ms. Mitchell said she has tried to recognize her employees' strengths and to create a collegial atmosphere in her office. She has also had a lasting impact on several young professionals who have worked for her in the past.

After her award was announced, she said, she received a number of letters from past employees who thanked her for the difference she had made in their careers.

"I had no idea I was having that kind of an impact on these women," she said during her acceptance speech. "I thought I was just bossing them around."

Whether or not she realized she was fostering their professional development, Ms. Mitchell managed to climb to the top and impress people along the way.

Steven H. Newman, chairman of Bermuda-based Platinum Underwriters Holdings Ltd. and a longtime colleague of Ms. Mitchell, said when he presented her with the award that "Liz is a fine example to many professional women. She's demonstrated you can have an exciting career and be dedicated to your family."

With 15 members of her family present at the APIW's award reception in New York, it was clear she has managed to find that sweet spot of personal and professional life balance. And it was apparent that her daughter, Leandre Pestcoe, who was among the family in attendance, is already taking lessons from her mother to heart.

Ms. Mitchell said during her acceptance speech that when she was writing her address, she asked her daughter for her advice on an opening sentence. Although she is only six years old, Leandre understands the art of pleasing a crowd. Her advice, which Ms. Mitchell credited to her daughter, won her mother the loudest cheers she received all evening: "Thank you, everybody, for coming."

Special Reports /

APIW's Insurance Woman Of The Year Shares Secrets Of Success, Career Advice

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