Spencer Foundation Helps The Next Generation

It was quite an honor sitting next to Charlotte Spencer last night–the widow of Robert Spencer, the pioneer in risk management for whom the Spencer Educational Foundation is named–during an elegant dinner at the Waldorf to celebrate the scholarship fund's 30th anniversary. I was blown away by the parade of those working in the industry who stopped by our table to pay homage to her husband and tell Mrs. Spencer how educational grants from the fund had changed their lives.

When people are struggling to pay for an education that can make or break their careers, every dime helps, and over the past three decades, the Spencer Foundation has assisted 454 students afford undergraduate, graduate or continuing education expenses. Many have gone on to work for insurance companies or brokerages, or in the risk management community.

Spencer has given away $3.6 million in grants, along with an additional $1.3 million to fund risk managers and others serving as visiting professor at universities across the country, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom, to help train the next generation.

One of the most recent grant recipients–Danielle Roth, who now manages casualty risk management at Verizon Communications in New York City–is working on her MBA in Finance at Rutgers. 

“Although my company offers tuitition reimbursement,” she told the more than 600 guests gathered at the gala, “that doesn't always keep up with the rising cost of education. Indeed, many of my friends see it taking two-times or three-times as long as they'd planned to complete their studies due to the cost, so the Spencer scholarship can really help move your dream along.” 

The quiet and unassuming Mrs. Spencer was flown up from her home in the Atlanta area to sit with members of the Atlanta Chapter of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (many of whom are pictured with me–I apologize for not getting all your names!), which was honored for launching the foundation as a local endeavor back in 1979. I was lucky enough to plop down right next to her, listening to her and her friends regale me with stories about how Bob Spencer of Fuqua Industries in Atlanta  had helped revolutionize risk management.

I heard all about his leadership in self-insurance–essentially helping risk managers grow beyond their initial role as relatively passive insurance buyers, to become true profit centers for their companies.

Mr. Spencer set up shop with a captive in Bermuda long before that was fashionable or commonplace, and he continued to innovate throughout his career.

I also heard about how he made the risk management department part of the lives of every employee–setting up a program to lease the workers' cars for $1 and charge a nominal fee of $90 to insure their personal vehicles through his firm's self-funded program.

A gesture like that will certainly make a risk management department relevant to the rank and file, and earn some attention and loyalty when the risk manager needs a new loss control or safety program implemented down the road!

Mr. Spencer, a former RIMS president, help set up the society's professional development curriculum, and established a program–still running to this day–to bring students to the RIMS annual conference. I met many of the students attending this year's meeting in Orlando, and arranged a followup up meeting between one student studying to be an actuary with our managing editor, Susanne Sclafane, who is an actuary herself.

Mrs. Spencer was delighted but seemed overwhelmed by all the attention and the financial support generated in her husband's honor. She was teary eyed when the guest of honor, J. Partrick Gallagher–chair, president and CEO of the Arthur J. Gallagher brokerage–announced he would commit a $100,000 scholarship fund in the name of his dad, John, and uncle, Bob, who formed the firm.

Mr. Gallagher talked about this step being one of many demonstrating his firm's commitment to developing the next generation of insurance and risk management talent. He noted how Gallagher sponsors 150 interns each year, with many landing full-time work with the brokerage.

“For an industry as important as ours, we need to be more proactive in bringing in the best and the brightest,” he told the crowd.

“We don't give ourselves enough credit for how important this business is,” he added. “If you think this financial crisis was tough, imagine how commerce would come to a halt without insurance.”

He went on to recall that “when 9/11 hit, we didn't ask for a bailout. The same goes for losses after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. We just did our important job of paying claims. We put people's lives back together.”

That is a pretty good recruiting message. And bolstered by the 100 grand put up by Gallagher, and earlier big-time contributions by the likes of FM Global, the Spencer Foundation is in a terrific position to lend a hand to those who will build this industry's future.

Each summer, I always look forward to working with our summer journalism interns, and have been quite pleasantly surprised at their levels of skill, commitment and dedication–particularly coming in cold to cover an industry that can be as complex as insurance. We even saw one of our interns get a full-time job in the industry.

I, myself, benefited greatly from internships–first at a community newspaper called “The East New Yorker,” where I really learned how to run a publication, as well as gaining some hard-earned reporting experience at a little joint called the Associated Press. I even got my first full-time job (at a supermarket weekly newspaper called “Modern Grocer) thanks to the reference given by my publisher at the East New Yorker.

What are you folks doing to prepare the next generation of insurers, agents, brokers and risk managers? (For more information about the Spencer Foundation, go to www.spencered.org.)