IASA 2011: Estrich Prepares to be Next President of Association

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

Estrich, the chief strategy officer for MedRisk, has seen all sides of the insurance world as an IT professional, and a marketing leader. She has worked for carriers and vendors. As she likes to say, “I’m multi lingual.”

The Year Ahead

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

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

Estrich is excited about some of the new offerings IASA has created, particularly the Industry Pulse. As a strategist, she sees the value of learning quickly where the industry stands on certain issues, what people’s opinions are, and getting it out to a broad population.

“In my job, knowing where the industry stands on a lot of topical items is important in our planning and development,” she says.

Estrich also is a fan of the knowledge exchange platform where members can write in questions and get answers from their peers.

“Using all the new technology to make information more widely and topically available is very important to me,” she says. “These are things that are strategically important for IASA as we move forward.”

Rising to the Top

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

“I know that in my own career so many years ago I just assumed I would spend my career in one place, but it didn’t go that way,” she says. “Other opportunities came along. The constant through most of my career has come through IASA. Experiences I have undergone, and things I have done for IASA have helped me forward my career over the years.”

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

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

Career Strategy

Estrich maintains IASA is a huge career strategy for many reasons. The connections established can help people find new jobs and further their careers.

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

“I was very clear about the work I do with IASA,” she says. “I’m lucky my company supports me with this. Almost every one of us at the senior team level (at MedRisk) is on the board of something and we 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 of connections through her years with IASA.

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