2016's best insurance pros under 40

Read on for advice from these standout young producers, brokers and risk managers to learn why they turned to this industry and what keeps them going:

Related: Changing the millennial mindset

Eric Narcisco
CEO
Effective Coverage
Albany, New York

Years at company: 8.

A business plan rises from the ashes: Effective Coverage is an online independent insurance agency that specializes in renters' insurance. The idea for the agency was actually my thesis project for my finance MBA, which I finished in 2006. At that time, I was working at Chubb as an underwriter for a property book of business. My thesis also drew from experiencing an apartment fire back in 2001: A maintenance guy was fixing some pipes in a unit below mine, and he lit the building on fire. I didn't have renters' insurance and lost a significant portion of my belongings. I realized that renters' insurance is an underrepresented product, so I created a business plan.

Pitching my idea — a "brutal" experience: I presented my thesis to Chubb, but they passed, as the market wasn't where they wanted to be at the time. I went from carrier to carrier, hoping one would say yes. It was a brutal experience. I didn't have an insurance agency, and had no book of business. I just had a concept and a 50-page business plan. In 2008, Travelers saw the opportunity and agreed to underwrite the program. Seven years later, we work with multiple carriers and cover renters in nearly every state across the country.

How we handle lead generation: We work specifically with large property managers who encourage their tenants to get Renters' insurance. We are part of their leasing process. We have a proprietary agency management system where a landlord can see who has insurance and who does not. We also give brochures for property managers to distribute to their renters to remind them to buy coverage. If renters already have a policy, we offer to review their auto insurance, which is our next biggest coverage area. Our average-size property manager has a portfolio of communities with 7,000 to 8,000 units. Each community will typically have 200 units.

The mind of a renter: Less than 50 percent of renters are insured, and I think there are three reasons why. First, people don't think they need the coverage because their landlords have insurance. What they don't realize is that the landlord has no financial interest in a renter's personal property. Second, people think they don't own enough things to warrant buying insurance. Unfortunately, those renters who own the least generally also have limited financial resources to help in a catastrophe. Third, people don't realize what other things renters' insurance provides, such as being put up in a hotel room if you have an apartment fire, or paying for liability protection should they cause bodily injury or property damage to another.

Tom Barrett
Director — environmental/energy
Everest National Insurance Co.
Liberty Corner, New Jersey

Years at company: 3.5.

Training my sights on insurance: I graduated from Seton Hall University in 2005 as a finance major. I had never planned to get into the insurance industry, but when looking for a job on my school's career website, I found a training program for the carrier Crum & Forster. It sounded like a fun and interesting opportunity. In this training program, I went through an underwriting focus, but spent several weeks in claims, loss control, and in property, inland marine and excess umbrella. These rotations lasted for six months. After that, we were able to select or rank what department we wanted to work in permanently. I was able to get my first choice — the specialty brokers division — where I did more training for an additional six months and wrote auto, general liability and workers' comp through wholesalers. Throughout my training, I was really impressed with how much access we had to senior members of the management team. It was a unique opportunity to get to know them.

My career path: I knew I wanted to stay in insurance after about two years. At that time, I had gained more responsibility and could work more independently. After Crum & Forster, I joined Markel where I wrote casualty business and tough products liability like pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and invasive medical products. In June of 2012 I joined Everest as an underwriting manager in the environmental department and was promoted to head of the department in May of last year.

Environmental is broader than you think: You can look at any account and identify a pollution exposure and create a policy or solution for that type of exposure. A lot of brokers feel that a general liability policy covers pollution exposure, but many times, there's not an affirmative coverage grant — meaning most general liability policies are silent with regard to pollution.

Getting involved and recruiting the next generation: I'm a member of the New Jersey Surplus Lines Association and NAPSLO's Next Generation. It's about getting to know other young people in the industry and talking about our common struggles. The insurance industry is doing a better job of recruiting the next generation, but additional actions could be taken. I think more companies have done away with training programs, because you get an employee for two or three years and then they leave. But if a company really invests in its retention, and offers development opportunities — both for your career and for leadership, like public-speaking classes — and offers access to senior management and a good salary, people will stay with the company.

Shyla Lankford
Vice president of operations
Lipscomb & Associates
Dallas

Years at company: 5.

Falling into insurance: I moved to Dallas in 1997. I had a 6-month old child, and I was working odd jobs — bartending, at a hotel — and I was ready for a steady 9-to-5 job. A friend of a friend hired me as a receptionist at an insurance agency, and six months later I had my license. I understood insurance pretty well, I caught on quickly. I ended up outgrowing that agency after two years, and I moved on to a larger one that had more opportunities for advancement.

Beating cancer and gaining a new outlook: I'm a cancer survivor, of Hodgkin's lymphoma. I was 31 at the time I was diagnosed. I couldn't have beat cancer without the support of my husband. At the time of my diagnosis, we had only been married for six weeks. After the chemo and radiation process, I started looking at life differently — thinking about what's important and what's not. Ten months after starting treatment, I received my "all clear" and realized I needed to focus more on my career. I wanted to find any agency where I could finish my career and set up my retirement. Life's too short to not be challenged. That's how I ended up at the agency where I am at today.

Developing the next generation of leaders: In 2010, the Lipscomb agency was looking for someone with a commercial real estate background, who could work as an account executive. I liked the idea of coming in on the ground floor of a well-established agency and helping them grow this book. I was promoted to vice president of operations about a year ago. Overseeing professional growth is part of my responsibility now. I work with the support staff and help them plan and work toward career goals. We talk about what they want to do next year, what they want to do with their careers, what classes they will take, if they are happy in their careers, if they want more responsibility, and if their knowledge is helping them remain current in the marketplace.

A job well done: About two years ago, we were referred to a toxic waste hauler in Houston. They were being non-renewed in their current market and their agency had no other markets to go to. They did not have a good loss history, and we worked with them to get them connected to a safety consulting agency, so we could rebuild their insurance experience modification. They also had financial struggles and claims on top of that. We worked with one of our carriers so we could get this account to a place where they could secure insurance again. It was really challenging, but at the end of working with them and improving their numbers, it was very rewarding

Kathleen Crowe, 
Account specialist II
Aon Risk Solutions Inc.
Washington

My start in risk management: I graduated in May of 2012 from Butler University in Indiana with a dual degree in political science and Mandarin. During college, I worked for Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), and I knew I wanted to work on Capitol Hill. I decided to just move out there and I got a job as a bartender. During that time, I put out some feelers to see what was appropriate for my education and experience. I got an interview at [electrical power company] AES as an executive assistant in the global insurance department. I ended up helping with insurance contracts and the global property captive, and I realized that I really enjoyed the work and wanted to engage myself more. The following March, I started my ARM certification — I finished it in 2014 — and in July 2014, I earned a promotion to be an insurance analyst.

Speaking the language you want to hear: We had a rigorous underwriting process at AES, and I would ask our businesses — 72 generation and eight utility power plants worldwide — to give us profit and loss information so I could build out a template that details exposures and determines premiums. The templates can look like a spreadsheet nightmare, so I would have to relay the importance of the information that I was gathering, and how the exposures and underwriting affects them personally. If could speak to them in the language they understood — and not necessarily in "insurance-ese"—that eliminates the potential for risk exposures and creates a level of trust.

Transferring my risk management skills: In March I decided it was time to find a role in which I could bring my background in risk management to another facet of the insurance industry — the brokerage world. I moved to Aon Risk Solutions as a senior account specialist. At Aon, I collaborate with account executives, specialists and brokers to provide value and service to our clients and carriers. I work with small and medium-size enterprise companies to ensure they have the best coverage for their individual types of risk. In this position, I have been able to apply the important skill I learned as a risk manager — bridging language and understanding gaps — to develop relationships with my clients who do not have dedicated risk management teams at their companies. The need to explain insurance in a thoughtful and proactive way is what will ultimately drive results for the client as they make more risk-informed decisions, in addition to purchasing insurance for risk-transferring purposes.

Planting the insurance seed early and often: I'm a leader of the RIMS Rising Risk Professionals advisory council and a member of the RIMS Potomac Chapter in Washington, D.C. I'm working with the subcommittee on collegiate outreach, which helps students find internships or apprenticeship opportunities in the greater D.C. area. At a young age, it's great to have these networking opportunities. I'm also on the board — as the only alum — for the Captive Advisory Board at Butler University as the school determines the feasibility of incepting a captive for the students to manage. The university is planning on putting a captive together starting in 2020. Most schools don't offer students that type of hands-on experience.

Philip B. Wise, CIC
Senior vice president
Insgroup Inc. 
Houston

Years at company: 10.

I scream, you scream: I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2000 with a degree in finance, and that following summer I co-founded an ice cream vending distribution company. When I sold our company in 2006, we had 25 employees and 15 route trucks, operated distribution facilities in Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio, and serviced 1,500 branded Nestlé and Good Humor ice cream vending machines across the state of Texas. My experiences running my own business have been invaluable when I consult with my clients today.

It runs in the family: I entered the insurance industry the same way many other people do — through family. My cousin, Brian, and his father owned most of Insgroup, an independent agency in Houston. Brian told me that insurance is a hidden gem and I could make use of all of my connections, and that if I did well by my clients, I shouldn't make any less each year than what I made the year before. On the production side, there is no cap on your potential earnings and business renews each year, unlike other sales jobs. At Insgroup, first and foremost, I am a producer. Commercial real estate is our largest niche, and represents about 35 percent to 40 percent of our total book of business. With my background in food distribution, I also write a lot of food-related companies: restaurants, distribution and manufacturing. Second, I manage our sales team, which includes overseeing our mentorship program. We are the third-largest independent agency in Houston, ranked by revenue. Since I joined, we have tripled in size, from about 30 people to 100 now, with 18 producers. I'm also a shareholder at the agency.

Insurance has an image problem: It's sad. If you talk to college graduates, those with business degrees or MBAs, they aren't calling us and saying they want to get into insurance. I know where they're running — commercial banking, real estate, energy, investment banking or private equity. The insurance industry struggles with finding men and women who want to come into our business at a young age. I think the independent agency channel doesn't do a great job of marketing how great our industry can be for young people to work in. It's flexible and stable — most agencies renew at least 90 percent of their business. And those that don't renew — the loss of that business typically won't require layoffs.

Developing a powerful sales strategy: When I got into the business 10 years ago, the agency didn't take as sophisticated of an approach to its sales process — and that led to us getting rolled more often than what we would like. Now, we focus on total cost of risk with our prospects and clients, not just the insurance premiums they currently pay. We look for ways to add value and where to eliminate coverage gaps or duplications. Lastly, we educate our clients on alternatives to finance their risks. This approach can help drive costs lower over the long term and can also enhance our ability to negotiate favorable terms with underwriters.

Lisa Lemanski
Agent/owner
Meiers Lombardini Lemanski Insurance
East Lansing, Michigan

Years at company: 4.

What to do with a comparative politics degree: After I graduated from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 2003, with a degree in comparative politics, I couldn't find a job. My husband had been working as a claims rep for Auto-Owners Insurance Co. in Michigan at the time, and he suggested that I apply for a commercial underwriting position there. I ended up working at Auto-Owners for eight years, after which I followed my husband to work at his uncle's agency.

Learning the nuts and bolts: When I was a underwriter, I was promoted to a home office position. There, I learned how an insurance company runs: I saw how rates were decided and how new coverages were developed and implemented. Because I worked at a carrier, I understand forms and know what an insurer is looking for. It's easy for me to place business with carriers, because I feel like I have a different perception of why a company would say "no" to coverage. I may not like it, but I do understand it.

The next generation is in the house: It was tough coming onboard the agency as owners for my husband and me, in part because we are significantly younger than the previous owners who were my husband's uncle and his partner. We wanted to make sure that they didn't feel like we were pushing them out. We wanted them to still feel appreciated and part of the agency. But at the same time, there were changes to be made. We now have both a [traditional] website and a mobile website, which we didn't have before. The partner has since passed away, but we perpetuated the agency before that. My husband's uncle is still here with us in the office; he turns 70 this year.

High honors from the Big "I": The Big "I" has been huge for my development. When I first started at our agency, the average age was in the mid-50s, so that is what prompted me to get involved with its Young Agents Committee. I'm so humbled by winning the Outstanding Young Agent of the Year award from YAC. It has been such an awesome experience. It's hard for me because I'm not one who likes a lot of attention, but I do what I do because I like my job. This work challenges me and I always feel like I should be doing more. We help our clients in their darkest days and in their happiest times. I get to educate people about insurance, and I am incredibly honored that my council at the Michigan Association of Insurance Agents would even nominate me.

Emy Donavan
North America regional head of cyber
Allianz
San Francisco

Time at company: 9 months.

Transitioning to the cyber market: I underwrote tech errors and omissions exposures from the start, after I completed a management training program at ACE in 2004. Tech errors and omissions losses can often be the inverse of cyber exposures for companies who receive tech services. So relative to cyber, I started out underwriting the same sort of exposures and loss scenarios for tech companies. At the time, there were barely notification laws. But even then, tech companies knew the value of their data, and they wanted an insurance policy that would cover business income interruption. That said, the market grew quickly, and I've been underwriting standalone cyber insurance since 2005.

To err is human: One of the main things to cyber is the human element to this risk. There are malware and ransomware campaigns in which someone sends an attachment that says "invoice," but it's actually malicious code that corrupts your files. Putting together online training for our insureds' employees is one way that they can better understand risk.

The changing cyber marketplace: In the United States, the market for cyber is hardening somewhat. Larger companies, after they started seeing losses accumulate at Target and Home Depot, now want $500 million tower limits instead of $10 million, which is almost the capacity in the marketplace. Large losses will still be a difficult risk to underwrite, and the middle market space is getting competitive now. The challenge is keeping up with the case law and regulation around the space, so you know what exposures you are insuring. Regulation, litigation and case law changes can vary significantly by the end of a policy period. I couldn't convince some companies to buy this coverage three years ago, but now, companies are calling me halfway through their policy terms to increase their limits.

You know what they say about those who assume: Being a young woman in both technology and insurance is not the easiest thing in the world. Several years ago, I was at a meeting with a Silicon Valley client with other directors and officers and cyber underwriters. There were a couple of women, but mostly men. And an underwriter next to me — a man — asked a question to the firm's chief information security officer, who responded with a technical answer. I raised my hand and asked a question about their infrastructure, and the guy responded, "We use our own servers, and a server is the box you plug the cables into for the Internet … " My jaw dropped. He assumed I was a trainee, when I was one of the most senior people in the room.

Adam Boujida
Manager of global risk and insurance
Activision Blizzard Inc.
Santa Monica, California

Time at company: 15 months.

Just what the doctor ordered: I started out as a biology major at St. John's University in New York and wanted to be a doctor. I realized early on that I detested the medical field but was interested in business, and I was lucky enough to be at a school that offered risk management as a degree. Everything fell into place. I was fascinated by the subjects and scored a number of internships, including ones at Columbia University, Marsh and Arthur J. Gallagher, which turned into my first job after graduation in 2010.

California dreaming: I was born and raised in Queens, New York, but in December 2012 I moved to Los Angeles because I was sick of the weather. This was two months after Superstorm Sandy hit, and that was my breaking point. After doing some temporary work, I landed a job at Mattel, where I was a senior risk analyst. I learned how to navigate a large Fortune 500 company with 30,000 employees, with their own plants, facilities and distribution centers. It was a heavy focus on property loss control and captive management.

All work and play: After two years, I was recruited by Activision to establish its first-ever risk management department. I came in and formulated a formal risk management process, in collaboration with supply chain, operations, design studios, the production team and legal. The first thing I changed were the insurance renewal dates so that I can critically analyze one program at a time. Since then, I have been able to make a $3 million impact to the company in terms of savings from the immediate things I was able to optimize, such as old legacy workers' comp claims that were being overly reserved on the books.

Getting out of the office: Since I've moved to Los Angeles, I became involved with the RIMS Rising Risk Professionals initiatives both on a national scale and in L.A., where I now serve as a member of the local board as a professional delegate. RIMS events offer great networking opportunities, where you can meet potential insurance partners, carriers and underwriters, and have conversations that might yield new, creative results that benefit your organization.

Nick Graf
Director of information security for risk control
CNA
San Francisco

Time at company: 11 years.

Getting my start in the insurance industry: I started at CNA as a college intern, while attending DePaul University in Chicago. I embarked on what I thought would be an 8-week program working in network operations, and I'm still at CNA more than a decade later. After the internship I moved to CNA's information security unit in 2006. We were charged with protecting CNA's data from theft, loss and breach, and would administer firewalls, data leakage protection software and security awareness training — which includes things like identifying phishing or spamming e-mails — for employees, among other responsibilities.

Walking the walk and talking the talk: When we look at our customers, we expect them to perform best practices in data security. As an insurance company, we hold a great deal of information, so we, too, must hold ourselves to that same standard. If a loss or breach of this information occurs, there would be reputational damage and loss of trust from our customers; we recognize this trust is key to our success. We do the things that we ask our customers to do.

Educating insureds on cyber liability: In 2014 my wife received a job offer in San Francisco. I asked my director if there was any other capacity in which I could continue working at CNA, and I found out that CNA's risk control team was looking for someone with my skill set. In transitioning to this role, I still use my information security background, but now apply it to a new set of problems. The Cyber Liability space has changed drastically in the past 15 years, and my role is to help our customers understand their risks and offer them prevention services. This could be implementing a new disaster recovery policy or encrypting their data in a different way.

Hack away: I am a certified ethical hacker. While I was in information security, I assisted with penetration testing, where I essentially hacked systems — within guidelines — to look for vulnerabilities. In risk control, our objective is to educate insureds and offer cyber guidance to help prevent a loss from occurring in the first place. To that end, I've created a risk assessment program that evaluates a customer on 11 different domains of security and provides a report that outlines their score, along with recommendations on areas for improvement. In this role, I use my hacking knowledge from more of a theoretical standpoint and find potential holes or gaps.

Alyssa Bouchard
Assistant executive director 
American Association of Managing General Agents
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

Time at company: 10 months.

Getting an insurance education: As a student at Appalachian State University, I was a management major without a great deal of definition to my long-term career goals, until I discovered that one of the largest and highest quality risk management and insurance programs and Gamma Iota Sigma chapters in the country was a few doors down from the management department. A friend in the risk management and insurance program told me about the 95 percent job placement rate, plentiful scholarships and unique travel opportunities available to RMI majors. It was an easy sell, and I've been passionate about this industry ever since.

Networking pays off: I met [AAMGA Executive Director] Bernie Heinze when I was a student at Appalachian State. He serves on the board of directors for the school's Insurance Center, and I got to know him. Less than a year ago, Bernie presented this job opportunity that included many of the things I am passionate about: student outreach, volunteer committee work and education. AAMGA did a lot for me when I was a student, so to have this opportunity to give back to the organization is my dream job. It's the best opportunity I could have asked for.

Challenges to overcome: Increasing consolidation is a challenging factor in the industry right now. Mergers and acquisitions are on the rise in all segments of the industry. Investors are hungry for new opportunities, and the insurance industry is an attractive one. Many of the smaller firms are finding it increasingly difficult to compete. This issue will be a pressing one as long the number of eager buyers is high, but the industry will continue to adapt as it always has.

What excites me about the insurance industry: AAMGA members work with risks that are challenging, evolving and new, and it's exciting stuff. I don't think students are aware of all of the different opportunities that the Excess & Surplus/Wholesale insurance niche of the insurance industry offers, but we are working to mitigate that and addressing the talent gap head-on. Through involvement in Gamma Iota Sigma, revamped training programs, and more intentional student outreach efforts than ever before, companies are filling that talent gap with the best and brightest students in the business. The enthusiasm and level of commitment we are seeing from these students is off the charts, and they will make the most of it every opportunity presented to them in this business.

Matt Harrell, CIC
Managing director of national accounts
Franklin Street Insurance
Tampa, Fla.

Time at company: 7.5 years.

Choosing a client-facing path: At Florida State University, I was not an insurance major at first. I was management information systems back then, until I realized I wanted to get into something that was client-facing. I saw that Florida State had one of the top insurance programs in the country. I graduated in 2004 with a double major in risk management and insurance, and finance. People laugh that I left computer programming because it was boring — but that I got into insurance. They don't understand the industry.

Finding solutions in the face of serious loss: After graduation, I worked for Willis in Miami in its marketing analyst program. I did that for a year and-a-half, and then transferred to Willis in Tampa to become a producer. This was right around when all of the hurricanes were happening. Not only high damage and destruction, but also high frequency of those storms. It really turned the property insurance market upside down, but gave us an opportunity to come up with creative solutions for problems that property managers were facing at the time. We dove into cat modeling — which is much more prevalent now than it was then — to create policies for their portfolios.

How due diligence can pay off: At Franklin Street, recently we were working on a large multifamily portfolio of locations in the southeast. I looked at the property loss runs, and they were not good at all. They had high loss frequency with an 80 percent loss ratio. Most brokers send those loss runs out to the carriers and hope for the best. But we looked at what those losses are, and found the cause of claims for the past five years. A lot of them were pipes that had frozen due to weather, which then leaked. We dug down into the details, and were able to demonstrate that 60 percent of those losses had occurred more than three years ago, because the property owner put forth an installation program to insulate the pipes and prevent them from freezing in the first place. We took that information to the carriers. We anticipated a flat to 5 percent increase in coverage costs, but were able to get, including the General Liability, a 15 percent decrease.

Why splitting risks can make sense: The property portfolio is really going to dictate what insurance market we will go to — are they in cat areas, are the properties subject to earthquake or hail claims? Most brokers assume they should group the entire portfolio together, but through analysis we can determine if it makes sense to split the portfolio — maybe all Florida locations with one carrier, and frame locations with another.

Related: 2015′s best insurance pros under 40