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Profiles in Leadership

RSA's Irene Bianchi; BFL's Penny Dyte; Marsh's Sarah Robson; SIMAC's Gloria Rajkumar; ACE's Beth Bull; HUB's women leaders.

Penny Dyte is managing vice president of Alberta operations and national global business leader at BFL Canada.

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Penny Dyte couldn’t have established the Calgary location of BFL Canada without great mentors.  

By Suzanne Sharma

As is the case for many in the industry, Penny Dyte didn’t plan on a career in insurance. As a university student in the early 1980s, she simply needed a job to pay the bills. She didn’t know that job would result in a successful career spanning four decades where she would one day stand as managing vice president of Alberta operations and national global business leader at BFL Canada (BFL).

Five years ago, Dyte made the move from Marsh Canada to BFL. She wanted a change in her career and felt a private firm was the way to go, so when she was offered the chance to spearhead a BFL office in Calgary she took it.

After starting from zero, the Calgary location today employs 30 staff. Dyte won’t disclose any financials, but will divulge the office pushes for an excess of 20% net operating income and has met this year’s goal, which has allowed the hiring of a construction team.

The key to Dyte’s success as a woman in a leadership role, she says, is being assertive with a strong work ethic. Additionally, she has had many mentors, from C-suite clients to both senior and junior-level colleagues.

“It’s about constant learning and picking up traits from everyone around you,” she says. “It’s so arrogant to think we’re done. We are never done and that is motivational to me.”

Dyte’s current mentors include Barry Lorenzetti, president and CEO of BFL, and John Wright, executive vice president for western Canada at BFL, and her three partners: Eddie Fung, Sherry Orr and Cathy Wilson. She says they’ve taught her to trust her instincts and know that, although she may not always have the answers, there is strength in her existing and upcoming team.

However, Dyte says having constant mentorship in her career has been a challenge.

“You rise up this ladder and you’re mentored the whole way but suddenly it stops because your peers decide you could take their job or surpass them,” she says. “They move from mentorship to competitive mode, and women value being mentored.”

In these instances, Dyte says she’s learned to recognize that it may be time to move from mentee to mentor.

“That was a major shift for me,” she adds. “Women who figure that out instinctively and make that shift become presidents.”

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Marsh Canada managing director Sarah Robson says success has to do with building personal currency

By Stefan Dubowski

Brokerages and insurers consistently seek new ways of setting their products and services apart from the competition. Individuals working in those companies should also highlight their own differentiators if they want to succeed, advises Sarah Robson.

As Marsh Canada’s managing director heading the national specialty practices – including the financial and professional (FINPRO) practice, D&O claims advocacy, the environmental practice, alternative risk solutions, and financial products – Robson uses her “personal currency” to stand out.

Personal currency, she explains, means being known for something, whether that’s a practice area, a market or being able to handle particular kinds of clients.

Robson’s personal currency includes a unique view of the industry stemming from her work beyond Canada’s borders. In her 19-year history with Marsh, she has been stationed not only in Toronto, but also Denver (where she had the chance to work with technology and life-sciences start-ups), and New York City, managing the Metro FINPRO practice there. She also spends a considerable amount of time working in the London marketplace.

This affords “a more global view,” she says, adding that she considers insurance experience across a number of markets something that many Canadian-based multinational customers would be interested in.

Another aspect of her personal currency: corporate governance. Robson is a facilitator at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management Directors Education Program – a course she herself took to give her an edge in corporate governance knowledge.

“I might be a D&O broker, but I have something a little bit different to offer in that space.”

Maintaining your personal currency isn’t always easy, however. When she left Marsh’s Toronto office and went to work in Denver, Robson “realized the personal currency you develop in any one marketplace… takes effort to replicate.”

Developing those links is easier when you bring a bit of personal interest to the business.

“As you’re interacting with clients and prospects, particularly at the C-suite level, your starting point quite often, is your ability to dialogue about interests well outside of the business environment,” Robson says. “Whether you’re a passionate golfer, or you love to cook, love restaurants, or love to travel, connecting on that level is often the first step in building your personal currency.”

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SIMAC CEO Gloria Rajkumar found business success by helping the industry respond faster for claimants

By Brynna Leslie

Gloria Rajkumar spent 18 years working in the insurance industry as a broker, agent, and researcher, when a motor vehicle accident in 2001 completely altered her career perspective. Following a severe injury to her shoulder, it took 16 weeks for the medical assessment reports to be delivered to her insurer, delaying her therapy.

“I was shocked,” says Rajkumar, “I felt the industry was in need of more professional, higher quality, and more timely service, and I knew I had to do something about it.”

Within six months, Rajkumar cashed in her life savings of $26,000 to start SIMAC Canada Inc., an independent medical examination company initially devoted to serving the auto insurance industry.

“I had a keen understanding of insurers’ loss ratio, and what it would mean to limit the exposure of the insurance companies in paying out benefits if the medical assessment reports could be turned around more quickly,” says Rajkumar, the president and CEO of SIMAC. “I had a vested interest in the way the insurance industry was being serviced because this is the industry that shaped my career.”

Rajkumar first came to Canada at the age of 18 from Guyana. She eagerly joined a firm that sponsored her for broker training and licensing, and continued to seek out opportunities to better herself and the industry, receiving promotion after promotion, and making a series of lateral moves across the industry.

“There were so many opportunities presented to me throughout my early career,” says Rajkumar. “I never understand when people say they can’t find a job or don’t know how to do things. I suppose not everyone has the entrepreneurial spirit that I do. Maybe it also comes from being an immigrant and a single mother, but I have the drive to do my best and take every opportunity that comes my way.”

Today, Rajkumar is a recognized leader both in the insurance industry and across the country. Along with more than a dozen business awards, PROFIT Magazine ranked Rajkumar fourth in Canada’s Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs last year. She is also a finalist for the 2011 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards and the 2011 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, both to be announced in November.

Rajkumar credits networking, role models within the industry — including “strong women who are not afraid to voice their opinions,” – and her desire to “give back” as the secrets to her success. She advises young women in the industry to celebrate their wins, and embark upon shameless self-promotion, something she says is more typically associated with male executives. She’s also a big advocate of taking risks.

“Don’t be afraid to put the cart before the horse, and take a chance,” says Rajkumar. “You might fail, but you’ll never know unless you try.”

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Copyright 2011 Rogers Publishing Ltd. This article first appeared in the November 2011 edition of Canadian Insurance Top Broker magazine.