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Kerrie Challenor State Manager, Queensland Lumley Insurance, Brisbane Children: Rebecca, 23 and Ellie, 17
years later with the birth of her son, Ben, now 8, who was born five weeks premature. “All my kids were in a big hurry.” However, in the end her ability to return to work at all came down to having the right support network in place – her mum and her husband David. She says the ability to manage a career and family relies on the support of flexible and understanding people. “My mother was amazing looking after the kids while I worked and later on with my own businesses I could come and go as I pleased or work from home – whatever we needed,” she says. Her husband David, a concreter, does his bit with the kids’ after-school activities and prepares the evening meal each night. “I wouldn’t be able to do it without a partner willing to help out domestically, and the kids would miss out on after-school sports or other activities because I wouldn’t have the ability to get it all done in a day on my own,” Kay says. Despite having an understanding and supportive boss when her children were small, Kay decided to go into partnership with another broker several years later while pregnant with her second child. However, the partnership folded and in 2005 Kay decided to go solo and open up her own brokerage, which today has nine staff – all women. Kay is also a director of Insight Insurance Brokers Association, and says people tend to assume that because she’s a mum she won’t be able to attend industry functions. But anything is possible as long as you have a great support network and manage your time carefully. “[Time management] is the one critical part of being a working mum because every minute is so precious,” Kay says. While she loves her work, she admits motherhood brought with it a distinct change in priorities. She encourages her staff who have children to take the afternoon off if there is a sports day or other important school activity to attend. And while there are still some in the industry who believe that office hours should be nine to five, she says most companies are moving with the times and providing more flexible working arrangements for parents. Kay also believes her skills as a mother have helped her to become an even better insurance broker. “I am more disciplined and I empathise better with people,” she says. “In myself I am a lot softer. Before I was quite black and white, but as a mum you become more compassionate and understanding. It does bring out a different side of your nature.
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SOMETIMES YOU DON’T REALISE HOW MUCH you’re achieved until you look back – and then you realise how tough it was at times. Kerrie Challenor has achieved a great deal in both parenting and career, and she says she wouldn’t change a moment of the experience. Looking at the two young women she has raised, she doesn’t believe they have suffered because of her career. “I have shared with them a strong work ethic that in time will provide them with a solid platform for their choices in life,” Kerrie says. “And it can’t have been all that bad as Bec has chosen a career in insurance broking. She’s following in my footsteps.” They’re big footprints. Kerrie, 48, has been a marine underwriter, an international broker and a recruiter. She’s been working for Lumley since 1999. And although motherhood was a surprise package for Kerrie, as she believed she “wasn’t particularly maternal”, she says it’s been worth all the hard work. “I was focussed on having a career, but when I married the girls’ father I inherited a
insuranceNEWS
October/November 2011
stepdaughter and was as surprised as everyone else when I took to motherhood so easily. “It then became a really simple decision to have my own children. And what a fantastic decision that was – they are the joy of my life.” The children’s father was an insurance broker, so Kerrie found the transition from home back to work quite relaxed. “I missed it when I wasn’t working.” But divorce came when the children were young, and things got more difficult. Kerrie says she didn’t always manage parenting and work as well as she wanted, and being a single parent with long hours and travel was hard on her and the girls. “But I always had a couple of rules I never compromised on.” Always being home for birthdays was key for Kerrie, as was never missing a school event or a sporting final. And while she might have missed a few school play performances – which parent hasn’t? – she was always there for opening night. The Challenor girls learned early the art