SPECIAL REPORT
ELITE WOMEN 2018 SHARON EMEK Founder, chairman and CEO Work At Home Vintage Experts
With decades of industry experience, Sharon Emek
KRISTINE FURRER Senior vice president and P&C risk management practice leader Woodruff Sawyer
An expert on sophisticated and emerging risk and coverage issues, Kristine Furrer specializes in helping clients reduce their cost of risk amid the increasingly complex global environment and is highly regarded for her keen understanding of the resources and manpower required to serve complex P&C clients. Furrer founded Woodruff Sawyer’s risk management practice in 2000 and has accumulated 30 years of experience working in multiple insurance brokerage and risk management positions as both a buyer and a provider of brokerage services. Furrer is actively involved in client management across the firm and leads a team of dedicated P&C consultants in San Francisco, working on growing new business opportunities in this key market segment. In addition to chairing the governance committee at Woodruff Sawyer, Furrer also sits on the board of Assurex Global, the fourth largest brokerage network in the world. In this capacity, she manages Woodruff Sawyer’s corporate relationship with Assurex, focusing on international insurance issues and brokerage relations.
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understands firsthand the challenges employers and older insurance professionals are facing today. Before founding Work At Home Vintage Experts [WAHVE], Emek spent 13 years as a partner at CBS Coverage Group, where she managed the New York City office and provided business insurance and risk management for a large client base. Prior to joining CBS, she was president, founder and CEO of The Emek Group, an insurance agency she formed in 1988. In 2007, Emek became the first woman to receive the Sidney O. Smith Government Affairs Award from the IIABA. In 2014, she was the first woman to receive the 1882 Fellow Award, the highest honor presented by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York. A regular member of IBA’s Elite Women list since 2014, she also received the 2016 SmartCEO Brava Award, which recognizes top female CEOs, as well as the Vistage Leadership Legacy Award. Emek has testified before the New York State Assembly Insurance Committee, the US House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and is frequently sought out by the media as an expert on insurance, management and business issues.
SALLY DOLCE
ELIZABETH POWERS
Chief operating officer
Director of agency development
Mackoul Risk Solutions
Valley Insurance Agency Alliance
With more than 30 years of property & casualty insurance experience, Sally Dolce joined Mackoul Risk Solutions in 1997 as a commercial underwriter. A decade later, she took on her current position of COO, providing leadership, management and vision while Mackoul Risk Solutions quadrupled in size. Dolce holds a CPCU designation and licenses in property & casualty, life and health insurance in numerous states. She is also a member of a number of industry and charitable organizations, serving on the board of the Insurance Professionals Association of Long Island and assisting with the Long Island insurance community’s charitable fundraising efforts for the United Way.
Her entrepreneurial background led Elizabeth Powers to her ideal role at VIAA and within the industry. As director of agency development, Powers helps the owners of member agencies succeed by building a strong portfolio of services and resources to assist them in growing their businesses. Since Powers took on this role, VIAA has helped nearly 30 women form and grow their own independent agencies, and the network itself has grown to more than $165 million in premium. In addition, Powers manages VIAA’s carrier relationships and oversees the agency foundation. Outside of VIAA, she sits on the board of St. Louis Independent Agents, which helps to educate the St. Louis community on the value of the independent channel, and also offers scholarships to the children and grandchildren of its members.
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