PEOPLE
CAREER PATH
MAKING CONNECTIONS Dawnmarie Black ascribes her success to never underestimating the value of relationships
Raised in an insurance family, Black got her start early, working in the mailroom at her father’s brokerage during summer vacation and attaining her producer’s license by the age of 18. “My dad introduced me to a marketing rep from a major carrier when I was a teenager and made a point of showing me another woman being successful. I worked for another brokerage during university. The goal was to take over my father’s brokerage, but he sold it before I graduated.”
1985
GETS AN EARLY START
1991 1997
BROADENS HER HORIZONS Black’s second position, with Lexington Insurance Company, opened her eyes to international opportunity and allowed her to forge new connections. “I was writing risks globally, including in Australia and the Middle East. My first trip to London was such a learning experience, and I was able to learn culturally from brokers around the world. It was a very young team of people and very social in nature. Almost every job has resulted in making connections in the job before.”
2002 GETS TO KNOW THE LONDON MARKET When Black began working across the US and London teams at Gallagher, it marked a turning point in her career, allowing her to hone her skills in bridging the gap between the two markets.
“I had 26 round trips back and forth to London – Virgin Atlantic sent me a bathrobe as a thank you!” 2018 JOINS LLOYD’S Black got the chance to put her relationship-building skills to work when a colleague at Lloyd’s called her to tell her he’d resigned his post and asked if she was interested in putting her name in for the job. “Working for the Lloyd’s brand and corporation was a chance to view the market through a new lens. I have to have a wide swath of industry knowledge so I can help any stakeholder. We do a lot of connecting and networking.” 62
WORKS HARD, PLAYS HARD An on-campus visit with Chubb ultimately kickstarted Black’s insurance career via an intensive training program. “I knew they were coming to campus, so I signed up: I was pretty confident that I understood distribution. They hired two of us from the campus, and we entered the training program. The first eight weeks, we lived in a hotel – imagine 25 recent college graduates living in a hotel together! We worked hard but managed to have our share of fun as well.”
2001 IS TOUCHED BY TERROR Hired by Aon based on her work at Lexington, Black was lured by the ability to work from home, meaning she wasn’t in the company’s office in the World Trade Center one crucial morning in September. “I lost a lot of friends in 9/11 – it was life-changing. We also lost all our policy documents. People pulled together and helped each other. Terrorism insurance became a product, and I placed my first large terrorism policy.”
2006 BUILDS A NEW PLATFORM A return to Aon Benfield led to one of the most intense periods of Black’s career: the building of the FAConnect product. “I had never worked on an IT-driven project, and they wanted a proof of concept for this platform in six weeks from nothing. Everyone loved it; four months later, we had a global market launch. I worked 18-hour days. It was challenging professionally – and we won multiple awards for the product itself.”
www.ibamag.com
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