"We must raise the number of women at board level" − ACE chief

I am confident about the future of women in the insurance industry. One reason to be optimistic is that there is a growing awareness of the benefits of diversity in risk management and the insurance sector today. ACE carried out research about diversity at the 2013 FERMA conference and respondents agreed that appointing more women at executive positions would be important for the future of the industry. 

When I started my career in 1996, no women were on the management committee of the company for which I was working. In 2005, when I took my first managerial position at ACE, there were two women at the ACE French management committee: the HR manager and I. Today, seven women are on my management board and five of our country presidents across EMEA are women.

In an industry that is still dominated by men, women undoubtedly contribute to a more diverse profession and for me, diversity is synonymous with an improvement of skills and expertise, creativity and innovation enhancements as well as being important in building a greater understanding of customer needs.

At the beginning of my career in Canada, there were many women with underwriting positions, but very few in managerial positions. Over the past 10 years, the perception of women has evolved as more women became managers. They have earned and gained credibility, demonstrating the value of different working and management styles. 

They are also now better at building their networks. Today, many insurance and brokerage companies have strong internal women’s networks linked to external professional networks and, within ACE, we have our own ACE Women’s Forum, which brings together our colleagues all around the world. The next step for the industry must certainly be to raise the number of women at board level. 

My colleague Valentine Studer, director for our accident and health business in France, is also a woman. If we can share our experience and inspire other women within the group and the French market, I hope we will be able to play some small part in driving the risk and insurance profession to this next phase.

ACE Group country president France, Nadia Côté