I believe the benefits of collaboration are really clear if you start to collaborate with people both internally and externally
Collaboration and Inclusion
– Benefits and Barriers
Karen has been working in the Lloyd’s and London market for over 30 years, starting her career in the compliance arena, moving on to a COO and then a CEO role within the Lloyd’s market for an established Lloyd’s Managing Agency. She is also the Senior Independent Director for the USAA Limited and USAA SA, Vice Chair of a Multi-Academy Trust, and Chair of iWIN.
Q A
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what your current role involves as the Chair of iWIN?
I began my career in the industry 30 years ago, and have chaired iWIN for the last three years of those. What we’ve tried to do in the last three years is to make iWIN a lot more collaborative. More collaborative with other organisations, networks and committees within our industry and the London markets as a whole. We decided to try and reposition iWIN to be more inclusive and better support young women throughout their careers. We need to understand that there’s some great female talent in our industry and I believe we need to showcase the women who are at the top in our industry and specialists in their field. I believe it’s a very powerful thing to promote female speakers where we can, because as well as trying to support and educate, it is important to become a place for people to talk about their skills and talents, which is something I don’t think we see enough of when it comes to women. I love what we do and the events we hold, but I must admit there’s a little part of me that gives a big sigh that I’m chairing a women’s network in 2020. Personally, my work at iWIN has primarily always been a conversation about talent. However, I am also aware that I don’t want women’s voices to be lost in the whole host of other things that are happening in the market place. And so, it’s a very fine balance. We’re not a political body, but we’re there to try and support people and essentially try and be a positive force.
Q A
What will the benefits of collaboration be for the industry?
I believe the benefits of collaboration are really clear if you start to collaborate with people both internally and externally. Personally, I don’t feel companies do enough to collaborate internally. Within companies I have seen areas of a business that become silos in themselves, and I believe collaboration internally would give companies a real understanding of who their people are and where their talents lie. By doing this, you can start to think about deploying talent differently and in different places. Quite often, I have found that when you work in a place that operates on quite a silo basis, you become frustrated for opportunities. This applies in particular for women, whom when they can’t see a career path within a company, will look to leave and go somewhere else. Externally, looking at collaboration on a wider scale, I’ve always been quite an inclusive person and believe companies are more fun, more independently-minded and more innovative if they’re inclusive. I don’t just mean with gender and race, but also by observing employees from an education perspective and social mobility; these are things that are important to me. If you looked at the market a few years ago, there were lots of interest groups and women’s groups that were at risk of becoming silos in themselves, so ‘externally’ this is
Companies need to be very proactive with their strategies because conversation about inclusion can be very difficult
28 Carpenters Group Supplement
