| NOTABLE WOMEN IN REINSURANCE
ANN FIELD
Senior Vice President / North America Client Service Advocate Director Willis Re
Ann Field has felt a need to help others since she was young . Growing up in a western suburb of Chicago , she attended Macalester College , a small liberal arts college in St . Paul , Minnesota , and then attended Valparaiso University School of Law to earn her Juris Doctorate . The legal industry interested her because she believed a law degree would open up a range of opportunities .
“ I distinctly remember feeling empowered by this great advice from my father ; ‘ Go to law school , you can do so much with a law degree ,’” said Field . “ I believed it and realized early in my career that it really did help , particularly as a woman , to get an advanced degree .”
In law school Ann was interested in civil rights and employment law , which helped with her first job out of law school . She worked at a legal services firm where she represented indigent people faced with difficult civil issues such as landlord / tenant disputes , public housing evictions , custody battles and social security appeals matters .
“ It put me in court almost every day and gave me some great experiences as a young lawyer that I am forever grateful for .”
Ann continued on to a small firm outside of Chicago as a general practitioner with a heavy emphasis on collections work for smallto mid-sized companies . After a few years , a friend from law school contacted Ann about joining her at an insurance company to handle environmental claims .
Ann said that job was the springboard for her into the insurance and reinsurance industry . She then moved to Zurich Insurance Company in 1998 , where she spent the following 19 years of her career . Ann began working on environmental claims , but after just one year an exciting opportunity arose . The company wanted to create a position , and then later a department , to mitigate the rising trend of reinsurance disputes .
“ I had an opportunity to build a department to mitigate potential issues and resolve disputes with our reinsurance partners , and dive into big legal coverage issues with our business partners . It was fun , challenging and interesting all at the same time .”
In 2001 , Ann ’ s position and department further expanded to handle the entire claims area for Zurich North America . This gave Ann the opportunity to learn more about many lines of business and the reinsurance affiliated with those claims . Developing this industry experience , Ann also became an ARIAS-U . S . Certified Arbitrator in 2008 . Ann managed over 100 arbitrations and has served as an arbitrator or umpire in more than 35 matters . Ann stated , regarding arbitrations , “ I really enjoy it . I find it is a great way to give back to the industry and further develop my arbitration expertise .”
After more than 19 years with Zurich , Ann accepted a position in 2016 with Willis Re as the Senior Vice President and North America Client Service Advocate Director . At Willis Re , Ann and the team members work closely with each client as Client Service Advocates overseeing all premium , claims and accounts for their clients .
Ann said that , at various points of her career , she asked others to be a mentor to her . She said , “ I think it ’ s important for everyone to have a trusted mentor or confidante that you can run things past when you need a good sounding board .” She encourages others to both be a mentor and mentee and recommends they not necessarily seek that connection only at their own company .
“ My best mentor at this point in my career is a good friend of mine who has had significant executive roles herself outside of insurance or reinsurance ,” Ann said . “ We talk frequently about leadership , professional business interactions , communication and career pathing .”
Ann is part of a committee at Willis Re that created a program that takes mentorship one step further and assigns 26 women at the firm a sponsor who is a senior vice president level or higher .
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