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29 July 2024NewsAnalysis

Influential Women in Captive Insurance: Heather McClure

Heather McClure, Managing partner, general counsel, Helio Risk & Insurance

Heather McClure has decades of experience managing client risk, overseeing risk financing, risk management, insurance procurement, captive operations, and claims and litigation.

Prior to joining Helio, she was chief risk advisor for the national healthcare practice at Aon. There she advised healthcare clients across the US on best practices in risk financing and management, operational efficiencies for claims programs, and captive insurance structures.

For the 14 years preceding that role, McClure was chief risk officer at the University of Oklahoma’s academic health system, directing risk, claims, and captive and commercial insurance, including property, cyber, directors and officers, employer liability, workers’ compensation, provider professional liability, hospital liability, aviation, auto, and all other lines.

During that time, she was chief legal officer of the system’s captive insurance company, Academic Partners Insurance Company, saving the system millions over its years of highly successful operations.

McClure’s career began as a trial lawyer defending organisations and medical providers, trying multiple cases to juries as lead counsel. After 10 successful trials, she began a career as in-house counsel to a large health system in Texas, managing people and processes related to risk, claims, and litigation.

How did you get started in the captive insurance industry?

I started nearly 30 years ago as a lawyer working for captive insureds in the healthcare industry, then moved to an in-house position directing litigation at a large system in Texas with a robust captive.

Later I moved to the chief risk officer role at a system where I led a team that managed captive operations, risk management, insurance, and claims. It was during those last two decades operating captives internal to organisations that I grew in my knowledge and ultimately decided I wanted to design and build captives across all industries. I spent two years at Aon, and now own a captive management and risk consulting firm with my partners.

Who inspired you or acted as a mentor in your career?

Marcy Waterfall, now retired from Marsh, was my captive manager for many years. She always kept calm and poised in the midst of change; Kathy Davis at Downs Rachlin is a fantastic captive insurance lawyer and taught me creativity in captive utilisation, the value of working with regulators on developing a plan, and always speaking up when there is an issue that needs to be discussed.

“We need to highlight the fun and camaraderie we enjoy while designing and operating captives for our clients.”

What do you think deters people from entering the world of captives?

On the client side, I see them thinking it is too complex. We have work to do there on educating business owners that the process can be phased, and the industry is here to provide all services needed. On the provider side, we need to approach successor generations about the creative side of building captives.

We need to highlight the fun and camaraderie we enjoy while designing and operating captives for our clients.

How can mentorship and sponsorship programmes be designed to better support the career development of women?

Groups such as CICA are hitting this head on with Amplify Women and NEXTGen programming to pair experienced professionals with those starting out or mid-career. For example, two colleagues and I are recording for Amplify Women a “How To” video to be used to give advice to women who want to become speakers but are not fully confident they can manage it.

All of us can actively think of assigning young professionals to roles where they are absorbing the expertise of others.

In what ways can companies in the sector create a more inclusive culture that actively promotes gender diversity at all levels?

We can do simple things such as recognise that group activities should not stop at golf (although I love to play). We can promote hiking, local tours, and other events when we get together that make it more likely a balanced group will join in.

We can also consciously make sure we are filling qualified candidate pools that reflect the diversity of our talent.

What challenges are gender-specific to women in the captives industry?

Decision-makers at businesses are still overwhelmingly men. That in itself is not a problem, but we need to play on the field we are on, and women must be able to speak, interact, and provide professional expertise to those with a different experience from ours.

What solutions would you like to see?

The industry can provide support with networking, encouragement through mentorship, and other programmes, but ultimately women need to actively seek out roles where their talents are so evident that their gender is not relevant.

Conferences must make sure there is no latent gender balance issue when filling speaking roles. Experienced professionals with hiring authority need to make sure we are actively seeking a pool of qualified diverse candidates. Finally, those of us who have expertise to share need to spend time encouraging and mentoring young professionals of all genders.

What are your ambitions?

I would like to see no need for an “Influential Women” issue to be relevant in coming years as we come to collectively realise that inclusion of all has been effective, our industry is well-balanced, and we have generations of successors who value the efforts we have all made for this to be so.

Click here to read Captive International’s first Influential Women in Captive Insurance publication, celebrating the women transforming the captive sector through their sustained excellence and leadership.

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