Influential Women in Captive Insurance: Linda Johnson
Linda Johnson, EVP–chief underwriting officer, Old Republic Risk Management
Linda Johnson joined Old Republic Risk Management in December 2000. Prior to that, she was with Wausau Insurance in underwriting management
At Old Republic, Johnson oversees various home office underwriting functions and the renewal book of business, as well as supporting the captives portfolio, including single parent and group captives.
Johnson holds a Bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater.
How did you get started in the captive insurance industry?
I was trained as a casualty underwriter and have spent the majority of my career working on loss responsive/alternative risk programmes. Whenever a captive insurance opportunity presented itself early in my career, I would ask to spend time with our lead captive underwriter and drill him with questions about how captives worked and why companies used them.
When I moved to my current company, many of our clients had captives, both single parent and group captives, and I enjoy working with my clients and their brokers/advisors in strategising ways to structure their insurance programmes using their captives as another tool in their arsenal.
Working with clients whose interests in losses are aligned with yours as a carrier is very rewarding and I would recommend it to anyone. I always say I learn something new in this industry every day, and that’s what makes it enjoyable.
For example, I had a client that missed an entity in its workers’ compensation self-insurance filing and was running into compliance problems with the state reinsurance regulator. We were able to quickly work with the client and its captive to provide statutory workers’ compensation coverage for that state until they were able to resolve their self-insurance filing issue.
In what ways can companies in the sector create a more inclusive culture that actively promotes gender diversity at all levels?
I have the benefit of being in the industry for more than 35 years and have seen significant advancement in the industry and the captive/alternative risk insurance space in diversifying who has a seat at the table, not just for women but for men and women with different backgrounds and ethnicities.
I believe that makes us better positioned to make well-thought-out decisions moving forward in the captives space and will help us to see more well-rounded people in the sector, regardless of gender or race.
“The need for bright people joining the space has not changed.”
What are your ambitions?
The captive insurance space is ever-changing, but always growing, and the need for bright people joining the space has not changed. Even after 35-plus years in this sector, I am still learning and being challenged to help clients solve problems every day, and that makes for a rewarding career, for sure.
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.
Did you get value from this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
