Influential Women in Captive Insurance: Alanna Trundle
Alanna Trundle, President, Global Captive Management
Alanna Trundle joined Global Captive Management (GCM), a captive insurance manager in the Cayman Islands, in 2010 and was made president on January 1, 2024. She holds a BSc specialising in mathematics with accounting. She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and specialises in single parent captives (including healthcare captives), group captives and segregated portfolio companies.
She currently chairs the Insurance Managers’ Association of Cayman (IMAC) Forum Committee which organises the Cayman Captive Forum, one of the world’s largest captive insurance conferences. By virtue of this role, Trundle is also a member of IMAC’s Executive Committee. During 2023, she was voted one of Captive Review’s Forty Under 40, a celebration of the most influential leaders in the industry.
How did you get started in the captive insurance industry?
I qualified as an ACA (ICAEW) in the UK while working for Deloitte as an auditor. I moved to the Cayman Islands in September 2008 with Deloitte where I mainly focused on hedge fund audits. In September 2010, I moved into captive insurance when I accepted a position at GCM, as an account executive.
Over the past 14 years I have been building my insurance knowledge and have progressed in the company to my current role as president and shareholder.
Who inspired you or acted as a mentor in your career?
I have always been inspired by women in leadership roles especially in the captives industry which is so heavily dominated by men. When I first joined the sector, Linda Haddleton was one of very few women who led a captive management company. I found this very inspiring.
I was lucky enough to be part of the IMAC Forum Committee when it was chaired by Erin Brosnihan who went on to be the association’s chair. Seeing other women being successful in the industry encouraged me to reach for my goals.
What do you think deters people from entering the world of captives?
As an industry I don’t think we do a good enough job sharing our experiences and what a great career it can be for young people. There are so many opportunities in the captives industry no matter what your educational background is. Working in this industry gives you the chance to travel the world and meet people from all walks of life. I don’t work just in the insurance industry, I work in healthcare, construction, transportation and more.
How can mentorship and sponsorship programmes be designed to better support the career development of women?
Mentoring and sponsorship programmes are so important for advancing the careers of women. Women can often feel isolated when working in male-dominated industries. Belonging to a network that can support them and that understands the challenges faced by women can be life-changing.
For these programmes to be successful they need to be well thought-out and structured, including identifying the right mentor for the right mentee. It is not enough that they are both women: consideration should be given to how mentors and mentees are matched based on personality, values, life circumstances and the mentee’s goals and ambitions.
In addition, mentors should be provided with sufficient training to ensure they can provide the necessary support and guidance for their mentees.
In what ways can companies in the sector create a more inclusive culture that actively promotes gender diversity at all levels?
It’s very important that decision-makers at all levels, whether it be interview panels or promotion decisions, be made up of a diverse set of people. We all have unconscious bias and the only way to counter this is to have a diverse set of people and opinions helping to make these key decisions.
HR policies are key to creating an inclusive culture whether that be equal pay, flexible working hours, childcare subsidies, or ample parental leave.
What challenges are gender-specific to women in the captives industry?
Although there have been improvements over the past 15 years, women are still a minority in our industry, especially in key leadership positions. This is not just a problem in the captives industry but in the workplace as a whole. Research has shown that men are subconsciously favoured candidates for positions and have higher chances of obtaining leadership roles.
In addition, gender stereotypes still exist in the captive insurance industry such that women’s voices are less likely to be heard and supported by the managers.
What solutions would you like to see?
“We are all responsible for creating platforms for women in the workplace so they can speak up.”
Diversity is key at all levels of individual organisations and the industry. We must ensure that there are changes to policies and procedures and hiring practices to ensure opportunities are available for all.
There must be additional training for decision-makers to help them understand their unconscious bias and how to address it. There must be a focus on changing the culture of an organisation such that stereotypical behaviour is no longer tolerated.
We are all responsible for creating platforms for women in the workplace so they can speak up about challenges they are facing without fear of reprimand.
What are your ambitions?
My goal is to continue to speak up and help make change happen so that we leave the industry in a much better position than when I joined. As this list shows there are several influential women in our industry and if we can continue to step up, change policies, make our voices heard and inspire the next generation of women to do the same, I hope one day soon it won’t even need to be a conversation.
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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