Influential Women in Captive Insurance: Cheryl Baker
Cheryl Baker, Head of North American risk management, Stellantis
Cheryl Baker has 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, covering various areas of focus including mergers and acquisitions, professional liability, corporate claims, cyber risks, and the strategic utilisation of captive insurance companies
Baker works with internal and external colleagues to assess risks and assist executive leadership in making risk-intelligent decisions. She is the president of the Stellantis US-based captive and sits on the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) board, CICA’s Amplify Women Executive Committee and is the secretary of the Detroit RIMS Chapter board.
She has earned an MBA from Louisiana State University-Shreveport, and a BA from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, as well as the ARM, CIC, CRM, and Associate in Captive Insurance designations.
How did you get started in the captive insurance industry?
As for many individuals, entering the broader insurance and risk management space was a happy accident. Two years out of college I moved to a new home and my new neighbour was looking for someone to fill a position in his department, corporate risk management within General Motors Corporation.
In this entry-level position, I received a mix of on-the-job training, and formal insurance and risk management training, and it was through both that I learned about captive insurance companies and the pivotal role they can play in one’s risk management strategy.
Many years later, I moved on to another employer where I delved deeper into captives as a part of the team that created that company’s first captive insurance company.
Who inspired you or acted as a mentor in your career?
I have had many formal and informal mentors in my career. People are using the term “personal board of directors” and this describes how I have managed mentorship throughout my career. Different “board members” come and go, depending on the stage of my career, my goals, the industries in which I work, etc.
I have been inspired by many individuals in this space including Anne Marie Towle with Hylant, Prabal Lakhanpal with Spring Consulting Group, and Julie Bordo; their subject matter expertise and leadership in this space are extremely impressive. One of my most influential mentors in the industry has been Frederick Driscoll, director, risk financing and captive operations, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
Working under Fred at BCBSM, he provided me the opportunity to participate in standing up its captive, which included exposure to various members of the C-suite across the organisation. Learning what is important to executive leadership—including how that changes over time—is invaluable when establishing a flexible, creative risk financing strategy via captive insurance.
Another important mentor is someone who is on my personal board of directors, and doesn’t even know it! It’s Kristi Pelc, with Amway. I’ve known Kristi my entire life and she has been a welcome sounding board for career and leadership advice; I treasure her business acumen.
What do you think deters people from entering the world of captives?
A lack of awareness. All of us in the captives industry need to be more vocal about what we do and how much fun it can be. Often people think of insurance as boring, or as the single agent in a dark office, cold-calling people to buy insurance policies. I don’t know about you, but I have never had a boring day in my 25 years in this industry. And hands-down, working with captives is my favourite part of this job.
We need to share these experiences by opening up conferences and captive risk management and insurance-related professional organisations to high-school and university students. Establishing relationships with universities that have risk management and insurance programmes, as well as other universities with accounting, finance, investment management, legal and actuarial programmes and partnering with other professional organisations in those related disciplines, will improve awareness and inspire additional people to consider a career in captives.
How can mentorship and sponsorship programmes be designed to better support the career development of women?
Many of the comments above about establishing partnerships with high schools, universities and professional organisations apply here. I have seen the establishment of some women-centric groups, focusing on bringing female leaders together to formally and informally mentor other women in this space, and I think there needs to be more of the same. Captive insurance and risk management organisations, insurance brokers and captive managers, can all play a role in establishing organisations and committees to help further careers of women in our industry.
CICA has been in the forefront of this movement, with its Amplify Women and NEXTGen committees. They provide opportunities for women to experience what it’s like to participate in and lead board-related committees, and to learn, grow and participate in a multitude of industry events. This improves their skills, as well as expands their networks.
We must remember the importance of allyship. Partnering with our male colleagues is extremely important as we continue to focus on career opportunities for women.
In what ways can companies in the sector create a more inclusive culture that actively promotes gender diversity at all levels?
This can be a hot button item for some, as it can create a backlash against minorities in the workplace. I believe it must be a top-down approach. Leadership in every organisation should establish a formal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programme.
It must be thoughtfully prepared—I recommend hiring a team, with the expertise to stand up a programme that promotes DEI and understands how to socialise this initiative across the organisation to improve the chances of its success. In addition, professionals in the captives space should engage with minority organisations in education and other professional disciplines, to share all that our industry has to offer and continue to foster relationships within this talent pool.
“I want to ensure that my team and I continue to develop relationships and remain a valuable resource to the organisation.”
What challenges are gender-specific to women in the captives industry?
Challenges for women in the sector are the same as challenges to women in every other industry. Sometimes the challenges are obvious, such as being interrupted by male colleagues, ignored, and seeing fewer women in executive leadership positions including the C-suite. Other challenges are less obvious: implicit biases are real and invisible. It’s important for women to support each other and call out these biases.
It’s important for us to continue to work with our allies to ensure that they support women, and educate our male colleagues about these biases and also the benefits to organisations’ bottom lines of maintaining a diverse workforce. I have found that some of women’s greatest allies are men with daughters. It’s impactful when one thinks about loved ones who might experience discrimination, or harassment simply because they are women.
What are your ambitions?
My ambitions have changed over the years. There are two sides of success as I define it for myself. One side is the discipline: continuing to learn and being as informed as possible so I can address the risk management needs of my organisation. This includes the strategic utilisation of our captives, which requires a broad knowledge base of the various challenges across the organisation stemming from industry challenges, corporate goals and missions, the cost of capital for the various sister organisations within the enterprise, etc.
I enjoy working in risk within the automotive industry; growing up in southeast Michigan and seeing my father, mother, husband and now my son, all working in this industry at different points in their careers, and recognising how it impacts the economy in Michigan and all of the US, makes me very proud. I want to ensure that my team and I continue to develop relationships and remain a valuable resource to the organisation.
The other side is the people side of things. This is what I enjoy most about working: meeting new people, working with creative intelligent peers and making connections, for myself and others. I want to be a resource for my colleagues, helping them learn from my experiences, as well as the experiences of my peers.
I want to provide introductions and help people foster relationships across the industry; you never know when, or from whom, your next opportunity will emerge.
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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