Danielle Stewart currently serves as the National Head of Wholesale Distribution for Everest Insurance. Prior to joining Everest, Danielle served over a decade at Liberty Mutual Insurance across multiple roles and geographies including Underwriting, Field Distribution, Leadership, and Corporate Strategy positions. Together with Chris Hampshire, she shares the benefit of saying "yes" in her career, the power of networking in the wholesale distribution market, the value of the CPCU designation, and what it means to be a woman working in today's fast-changing insurance industry.

Key Takeaways

• A successful career path includes a lot of saying yes and a lot of taking risks.

• Danielle's approach to physical relocation for each new role.

• The benefits of earning an MBA at any stage in your career.

• Strategies for extending your network further than before.

• The motivation behind Danielle's decision to earn her CPCU designation.

• Confidence, technical knowledge, and other benefits of the CPCU.

• Danielle's decision to enter the wholesale distribution market was relationship-based.

• The benefits of the wholesale market to the entire industry.

• Working as an aggregator of business through strengthened relationships.

• Danielle's experience as a woman in the insurance industry.

• Creating plans for gender equality starts with finding male allies and eliminating bias.

• A look at the five-year future of the insurance industry.

• Danielle's advice to her early career self.

Quotes

• "My career path was a lot of saying yes and a lot of taking new risks."

• "By stretching yourself geographically in roles, you have to approach situations with a lot less bias or assumptions."

• "It has been invaluable to get that extended network; to be able to connect with people in a similar place in their career."

• "The CPCU gave me earlier knowledge and quicker knowledge on the fundamentals."

• "I can see the massive benefit that wholesale provides to our market.… it's a lifeblood of the market."

• "Wholesalers, from a distribution perspective, have a unique ability to serve as aggregators of business."

• "You have to be strategic about what you do, who you do it with, and when you do it."

• "As this business moves quicker, opportunities are going to come faster."