David Marlett is a Professor in the Department of Finance, Banking and Insurance at Appalachian State University and the Managing Director of the Brantley Risk & Insurance Center. He holds the IIANC Distinguished Professorship and has taught courses in risk management and insurance for the last 25 years. The focus on today’s topic is about the next generation of risk management, what David sees in his students, and what his company is looking for.

 

Key Takeaways

• A little bit about David and today’s topic.
• David shares his journey and how he got to where he is today.
• With Hurricane Andrea, he learned how quickly the development of an economic area can happen and how insurance structures can fail.
• He has always been a teacher teaching a topic that he’s always been fascinated and continued to be excited about.
• What made him decide to go into teaching and what is his experience like teaching risk management?
• David talks about the different ways of pursuing a teaching career within risk management.
• What advice can David give to professionals considering a career like his?
• What are the motivations behind the students who end up graduating from their programs?
• David shares how he tells the story of a profession in insurance for them to know what it is really like and get their attention.
• Are the motivations of the students now different from those 10‒20 years ago?
• David shares some best practices on how companies can successfully recruit in risk management programs.
• Companies that are looking to start getting into recruiting, what are the philosophical aspects they should add in their recruitment efforts?
• With the future of risk management in academia, David shares what he sees that will evolve especially with what happened with the pandemic.
• How does David see the risk management program changing and the industry to be different in five years from today?
• David shares what he wishes he’d learned sooner in his career.

 

Keep Getting Better

Appstate.edu

David on LinkedIn

 

Quotes

 

“Once we can get the students to listen to us, to meet people from the profession, to take a class with us and meet people from the industry, it’s like turning a lightbulb on. They realize there are some really good opportunities here.”

 

“The biggest thing would be to set up internships. So, the companies that year-in and year-out hire our top students don’t wait and show up their senior year in the spring career fair and try to hire them, they’re recruiting them their sophomore and junior year.”

 

“So many things in life feel random, you just happen to be at the right place at the right time, but if you don’t show up then you miss that opportunity.”