A decade on and the ‘issue of future talent grows’ – IICF’s Wendy Wilder

As ”the issue of future talent grows” social mobility is becoming even more important to ”raise the industry’s awareness of charities that are supporting young people who could have an interest in insurance”.

That was according to Wendy Wilder, head at the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation UK (IICF), who warned that social mobility is still at the forefront of the conversation and, from her perspective, has “become more of an issue”.

Speaking to Insurance Times, she said: “We’re starting to see that [addressing intersectionality] is important and [that these conversations are] increasing as the issue of future talent grows within the industry.

“We are helping to open doors for young people into the industry and raise the industry’s awareness of charities that are supporting young people who could have an interest in insurance.”

The organisation was founded to improve social mobility by presenting a coordinated approach to volunteering, leadership and grants to charities, nominated by leaders in insurance.

IICF celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its UK sector on 1 June 2025. During this period, the foundation has raised over £3m, contributed to over 30,000 hours of volunteering and provided grants to 39 different charitable organisations across 14 different UK cities.

To mark the anniversary, Wilder said the IICF is running a series of stories on LinkedIn featuring leaders from diverse backgrounds to “bring to life” their focus on social mobility and “hopefully, serve as role models [to] inspire the next generation of leaders and to help people see that you can have a career in insurance”.

Industry collaboration

Wilder explained that IICF’s aim is to create “collective action to amplify companies’ community impact” involving their 22 corporate partners – including Axa XL, Chubb, Lloyd’s and Hartford.

The foundation will continue to focus on growing its membership base to deliver the next three-year strategy “because the broader network of support [they] have, the bigger the impact that [they] can create together as an industry.”

A particular example Wilder gave of the benefits of collaboration was the impact on the talent gap, on which IICF have worked with Key4Life – a charity for reducing youth offending – and Envision, a charity for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

She explained that IICF also led a community action program with Envision to help secondary school students develop key soft skills by delivering a project with corporate mentors, who also act as judges.

Wilder continued: “Key4Life is asking for companies to host a career insights day to introduce young men to different roles in insurance, [which] is not always about underwriting but also product development, tech, claims and cyber.

“There’s a whole mix of opportunities that [young people are] probably not aware of, so if we can bring leaders together to raise awareness or help open doors on both sides, then that is important.”

Next decade

Looking forward, Wilder’s focus for year 10 is on closing the literacy gap by working with Bookmark Reading Charity, “because if one in four children can’t learn to read that’s potentially one in four insurance customers unable to read.”

The foundation has an ambitious aim of raising £100,000 – of which it has raised £35,000 so far – through its annual virtual ‘step up’ fitness challenge participated in by companies, she explained. 

Meanwhile, IICF have an associate board of aspiring leaders in which companies nominate employees as part of a leadership development program to nurture “future leaders of insurance.”

She added: “They played a critical role in our first 10 years and I’d like to make sure we continue to build on that in the next 10.”