Suzanne Kearney tells Andrew Holt how Crawford & Co provides training for top managers
Crawford's Suzanne Kearney acknowledges that she is a fiery character and one of her biggest development challenges has been keeping her forthright side under wraps.
"My biggest challenge has been dealing with different difficult situations with emotional detachment. I had to learn the skill of seeing the points of view of others. I tended to, in the past, have an aggressive side, but I have learned to be unemotional in my response."
Such honesty has led Kearney to head up all Crawford's casualty (liability) businesses in the UK, focusing on speciality liability risks and international casualty since 2004. She jointly manages, with the head of operations for casualty, 116 professional and 43 support staff.
It was her passion and desire to improve her management skills that contributed to her development. "I would say I was acknowledged for my technical ability in the market but I needed to learn more about management and leading people, so I needed to enhance my skills in management."
To assist in this, Crawford has its own management development programme.
"I have had a lots of support from Crawford on management development. The programme has a lot of pointers of where to go next in your career development. It is like a mentoring system to take you to the next level, especially on strategic management. It helps you set out a career path and has been life changing for me."
She has also developed her knowledge of the UK insurance industry throughout her 12 plus years at Crawford concentrating on public, products, D&O/E&O and professional indemnity claims. "I like to solve problems from beginning to end," she says.
She has developed an expertise in product recall claims for major UK and European manufacturers. Her work involves assisting insureds in setting up help lines, instructing forensic scientists to report on causation, managing the recall exercise throughout its development and liaising with insurers.
"On the day-to-day level, product recall, dealing with the claims and legal aspects is a growing, developing and fascinating area. Dealing with a response and helping all the stakeholders solve a problem is a rewarding part of my work."
She is currently appointed on several major UK product recalls with pan-Euro and transcontinential reach and exposures. "I am instructed to manage on behalf of both primary and excess layers the UK's biggest ever recall. It is estimated that this is in the region of £25m."
She is also working on three other major recalls in Sweden, Japan and Ireland, and Australia.
But while she has benefited from training, she thinks as an industry more could be done. "The CII does a good job, as does the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (Cila), but as an industry we could do more to train people.
"Although there has to be a balance, as training is an expense and we are in the business of making a profit. But more trained staff is better for the industry as whole."
In her professional capacity, Kearney has been involved with the Cila response to FSA regulation and is a Cila examiner for liability modules.
She suggests that the FSA can play a beneficial role in training and development.
"The much maligned FSA can play a positive role if we let it. Treating Customers Fairly is all about having trained, competent staff and puts the emphasis on companies to think about training and development."
