“The 2026 Elite Girls are powerhouses; they’re adaptable, they’ve been round, they usually have grown up within the {industry},” says Handel.
Aarons-Martin cited NAAIA’s analysis on the well-publicized underrepresentation in administration and government roles. “It underscores what many ladies already know from lived expertise: expertise alone doesn’t assure development. What makes a measurable distinction is intentional sponsorship by {industry} management, not simply at their current group, and rising visibility as an issue skilled and thought chief as a speaker at conferences or serving on boards.”
A lot of IBA’s Elite Girls 2026 have taken on this mantle, not solely by excelling in their very own roles, but in addition by opening doorways, forming ERGs, and mentoring others to stand up via the {industry}.
Girls within the Office 2025 report by McKinsey & Firm states, “Many years of analysis present that ERGs – historically organized round shared identities – play a robust function in serving to workers really feel related to their colleagues and their firm. Since ladies are inclined to have much less entry to senior-level networks and supervisor profession help, the profession recommendation and sensible help provided by ERGs might help to degree the taking part in discipline.”
Senior Vice President, Advertising
Admiral Insurance coverage Group
Strategic imaginative and prescient, creativity, and a deep dedication to folks
On the core of her management philosophy is connection: Charlene Goodwin sees profitable advertising not as a numbers sport however as creating a real emotional bond between a company and its audiences. Her concentrate on recruitment advertising is about truthfully speaking tradition and values.
Nowhere is that this clearer than in Admiral’s Wild Facet marketing campaign, which she describes as some of the thrilling initiatives her workforce has undertaken. Designed towards the backdrop of an ageing insurance coverage workforce, the marketing campaign targets early-career expertise and goals to fully upend drained perceptions of the sector.
By leveraging daring, ENS-inspired visuals and the invitation to “come work on the wild aspect with us,” Goodwin reframes insurance coverage as progressive, difficult, and creatively rewarding. The tangible payoff is already evident in elevated curiosity and lead quantity flowing to recruitment groups, proving the facility of a differentiated employer model.
Goodwin can also be a pioneer in utilizing expertise and information to serve each shoppers and the broader public. Earlier in her profession, she battled some resistance to utilizing social media for real-time disaster loss estimates, finally serving to place her agency as a go-to supply throughout occasions like Superstorm Sandy, with even New York State turning to them for perception.
“Proper now, we’re utilizing Instagram to get a way of who we’re for expertise that’s coming to us,” she says. “We use LinkedIn for product-related info and for recruitment. We’re capable of increase posts or use some LinkedIn advertisements to get a broader attain. One of many issues that we’ll be specializing in extra in 2026 is getting that consciousness of the insurance coverage {industry} on the whole after which extra particularly for Admiral.”
Charlene GoodwinAdmiral Insurance coverage Group
At the moment, Goodwin channels that very same forward-thinking mindset into refined advertising automation, constructing wealthy buyer profiles that help extremely focused, related communication reasonably than generic mass e-mail blasts.
She says, “It’s having the ability to construct out a buyer profile as you’ll in a CRM. If any individual is interacting with the web site, you may mark their curiosity based mostly on what they’re . You are able to do that as they’re registering for occasions or webinars or interacting together with your materials.”
And she or he provides, “I wish to ship related content material as a result of there are such a lot of locations to drag info from, and we use that to offer a greater buyer expertise.”
Equally essential is how Goodwin makes it clear there isn’t a job she is unwilling to do alongside her workforce, and he or she intentionally hires these with curiosity and problem-solving potential reasonably than slender {industry} expertise. She invests closely in mentoring youthful professionals and interns, serving to them navigate company life and discover the various profession paths insurance coverage can supply.
As a girl in a senior function, she is aware of the significance of visibility and illustration. She leverages her affect to increase past her division via worker empowerment teams centered on recruitment, range, inclusion, and belonging, and philanthropy – initiatives she says at the moment are deeply woven into firm tradition. A part of that is providing a platform for underrepresented voices to share their experiences with the corporate.
Goodwin says, “Quite a lot of what we attempt to do can also be construct within the team-building facet so we will work collectively and be taught from each other whereas we’re doing good for our native communities.”
Senior Vice President and Head of Inland Marine
Amwins
Technical experience, entrepreneurial grit, and empathy
Finally, Heather Frain’s influence lies in her potential to mix rigorous technical management with empathy, inclusion, and function. From the outset of her profession, she has demonstrated a builder’s mindset. She has launched a number of applications from the bottom up, together with Amwins’ contractor’s gear Inland Marine program and a logistics program, approaching each with meticulous consideration to element.
She explains, “I’m very element oriented, and I imagine that everytime you’re placing something new collectively, it’s essential to have the fundamentals and the foundations to allow that program to achieve success.”
In constructing the Inland Marine program, Frain was intentional about incorporating value-added providers, which embrace:
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a security providers workforce that helps insureds determine and mitigate dangers whereas staying compliant with evolving regulatory necessities
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a particular investigations unit that protects insurers and insureds via proactive fraud detection and prevention
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a devoted claims workforce that gives 24/7 help to resolve claims shortly and pretty
These assist insureds develop into stronger, safer companies reasonably than merely policyholders. In a crowded Inland Marine market the place everybody needs to put in writing, Frain ensures Amwins delivers high-quality service by embedding help, perception, and partnership into this system. “I actually really feel that by providing value-added merchandise to our insureds, that’s how we will actually stand out,” she says.
Heather FrainAmwins
She focuses not simply on product design but in addition on creating sustainable buildings that may help long-term progress and stability, an indicator of a strategic chief. What units her aside is her insistence that insurance coverage applications ship greater than capability and value.
Frain’s management is equally evident in how she manages danger and alter. She is proactive in recognizing protection gaps and figuring out rising points resembling quickly rising gear values and the influence of tariffs. Reasonably than penalizing insureds when circumstances shift, she works carefully with capability companions to make sure shoppers are protected, demonstrating a powerful advocacy orientation and a dedication to doing insurance coverage the precise method.
She additionally retains a eager eye on the {industry}. “I like to have a look at my rivals’ types, to be trustworthy, to see what they’re providing and see what they’re doing,” Frain says.
Her affect, nevertheless, extends past underwriting. As each an alumna and a steering committee member of the Amwins Girls’s Management Program, Frain invests closely in cultivating the following technology of ladies leaders. Drawing on her personal expertise founding an MGA whereas elevating younger kids, generally closing massive offers along with her oldest daughter (now in legislation college) sitting on the desk in a highchair, she fashions what it means to pursue ambition with out sacrificing authenticity or household. Her core message to rising leaders is grounded and fashionable: settle for that steadiness is never 50–50, and lead with out ego as a part of a real workforce.
Frain is keen about serving to insured firms develop into higher and, in flip, making the {industry} higher for everybody who works in it.
Govt Vice President and Chief Working Officer
Fortegra
Imaginative and prescient, operational tenacity, and future-focused
Abbie Taylor’s function spans greater than 500 associates throughout a number of nations, with a transparent mandate to place operations as an enabler of underwriting and progress. Her management is rooted in listening to government friends, direct experiences, and frontline groups in places of work – and utilizing these insights to determine and take away obstacles so others can succeed.
“I’m there to ensure they will concentrate on underwriting the enterprise and rising the enterprise profitably. Once I take into consideration the collaboration, it’s how do I ensure that we’re doing all the operations successfully,” she says.
With a management philosophy pushed by values and integrity, Taylor believes in aligning her private values with these of the group and factors to Fortegra’s emphasis on “unwavering integrity” as foundational. From there, she prizes disciplined execution and deep technical experience in a single’s craft, recognizing that insurance coverage is complicated and calls for rigorous, detail-driven professionals.
She says, “I’m all the time attempting to have lunches with broader teams and to have one-on-ones with a wider vary of individuals, as a result of it’s via these avenues that you just perceive the place the challenges are.”
Taylor can also be a extremely collaborative drawback solver who operates comfortably throughout features and geographies. She lately led a cross-functional, worldwide initiative to optimize Fortegra’s UK and European operations, bringing collectively stakeholders from operations, compliance, finance, underwriting, and expertise to align processes finish to finish – from underwriting via to the monetary ledger.
Abbie Taylor Fortegra
This structured collaboration, rooted in respect for native regulatory nuance and knowledgeable by US greatest practices, illustrates her potential to translate technique into tangible operational enhancements.
Beneath Taylor’s management, Fortegra has invested in fashionable, configurable platforms to help the specialty enterprise globally, with one other platform launching to serve guarantee, embedded, and associated applications. She pairs these platforms with sturdy information engineering, guaranteeing high-quality information and environment friendly processing, and a pointy concentrate on information science to refine underwriting choices throughout greater than 100 applications, the place even small enhancements in mixed ratio translate into significant worth over hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of premium.
Maybe most notably, she places expertise and inclusion on the middle of Fortegra’s long-term success. She champions Fortegra Community of Girls (NOW), the corporate’s ladies’s ERG, as each a proper and casual mentorship engine that expands networks and fosters a tradition of belonging for ladies in insurance coverage.
“It’s a two-way road the place it’s ladies and leaders which might be being very intentional in reaching out and attempting to carry up future leaders,” says Taylor. “However it’s additionally people who’re extra junior being proactive in creating these alternatives. And that’s why one thing just like the NOW is so essential, as a result of it permits the 2 to return collectively.”
Company Supervisor
Comparion Insurance coverage Company
Efficiency rigor, cultural advocacy, and progressive
Leaning closely into forming private connections, Luz Wolford invests within the particular person behind the producer, utilizing easy however significant gestures: birthday shoutouts, handwritten Christmas playing cards, workforce lunches, and light-hearted video games that spotlight colleagues’ private tales, like guessing “who labored at McDonald’s after they have been 21?”
These practices decrease guards, foster belief, and remind brokers that they’re valued as folks, not simply quota carriers. She says, “I wish to make sure that my workforce is aware of that I take care of them as people. For me, it’s placing folks first.”
On the similar time, Wolford is extremely efficiency pushed and unafraid to guide from the entrance. Having spent nearly 15 years as a gross sales agent herself, she insists on being “knee to knee” along with her workforce, prepared to leap on calls, promote insurance policies, and safe referrals alongside them.
She says, “It’s ensuring that I do know what the job entails as a result of it’s onerous for a pacesetter to guide a workforce whenever you don’t know what the job actually is or what it takes.”
Luz WolfordComparion Insurance coverage Company
This credibility underpins a tradition of accountability and excessive requirements, the place success is widely known publicly. Her adaptive mindset was examined and confirmed through the pandemic. Promoted to supervisor, she was advised to “rent and practice” a discipline gross sales drive fully just about – one thing she had by no means accomplished. She pivoted shortly, transferring teaching to Groups and FaceTime, shifting classes into evenings to accommodate brokers’ childcare tasks, and relentlessly troubleshooting remote-work friction. This willingness to rethink schedules, codecs, and instruments stored manufacturing on monitor and strengthened loyalty in a second of industry-wide disruption.
As a Spanish speaker, Wolford can also be a robust advocate for Hispanic clients and bilingual expertise. When Liberty Mutual, house owners of Comparion, created their Amigos@Liberty + Allies program, Wolford was desperate to develop into a distinction maker via the brand new initiative. There, she earned invaluable mentorship alternatives for her new management function whereas additionally mentoring Hispanic brokers herself.
This initiative has additionally seen important enterprise outcomes for Wolford and her workforce. She says, “I bear in mind as an agent not having sufficient materials. I’m bilingual, so I knew lots of clients, but it surely was onerous for me to offer them paperwork when it was all in English. If we wish to go after lots of Hispanic shoppers, now we have to have that help.”
Recognizing that “half of the inhabitants is Hispanic” in markets like Texas, she has highlighted the necessity for correct bilingual documentation and help so brokers can construct belief with loyal, underserved clients.
“I wished to remind the brokers that even when it’s one thing small, you’re making a distinction throughout the firm. You won’t see it proper now, however I promise you, finally it’ll be so massive that you may look again and say, I used to be a part of that change,” she says. “It took us a couple of 12 months and a half, and we have been capable of get lots of that materials that we have been engaged on on the market and accredited.”
Lastly, Wolford champions innovation, significantly round AI and social media. She understands that clients more and more favor to textual content or purchase on-line and is coaching brokers to mix AI and native presence by utilizing video, academic content material, and digital channels to humanize themselves and attain fashionable consumers.
Conclusion – what it takes to be an Elite Girl in 2026
Taken collectively, the tales of this 12 months’s honorees reveal a transparent profile of what it takes to be an Elite Girl in 2026:
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a people-first, relationship-driven chief who prioritizes real connection
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a deep dedication to creating others via mentoring, teaching, and sponsorship
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a sturdy advocate for inclusion, range, and underrepresented voices in insurance coverage
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a hands-on, lead-from-the-front type grounded in actual technical and operational experience
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a future-focused innovator who makes use of expertise and information to enhance buyer and enterprise outcomes
Meet the judges
- Agnesa Bakhshyan
Chief Development Officer
The Buckner Firm - Alexis Faber
Chief Working Officer
WTW - Alka Manaktala
Managing Companion
Insurance coverage Workplace of America - Ashley Stivers
Director, Brokerage and Placement, Insurance coverage Companies
Franklin Road - Becca Faust
Govt Vice President and Department Supervisor
USG Insurance coverage Companies - Berri Willis
Vice President
Burns & Wilcox - Beth Diamond
Group Chief Claims and Litigation Officer
Beazley - Chartenya Cleveland
Director of Underwriting Options
The Hanover Insurance coverage Group - Christina Colby
Chief Buyer Officer
Guidewire Software program - Christyn Yoast
President, USA
BOXX Insurance coverage - Concetta Barrineau
Company Proprietor
Sumter Insurance coverage Group - Cristina Varner
Govt Vice President, and Life Sciences and Healthcare Follow Chief
CRC Group - Grace Hanson
Co-Founder and Chief Govt Officer
Elysian - Holly Might
Workplace President and Dealer
CRC Group - Iliana Sadler
Vice President and Strategic Shopper Advisor
Lockton - Jenna Kirkpatrick Howard
Senior Vice President
Lockton - Jennifer Kessel
Chief Working Officer
USG Insurance coverage Companies - Karen Williams
Senior Managing Director
Threat Methods Firm - Kelly Bryant
Managing Director and Nationwide Tug and Barge Business Chief
Aon - Kelly Stearns
Senior Vice President, Head of Main and Surplus Markets
HSB – Hartford Steam Boiler - Kimberly Hans
Govt Vice President and Head of Distribution
Munich Re Specialty – North America - Mandi Constantino
Affiliate Vice President, Enterprise Improvement
AmTrust Monetary Companies - Marife Molina
Companion and Govt Vice President of Income
C3 Threat & Insurance coverage Companies - Mary Keiser
Senior Vice President and Nationwide Meals and Beverage Follow Chief
HUB Worldwide - Melissa Hill
Head of Claims, North America
Allianz Business - Merial Brown
Assistant Vice President, Operations
Berkley Choose - Meryl Golden
Chief Govt Officer and President
Kingstone Insurance coverage Firm - Monique Gilliam
Senior Supervisor, Claims Technique and Operations
DoorDash - Nancy Mellard
Govt Vice President and Common Counsel
CBIZ - Neha Thaker
Chief of Technique and Market Intelligence Officer
HSB – Hartford Steam Boiler - Rashmi Melgiri
Co-Founder/Chief Govt Officer
Purposeful Finance - Raven James
Vice President – Human Sources and Director of Variety, Belonging and Inclusion
Brown & Brown - Rebekah Ratliff
Mediator/Arbitrator
JAMS - Reina Gregorio
Divisional President, Skilled Legal responsibility
Nice American Insurance coverage Firm - Rhonda Velez
Gross sales Govt
CRC Group - Ria Lizuka
Underwriter II, Cyber and Know-how E&O
AXA XL - Sheila Shiny
Affiliate Director Coaching and Schooling, HIGG U
Higginbotham Insurance coverage - Shruti Engstrom
Managing Director – Cyber and E&O Product and Claims
Aon - Snejina Zacharia
Founder and Chief Govt Officer
Insurify - Susan Combs
Chief Govt Officer
Combs & Firm - Whitney Ross
Govt Vice President and Chief Claims Officer – North America
HUB Worldwide
Insights
Insurance coverage Enterprise America invited {industry} professionals from throughout the US to appoint distinctive feminine leaders for the eleventh annual Elite Girls checklist. Nominators have been requested to supply particulars of their nominee’s achievements and initiatives over the previous 12 months, together with particular examples of their skilled accomplishments and contributions to the {industry} as an entire.
To pick the winners, the IBA workforce relied on the assistance of an unbiased and esteemed panel of judges that included:
The judges and the IBA workforce reviewed all nominations, analyzing how every particular person had made a significant contribution to the {industry}, to whittle down the checklist to the ultimate 73 Elite Girls. Self-voting and voting for kin have been prohibited to keep away from conflicts of curiosity.
