Read our previous installments:

* How 6 Top Insurance Women Succed in the Industry

* Top Industry Women Find Success at Work and at Home

* 8 Stories of Mentors and Sponsorship

Angelyn Treutel, president, SouthGroup Insurance – Gulf Coast

“After graduating college, I began working in finance and technology for a major oil company. Then I had the opportunity to move into an insurance agency to handle the office management and technology. At first I didn't want to get involved with sales, but when I realized that the main job of an insurance agent was to help people, I jumped in with both feet. I love the entrepreneurial spirit of running an agency, which involves handling operations, finances, clients and personnel. I enjoy implementing new technologies and building relationships.”

Sharon Emek, director of operations, CBS Coverage Group Inc.

“I got my start in the industry with a consulting assignment for a large insurance brokerage in New Jersey. It was the mid-1980s, with the advent of the first computer systems in agency offices. Both Cigna and Aetna (no longer in the P&C space) gave their key agencies computer terminals, and agencies at that time had minimal management procedures, let alone an understanding of technology. At the time, I was a consultant to closely held companies, helping them develop management and technology procedures. To help them, I recognized that I had to learn insurance, which I did. I became a licensed insurance broker and a CIC. I'm now a 25-year CIC.”

Donna Pile, owner, A.G. Perry Insurance Agency

“I got started in the business of insurance when my dad offered me to come to work in his small agency, still located in his home. It started out as a part-time job because I had two small children. I had always wanted to go to law school, and my undergraduate work was aimed at that goal. I still think I would have loved the law, but with having two small children, it was a bit hard to fathom. I felt like insurance was the closest I would come to studying law. So I packed up my babies and went to work in my father's agency. My sons went to many a company meeting and clients' houses with me, and stayed in the agency with me for their preschool years. It was unique, but it worked, and I was able to keep my ambition and motherhood in close proximity to one another.”

Michelle Rupp, owner/president, NRG Insurance

“Easy… [I was an] insurance brat. My grandfather had an agency in his home in Hays, Kan. My dad worked in insurance companies and brokerages. We moved to Seattle from Colorado and he bought NRG in the early '70s. I worked for Safeco and after I graduated from college I worked for the agency. My dad was a victim of his era. I was a personal lines CSR, and talked to him about long-term career plans. He said that I couldn't manage because I was too young and the staff wouldn't respect me. Commercial lines clients wouldn't deal with a woman. So, much to my mother's dismay, I decided to go back to school to get another degree in design. I was working in Manhattan as a designer when Dad died suddenly….And here I am. Dad also thought I would be bored. Bored? Ha!”

Laura Deeley Bren, president, Atlantic/Smith, Cropper & Deeley

“My father had been in the business since the late '70s, and as a young girl, I had no idea what my father did. He was a brilliant entrepreneur and built a successful organization in the '80s and '90s. While 'finding myself' before I went to college in Colorado, my father had asked me to prepare executive summaries of sales and leadership books in exchange for compensation. This introduction to the rewards and challenges of the business world left an impression. Upon graduation, I immediately went to work for the agency, and I spent my first several months as a telemarketer, cold calling for our producers. Over the next several years, I rotated through every position in the company to get a comprehensive view of the operation. By the summer of 2002, I began to build a commercial book of business. In 2003, the death of my father's partner placed agency perpetuation in the forefront of our minds. The decision was made for me to begin mentoring and training with our executive vice president to assume overall responsibility of agency president. I assumed this role in January 2006.”

Linda Rey, principal owner, Rey Insurance Agency

“My dad started the agency in 1978. I worked for him through school and swore I was going to get out of the insurance business.

“Lo and behold, even when I moved to Atlanta to get out of New York and out of insurance, I ended up at a reinsurance corporation, which actually was not a bad gig at all. I was an ocean marine underwriter for one of the top reinsurers in the country for 9 years.”

June Taylor, owner, Wilkinson Insurance Agency Inc.

“My grandfather started our agency in White House [Tennessee] in 1956. I have lived and worked in the White House community my entire life. I joined the agency in 1977 after I graduated from Middle Tennessee State University. I am a third generation.” Nancy Mellard, executive vice president and general counsel, CBIZ Employee Services Division

“I was a lawyer by profession. About 2 ½ years out of law school, I took my first and last general counsel position in coordination with a large insurance trust, where I had the opportunity to work with all 50 state Departments of Insurance on consumer complaints, just on the other side of ERISA. It was 5 ½ years of 'baptism by fire.' I left the industry for about 3 years but ended up realizing I loved insurance. I've been with my current organization for 22 years.”

Rebecca Korach Woan, principal and founder, Chartwell Insurance Services

“My family owned a retail insurance agency and my father was close to retirement. He said he had an offer to sell the business and decided I should try to learn the business before I missed the opportunity. It turns out he was bluffing about the retirement part, but that's another story.”

Read our previous installments:

* How 6 Top Insurance Women Succed in the Industry

* Top Industry Women Find Success at Work and at Home

* 8 Stories of Mentors and Sponsorship