Kathleen Crowe, 
Account Specialist II
Aon Risk Solutions Inc.
Washington, D.C.

My start in risk management: I graduated in May of 2012 from Butler University in Indiana with a dual degree in political science and Mandarin. During college, I worked for Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), and I knew I wanted to work on Capitol Hill. I decided to just move out there and I got a job as a bartender. During that time, I put out some feelers to see what was appropriate for my education and experience. I got an interview at [electrical power company] AES as an executive assistant in the global insurance department. I ended up helping with insurance contracts and the global property captive, and I realized that I really enjoyed the work and wanted to engage myself more. The following March, I started my ARM certification — I finished it in 2014 — and in July 2014, I earned a promotion to be an insurance analyst.

Speaking the language you want to hear: We had a rigorous underwriting process at AES, and I would ask our businesses — 72 generation and eight utility power plants worldwide — to give us profit and loss information so I could build out a template that details exposures and determines premiums. The templates can look like a spreadsheet nightmare, so I would have to relay the importance of the information that I was gathering, and how the exposures and underwriting affects them personally. If could speak to them in the language they understood — and not necessarily in “insurance-ese”—that eliminates the potential for risk exposures and creates a level of trust.