Stephen Conolly accepting his ALUCA Life Insurance Underwriter of the Year Award 2018 from Andrew Gill, Managing Director of Pacific Life Re Australia & Asia
We are delighted to share an interview with ALUCA Life Insurance Underwriting winner and Underwriting Team Finalist from 2018, Stephen Connolly from Zurich
A day in the life of Stephen Connolly is…
Rising early, usually before the sun. I like to start with some news headlines before I prepare breakfast and lunch for two girls, my partner and I. Lately I’ve enjoyed a morning run as a good pre-work routine.
What makes my job interesting…
If you are keen to learn, there is no end to where you can take your underwriting career. Every day I feel like there is something new, and this keeps my role interesting and enjoyable.
My role’s greatest challenge…
Finding the right balance between customer and insurer. From looking at information we gather and why, how we capture it, how we use it, and how we communicate our decisions is a perpetual balancing act that requires me every day to challenge what I do and to always strive to do better.
Four words to describe me…
Motivated. Passionate. Efficient. Nerd
Who has been the biggest influence on my career and why…
In 2006 I got my first job out of uni in Insurance for CommInsure, a field which I had no previous knowledge.
Then in 2008 In the course of my usual work with the new business team and dealing with an underwriting colleague who’s profession was a complete mystery to me, the dear underwriter Barb Eneberg thought to tell me “You know what, you would make a good underwriter”. The rest, as they say, is history
The most valuable skill an underwriter can possess is…
Confidence
What did winning ALUCA’s Life Insurance Excellence Leadership award mean to you ?
Being recognised by your peers is one of the most fulfilling accolades that a professional is able to achieve. Having the good fortune to be nominated and to win the award has been one of my career highlights, and has made me even more determined to succeed in the future.