Q&A: Carmen Powell, ISC Group

How did you initially get involved in the insurance industry? 

My career has been split into two sectors. I began in the IT sector, where I worked for British Telecom and large organisations like AVG Technologies [a brand of cybersecurity, privacy, performance and utility software applications for desktop computers and mobile devices].

I then moved into the financial services sector. My first experience [in insurance] was with Hiscox and that was a really great opportunity because I think I was the first senior marketeer that the business had ever hired.

Hiscox was a great champion of women and while I was there, I got to meet other women like Sian Fisher [former CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute], who became a friend after my collaboration with the CII.

My journey in financial services has mainly been in insurance. When I was with the CII, I was an adviser for Sian and took on the role of international director.

I have always wanted to make a positive impact on society. I had an instinct to say, what am I doing here? I always thought that insurance, for example, was great to protect our lives, and if you look at IT, it was about communicating.

For another part of my career in financial services, I was in the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank.

I have always wanted to make a positive impact on society. 

I had an instinct to say, what am I doing here? I always thought that insurance, for example, was great to protect our lives, and if you look at IT, it was about communicating.

We were able to still function during the pandemic because we have the technology to be able to work from home.

What attracted you to the role of interim managing director of ISC Group?

The ISC is focused on driving change for women within the industry and I have always had a passion about women’s issues.

Although I am one of the lucky women that has made it to senior positions, we all know that it hasn’t been easy.

You need to find good sponsors that believe in you so that you can end up on highflyers list, like I did when I was at BT.

Barbara [Schonhofer, founder of Insurance Supper Club, now known as ISC Group] understood from the beginning the importance of safe spaces where women could feel safe and talk about business and build personal relationships.

It is a privilege for me to be part of the ISC Group.

What have you been tasked with as interim managing director of ISC Group? Are you going to create the next generation of female leaders, like Amanda Blanc, group CEO of Aviva, and Julie Page, CEO of Aon, who were among the first members?

Like any organisation, from time to time, it is important to reflect on what members need and what is being offered.

A period of reflection was during the pandemic when face-to-face networking couldn’t take place. It became obvious that women needed a lot more help with their wellbeing and ISC Group started to do podcasts and things like that that.

They [ISC Group] were able to change what they were doing [during the pandemic], and I think that showed just because they had been in the market for 20 years doesn’t mean Barbara couldn’t see that the landscape was changing.

Younger women are different in their aspirations and preparation and their knowledge [from past generations].

She reflected on that [change in what women want from their careers, networks, etc] and has given me an objective of scaling up [ISC Group] across the industry and across the world.

What do I need to do to achieve that? Well, Barbara has appointed two non-executive directors that are very well known in the market to bring some corporate governance [to ISC Group].

Then, the other piece was commerciality. I have turned around some organisations. She needed somebody commercial that understands partnerships.

There are three things that are my tasks. One is to scale-up, so we go from 10,000 members to scale-up across the world and across the industry.

For that, we are going to be enhancing the current value propositions and building others.

Making sure are we still offering what senior women want but also what those at entry level want is central.

The second one is to enhance the proposition.

The third one is we have more than 100 corporate partners that support the women through membership of ISC’s programmes.

It is about enhancing those relationships, understanding, and working with their equality, diversity, and inclusion departments to find out what it is that they require at this point and being an important part of the ecosystem.

We will be saying: ‘What are your plans for women within your organisation?’ and work with them to give them what they need.

What kind of changes will you make to ISC’s membership proposition?

Members will see some changes. There will be improvements.

My role won’t see me changed everything. I always believe if something is really working you look at what are the changes in the market and with the specific member groups and align yourself to those changes.

We want to be partnering with more organisations. We will work in a in a more active way with our existing members.

We will ask what speakers, for example, could help you? 

I also understand the importance of knowing what is working very well in one company and then sharing that with other organisations, which may be struggling.

It is very much about knowledge and cross fertilisation.

Will there still be physical events?

Sitting in a room talking, sharing experiences, is something that will always be at the heart of ISC Group.

There will always be a place for physical events.

After the pandemic, when everybody could go out, I don’t know about you, but I was finding any excuse to have a coffee with other people.

In one of my first roles, we went through a lot of studies to consider the benefits of business travel, which is expensive compared with video conferencing.

There is a massive value in face-to-face, especially for some cultures. In Spain, where I come from, a face-to-face meeting is still that dynamic introduction to understanding people’s energy.

Barbara and the ISC has been very good at understanding and adapting to what was happening in the market [with online networking], as proven with Covid, but I know there is always going to be a place for face-to-face lunches where we link mentors to mentees, for example.

It is about creating that safe space where women can talk about anything and build relationships at a personal and professional level.

But we will also be adding value with technology, which young people are used to. We will adapt with the times.

How will you work with Barbara to extend the reach of ISC Group? 

She is very involved as chair and will remain as chair.  

Barbara has such a huge network at a very senior level so I’m going to be using her to open doors for me when I don’t know the person very well.

She has an active role [as chair] but her role will be a lot more specific as time progresses.

Because of my background in the last few years, working as a consultant, I think that when you are not a daily rate it is very important to deliver from day one because people are watching you on the payroll.

I’m only at the end of my first week but it has already been a whirlwind of building relationships, looking at what information we have, and conveying what we are doing.

It’s going to be a quick delivery, on my side helped by the fact the ISC Group team are all very young and they love what we do.

ISC Group currently has 10,000 members with 80% UK-based and we also have offices in the US, Canada, Bermuda, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Ireland is another big one. We will be extending our global reach.

Barbara’s vision is to expand exponentially. I don’t know whether everything will be done by the by the end of my six months [as interim managing director] but certainly the programmes will be ongoing.

At the end of last year ISC Group alumni Blanc talked to the Treasury select committee about the ‘Sexism in the City’ that she has encountered. What more can the industry and ISC do to kind of make insurance a more diverse and inclusive industry?

There is still sexism in the City and that is why we know that by growing our membership and by growing our corporate partnerships we will be part of the change [needed to address discrimination].

You cannot change with just a few people so that is all part of the plan to sort of support culture.

We know that male board members are welcoming women because of the dynamic and the diversity of thought they bring. 

I think that men also realise that having more women at senior levelling is beneficial for everybody.

The benefits of having a more diverse and inclusive culture are recognised so now it is about how can we all be part of that change.

I’m really excited to be part of that change.