As you know, on Fridays we publish life stories of insurance executives, an interesting and inspiring addition to our podcasts.
This time it's Pascal Prévost's turn. This is his story:
At the end of the 1970s, how could I earn a living with a master´s degree in business law and a bachelor´s degree in English?
A brief presentation by the Insurance Institute during an inter-course at the Faculty of Law in Aix-en-Provence gave me the idea of exploring the field of insurance, which turned out to be much more interesting than I had hoped.
At the time, the concept of risk management was not yet widely known in France, and I began my career in London placing insurance programmes at Lloyd´s, where I realized that it was within companies that I would find the most satisfaction in managing risk through prevention, without minimizing the essential role of insurance protection.
After 40 years in insurance, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and risk management in Switzerland, France, and the US (see my LinkedIn profile), I found fascinating the influence of risk managers within their companies, on their employees and their families, once they had gained the credibility needed to be able to rely on a few key people within their company.
The risk management jobs I held for 22 years at Euro Disney and Nestlé were completely different from the job descriptions I was given when I was hired, because it is possible to develop your work within a company and thanks to opportunities you identify or create, to generate added value.
You have to be able to anticipate the consequences of your initiatives and take responsibility for (and learn from) your mistakes, as well as communicate about your work, which is often considered to be the work of an insurance expert.
It is important to continue learning throughout your career, manage your informal network, and remain curious about new trends.
As a member of national risk management associations in France and Switzerland and of the International Employee Benefits Association, I take advantage of my current position as an independent expert who can act as a freelance resource specializing in risk management, captives, and the optimization of insurable employee benefits to share my experience and facilitate exchanges between risk managers who face multiple challenges in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world, but also to promote collaboration between Risk Management and Human Resources functions and thus enable (even modestly) the progress of our societies, also by participating in the organization of the annual Risk-in conference in Zurich where I meet fascinating people and follow the latest developments in IT solutions who can facilitate the work of the insurance and risk management communities.
Risk management and insurance are a never-ending source of professional inspiration and personal satisfaction.
This was the fascinating life story of Pascal Prévost. Perhaps you too have an interesting story to tell our listeners and readers.
Paul.
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