DeWitt Stern: From Personal Interest to National Practice Leader

I had been at DeWitt Stern for about seven years when Risk Strategies acquired the firm. As part of the financial lines team, I largely focused on the broader suite of insurance products such as cyber, errors and omissions, directors and officers and such. In the last few years just before the Risk Strategies acquisition, my interest in technology drew me to what seemed like an emerging risk management opportunity and I began focusing, with some success, on cyber liability.

After the acquisition, given my interest in the area, I was given the opportunity to participate in what Risk Strategies at the time was doing around cyber liability. I quickly saw that I could take my experience and expertise from DeWitt Stern and help Risk Strategies develop a more robust plan for the emerging cyber liability market. Just as importantly, I also saw that Risk Strategies really did operate in a flat, open, collaborative structure.

"I also saw that Risk Strategies really did operate in a flat, open, collaborative structure. I decided to roll-up my sleeves and basically create an opportunity for myself that would also advance the company’s success in a key growth product."

I decided to roll-up my sleeves and basically create an opportunity for myself that would also advance the company’s success in a key growth product.

I put together a business plan laying out what a cyber practice could look like, explaining why this was a necessary investment for the firm and a business segment on which Risk Strategies should focus; how it could scale organically as the firm pursued its mergers and acquisitions activity.

Mike Christian, the founder of Risk Strategies and its CEO at that time, was very receptive to sitting down with me and going over that business plan with me. For me, just one of hundreds of employees, to get the time of the founder and CEO to go over a business idea was concrete proof of not only the flat management structure of the company, but also the value it places in entrepreneurial effort – right from the top.

He saw the thought I’d put into the plan, really got what I was trying to convey in it and agreed that there was real potential to scale and make it into a business. It was a monumental moment in my career.

I think my experience is a really good indicator of the culture of Risk Strategies. DeWitt Stern, being over 115 years old and closely, privately held, certainly had a very strong family culture. But for associates like myself, who were little earlier on in their careers, in many ways becoming part of Risk Strategies was a great opportunity. Beyond just having additional resources to bear for clients and prospect engagements, being part of a collaborative, entrepreneurial company so focused on growth presented me with a real avenue to expand my horizon, create new opportunities, and think differently about what my career might look like.

Beyond just having additional resources to bear for clients and prospect engagements, being part of a collaborative, entrepreneurial company so focused on growth presented me with a real avenue to expand my horizon, create new opportunities, and think differently about what my career might look like.