In Honor of Risk Education

In September, John Lumelleau gave a speech on stage at New York's legendary Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Lumelleau, president and CEO of insurance broker Lockton Companies, was being honored for his contributions to education at the annual fund-raising gala of the Spencer Educational Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships for college students studying risk and insurance.

In accepting the honor, the industry executive explained how he had risen to the top of his profession. "I came to this business the same way that probably most of you did: happenstance," said Lumelleau.

Just like no one in prison is guilty, it has long been a running industry joke that no one got into insurance on purpose; they just sort of fell into it. And Lumelleau fits the bill better than most.

After finishing college, one of Lumelleau's friends landed a job at IBM. But prior to receiving an offer from the emerging computer giant, the friend had applied to other positions in other industries. As it turned out, he still had one other interview on his schedule. Since he had already accepted the IBM job, he planned to cancel. But that is when Lumelleau stepped in to go in his friend's place. "I took the interview by subterfuge," said Lumelleau. "The gentleman who was interviewing me didn't know exactly who I was or why I was there."

Regardless, the interview must have went well because Lumelleau was offered the job, which just so happened to be with an insurer. And thus began another insurance career. Lumelleau knows that times have changed, however. "Subterfuge" is unlikely to get you an insurance job in 2011. "In the 30 years since I snuck into this industry, a lot has changed," said Lumelleau.

Today, one of the largest threats facing the risk management and insurance industries is a lack of young talent. Many of the experts who have shaped the sector's past four decades will soon retire, and companies are panicking about how to replace them with trained, motivated professionals. "Not a day goes by without me witnessing first-hand the difference that creative, dedicated individuals with a passion for our business make," said Lumelleau.

In hopes that its scholarships will help resupply the industry with talent, the Spencer Educational Foundation raised more than $600,000 at its annual gala. Since its inception, the foundation, which was launched in 1976 in honor of former Risk and Insurance Management Society President Robert Spencer, has provided more than $4.4 million in scholarships and another $2.1 million in professional development funding, grants and other ventures. It now stands as one of the most respected feeder systems for the insurance and risk management industry.

So far in 2011, the foundation has given out more than $275,000 in scholarships to 49 students. One of these beneficiaries, Patrick Enderlin, an undergraduate studying risk and insurance at St. John's University in New York, was on hand at the gala to introduce the night's other insurance industry honoree, Liberty Mutual Group chairman Edmund "Ted" Kelly.

"As I look at Patrick, he is the epitome of what we're trying to achieve," said Kelly. "The future of the industry very much depends on people like Patrick."

Part of Enderlin's tuition is being paid through the $500,000 donation Liberty Mutual made this year to Spencer. Together, the foundation and the companies that help fund it hope to ensure that the next generation of risk professionals is better prepared to enter the industry than many of the veterans who came to it by accident. Because as Kelly said, there is nothing more valuable in this industry than its employees.

"Monetary capital is only one kind of capital," said Kelly. "The most important capital walks in through the door on two feet everyday: human capital."