(Music plays)
Kirsten Khire: Welcome to The Live Wire. My name is Kirsten Khire. I’m with the Belk
College of Business and today I have two guests to talk about the risk management and insurance
program at the Belk College of Business. First I have Dr. Faith Neale, who’s going to be
talking to us from the faculty perspective. And Yancey Hicks who is a student in the program
and is about to graduate. So we’re really pleased to have you both here today. Thank
you so much for your time.
Dr. Neale: Thanks for having us.
Kirsten Khire: So let’s start with you Dr. Neale and if you could just give us a bit
of an overview of the program and maybe describe in a nutshell what it is for people.
Dr. Neale: Okay, what it is. The insurance risk management program is a concentration
within the finance major. And what we do is not only do our students get the basic business
knowledge but they also get more of a finance knowledge and then even more of a risk management
insurance perspective. And the think about that is risk management insurance comprises
such a broad area. So in our curriculum we try to cover a broad perspective so they learn
about insurance companies, they learn about insurance and the theory behind it. They also
learn about risk management, which risk management permeates every industry so for risk management
you can go into a variety of industries. And we also get into professional financial planning
as well and we find a great deal of interest for finance students but don’t necessarily
concentrating on that but they do really enjoy the personal financial planning class.
Kirsten Khire: That’s an excellent description of all the different areas it involves. So
Yancey tell us a little bit about your own experience and being in the program. I know
you’re super involved so maybe just give us an idea what you’re doing as being in
the program.
Yancey Hicks: Yes, I’m very involved in the program. Quick story about how I got into
the risk management program. At the end of my sophomore year, you know you kind of have
to declare a major. And I wanted to do business but I wasn’t sure which one if I wanted
to do finance, accounting, marketing, or management. So I met with my advisor, who is Corey Henderson,
and she referred me to Mr. Marshall who is another professor in the program. And I scheduled
an appointment with him and talked to him briefly for about 15 minutes and he was telling
me about all the internships, scholarship opportunities, travel opportunities, and the
high graduation rate that they have as far as getting placed after school. About a week
after that he emailed me and said send me your resume, I may have an internship for
you. And in nearly 15 minutes he had me an internship. So I actually did accept the internship
and I got that. And I said well this guy is going to go out of his way and get me an internship,
I at least gotta take some classes and it’s been great ever since. I’ve had multiple
or four internships and I’ve been to travel many many conferences. I’ve been to London
which is kind of where insurance started, part of one of the classes we do. I’ve been
to the Rims Conference which is a risk and insurance management society conference in
Denver and I’m going back this year in New Orleans. I’m looking forward to that. I’ve
been to Washington D.C. to kind of talk with legislators about insurance law and stuff
that needs to be passed. So it’s been a great opportunity and I would recommend it
to anybody that’s looking for a job in something that’s actually fun and interesting.
Kirsten Khire: And I understand you’re about to graduate in May.
Yancey Hicks: Correct.
Kirsten Khire: And you already have a job?
Yancey Hicks: Correct. I accepted a position with Liberty Mutual here in Charlotte, first
of the year. So it’s been difficult to go to class knowing that you already have a job
lined up but it’s been very fortunate to have that opportunity already lined up.
Kirsten Khire: So tell us a little bit about maybe one of the biggest highlights. I think
that you’ve mentioned so many great experiences just now. I know about the upcoming conference
and you’re one of two selected national selected people to go to the conference.
Dr. Neale: He’s an Anita Benedetti Scholar which they only choose about 34 nationally
so it is a very great honor to be chosen as an Anita Benedetti Scholar. So we’re very
proud of that. We’re very proud of him.
Yancey Hicks: Yeah I’m very grateful for that and we applied last year and I was unfortunately
not accepted but we you know redid it this year me and also Andrew Myers who is a junior
in our program was accepted for the Anita Benedetti Scholar as well. And last year we
had a senior Colby Daughtery. And it’s a great honor to be able to do that. I know
last year when I attend the Rims Conference, the Anita Benedetti Scholars had a little
bit more privilege. We got to attend some more events and networking opportunities.
So I’m extremely looking forward to that. It’s such a big organization and I’m not
sure how many people are attending.
Dr. Neale: Thousands, thousands.
Yancey Hicks: It’s almost like the city kind of shuts down just for that specific
conference. So I’m extremely looking forward to that networking with, you know, not only
insurance stores like Liberty Mutual but also risk managers. I know last year we met the
risk manager for GM I believe. And we also have some fun as well. Kind of talking about
their personal life as well and what they do and how they got to where they are which
is a great opportunity with these conferences. You get to see where they started from because
not many people have risk management insurance programs. They might have, you know, started
in accounting or finance but, you know, we kind of an advantage having that risk management
background coming out of college.
Kirsten Khire: Well that’s a great point about really the community that this program
creates in a way. Not only with the students but also with the employers. So maybe Dr.
Neale if you could give us a sense as being in Charlotte, we being in Charlotte, what
does that mean for the students that are going through this program and how are the employers
sort of connected to the program as well?
Dr. Neale: We are absolutely so lucky to not only be located in Charlotte, which is the
second largest financial center of the United States, but also to be located in North Carolina.
We have such tremendous support from the industry, the risk managers, the loss control specialists,
insurance companies. We have tremendous support from entities. The Department of Insurance,
the Commissioner Insurance Commissioners are very involved in all the programs in North
Carolina. We have tremendous support from the Chancellor, the Dean in our department.
So what that means and how that came about was several years ago our industry professionals
recognized that we had a generational talent gap that was coming and it’s coming quickly.
What that means is that the majority of people in the risk management insurance industry
right now are older. They’re probably, you’ve been out there, what mid-fifties and older?
Yancey Hicks: I think the average age in the insurance industry is 59.
Dr. Neale: Yeah.
Yancey Hicks: So a lot of opportunities for young professionals to kind of get that knowledge
that they can take away from them right before they retire and move up quickly within companies.
Dr. Neale: So just this past week I read this article in National Media and it said that
it looks like this generation is not for the first time in history will not be able to
succeed or progress greater than the generation before. Well that may be true. However, I’m
not sure they’re taking into account the generational gap that we are seeing in the
industries. And I think, you know, not only risk management insurance is having this gap
but other industries are as well. But we were so lucky that our industry recognized that
and they started becoming very involved in trying to build talent for the future. So
these students right now are at the beginning of that wave where these 59 year olds, you
know 60 year olds, are going to start retiring. They’re going to have a chance to step in
and move up fairly quickly and we’ve already started that with several of our graduates.
And you know we’ve seen it in banks and we’ve seen it in a variety of different
venues.
Kirsten Khire: And so we probably have alumni that are working in the Charlotte region and
as the program continues and as the Millennials begin to graduate we’ll have more alumni
that’ll be placed in places around the city. So how would you describe some of the feedback
that you hear from employers of the students that have gone through the program especially?
Dr. Neale: My colleague Tom Marshall works very closely with employers and he does a
job placement and I spoke with him before this to get the recent feedback. We get such
positive feedback on our students and on our placements and we have been very successful,
well we I say we, really our students have been very successful. We have a student right
now that’s made the presidential award for BB&T. She’s going to be honored in June.
We’ve had Rookie of the Year in Axel, Rookie of the Year in Triple A Insurance. We’ve
already had students that have progressed to leadership positions in area associations.
And one of the things that I think has been very interesting is one of our students went
with us to London she sat on the floor of London in an underwriting box. So she shadowed
the underwriters and they write very unique risks. Like they might see an armored car
in Bogota being underwritten. We had one student that watched a lab of monkeys being underwritten
and insured. Another student saw 50 Cent’s house being insured. Things like that. Well
she said there within three years she’s already at the level in Wells Fargo where
she’s actually now assessing financial strength of the syndicates for Wells Fargo which she
sat at only three years ago. So there again, there’s that gap there. If they’re willing
to work hard and learn what they need to learn, the opportunity is there for them to succeed.
Kirsten Khire: Well and I think that banks the point of experience too that you’re
getting so the internships. So four internships, study abroad. Tell us a little bit about those
experiences and how they help to shape your overall experience.
Yancey Hicks: I mean I can’t speak enough about having internships. I think every college
student should at least experience one. I did quite a few, I guess, and the reason for
that was as Dr. Neale mentioned there’s a lot of different career paths you can go
in insurance. So my first internship at Liberty Mutual was in claims which isn’t for me
but it’s a great opportunity and I really enjoyed my experience there. I love the culture,
which is kind of why I’m going back. But after that I reached out to Mr. Marshall and
asked if is there another area you know that I can kind of get in. And he found through
his connections that he had another internship with an independent agency which was locally
in my community in Lexington. And then after that, through that internship I actually got
nominated for another one with Cincinnati Insurance in Ohio. That was more kind of like
a Liberty but a different experience. I got to see the whole picture rather than just
claims which is kind of what we learned in Dr. Neale’s class. So getting a variety
of, seeing a variety of companies and how the different companies interact was a great
opportunity and also traveling up to Ohio, I’ve never been to Ohio, was pretty neat
as well. And then after that internship I came back to the agency side and now I’m
currently interning with an agency in Charlotte until graduation. But having an internship
you really see what people do every day. You can learn about it in the classroom and kind
of get an idea but you don’t really know until you’re in that position and you’re
surround by other people that are actually doing everyday jobs. So it’s a good opportunity
for me to see the different varieties of career paths that the insurance industry offers.
Kirsten Khire: Excellent. And the study abroad, are you taking a group this summer?
Dr. Neale: We are. We’re taking 14 students to Zurich to study the reinsurance market.
I’m very excited about it. I’ve got some of the students that went to London and are
now in the Master’s program. We’re actually taking a mixture of Masters and undergrads.
And we’re developing a Masters concentration in risk management and insurance. But we’re
taking them to Zurich for 14 days and we’re going to visit looks like we’re visiting
Swiss Re. They’re going to get to play an insurance simulation game which the students
enjoyed it when it was done but it was pretty stressful. And we’ll visit a lot of different
companies over there. We always go to London in October so again I was talking about how
we have such tremendous industry support. The North Carolina Surplus Lines Association
pays for students to go to London. The students only have to pay $500 and then they get to
visit Lloyd’s of London and get a tremendous education over there. The Belk College of
Business in offering their international programs are supporting our students to Zurich. You
know we’ve taken our students to D.C. We just we get to not only develop them education-wise
but we get the opportunity to develop them professionally-wise as well. And it’s all
because of the support of our industry and of course our other partners.
Kirsten Khire: And the donor support truly does make a difference and so that’s really,
I’m really glad that you shared that with us. Is there anything else that you both would
like to add? Because I wanted to mention something about the donor support to each of you and
if you like to add something feel free before we make sure you get your t-shirts today.
Dr. Neale: There are a couple of things I’d like to add. Number one, again tremendous
support from the donors we have scholarships. The first students are a RMI student and they
have a 2.5 GPA, we can give them a scholarship. We have so much funds that sometimes we are
chasing students down because they find it hard to believe that they can actually get
a scholarship. But we have the funds. Second we do enjoy 100% placement rate with our students
that participate in these extracurricular activities, these experiential learning activities
which is offered through Gamma Iota Sigma which is a whole other thing but however within
during the financial crisis, 100% of our students were placed within six months. Now it’s
down to three months. But many of them that are very active, have two and three four offers
before they graduate. However, as far as I’m concerned a job placement’s a given. I want
students that come into our program that when they graduate and they’ve had all these
opportunities. I feel like if they’re graduating and they say what’s your goal and they say
get a job, I feel like I’ve failed. Because what I want them to have is a vision for the
future. We’re not just trying to graduate workers. We’re trying to graduate leaders
for the next generation and that’s what we want to give them is experience and education
of what all’s out there and to give them the understanding that they can achieve at
a much higher level and to go for it.
Kirsten Khire: That’s fantastic. And I’m really glad we had the opportunity to talk
about this program today. Is there anything you’d like to add?
Yancey Hicks: You know it’s not a bad problem having teachers and professors trying to chase
you down and give you money for scholarships. (Laughter) And I’ve been fortunate to where
I’ve received not only scholarships within the Belk College of Business but nationally
through large organizations such as NAPSLO that provides scholarships for risk management
students. I’ve been very fortunate from that perspective. And also, as Dr. Neale was
saying, you don’t want just a job. You want to be able to go in and add value and become
a leader. And I guess I’ll touch a little bit on that. You don’t want to have a job
that’s just a job. You want a job that you actually are going to enjoy and being able
to have multiple offers thrown at you even before you graduate is a great opportunity
and not a bad problem to have again. So I can’t say enough about the risk management
program and what the Belk College of Business has provided me in order to succeed and get
this job and hopefully continue to move up.
Kirsten Khire: Well we thank you both for being here today.