Diary of an Insurer: Zurich’s Jacqui Kelly

Monday

Every Monday I work in my local office in Whiteley, which is a great start to the week. I live near the coast so I took a brisk beach walk with my dog, Murray. 

He’s a Newfoundland poodle mix (Newfypoo) if you can picture that – a huge sand magnet to say the least. This is my time to mentally plan my week and prioritise. 

Whiteley is home to our regional trading underwriters. I spent the morning discussing new business opportunities and upcoming renewals with them, reviewing what turned out to be a particularly great opportunity. We had a quick meeting with the broker and secured the order – what a way to start the week. 

January is all about refreshing and setting the scene for the year so I spent the afternoon meeting with our head of SME and Zurich Private Clients to work out how we can work with our brokers to drive growth. 

It’s January and yes, for today I’m dry. After homework with the kids and a recap of their day, I had a personal training session. I know I won’t be able to sit down easily in the morning but no pain, no gain, and all that. 

Tuesday

It’s a 5am start and I head into London, so no beach walk (sorry, Murray). By the third coffee, I’m ready to face the world, albeit slightly aching. I used the journey to listen to our chief economist’s podcast on market dynamics.

A breakfast meeting with a broker was first on the agenda. We talked through the account performance which has been a huge success – but I’m always keen to hear how we can improve. 

Needless to say, we left the meeting with an action to get more in the pipeline. The success rate for this type of business is high so it was time well spent.

In fact, I spent much of my day with brokers – it’s a big part of my role and something that really fires me up. The buzz word of the day was service; in the spirit of complete transparency, we share our service data which the broking community find incredibly helpful. 

I ended the day with a 2025 planning meeting with a strategic broker. We discussed industry talent, developing our people and bringing diverse talent to insurance. 

These topics are a firm favourite of mine and something we should never take off the table. This was followed by a dinner at the Ivy Asia where dry January went out the window.

Wednesday

 Another 5am start. Today I used the train journey into London to finish a book called Think Faster, Talk Smarter by Matt Abrahams, who is a Stanford University lecturer and podcaster. I highly recommend it.

I started with a breakfast meeting with a distribution partner. We reviewed developments across the network, how members feel about trading with Zurich and how we can push things even further in 2025.

This was followed by a market meeting with my distribution team. We take an hour to discuss what’s happening in the market, highlights for the team to be aware of and general insights to support us all in market discussions.

My afternoon was spent on team development, another part of the job I love. When it comes to objectives, everyone is tasked to spend 80% of their time doing the job and 20% developing themselves. I’ve always lived by the 80/20 rule.

After work I meet a couple of friends in the market, chew the fat and have a catch up on what’s been going on.

Thursday

Early drive to our Midlands region for a session with some of our Zurich Club Blue brokers. It seems the Young Broker Network and the Women in Insurance Network has really paid dividends for them which is great to hear. With International Women’s Day around the corner, we shared our plans for the network. 

In the afternoon we had our retail leadership meeting – three hours talking through all aspects of our business from results, operations, governance controls, digital development and customers.

Friday

I work from home on Fridays so time for a morning personal trainer session – ouch.

Fridays are my catchup day so I can focus on, emails, admin and completing actions. 

I also spent some time prepping for my trip to Zurich HQ to meet my global counterparts. The great thing about working for a global brand are the cross-market learnings we can share. 

In the afternoon I had a mentoring session with an industry colleague. I have mentored them for some time now and really enjoy seeing them grow and evolve. I have always been involved in mentorship. I get real value from being both a mentor and mentee.

Finally, I have a meeting on the British Insurance Brokers’ Association conference. Planning this conference is a military operation, but I love it. Five months out and we’re already into the detail of stand design, our evening event and attendees.  

On Fridays I pick up my eight- and 12-year-old from school. They’re at the age when they don’t want to be seen in public with me. However, I manage to persuade them to go for a meal at Pizza Express.  

It’s a challenging exchange, apparently, I’m not cool and too old to be. I accept you can’t please all of the people all of the time, but I still took it as a win.