Spencer Board Member Highlight: Marya Propis
Tell us a little about yourself! What led you to your current position as Senior Vice President of Distribution & Broker Partnerships at RT Specialty?
I’ve been incredibly fortunate to land in the position I have today with RT Specialty. My former employer, All Risks, Ltd., sold to Ryan Specialty Group on September 1st, 2020 and that transaction created an opportunity for me to help RT expand our Distribution practice. This is a discipline I’ve worked in for almost my entire insurance career, so I love the scope of the function, which at RT means I support many of our preferred retail relationships and help ensure that our production teams and underwriters have full access to the retail marketplace. And to have the chance to be a part of Ryan Specialty Group where our Founder Mr. Ryan has made support of women in our industry a hallmark of his leadership and the organization he has built is amazing.
How do you think having female representation in the workplace – in both entry level and high-level positions - helps current and future employees? Did this play a part in your decision to enter the RMI industry?
It’s ironic when I think that my decision to enter the RMI industry was based entirely around needing a part-time job when I was first married, then subsequently at the age of 30 after I got divorced I realized I had to figure out a career for myself. I literally didn’t know any women in insurance growing up or when I was first in the workplace, but I have several male relatives in the P&C and Life business. I was fortunate to have a family that supports me and wanted to help me find a career and a new life, and insurance seemed like an obvious choice. I do recall that for the first couple of years working in insurance I mistakenly assumed that women always had service level roles while men ran agencies. After I spent a couple of years in the business and had truly fallen in love with what we do, I realized I had an opportunity to make a career of it vs. just having a job, and I started looking more critically at the insurance world around me. It looked very male and very monochromatic. I realize now that I was making my own observations on role alignment to gender (i.e., why are women always the scribes in our carrier meetings?).
At first that scared me a little bit, but then I realized why couldn’t this also be an opportunity to be a different kind of insurance person who brought a different perspective to an industry that could use some diversity? I think I was right!
Was there ever a time that you felt you were passed over for or missed an opportunity because of your gender? Tell us about it. What advice would you give to others in a similar situation?
I know there have been times over my 27 years in the business when my opinion or contributions weren’t valued as highly as my male colleagues were. That still hurts some to think about that, but it makes me even more resolved to make sure that all voices are heard and count in our workplace. My advice is to learn to “read the room” and understand the dynamics vs. getting upset or frustrated about the unconscious bias that we know exists in the workplace and in life.
How do you think the RMI industry has done thus far in promoting gender diversity? Where/how do you think the industry can improve?
I feel like I’ve talked about this a lot but I’ll keep saying it for the rest of my career. I don’t believe gender diversity – true gender diversity – can be manufactured at the senior levels.
A landmark study in 2019 showed that long before bumping into any glass ceiling, many women run into obstacles trying to grasp the very first rung of the management ladder. As a result, it’s early in many women’s careers, not later, when they fall dramatically behind men in promotions, blowing open a gender gap that then widens every step up the chain.
The numbers in the study tell a stark story: though women and men enter the workforce in roughly equal numbers, men outnumber women nearly 2 to 1 when they reach that first step up—the manager jobs that are the bridge to more senior leadership roles. In real numbers, that will translate to more than one million women across the U.S. corporate landscape getting left behind at the entry level over the next five years as their male peers move on and upward, perpetuating a shortage of women in leadership positions. Add the effects of the pandemic on women trying to manage both households and their career, and we’ve got a very challenging environment that we have to deal with by being extremely deliberate and proactive about promoting diverse opportunities for women in insurance.
For me, I believe that the only person that can hold me back is myself. That belief isn’t held by all women however, and I respect that deeply. I think you have to learn to see your own true value and talent and then learn to manage your career from a place of strength and confidence. When you aren’t able to do that, it becomes an obstacle to leadership in addition to the headwinds we already face.
What made you interested in serving on Spencer's Board of Directors? How did you get involved with Spencer?
In 2012, AIG (my then employer) was invited to rejoin the Spencer board after a hiatus (AIG had been focusing on developing direct RMI educational funding approaches). John Doyle and Peter Eastwood, both senior AIG executives at the time, identified me as someone who was highly interested in expanded leadership roles but also desirous of helping to develop our philanthropic profile. My personality and aptitude tests had revealed that I had a high level of leadership potential but with an equally strong altruistic view of corporate and personal values. Plus, I had been forthright with management about wanting to contribute in different ways. All of that came together when John and Peter asked me to represent AIG on the Spencer board. Up until then, I had attended the Spencer Gala dinner and knew a bit about what the Foundation did, but I had no idea at the time of the scope of all Spencer’s programs and the potential to impact so many lives. It really turned into the opportunity of a lifetime for me and a labor of love. I’m so proud to be a part of Spencer and help support the amazing work that we do to ensure the future leaders of our industry are as successful as possible.
How do you see Spencer advancing ongoing efforts of inclusion in the risk management and insurance industry?
Even if I wasn’t as involved with Spencer, I would see the Foundation’s work as critical to the RMI industry. By ensuring that we have a vibrant, diverse pipeline of sustainable talent coming into the industry, I see Spencer’s work as the lifeblood of an inclusive industry model. Spencer is where it all comes together – industry, academics, risk management, education, and a commitment to inclusive and diverse initiatives and programs.
Thank you to to Marya for being an integral part of the Spencer Board of Directors and for participating in this Spencer profile!