Spencer Board Member Highlight: Bob Thomas

Tell us a little about yourself! What led you to your current position as Senior Vice President and Northeast Regional Executive at Liberty Mutual Insurance?

Although I’ve been with Liberty Mutual for 19 years, I have a pretty varied background. I studied Communications in college; spent the first 12 years of my career doing video production work; the next 7 in hi-tech Marketing and then joined Liberty. My marketing background taught me that you have to get close to the customer in order to best understand how to meet their needs. The same applies to your distribution partners, which is why I gravitated to frontline relationship development roles within Liberty. Ultimately, it brought me to having that responsibility for the entire Northeast in Liberty’s Commercial and Specialty business.


You had close to a 20-year career in marketing & communications before joining the insurance industry – what made you decide to change? What was appealing about the industry and are you glad you’ve stayed?

Part of my early career touched insurance – I did corporate video and interactive media work for 8 years for an international insurance company. The shift to hi-tech marketing was challenging and gave me a great foundation. When the Internet bubble burst in 2001, it was time for a change. A recruiter told me that Liberty was looking for marketing talent with a different kind of background – not someone who has been in Insurance their whole career. It was a great fit. I was able to bring my background into play right away. And working in the Commercial Property & Casualty space was extremely interesting. These are the businesses that fuel our economy. Our job was to make sure these businesses had the protection to stay in business. It’s purposeful and meaningful work.


What’s your biggest piece of advice for the future leaders of the industry?

One of the things I learned early on in my career in the industry is to never assume that just because someone has more experience, has been doing the job longer, or has a more senior role, that they must be right and know better than you. Trust your instincts, ask questions and share your ideas. You may be surprised at how often you hear, “good point, we didn’t think of that.”


What made you interested in serving on Spencer's Board of Directors? How did you get involved with Spencer?

Liberty has been a long supporter of Spencer. Over the years, I had the opportunity to attend the annual Gala a number of times. From that experience I gained a great appreciation for the mission of the organization. I think the insurance industry is a great place to make a career and I want to be involved in attracting more and more people into our industry.


How do you see Spencer advancing ongoing efforts of inclusion in the risk management and insurance industry?

Spencer has an opportunity to help shape the future talent in the Insurance industry. Our industry has been behind on the diversity and inclusion curve. A large portion of our industry is set to retire in the next 5 years. A focused effort now can help solidify a more diverse foundation for years to come. Incorporating inclusion criteria in our scholarship and grant programs will help ensure we’re able to attract more and more young people to our industry.

Thank you to Bob for being an integral part of the Spencer Board of Directors and for participating in this Spencer profile!