Janet Henderson | Brit Insurance
I have wanted to be a Lloyd’s Underwriter since the age of 13. I grew up in the Lake District and both my parents were in the wine trade; I knew nothing at all about insurance. My drive came from the wonderful Mrs Greenwood, my inspirational economics teacher who talked of the City of London with such enthusiasm, of the Lloyd’s 1958 building and the dynamics of the Market, until I had no other dream. I started as a trainee underwriter at Syndicate 219 in 1989 and have had my dream job ever since.
My father always taught me to greet each morning with a smile, relishing the thought of your day ahead.
Given that Lloyd’s only allowed women in to trade from 1973, there still were not so many of us when I first started, but it never hampered my opportunities or success. In fact, being a female underwriter has a lot of positives. I was never pigeon-holed into the old “school tie” categories that some of my male colleagues had to fight and I could say no to a risk with a kind smile (a disappointed broker once accused me of using a ‘velvet dagger’!).
My father always taught me to greet each morning with a smile, relishing the thought of your day ahead. The moment that feeling stops then do something else because life is just too damned short. Luckily, I have loved every moment of my 33 years in Lloyd’s and I am still living the dream!
