Amanda Blanc Wins Women of Achievement Award 2008
Towergate Partnership today announces that its Broking CEO
Amanda Blanc has been named as the overall winner of the 2008 Women
of Achievement Award. Amanda beat off strong competition from
seven other finalists from leading international firms including
Linklaters, Morgan Stanley, KPMG and Nomura.
The annual Awards recognise excellence and celebrate the
achievement of senior and partner-level women working in
professional services who can demonstrate that they meet a range of
criteria that go above and beyond their professional and technical
competencies. The awards panel was chaired by Professor Susan
Vinnicombe, OBE, Director of the International Centre for Women
Leaders at Cranfield School of Management.
Amanda made her mark early in her career in insurance – as the
youngest-ever and first female branch manager at Commercial Union.
A few years later she was leading AXA’s northern regional team of
470 staff. At AXA, and later at Groupama, she established a
reputation for introducing successful change programmes and turning
around the performance of key areas of the operation.
In 2006, whilst three-months pregnant with her second child, she
was appointed Chief Executive of Towergate’s UK Broking Division,
where she is now responsible for 3,000 people in 60 locations.
Since she took over her role, gross earnings at Towergate have
grown by 64% and she has introduced ground-breaking new programmes
for applying consistent standards and for revitalising customer
interaction.
Amanda plays a very active role in ensuring that talented women
in insurance get the promotion and recognition they deserve and, as
the only female board member in one of the leading insurance groups
in UK insurance, she uses her high profile to put over this message
as strongly as possible.
Amanda said, “Winning this award is a real honour. I
hope it sends out a signal to all the women working in this largely
male-dominated world that good female managers can make a
difference to the culture and that we’re going to see more and more
women graduates joining us and rising to the top jobs".
Andy Homer, Group CEO of Towergate said, “This is a great coup
for the insurance industry. I have worked with Amanda in
three different organisations and she is undoubtedly one of the
insurance industry’s brightest talents. We are immensely
proud of her award.”
Sandy Scott, Director General of the Chartered Insurance
Institute said, “I’m extraordinarily pleased to see Amanda
recognised in this way and it’s a strong statement about the
diversity of the insurance industry. Two years ago another
women in insurance Lillian Boyle won the financial services
category. Amanda has gone one better by winning the overall
Women in Achievement Award. This is a great achievement for
her personally”.
Media Contacts
Russell O'Connor
Group Communications Manager
Towergate
Tel: 01622 656782
Mobile: 07760 282586
Email: Russell.o'connor@towergate.co.uk