Asima Zahid, Director, Market Development, Lloyd’s Canada Inc.
“It was a total fluke,” says Asima Zahid when asked how she made her entry into the property and casualty insurance industry. As a relative newcomer to Canada, the current Director of Market Development for Lloyd’s Canada was working three jobs to take care of her mother and brothers when she got a call from a recruiter at TD Meloche Monnex.
“He told me if I came for two weeks’ paid training and passed the RIBO exam I was in,” she explains. Being risk averse and having so much personal responsibility, she booked two weeks’ vacation, attended the training, passed the exam, and never looked back.
Her first job was at a call center assisting clients wanting auto and home insurance. She stayed there for three years before joining Aviva in a role focused on broker relationships and brokerage audits. Three years after that, she joined IBAO, overseeing membership services, renewal, and retention.
Fast forward eight years and Zahid found herself with three job offers at the same time: two full-time posts and a contract position. The contract was for a compliance officer with Lloyd’s and Zahid felt it was better aligned with her goals and would be great to have on her resume. When the year was up, the person she was filling in for didn’t return and Zahid kept her job permanently.
“I started off in the compliance team dealing with regulators, being the company ombudsman, and managing relationships on inbound cover holder matters,” she explains. “I was also managing all internal and PWC audits, which tied back to my earlier experience.”
Heavily focused on broker relations, Zahid quickly decided she wanted to be more aligned with market development. About four years into her time at Lloyd’s, she took on the role of Director of Market Development for Canada.
For Zahid, it’s been a fascinating twenty years. She loves the industry and having a meaningful and rewarding career with lots of opportunities for growth. Interestingly, though, some of that growth could have come much sooner.
“I was actually offered a senior role while at IBAO,” she reveals, “but personally, I wasn’t ready. I had a family, and I wasn’t sure how to balance it all.”
That sentiment is one Zahid believes many women share, though she’s glad the number of supports for women continues to expand in the industry and is proud to report that Lloyd’s is ahead of schedule on its goal of gender parity by 2030.
“If I’d had access to more resources and been able to hear other people’s stories, it would have been easier for me to accept a leadership role earlier on,” she says.
“We need to reassure women and give them the confidence to move forward and to be proactive in seeking out opportunities. We need more male allies to become sponsors and mentors to our female leaders. We need to develop young women and give them the tools they need to shift into leadership positions from day one.”
