NextGen Risk: Team Profile | Wilfrid Laurier University

George “Ethan” Ward

I’m in my fourth year and I’m actually going to concentrate in risk management insurance. But I don’t actually have the co-op background in insurance roles. I have more of a tech background. I did my last two co-ops in revenue operations and as a BDR (business development representative).

I have been a part of the Laurier insurance and risk association for coming on three years now. Through that, I’ve been able to get a lot of face time with a bunch of different professionals, especially through all the events we run. I’ve seen a couple of different insurance case comps as well. We host one annually with University of Waterloo as well. So, the last two years, I’ve been helping to organize and run that, so I’m hoping that can give us a leg up, now that I’ve seen what it takes to be winners.

I still have one more semester before I actually go into the job market, so I’m still figuring that out. But yeah, insurance been on my radar for a good while, and I’m hoping maybe to get into commercial or specialty lines.

Miles Richard Schoustal

I actually didn’t even really think of insurance until fourth year. I took these courses as part of a finance concentration, but once we started learning about it like I found it very interesting —especially the underwriting and brokerage portions of the industry.

Yash and I were in the insurance group in one of our classes and we had an enterprise risk presentation. We did well on that, and that’s what motivated us to apply to this [competition]. Since then, we’ve been trying to figure out what could possibly be the topic of the [case] competition.

 We’ve been looking at news articles about P&C insurance, and [resources] like the risk barometer for Allianz. Currently, I don’t have any experience in the insurance industry, but I’m exploring options, and I’m looking into brokering and underwriting roles.

Yash Thakur

I’m a fourth year at Wilfrid Laurier University in the BBA program. I’m majoring in finance, but to get that major, I ended up taking a lot of insurance courses and risk. I think there’s an intersection between finance and risk. Risk management is crucial to businesses, but it’s often overlooked. That sparked my interest.

I’m going to work for an insurance company after school. Specifically, Allianz. Ultimately, through networking, I found out what underwriters do. And I think it’s a really cool job, because you get to use that analytical mindset, and [at the same time] there’s a broker-client interaction you have to maintain. You get a bit of both.

I applied to their portal two years ago. Back then, I did three rounds [of interviews]. The interviews went well, but they told me I wasn’t experienced enough. And so I just tried to keep that connection with the head of the team until now. And ultimately, something worked out.

Ewan Malcolm MacNeil

I’m doing a BBA, with a concentration in finance. Two courses for my concentration was my intro to risk. And Yash and I are in the same P&C liability class.

As far as insurance goes, I’ve had two internships in insurance. I worked for ManuLife over the last two summers. There, I was a credit risk analyst. It was very entry level, so I was really just doing sovereign risk reviews, investment limit calculations. So, it was just dipping my toes in the water, kind of getting my foot in the door.

Insurance is definitely something I can see myself doing long-term. I don’t have a job lined up. I’m still in the process of applying to a few places, but, yeah, it’s definitely something fun I enjoy. It makes sense and more or less comes easily to me, especially having had some good [work experience in it.

Unavailable for an Interview: William “Bruce” Everitt (Advisor)