Mover & Shaker: Belen Navarro, Financial Lines Regional Manager, Latin America & Caribbean at AIG

After earning degrees in Business & Insurance Science and Business Administration from Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca in Spain, Belen Navarro began her professional career in April 1997 as an account executive at a brokerage firm in Madrid.

In 1997 she joined AIG Europe, where she held various positions of increasing responsibility in the finance area in Spain and Portugal for 12 years. In 2009, she was offered what she calls a life-changing opportunity: to join the Regional Financial Lines team for Latin America and the Caribbean. Navarro currently heads the Latin America and Caribbean Professional Liability and Cyber team for AIG with the responsibility for establishing underwriting strategy and implementing best practices across the region.

Finding Career Benefits in a Multinational Company
Navarro’s reasons for joining AIG were many. She was looking forward to the career opportunities offered by such a complex company, such as a wide network of assignments and the opportunity to relocate to foreign destinations. In fact, she claims that her biggest learning moment came from her decision to relocate to the United States.

“I have been, and I still am, going through an exploratory and intensive learning process to acquire knowledge of the different cultures, regulations, market practices, competition, and relationships across Latin America and the United States,” she says. “The experience has made me more open-minded and more appreciative of the values of different cultures and countries, which has helped me to be a better person and a more well-rounded professional.”

Navarro says that AIG has offered her empowerment and ownership, opportunities to grow and assume higher degrees of responsibility over time, and access to a variety of training programs with an eye for always enhancing her skills. In addition to the cultural nuances of her position, Navarro thrives on the challenges presented by her position. She cites her role in the development and implementation of comprehensive and innovative insurance solutions, such as cyber insurance, with the aim of helping clients stay ahead of the curve. She is currently working on launches and expansions of both new products and product enhancements and is also involved in the design and implementation of tools to make business processes more efficient.

Navarro says she is very proud of the team she works with, which she describes as “a high performance, talented, and diverse team of people from 15 different countries and multiple cultures.”

“The commitment, alignment, passion, and motivation of the team has contributed extensively to achieving a very significant growth trend over the past years and has positioned AIG as one of the Financial Lines leaders,” she says. “Helping to develop and empower this great team is one of the accomplishments that I am most proud of.”

Sponsors, Mentors and Role Models Open Doors
One of the reasons that Navarro is able to appreciate the team she is on is because of her positive past experiences with her colleagues.

Navarro says that both sponsors and mentors have played a key role in her career rise. “The faith, support, and constructive feedback provided by my sponsors and mentors have been essential for my career progress. They have made me believe in myself and helped me to see that there are no barriers to progressing personally and professionally. They have shown me that, truly, ‘The sky is the limit.’”

While she appreciates role models around the different units, locations, and cultures with whom she interacts daily, her parents remain her most important professional role models. Her father was a lawyer and her mother was a teacher and director at different schools for 44 years.

“I have always been inspired by their example of hard work, ethical behavior, leadership by example, empathy, and willingness to adapt to changes and challenges. They always remained calm in difficult situations and were able to see the bright side of everything – even on a bad day,” she says, adding that she is also inspired by their ability to recognize their weaknesses but use them as opportunities to become stronger and better.

“My dad always told me, “’You have to keep trying – to do the best you can every day – to improve upon what you learned yesterday.’”

Indeed, she espouses those qualities as the secrets to her own success – hard work beyond the 8-to-5 routine, flexibility, accountability, and openness to new opportunities. “You have to believe in yourself and strive to achieve higher goals year after year,” she says, adding that the icing on the cake is to be thankful for what you have.

She feels that AIG nurtures those qualities – especially diversity. She had the opportunity to participate in a “Women in Leadership” Forum that provided best practice education around 360-degree feedback, action plans for sponsorship, executive presence, and developing leaders. She said that besides the career development it offered, she benefited from the networking opportunities as a place to share experiences, career successes, and challenges.

In Her Off Hours
An avid reader, Navarro says she has been addicted to reading since she can remember, favoring books based on various historical events as well as classic novels and fiction. She also stays active by biking and running; she is currently training to run a half marathon. Her time biking in Florida has been particularly adventurous – she recently explored a fenceless trail in the Everglades where you can see many alligators running freely. “It was a great experience but scary at the same time,” she says.

Navarro also enjoys traveling and has amassed an impressive itinerary that includes 10 countries in Latin America, parts of Canada, and 16 states in the United States. Part of her quest to eventually visit all 50.

By Cathie Ericson