How the Insurance Industry Captivated an Aspiring Musician

Jody Moses says the underlying mission of risk management excites and challenges her every day.

In fact, it’s why she ultimately chose this career.

But the road to risk management wasn’t so straight or clear to her initially: “I started in the mail room at a monoline workers’ compensation insurance company while I was pursuing a music degree,” she explained. “I never intended it to be a career.”

Within a couple of months, Moses was filling in for a medical-only examiner position.

“I began taking more insurance and risk management classes than music classes and was declining auditions to present at industry conferences,” she said.

She found herself collaborating with doctors, attorneys, fire and police chiefs, HR departments, risk managers and more — just in a single workday.

Risk management, she learned, touched every industry. The work she was doing herself — helping injured employees get back to health, work and productivity — solidified it as an option for her.

“I was hooked,” she said.

Now the executive vice president and general manager for the public entity business at York Risk Services Group, Moses helps drive the strategic vision of the company.

In her day-to-day, Moses and her team collaborate to help grow, deliver and refine risk solutions that will help reduce current and future risks for their public entity clients.

“The same thing that hooked me over three decades ago continues to excite and challenge me,” she said.

“I’ve had the great fortune over my career to be surrounded by professionals from all corners of the risk management and insurance industry whose combined encouragement and wisdom have guided me throughout my career.”

For Moses, this profession is of paramount importance to the economy and should be treated as such.

“The industry needs to elevate the position of risk manager, so it is considered part of the C-suite,” she said.

To do this, she added, education needs to be at the forefront for the industry.

“This will take a heavy lift to get more degree programs specializing in risk and insurance in our colleges and universities as well as talented teachers and professors to lead our next generation.”

But to her, the leg work is worth it.

Once risk management is in that C-suite position, it has the potential to lead positive change for any company — especially because it’s a career that requires skills spanning a number of industries.

“Risk management is the one career in which you get to combine medicine, law, engineering, communications, politics, business, data science, social work and almost every other subject into one career.

“It is truly meaningful work that is personally rewarding in the results you achieve for your organization and in the network of professionals you collaborate with and develop long-term connections.”

According to Moses, risk management is constantly growing and advancing as a career. One area is in technology and data analytics. She said that the tools and systems risk managers use to leverage the power of data will only continue to evolve at a rapid pace.

“The critical thinking and thought leadership of risk professionals will be integral to overall enterprise business decisions” as well, Moses said.

Read More: 10 Reasons Why Insurance and Risk Management Is a Great Career

Some of her proudest moments in the field have come when “an industry leader I have worked with either directly as a client, an employee or an industry professional will share with me that I had a meaningful impact on their professional development.”

This impact goes both ways: Moses said her most influential mentors have been representatives from the public entity clients she’s worked with over her 30-year career.

They are inspiring her just as much as she is inspiring them.

“They have helped me understand the true cost of risk and the opportunities and responsibilities that come with a profession in risk management.”

Having those mentors has molded her into the risk professional she is today. Learning from them has helped her grow her skills and her career.

She’s looking at the next generation of risk professionals with a keen eye, hopeful that they will continue to gain as much from the industry as she has.

“A career in risk management and insurance can originate from almost any area of subject matter expertise and will require — and reward — the ability to communicate effectively with multiple stakeholders from all aspects of business and industry,” she said.

Young professionals who have taken an interest in risk management won’t be disappointed: Every day is different; every risk is an opportunity to learn.

Whether it’s finding coverage that will allow a business or a public entity to perform certain activities, or being on the scene after a catastrophe to ensure continuity in coverage and business operations, “everything a risk manager does benefits the rest of us as employees, consumers, business owners and citizens,” said Moses. &