Speaker 1:
From the library of the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, you're inside The ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange on markets, leadership and vision and global business. The dream drivers that have made the NYSE an indispensable institution of global growth for over 225 years. Each week we feature stories of those who hatch plans, create jobs and harness the engine of capitalism. Right here, right now at the NYSE and at ICE's exchanges and clearing houses around the world. And now welcome in inside the ICE House. Here's your host, Josh King of Intercontinental Exchange.
Josh King:
My first job in corporate communications began back in 2003. I was at the Hartford Financial Services Group. You know, the Hartford, the company with a strong and stately stag, standing on a mountain top. Watching for any risks on the horizon. That company is now 210 years old. Having successfully paid out claims, following the great New York fire in 1835 in the catastrophic San Francisco earthquake in 1906. Fires and earthquakes, the kinds of disasters whose frequency and severity can be so precisely quantified and measured that they are in fact, predictable enough to properly ascribe a premium to those insured so that risks can be pooled and claims can be paid out and the insurer can still make money for its shareholders. Then 2001, 9/11 happened. And terrorism became a new risk that insurers had to account for. At the Hartford and other major insurers like Travelers. We worked with the federal government to pass the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act or TRIA, that has provided a backstop for the past 20 years.
Josh King:
So, that if God forbid there is another event like 9/11, there's a game plan to deal with it. Then in the 2010s, when I was at Willis Group, one of the world's largest insurance brokers, another risk came on the horizon. Cyber risk. A couple can properly assess what coverage it needs for earthquake or fire, or even a hurricane barreling up the Eastern seaboard. But what about a computer virus or hackers taking out entire systems. Or breach of personally identifiable information across potentially millions of a company's customers. That's the world we live in today. Back on episode out 132 Intercontinental Exchange's chief information security officer, Jerry Perullo talked about the unique technological risks that companies and governments face in this area. Jerry said, "One of the best defenses was simply communicating and collaborating with companies and law enforcement to share strategies, analyze new forms of attack and together develop best practices."
Josh King:
That's why Jerry was back at the New York Stock Exchange in February 2020 to speak at the Cyber Prepare, Prevent, Mitigate, Restore symposium, hosted by Travelers Institute, the public policy division of Travelers. That's NYSE ticker symbol TRV. The event brought together cyber security professionals from a number of companies, the New York police department and the federal bureau of investigation to help businesses, not just large public ones, prepare and respond to cyber threats. The invitation for Jerry came from our guest today, Travelers Institute, president Joan Woodward. Who's up here in New York from the nation's capital ahead of the event, and will also be ringing the opening bell tomorrow to highlight the Institute's 10th anniversary. Our conversation with Joan Woodward on the cyber symposium, why she was tasked with creating the travelers and her career in Washington, DC. That's right after this.
Speaker 3:
And now a word from John Berger, president and CEO of Sunnova. NYSE ticker N-O-V-A.
John Berger:
We're a solar company, and we're out there to bring solar to every home in the country. We have such a vast market that remains untapped. I think it's less than 3% of the market of homes in the United States. And so there's just so much potential. New York Stock Exchange is the home of capitalism. It's just where the action happens for no matter where you are in the world, all eyes on the New York Stock Exchange. Sunnova, now listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Josh King:
Our guest today, Joan Woodward is president of Travelers Institute and the executive vice president of public policy for travelers where she also chairs the Traveler's environmental, social, and governance. That's their ESG committee. Joan joined Travelers in 2008 from Goldman Sachs to establish the Travelers Institute as the company's thought leadership and public policy platform. Prior to joining Goldman, she worked on Capitol Hill for 12 years as deputy chief of staff for the US Senate Finance Committee, working for chairman William Roth of Delaware, where she was instrumental in creating the Roth IRA. She was also the chief economist for the Senate Government Affairs Committee and the US House Budget Committee under chairman John Kasich. Joan Woodward, welcome to the New York Stock Exchange and welcome inside The ICE House.
Joan Woodward:
Josh, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity to chat with you today.
Josh King:
The true cost of cyber crime, I mentioned in the introduction was based on a study of its impact on businesses in 2019. But the cyber symposium series began several years ago. Was there a particular event that spawned the series?
Joan Woodward:
Yeah, there was. We have been selling obviously cyber insurance for many, many years. However, the business risk index that we put out every year really surveys a number of small and middle and large businesses about what they're worried most about. And cybersecurity has been at the top of that list for many, many years. Last year it was the most important risk. And so we decided to take it on. And when I mean take it on, I mean, raise awareness about the importance of understanding the cyber protocols that your business should go through first, even before you decide whether to buy cyber insurance. But the protocols of understanding your cyber hygiene was probably the most important aha moment for a number of our business clients. And so by putting together this cyber awareness campaign over the last four or five years, we've touched thousands and thousands of businesses and just really shared our learnings with them.
Josh King:
So, I've got a medium sized business, couple hundred, maybe a thousand people. What are the cyber protocols that I should be going through as I consider whether or not to call my Travelers agent and get myself some cyber insurance?
Joan Woodward:
Especially smaller businesses who don't have a large team of IT specialists, but there's all sorts of check the boxes when you're looking through how well you're prepared for a potential cyber attack. And it's that process of going through that, not just with your IT guy. I mean, honestly, there's many, many people and voices at the table that are going to add a value to understanding where you might be vulnerable. And again, it is going through that process that's so important for our clients and customers.
Josh King:
And then once I go through these protocols and I decide that my hygiene is not hygienic enough, what are the telltale signs?
Joan Woodward:
Well, the good news is there's lots of repair you can make to your businesses. And so that process of getting them in order we feel is hugely important to understand. And there's lots of specialties out there, of course, that help you with this. But at the end of the day, it does not hurt at all. And we clearly advise every company that we talk to have some sort of cyber insurance policy. These ransomware attacks, the phishing email have just ramped up and we've seen not only just bad actors in the United States, but around the world that are getting into even small businesses systems. And so there's a lot to watch out for.
Josh King:
So, last week, President Trump gave us his remarks on the State of the Union. What would you say is the State of the Union of the insurance industry on cyber issues?
Joan Woodward:
I think it's really in an excellent spot. We are a GDP driven industry, in the insurance industry. More trucks on the road, more people employed is good for our business. So, the industry itself, I think has come a long way. We've been ensuring fires and floods and earthquakes for hundreds and hundreds of years, we know how to write that risk. Cyber is new in the last say 30 years, right? And it's certainly ramped up in the last five to 10 years. And so understanding how to write the risk, pricing it, the industry is doing, I think a much better job in the last five or so years.
Josh King:
Besides the events you're holding. How else is Travelers helping businesses protect themselves from cyber incidents?
Joan Woodward:
So, we have a whole series of we're the public policy kind of informational educational arm of a very large Traveler's insurance company. And one of the things that we've set out to do 10 years ago, which is our 10th anniversary this year is to share our knowledge through all the claims that we've seen. So, those small businesses, medium sized businesses don't make the same mistakes that we've seen come through our claim data. And so the risk control department in our company is a very large one. And so we help alongside our clients every single day, understand their risk and mitigate their risk, which is why our cyber program is called prepare, prevent, restore, and mitigate. And those four dynamics make up our educational programming.
Josh King:
We talked about the 2019 Travelers Risk Index found cyber to be the number one concern of businesses. What are some of the other notable findings that come out of it?
Joan Woodward:
We found that although 89% of the Travelers Risk Index respondents from small businesses reporting feeling confident that their company has implemented best practices for cybersecurity. Many of those same organizations may be unprepared for the cyber attack. So, our surveys show that just 27% of small business owners said they have a written business continuity plan. That's that's only a third of the companies have a written business continuity plan. And only 23% said, they have conducted a cyber assessment of their vendors who have access to their data. So, just again, when you talk about cyber hygiene, thinking about who you're giving your customer data to, and the as vendors, you have to make sure they have the same cyber hygiene protocols in place as your company does. And so again, it's raising awareness, it's education. And so that's what we've set out to do.
Josh King:
The take up rate of cyber coverage was always an issue when I worked in the industry. So, what are the conversations that are happening between the agents and the businesses about whether or not cyber coverage is something that they should add to their risk plan?
Joan Woodward:
Last year there was an uptake rate, meaning 39% of respondents said they bought an insurance policy. And our last year, this last survey you took its 51%. So, that percentage is jumped dramatically. But it's still, if you look at that 49% of people we surveyed, and these are businesses surveyed, do not have an insurance policy on cyber yet. And so we have made some progress. 51% is better than 39, but it's certainly not a hundred percent. And that clearly is the goal. So, again, the educational component of our plan and we think it benefits the whole industry. It's not just for Travelers customers, it's raising awareness for smaller, medium size businesses because the large guys have figured this out. We partner with a lot of government agencies. You heard, we have the FBI speaking tomorrow, the department of Homeland security, federal trade commissions, very much involved in cyber security.
Joan Woodward:
And so the federal government is, has a very big interest in making sure and medium sized businesses take this seriously because they are vendors of the federal government. And so the federal government, as I just talked about vendors before, wants to make sure these contractors for the federal government have taken a serious look at their cyber protocols. So, it is the federal government's best interest to raise awareness and talk about the need for this. Because as you know, this is just another cyber terrorism, cyber warfare, certainly among our business communities is again, turned out to be the number one risk.
Josh King:
The average cyber attack costs small businesses about $200,000 and are happening all the time. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 6:
A ransomware cyber attack happens every 14 seconds. In the past year alone, there's been an 11% increase in security breaches by hackers. These growing figures show just how big a threat cyber crime has become. With security experts fighting the hackers, the cyber crime economy is growing so quickly it's now making profits of $1.5 trillion each year.
Josh King:
Do you feel like you're making headway with events like these in helping businesses prepare?
Joan Woodward:
We really do. We have a four step way for folks to manage a data breach. And so we talk about the SAFE way and S is set the strategy and then A is assessed the breach, what is the extent of the breach? F is fix the problem immediately. And E is examine your systems. And another thing to layer on top of these complicated issues for small and medium sized businesses is your 50 states around the country have different protocols for identifying that personally identifiable information breach. So, you have to have a lawyer at the table, a communication strategist along with your IT and your CISOs sitting around that table. And of course your most important seat at that table should be occupied by the CEO who takes this as well as the board. A board of directors of any company should have this as one of the top concerns and the risk factors for the company. And so I think we've come a long way. We've had thousands and thousands of attendees. We've executed about 50 programs around the country, again. And so we've had great turnout for us, tells us people are interested.
Josh King:
Let's expand the aperture a little bit to cover some of the topics that as you and I are talking today, Joan, might not appear automatically as some of the cyber issues that would face either business or individuals. But Forbes did a recent article looking at the top five issues facing cybersecurity in 2020. Number five was the vulnerability of connected and autonomous cars to hacking. Will that topic be covered in your event?
Joan Woodward:
Actually yeah. We do talk about this. And in fact, we have a whole series around autonomous vehicles and frankly, how to ensure them because there's a whole debate in our industry and within the government about how autonomous vehicles will be insured going forward. But certainly the cyber connectivity of autonomy in vehicles is a very big concern. And we have worked with OEMs, the manufacturers out there to talk about sharing data. And as you know, not a lot of companies want to share data for the greater good. And so transparency in this sector, I think we think is very important. But certainly it's a concern of folks out there around autonomy and cybersecurity. And every company is vulnerable even if they go through putting in a good cyber hygiene protocol.
Josh King:
Staying with autonomous vehicles, you call, let's say, I call my insurance agent to say that I bought a new car and I need coverage. They want to know the year, the make, the model, where it's garaged and how many miles I'm going to drive it in a year. Mixed with my own driving record and accident history. From that information, the historical data drives the algorithm on coverage and premium. But what if the driver isn't actually driving the car? Do you think people will still need car insurance if autonomous vehicles become the primary mode of transportation?
Joan Woodward:
Absolutely. In fact, our think tank at the Travelers Institute recently wrote a white paper called Ensuring Autonomy. And we do think that the existing structure of how that car is insured fits the model going forward. That, that car, the driver is responsible for what happens in that car. So, now we have the messy middle, we'll call it, between human interaction. So, if my autonomous vehicle is starting to break for me, even though I'm anticipating to break. So, many of the cars have the autonomous auto emergency breaking system, but suppose you were not prepared for that car to stop itself, causing an accident behind you. And so there's a lot of different ... And so as the driver, you're still responsible for what happens in your car. So, we don't see the whole insurance industry moving to a product liability model and you know how long those cases can take to resolve themselves. So, we do think that ensuring the vehicle with a person in the car will continue to be the way it becomes law.
Josh King:
But bring our listeners sort of into the process of product design and thinking it through.
Joan Woodward:
Well factors associated with safety. As I said, emergency automatic braking or lane departure warnings. Those things are obviously in cars today. We're collecting data on that as an industry right now. And so your car versus my car, who has some of these features is a contributing factor as to how to price the risk. So, we're not going to give up the secret sauce of how we do underwriting at the company. But it will continue to be an evolving factor in understanding how to price the risk with this new autonomous technology. Another issue is the cost to repair these cars. So, if you think about a Tesla battery, which is probably 30, $40,000 in these cars, the technology in those LiDAR vs RADAR systems is much more expensive.
Joan Woodward:
And we'll have claim data on that and collecting the claim data, just like we do on you as a person. Another contributing factor to, we think the advent of new technologies that'll be helpful is we're very bad drivers in this country. You look around in every single person at stoplight stop sign is distracted. And so being a distracted driver versus having an autonomous vehicle, I'll take the autonomous vehicle every day, driving my car. But again, we're in the messy middle where you have semi-autonomous cars, not fully autonomous, and we're going to be in this messy middle for the next 20 years, we think.
Josh King:
I want to get into distracted driving in a second. And yet staying on some of these new aspects of technology and vehicles, I've got a relatively late model car. For the first time in my life I am getting beeps about moving right, moving left. The distance that I maintain with a car in front of me and how hard I'm hitting the brake, because it's been a while since I've actually been in the industry. How is this data being factored into either individual's policies or collected and analyzed as a whole?
Joan Woodward:
Yeah, there's a number of apps out there. These are telematic apps that track how faster driving, how hard you're breaking. And they're very sophisticated. We have them, most insurers have their own bespoke versions of them. But telematics has really come a long way in helping us price the risk and assess you as a driver. So, it's not just your credit score or how old you are or what education level you are. Kind of the old factors of determining how safe or how not safe you are. But these have given us new tools. But again, the problem with distracted driving is that fatalities in this country were up dramatically in the last couple of years, even with this new technology is supposed to help us drive on the road. And so that campaign around distracted driving for us is called every second matters. And we think raising awareness around that, including tracking with the telematics is a nice blend that'll help us price the risk.
Josh King:
You recently wrote a LinkedIn article, urging drivers to do one little thing to improve safety. What is that? And what else is the Institute doing to make the roads safer by keeping a driver focused?
Joan Woodward:
So, the one very simple thing you can do, first of all, is put your damn phone down, right? And we're all guilty of this. I think we're very good at multitasking. And we think it's the other guy who's the problem driver. Well, we're not very good at it. And so both on the iPhone and Android, we've urged people to enact the, or enable the do not disturb while driving feature. And that frankly, and I did a few years ago and it's really changed my behavior. And so I'll urge all your listeners out there. The one simple thing you can do or for your kids, maybe teenagers, is activate your do not disturb while driving automatically and make sure it's automatically not manually. And so if you do pick up your phone to look at it says I'm driving. I'm not going to be able to do anything with my phone.
Joan Woodward:
But the feature I really like about it is if someone sends you a text, they will get a text back saying I'm driving. And my kids are used to it now. "Oh, mom's in the car. I'm not going to bother her." So, it changes your whole mentality about that. And another thing I'm going to stand distracted driving is that it's not just kind of picking up your phone, it's mental distraction. So, a lot of people jump in their car and say, let me call you when I get in my car. So, we think it's safe to do a conference call, a long complicated conference call while I'm driving. Handsfree's better than not hands free. Let's face it. But it's not ideal because your mind is off the road. So, it's the cognitive distraction, not just the visual distraction that we're trying to talk with our folks about.
Josh King:
I will mention that here inside The ICE House, we are being joined not only by John Woodward, but also John Woodward's two kids. One of whom lives in Boston, where I grew up. Home of fabulously, terrible drivers. Another daughter who lives in Los Angeles, famous for its two hour long commutes. So, I'm looking at you and I'll have mom speak for you or you can yell into the microphone. Intergenerationally, are these lessons being adhered to?
Joan Woodward:
Well, they're my kids. So, of course they're very compliant. But when it comes to texting and driving, I mean I think they also want ... What millennials have done, and I think older people are less likely to do, is they speak up to their friends. So, it's socially unacceptable in our day and age to get in a car and having drank a few beers or a couple glasses of wine. So, 20, 30 years ago, we got rid of the notion that it's acceptable. It's acceptable social norm to do this. Today it's still acceptable to text and drive and be on the phone. And so changing those social norms and speaking up to our peers is tough. It's tough to say to a 25 year old, "Hey, put your phone down. I'd rather get there safe, than not safe." And so changing those social norms for the young folks who are out there listening. And I don't mean the 16 year olds. I still mean the 20 year olds when I say young. And so that's also very important to talk about that as a society.
Josh King:
You have one tool at your fingertips to Travelers, which is the premium. And the discount that you could offer for better behavior. Are there things that the industry or particular insurers can do to govern better behavior behind the wheel?
Joan Woodward:
Sure. The telematics programs that a lot of insurers use, in including ours are really pretty sophisticated. And so depending on state you live in because we are a state regulated industry, some states allow us to give bonus dollars or premium credits or discounts if you're a better driver. Some states allow a penalty if you're a bad driver. So, depending on what state you're living in. But the sophisticated nature of telematics has really helped us price the risk in the last several years.
Josh King:
After the break, the Travelers Institute president Joan Woodward and I discuss what the 10th anniversary of the Institute means for travelers and other public policy issues that Joan focuses her efforts on. That's all right after this.
Speaker 1:
And now a word from Ron Delia CEO of Amcor, NYSE ticker, A-M-C-R.
Ron Delia:
Today is a really big day for Amcor. We've been around for 160 years. After so much time takes the passion and dedication of our people around the world and it takes resilience. And we have lots of that at Amcor. Well, our aspiration is to be the leading global faculty company. And that means winning for our customers, our people, our investors, and the environment. We have a big pledge around sustainability. We really hope to change the world as we look forward. Amcor, now listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Josh King:
Welcome back. Before the break, Joan Woodward executive vice president of public policy for Travelers and president of the Travelers Institute and I were discussing cyber security and the roads safer through technology. The history, Joan, of the New York Stock Exchange is one in which we've helped raise capital first to fund the federal government then to help capitalize the banks and then to help the insurance companies move from mutually pooled risks to being publicly traded companies. Your career has in many ways followed this same government to banks, to insurance companies since studying economics at American University. So, where did you get your interest in economics from?
Joan Woodward:
I grew up in the poorest county in Pennsylvania. My dad was a coal miner for 42 years. And so that instills a work ethic and a desire to succeed in your life. Success is not guaranteed when you grow up in that kind of situation.
Josh King:
What county was it?
Joan Woodward:
So, it was Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Again, the poorest county in all of Pennsylvania. And so growing up with work ethic to my former CEO, Jay Fishman would say, "Success is not guaranteed, but giving yourself an economic opportunity to succeed. And that it is what you make of it." And so I think that's the name in today's society. So, when you give a young person an economic opportunity, they have to make of it what they will. You're not going to guarantee their success. So, anyway. So, that was how I got started and I moved to Washington and I've been to Washington almost 35 years.
Josh King:
How did you get from Pennsylvania to American ... Why was American U the place you went?
Joan Woodward:
Well, they gave me the most money, right? So, I chose wisely and they gave me the most money. And I didn't get into Georgetown. So, that propelled me to a career on Capitol Hill for 12 years. And I was lucky enough to work with really talented people like John Kasich and Bill Roth. And so that was very lucky.
Josh King:
You spent several years as the chief economist for the house committee on budget, before moving over to the Senate. I want to listen to Senator Roth, introducing the tax cut proposal that would become the Tax Relief Act of 1997.
Senator William Roth:
It represents the biggest tax cut in 16 years. And as I've said, it's focused on middle income families. It contains important provisions for education assistance. It gives middle class families a $500 per child tax credit. It will boost our nation's savings rate while helping families prepare for their futures through an expansion of individual retirement account. And for the first time, homemakers will be able to save up to $2,000 annually in an IRA, regardless of their spouse's participation in an employer pension plan. This tax relief package also creates a new deductible IRA plus account. It lowers the capital gains tax and it provides relief from death taxes.
Josh King:
C-SPAN is awesome. Isn't it?
Joan Woodward:
Yes, it is. Good for you guys finding that clip.
Josh King:
I mean, I was in the White House at the time you were on Roth's staff, I guess. What memories does that bring back?
Joan Woodward:
Those are great memories. Being a young person, having the ability to impact policy, even when sometimes you don't know what that's going to turn out to look like. And then going with your Senator who's the Roth IRA, it was a little backstory about who this IRA was going to be named after. And him being chair of the Finance Committee, obviously he won the battle. But then getting in the car with him and going down to Pennsylvania avenue and seeing it sign into law was a thrill of a lifetime. And also I was about eight months pregnant with my third child. And so he walked the walk and talked the talk in terms of making sure, kind of stay at home moms. Not that I ever was one. I wouldn't be very good at it, but had the ability to contribute to a Roth IRA.
Josh King:
I mean, most of our listeners should be familiar with the IRA Plus that Senator Roth mentioned by its current name, the Roth IRA. So, up to that point where the legislation was being signed, how were you involved in it? And how did your time working for Congress shape your thoughts on business' role and public policy?
Joan Woodward:
Yeah. If you are ever lucky enough to work on Capitol Hill and that's why you have so many interns cycling through up there, it just gives you a perspective on there's a lot of good that does come out of the government. And certainly people who are dedicated their lives working for the government for 30, 40 years. My husband is a civil servant and has always worked on Capitol Hill. And it's very admirable. And I think the American public doesn't know how hard dedicated civil servants are. And the discourse in the United States is unfortunately not helpful towards that. But there's a lot of good that is done there.
Joan Woodward:
But I will say, however, just being in the private sector for the last 24 years after my time in government. Wow. Making me sound very old, sorry. But being in the private sector, there's a lot of added value that the industry can provide the government in terms of information about how it works. Because most policy makers have never worked in the private sector. And so we have a role to play. We have a business opportunity to explain and inform policy makers. And frankly, that's why our think tank was set up at the Travelers Institute, to ensure that policy makers understand how these industries work and to try to help them write good policy. I'm not talking about lobbying. I'm talking about an information and educational exchange.
Josh King:
You joined Travelers following your time with Goldman Sachs to start the Travelers Institute in 2008. Bring us back to 2008. What were the circumstances that brought you to Travelers and what stood out about this particular opportunity?
Joan Woodward:
So, again, a little bit of personal life sprinkled in here, because we can't divorce our personal lives from our business world. And the fact for me was I spent almost 10 years at Goldman Sachs. I had a global job and as a woman with four kids having a global job and being stuck in London, frankly when 9/11 happened for two weeks or being in Singapore, India just traveling the world, which was great for me in my career. But did have four kids at home. And so Travelers looked incredibly attractive being a mostly domestic company. And the CEO and vice chairman, now CEO, Ellen Schnitzer just gave him this tremendous opportunity to build something. And anytime someone gives you an opportunity to build something from scratch, it's very exciting.
Josh King:
The bell ring tomorrow is in celebration of this 10 year trajectory, Travelers Institute's 10th anniversary of its founding. What were some of the lessons and experiences you gained early on to help you shape the organization as it stands today?
Joan Woodward:
So, I think being an honest broker of information to help, as I just said, policymaker, regulators understand our industry, because a lot of them have not been in our industry. And a lot of them have other things to worry about like the defense budget, the energy crisis, what's going on in the world geopolitically. And so adding value to what's happening in our industry for policy makers and regulators is kind of the number one goal of the Institute to be an honest broker and sharing information. But I did learn a lot of less sense when Goldman Sachs, I ran their think tank, their Global Markets Institute. I did learn a lot of lessons there in terms of everybody wants the same thing in this world. We want a good job. We want to have economic opportunity. And so again, being in the banking industry or the insurance industry, we provide the financial services to my make all that happen. And so not forgetting those simple basics in our sectors.
Josh King:
I mean, what have we talked about today? We've talked about cyber, we've talked about distracted driving. We mentioned a little bit TRIA at the beginning. Travelers business touches countless number of public policy issues. How do you at the Institute determine what to end your time and efforts on?
Joan Woodward:
Yeah, it really does bubble up from our business units and again, there's competing interest of what issues we're going to take on. But we decided very early on to take on a few and do them very well. And so the laundry list of you mentioned the cyber, the distracted driving, we had a very big program around to preparedness and promoting resilience in communities. Disaster preparedness, whether you're in hurricane zone, tornado and certainly wildfire. In the last several years, we had a number of symposiums focused on wildfire. We also talk a lot about the coastal challenges. And the challenges for people living near the water.
Joan Woodward:
50% of our US population lives with and 50 miles of a coastline. 50%. And so the affordability and availability of insurance for coastal residents is really important. So, we try to shed some light on that. And then also we kind of took a step back and did a macroeconomic project about five years ago, focused on the American debt crisis. And so we produced a documentary with PBS, it's called Overdraft. You can still go on YouTube and look at that. Again, talking about the economic opportunity in America and what the debt crisis could have an impact on.
Josh King:
You also, in addition to your work at the end Institute chair, Travelers' ESG Committee, does that directly tie into the work of the Institute and how does the Institute support the larger ESG strategy for Travelers?
Joan Woodward:
Yeah. So, ESG for us is really embedded in our culture and we've been doing this for many, many, many years. It's recently become popular in a buzzword. But we take it very seriously to serve our communities and our employees and the environment, and all the other buzzwords that are known today as ESG. But it's been embedded in our culture and how we do business for decades now. And so we're proud to say we have this hugely fancy website and we talk about lots of things, and kind of package it all together. But we've been doing this for a very long time and it shows. The pride of our employees, our agents, and our brokers who sell our product. We're the number one in a number of different categories of insurance. And that does not happen overnight. It's really is embedded in our employees and our culture.
Josh King:
In addition to events like the symposium you're in the New York Stock Exchange, how do you engage with audiences that matter to the company, that help it get to its number one status, the agents and brokers that you mentioned, the employees who work under your roof, whether that's any of your locations and also your insureds?
Joan Woodward:
Yeah. So, again, this is embedded in our culture and how we do business. And so being ethical, talking about transparency in the business, helping our clients and customers to do the right thing and just understanding the risks. Risk mitigation for us and our clients is the number one project that we try to make sure before they even buy the insurance policies. When talk about cyber insurance, we're not just selling a policy, we're trying to educate and inform what the risks are and how to mitigate them in their daily living with their companies.
Josh King:
So, as we wrap up Joan, there was a McKinsey study recently that determined that while there have been a number of high profile hires of female leaders across the insurance field, women remain underrepresented. When I was at the Hartford Ramani Ayer was its chairman CEO. Hank Greenberg was at AIG. His son, Evan was at ACE. John Finnegan at Chubb. The late Jay Fishman, who you mentioned earlier, was running the show at Travelers, taking over for Robert Lip , sort of a boy's network if ever there was one. The one bright spot may have been Inga Beale who served for five years as CEO of Lloyds of London from 2014 until the end of 2018. How does Travelers look to support women in insurance? And what does the future hold for women in the industry?
Joan Woodward:
I'm glad you asked that question. It's a great question. And we need to focus on it. And the good news is we are as an industry. I can't tell you the number of panels and speeches I've given because all the CEOs of these companies recognize it's a real problem. And our customer base does not look like some of the companies around. And so we set out to change that. We have a very, very robust diversity and inclusion program. And when I joined the company 12 years ago, that was put into motion and it's ramped up dramatically. In the last two years, our CEO and chairman Alan Schnitzer created a program called SHE Travels.
Joan Woodward:
And so a little play on words there, but it is a program and project very, very near to his heart to ensure that our female employees know they have a path to those upper management jobs and not just the support roles, but the business roles, running businesses. Very important. And so we're doing a lot at our company. I think the industry is really trying to take it on, they know they have a problem. And so not just the insurance companies, but the brokers and the agents out there need to look a lot more like America in general. And so we spend a lot of time. We spend a lot of money and effort to really dedicate resources to this project called SHE Travels.
Josh King:
As we'd mentioned earlier, two of your children are sitting in the library with us today, as we record the episode and beyond the admonition, not to text and drive and put the cell phones away or put them on do not disturb when they get in the car. Given this career trajectory that we've talked about from government into banking and now insurance, what pieces of advice do you give, not only to your own kids as they begin their or careers, but young people in general and the opportunities ahead for them?
Joan Woodward:
Well, that's a trick question. I think if you asked them it was setting the stage for them to succeed on their own. We want to give, I think our kids and our employees, especially the young employees that I have on my team, we want to set the stage so they can not only survive in their jobs, but to thrive. And I use this a lot in my house as I kind of put my palm out and say, this is your life. This is your life. You need to make it what you want to make it. I can't make it for you. And I think a lot of our young people out there in our industry, they realize that today. And so millennials get a bad rap around a sense of an entitlement, or they're not, have the work ethic that we do. And I don't agree with that. I think a lot of our young people are very ambitious, but ambitious coupled with kindness. I guess that's the way I hope to have our employees and my four kids, two of which are here today, as you just said, live their lives.
Josh King:
Of all the work that you've done with the Travelers or Goldman or the federal government, is there a public policy initiative you're most proud of, and what you believe now is making the most impact?
Joan Woodward:
I mean, I guess I have to say the obvious, which is to help to ... I created the Roth IRA with this wonderful Senator from Delaware who is very a soft spoken man, Joe Biden got all the fan, fare and show being the other Senator from Delaware. But Bill Roth was a wonderful man and it was just delightful to work for him. And I have to say the name for John Kasich too. Delightful people, hardworking and doing the right thing for the country.
Josh King:
Well, Joan Woodward, thank you so much for joining us inside The ICE House and best of luck tomorrow with the symposium.
Joan Woodward:
Thank you so much for having me, Josh. It was a real pleasure and an honor.
Josh King:
That's our conversation for this week? Our guest was Joan Woodward, executive vice president of public policy for Travelers, that's NYSE ticker symbol, T-R-V, and president of the Travelers Institute. If you like what you heard, please rate us on iTunes so other folks know where to find us. And if you've got a comment or a question you'd like one of our experts to tackle on a future show, email us at [email protected] or tweet at us @ICEHousePodcast. Our show is produced by Pete Asch with production assistance from Stephen Romanchick and Ian Wolf. I'm Josh King, your host, signing off from the library of the New York Stock Exchange. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next week.
Speaker 1:
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