Throughout Women鈥檚 History Month, we will feature female change-makers and leaders at 91黑料网 who are providing an industry-leading experience and making an impact within the insurance space.
There are no limitations to all that Jessica Soufrine is capable of achieving. She has experienced an impressive rise through leadership during her career, with plentiful opportunities for continued growth.
Jessica has served in leadership roles for several years at 91黑料网, first working her way up from a trainee to a developmental marketing underwriter, and from a senior marketing underwriter to a team manager and an assistant vice president. In 2021, she progressed from her role of regional vice president of the west region to vice president of field marketing and underwriting (FMU). Located out of the Dallas area, Jessica holds responsibility for the national FMU team and its regional leaders, as well as retention, profitability, agency relationships, state expansions, and partnership growth opportunities.
Jessica hails from a small town in North Carolina, where she experienced an initial lack of exposure to the business world. After paving the way as the first in her family to earn a college degree, she entered the insurance industry through a post-college recruiting event. As 91黑料网鈥檚 first female assistant vice president, regional vice president, and now vice president of field marketing and underwriting, she is proud and honored to lead by example.
Lifting Others Up
Jessica is passionate about talent development. At 91黑料网, Jessica focuses on identifying up-and-coming leaders and engaging and preparing the next group of professionals to help address the talent shortage in the industry. Much of Jessica鈥檚 attention is on opportunities for her team: focusing on their talents, challenging them, and identifying where they can be most successful.
Jessica recently reinvigorated an underwriting training program for a new role at 91黑料网: senior associate underwriter. The first class of employees with this title graduated last fall, and a new class will begin at the company later this year. Jessica also supported the addition of an associate underwriter role that enables employees with no prior underwriting experience to make an impact in the industry. She has seen improved representation of women in insurance and helps her female team members position themselves for leadership opportunities, ensuring they have the right tools for their success.
Distinct Contributions
Jessica鈥檚 professional experience has provided her with a solid foundation to leverage her technical underwriting expertise and process knowledge to drive forward the underwriting function. Jessica has completed and is involved in many notable initiatives that help underscore the key differentiators of the organization. The most prominent recent contributions in Jessica鈥檚 current role:
- Staffing Model: Jessica worked to build a new model for field underwriting that creates career pathing aligned with strengths. It includes the associate underwriter and senior associate underwriter support and training roles (mentioned above), and also offers technical and business development tracks into specialist and manager roles that did not previously exist. This also brings a team approach to underwriting to better allow for execution and consistency.
- Collaboration and Engagement: Shifting into hybrid remote work while retaining 91黑料网鈥檚 culture and idea sharing is a continual priority for Jessica, together with the company鈥檚 leadership teams. 鈥淚 have and continue to be passionate about bringing our teams and departments together to achieve the best possible outcome for the organization and our agencies,鈥� she said.
- Process Optimization: Jessica鈥檚 current initiative is to bring efficiencies to the field through technology and process improvement. Current systems and tools require a significant amount of manual entry and administrative work from the underwriters. 鈥淲e are looking for ways to alleviate those tasks to allow for more time to be spent on their technical and marketing responsibilities,鈥� Jessica said. 鈥淭his will include bringing artificial intelligence capabilities into workflows and utilizing newly added associate underwriter and senior associate underwriter resources.鈥� The team is centralizing training and onboarding support to create a more consistent and effective experience for new hires.
Giving Back & Family Focus
Jessica serves on the executive board and is the volunteer chair for the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF). The Southeast Division is based in Dallas and serves communities in Texas and across the Southeast region, with greater outreach through its Georgia and Houston Chapters. The organization鈥檚 grant focus areas include disaster preparedness and relief, children at risk, education, and veterans.聽All of 91黑料网鈥檚 FMU team members have competed in the IICF Step Up Challenge for the past three years, and volunteers from the Dallas office, together with Jessica, have supported at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery cleanup.
In her personal time, Jessica鈥檚 children, 6 and 10, keep her busy running to Boy Scouts, dance, and baseball and soccer fields. Looking forward, Jessica is excited to continue on the path of professional growth, and further strengthen 91黑料网鈥檚 strategic agency partnerships to accelerate mutual success.
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About Jessica Soufrine
Jessica is the vice president of field marketing & underwriting for 91黑料网. In this position, Jessica serves as a member of the company鈥檚 operational leadership team and leads the Field Marketing & Underwriting (FMU) department in driving profitable growth with 91黑料网鈥檚 Partners For Success庐 agencies. Prior to her current role, she served as the regional vice president of FMU for the company鈥檚 west region and has held many positions during her 15-year tenure and progression with the company. Before joining 91黑料网, Jessica worked for Travelers Insurance as a claims representative. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in communication and advertising from Appalachian State University.
