Fast Focus
	Assurance is big on employee perks from dance lessons to fast cash for contributing good ideas and good people.
	Once a p-c producer, Gould built the firm’s benefits business, now runs it as COO.
	She’ll make a special effort to recruit college women to the business.

The Gould Life

Jackie’s World (Is A Very Cool Space). She turns Assurance into an adventure.

By  Louise Lague

[Page 3 of 4]

Wearing Many Hats

Gould’s versatility didn’t go unnoticed.

“Jackie has worn as many hats as a person can possibly wear,” says Chimino. “Her skills are pretty broad.”

In 2001, Chimino promoted Gould to COO. “It was a natural transition,” says Gould. “I was kind of already doing all the things in the job description. With the experience of having done the work and understanding it, I was able to set up structures in our organization, change agency management computer systems, set up team structures, and as we grew, eventually organize that most onerous of tasks: the office move.

“Jackie really was like the co-CEO at the time, when I was still involved in sales,” says Chimino.

By 2006, though, Chimino needed her somewhere else, so he moved her sideways to benefits practice leader. “Our benefits department started as a loose add-on for our property customers,” he says. “I needed someone who could organize it, crisp up the platform, and also grow it some more. Jackie is one of the rare individuals who can do both operational procedures and sales. And, to be frank, she didn’t even have a benefits background. I needed somebody smart who could get up to speed fast.”

At the moment Assurance’s work is 20% employee benefits and 75% p-c; the rest includes surety, retirement plan consulting, executive benefits, personal lines and safety consulting. While maintaining the construction insurance that was its original business, the company also specializes in insurance for temporary staffing, workers comp, long-term care facilities, manufacturing and physician groups.

When Gould had doubled the number of benefits producers and showed more growth in 2008 than any other department in the company, Chimino put her back in the COO role in January.

Having proven herself wrong about the tedium of insurance, Gould wants to encourage college girls to look into the industry, which she calls “probably one of the best kept secrets as a great career for women.”

She cites the industry’s “complete freedom to control your destiny, with no ceiling to your compensation and great flexibility because you’re running your own business.” As a mother of three sons, she uses the flexibility to “attend one school event per kid per semester.”

And while she once thought herself too introverted for sales, her reserve turns out to be a benefit. “Jackie is a very good listener,” says Bob Zessis, president of Lewis Paper International, a client of 10 years. “She finds out what your needs are and puts together a program that is responsive to that. She’s also thinking about what’s going to work in the long run.”

Lewis Paper started dealing with Assurance for business insurance, then added on employee benefits. “Jackie’s just wonderful,” Zessis says. “She’s got some very good people on the team, and they’ve shown us ways to manage our costs and minimize expenses while supplying good coverage.”

Gould enjoys the variety of her work. “It’s never the same. Every day could bring something I’ve never dealt with before.” It’s an idea she finds not a bit frightening. “I’m a very competitive person, and I love to win,” she says. “Fortunately, our company wins a lot.”