OIAA’s Passionate President

When Ontario Insurance Adjusters Association (OIAA) president Marie Gallagher was a young girl, her mother used to tell her she asked too many questions for her own good. A self-confessed talker, she said her childhood punishment would be a trip to her room – alone – and no one with whom to talk. Later she realized, when she was taking her adjusting courses, that her nosiness and curiosity were assets rather than liabilities. According to Gallagher, asking questions and wanting to get to the bottom of things are what makes for a great adjuster.

Of course, Gallagher’s drive, enthusiasm and passion for her craft nicely complement her curiosity. And her dedication to the OIAA is very hard to miss. If you consider Gallagher as a mix of all of these elements, it’s easy to see why she is highly influential and respected in the claims industry.

Ironically, the claims industry almost saw one of its champions go in a different professional direction, Gallagher notes. In fact, she became involved in the world of claims with the initial intention of becoming a broker. Her first job in the insurance industry was at a brokerage house, CG&B (formerly known as Cosburn Griffiths & Brandham), where she did administrative work on Lloyd’s of London claims. She was about to start courses to become a broker.

Gallagher says she didn’t really know much about the industry at the time, but soon she realized she was drawn more to the adjusting side of the business, “I knew that claims was where my passion was,” she says.

She experienced a kind of epiphany during the hours she spent acting as an examiner for claims at CG&B. One of the companies that reported to her was Ponton, Coleshill, Edwards (now known as McLarens Canada). “Literally, I was receiving claim reports and phoning [Ponton Coleshill Edwards senior adjuster] Lee Axt and saying: ‘Hi, I have your report here. What does “salvage” mean? What does “subrogation” mean?'” Gallagher recalls. “I knew nothing at the time about insurance. I learned as I went along. I had to make decisions on the claims they were sending me.”

To this day, Gallagher accredits Axt as being one of her most influential mentors. “Lee is a brilliant adjuster,” she beams.

Gallagher later joined Ponton, Coleshill, Edwards as the company’s eighth adjuster. Of her earliest experiences in the business, she recalls the following: “Lee [Axt], Stuart Ponton and Brian Coleshill really set the tone. It wasn’t a nine-to-five job, and they were willing to work whatever hours they needed to get the job done. Quite often, we would be in the office at 11 o’clock and I would knock on the door because I would have a question. And it would be like: ‘Come on in, Marie. Ask a question.’ And they would drop everything. I try to do that for anybody I’ve had to mentor or bring along.”

Twenty years later, Gallagher is still part of the McLarens’ family, acting as branch manager in the St. Catherine’s office.

Gallagher credits her curiosity as a defining attribute that propels her to the top of her game. “I’ve had P.I.s [private investigators] working for me say: ‘How did you get that information?’ And I would say, ‘I asked.’

“Sometimes my family can’t believe the questions I ask. My husband says I ask too many questions. But in this industry, you have to have a natural curiosity. Your mind has to be working all the time.”

Gallagher’s natural talent not only helped her in her job, but also benefited her as the current president of OIAA. Each year, the OIAA hosts annual educational seminars; usually the executive committee invites speakers to put forth ideas for topics. This year Gallagher came up with her own, and solicited other ideas from adjusters within the association.

“What would take you away from your desk? What would you like to learn?” Gallagher recalled asking adjusters. “I felt that it was imperative to do my homework beforehand.”

Gallagher said her occupation as an adjuster has helped her refine skills she possesses that are useful to other OIAA pursuits – such as marketing, for example. “As well as being an adjuster, my role in my company is also [to do] marketing,” she says. “And that’s what marketing is: establishing what people’s needs are.

“The OIAA members are our members, our customers. We’re not going to be a successful organization without members, so there is no use in us guessing what they want, or what they need. Ask them.”

Gallagher says she was very pleased with the November 2006 seminar attendance. Entitled ‘Back to Basics,’ the seminar was something Gallagher thought up when she identified a trend developing in the industry. Of late, companies are using fewer and fewer independent adjusters; as a result, sometimes company staff members aren’t trained in all facets of the business, Gallagher observes. This is often because companies don’t have the time or the money to train employees in all the different aspects of the claims industry.

“‘Back to Basics’ was for [people] who haven’t had the time or the companies that don’t have the resources [to train],” she explains. “We can teach them how to take a statement, or how to do a proper scene investigation.”

Twenty years ago, if an adjuster received a claim, he or she did everything, Gallagher says. “Now everyone is specialized; they are given one facet of a claim, so they don’t know how to think outside that one little area.”

Gallagher sees training as a big benefit to the industry and understands the need for it. Still, she says: “It flabbergasts me to see the number of people coming, registering and signing up [for the seminar] because they want to hone their skills.”

She is confident that future seminars will be every bit as successful. To make sure of it, she has expanded the number of seminars held in a year. “It’s a lot of hard work,” she concedes, “but it’s rewarding.”

Gallagher’s current responsibilities make her no stranger to hard work and perseverance. “I do feel that I’ve taken on a leadership role, so I’ve honed my leadership skills,” she says. “I’ve had no choice but to hone my organizational, day-to-day activity skills.”

Gallagher says she feels “humbled” to be OIAA president. She has reached the halfway point of her presidency and already has some advice for the incoming president, Allan Gallagher. [Allan, for the record, is not related to Marie Gallagher, but she does find the name continuity very ironic: “I hope that won’t cause too much confusion,” she says.] The Gallagher-to-Gallagher advice on being president of the OIAA is as follows: “I think the biggest thing is to be able to sit back and listen to what the executives say,” Marie Gallagher says. “My role, as a leader, is to recognize what [everyone’s] strengths and weaknesses are, and then to use them so they can fulfill their true potential according to their strengths.”

What do other people see as Gallagher’s strengths as president? These perceptions will likely be made public when the OIAA hosts the ‘Past Presidents Night,’ a night to celebrate and mark the achievements of all former OIAA presidents. But when asked what contributions she thought best characterized her time as OIAA president, Gallagher becomes emotional. After a moment of thought, she simply says: “That I put my heart and soul into it.” Gallagher credits such passion as the key to her professional success. “You can coast and wing it – and things will be fine, things will turn out fine – but you’ll only be cheating yourself,” she says. “I don’t want to say one, two or five years from now: ‘You know what I wish I would have done when I was president?'”