Name
Dame Inga Beale
Programme
Business Studies
Date of Study
1979 - 1981
Biography
Dame Inga Beale is a British businesswoman with over four decades of experience in global financial services. She is also a speaker and role model for inclusion in the workplace.
Fresh from studying Business Studies at Newbury College, she began her career at the Prudential Assurance
Company in London in 1982 and trained as an international treaty reinsurance underwriter.
She went on to hold various underwriting management roles at GE Insurance Solutions and gained experience across London, the USA and France, before becoming President of GE Frankona, and Head of Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa for GE Insurance Solutions based in Germany.
In 2006, Inga was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer of Converium in Switzerland and in 2008, Inga joined Zurich Insurance Group as a member of the Group Management Board in Zurich, with responsibility for Mergers & Acquisitions, Organisational Transformation and Internal Consulting, before becoming Global Chief Underwriting Officer in 2009.
From 2012 to 2013, Inga was the Group Chief Executive Officer at Canopius, a prominent Lloyd’s managing agent.
In January 2014, Inga joined Lloyd’s as the Chief Executive Officer.
Her Damehood was awarded in 2017 for her services to the UK economy during her 5-year tenure as CEO of Lloyd’s of London and for supporting women in business and the LGBTQ+ community.
Quote
After sitting my O Levels, the headmaster told me that I wasn’t allowed to stay on at his school to study my A Levels unless I bucked my ideas up and became more conforming.
I wasn’t going to conform for him, so I ended up going to Newbury College to sit my A Levels.
When I started out in my career, I was a lone female in a very male world. That made me feel like I didn’t belong and wasn’t supported. I had a chip on my shoulder about not having a university degree and I was so often the butt of the jokes around the office because I was a woman.
I was very lucky that I was working in a company that believed in very proactive talent management and they took the time to support me to figure out why I thought I wasn’t good enough.
One of my biggest life lessons is the value of being curious, of listening and wanting to keep learning from others. Never reach a stage where you achieve an arrogance that you know all the answers.