Wilton Re's Oliveira is named Woman of the Year
The Bermuda Risk Summit may have kicked off this week, but a gathering of re/insurance executives set the tone for the jamboree last Friday when Bermuda’s Women in Reinsurance organisation held its gala dinner.
The WiRe gala, held at the Hamilton Princess and Beach Club, demonstrated the progress of women in the Bermuda re/insurance sector as an impressive array of C-suite executives and the next generation of leaders gathered in force.
The organisation also named Wilton Re chief risk officer Sylvia Oliveira (pictured) as its Women of the Year.
Oliveira, a founder and former chair of Bermuda International Long-Term Insurers and Reinsurers and the Bermuda Society of Actuaries, said she was “incredibly humbled” to receive the award and credited her Wilton Re colleagues in helping her to achieve the award.
She also thanked her industry peers, especially her female peers for their “candid feedback, support and celebrating wins”.
Oliveira, who is also CEO of Wilton Re Bermuda, said her husband Andrew Butterworth had been her partner “in a true sense” and had “accepted equal responsibility for their family and careers”.
But she singled out her parents and especially her mother for giving her the life lessons that had been the foundation of her success.
She said they had tight her to “be brave”, recalling she had been terrified about moving to Bermuda in 1999 but recalled how her mother had made the bigger step of moving from Hong Kong to the US to attend university decades earlier.
She had also learned to “never stop growing and learning” as she watched her mother pursue her own career in the insurance industry.
She had learned the importance of sharing knowledge and quoting feminist pioneer Gloria Steinem, she said she had also recognised the importance of “never being one man away from welfare”.
She said she had faced gender and racial bias in her career, but added: “It’s about showing up”, adding that every obstacle and challenge could be overcome with perseverance – another lesson she had learned from her mother.
Oliveira is the second woman from the life reinsurance sector to receive the award after it was given to Athene Life Re chief executive officer Natasha Scotland Courcy last year. Artex Capital Solutions CEO Kathleen Faries received the first award in 2023.
Earlier, attendees heard from Sylvia Baffour, Author of I Dare You To Care and an emotional intelligence expert.
Life reinsurance will come under the microscope in two sessions at the Risk Summitt on Tuesday. Scotland Courcy, who is also BILTIR chair, will moderate a discussion on “Life & Annuity Reinsurance: The Catalyst for Financing the Real Economy”. The panellists are Mike Downing, chief operating officer of Athene, KPMG Bermuda partner Anam Khan, Global Atlantic chief risk officer Norman Milner and Athora managing director of risk and compliance Chantal Waight.
The second panel, Adapting to Change: Bridging the Retirement Protection Gap in the Global Insurance Market, features BILTIR CEO Suzanne Williams Charles as moderator. The panel is Dan Gallon, head of tax and reporting for the Association of British Insurers, KBRA senior managing director Peter Giacone, Global Atlantic Re president Darryl Herrick and EY Bermuda associate partner David Leach.
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