Meet Lauri Thum, personal property marketing VP in our Arrowhead Spotlight
Continuing our celebration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month in March, our Arrowhead Spotlight today is on Lauri Thum, marketing vice president of Personal Property.
Thum oversees marketing efforts with all our contracted producers for homeowners, dwelling fire, condo and tenant insurance products, along with personal umbrella. In order to assist our customers, she coordinates daily with various other teams at Arrowhead and ACM, from Underwriting and Customer Service to Claims.
“I focus on how to bring about a win-win: how the results we’re trying to achieve for our producers can also deliver a profitable result for our carriers at the same time.”
In her 23-year career at Arrowhead, she worked in marketing for our Commercial division and Operations before landing a role in her sweet spot for the last 20 years: Personal Property.
“I can honestly say didn’t intend to enter the insurance field, it found me,” Thum explained in a recent interview. “I spent time working in inside and outside sales as well as sales training and sales management in several different industries before joining Arrowhead in 1997.”
How did you choose your career path?
I graduated with a degree in political science, with a liberal dose of psychology and sociology classes. While in college, I took a few career aptitude tests. All pointed me towards a career in sales and marketing.
In your insurance career path, what lessons have you learned that you can share?
Always be willing to roll up your sleeves. Learn from everyone and every situation that you can. Be willing to try, and when you don’t succeed, use that as lesson and apply it the next time. Always be willing to look at any situation from a new and different point of view.
I learned this lesson well when we first launched Arrowhead Exchange almost 20 years ago. We were so excited, because it was the first time we had an online application for our producers. Once the novelty wore off we realized, with feedback from our beta test agency, that some key elements of the workflow to sell a policy weren’t as efficient as they needed to be. We worked with our systems team to redesign a good portion of the workflow, spending hours and hours testing every change to make sure we still maintained the underwriting integrity. From start to finish the redesign only took a few months, but during those few months, we worked long hours, learned a lot and ultimately delivered the base of what Arrowhead Exchange still is today for our Property Program.
What personal tips and shortcuts have made your job easier?
I wouldn’t say shortcuts have made anything easier. I would say working with my amazing teammates and learning from every one of them has made my job a delight. I strongly recommend taking the time to ask questions. Learn from times when things go well and equally as important when they don’t go well. Exercise patience: sometimes good results take time.
Who’s your favorite female role model, and why?
My mother, Nancy Thum. She was smart, tenacious, confident, funny and fun-loving. She taught me that you may not always succeed, but if you can look at yourself in the mirror and know you tried your best – well, that’s what matters most.
What’s a fun fact about you?
I’ve been to 49 of the 50 states. In the near future, I’m planning an Alaska trip.
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