Bloodlines of business

Risk & Insurance, Feb, 2005 by Ronald Gift Mullins

The insurance business can be a family affair, especially within agencies. But a brother and a sister running different companies in the same line of insurance is more than a coincidence. Such is the case with Theresa Thompson Schugel, CEO of Minneapolis-based Paragon Strategic Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of Benfield Inc., the Westport, Conn.-based reinsurance intermediary. Schugel's younger brother, Tom Thompson, is CEO of Reinsurance Results Inc., of Eden Prairie, Minn.

Schugel and Thompson make a living out of helping insurers comb reinsurance policies to find claims that were not submitted to reinsurers. The two executives say they keep their professional lives separate, yet their families remain very close.

One evening at a parent dinner for a gymnastics school she was running, Theresa Thompson Schugel sat next to a broker from E.W. Blanch. Impressed with Schugel's sales ability, he suggested she apply to Blanch for a job as a reinsurance broker. "Reinsurance?" Schugel remembers thinking, "whatever that is?"

But she applied and was hired in 1984. She went through the broker training program and simultaneously earned her CPCU designation in just two-and-a-half years.

In 1988, Schugel made the unusual move of jumping to the primary insurance side and joined The St. Paul Cos., where she served in several senior management positions.

She gained a range of operational expertise through her positions as a vice president of sales and marketing, a vice president of medical services operations, and as a ceded reinsurance officer.

In 2001, she rejoined Blanch, which had merged with Benfield Greig Group Plc., as president of its subsidiary Paragon Strategic Solutions Inc. In January 2002 she became CEO.

"She is very willing to do whatever it takes and is a great advocate for her team," says Corrina Conley, president of Paragon. "She has a gift for developing relationships and is well respected in the industry. The relationships that Theresa has built over the years have opened many doors for Paragon." Conley, who has known Schugel since the mid-'80s, calls her a highly structured, talented professional, yet one at the same time brimming with energy.

Schugel is the middle child of seven children. She has two older sisters and a brother, two younger sisters and a brother, Tom, president of Reinsurance Results Inc., a one-man firm that helps insurance companies recover claims lain dormant in forgotten insurance policies. (See story at right.)

Schugel was the National Junior Olympics gymnastics champion in 1976 and the Minnesota high school all-around gymnastics champion in 1977 and 1978.

"I had several scholarship opportunities to go on to colleges in gymnastics, but there is part of me that is practical," she says.

"Gymnastics is not a sport I could do professionally and thus, thought it best to move on and focus on academics." She did run her first Twin Cities Marathon in 2004. Her time was good enough to qualify her to participate in the Boston Marathon in April.

She was graduated from the College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., in 1982, and in 2000 earned a degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas, where her brother also went to school.

In April 1983 she married Tim Schugel, the CFO for Department 56, a designer, importer and distributor of collectibles, giftware and holiday merchandise.

They have three children Jessica, Melissa, and Rebecca.

In 2001, she took a few months off between leaving The St. Paul Cos. and rejoining Blanch to spend time with her girls. After a few weeks, her oldest daughter asked when she was going back to work.

"I think she was worried that I may start cooking," says Schugel. "Everyone knows my cooking skills are very limited. And my middle daughter suggested I could get a part-time job at the local Dairy Queen, hoping she'd get a discount."

A DISCIPLINED SOUL

"Even though I travel roughly 50 percent of the time, I work hard to stay connected with my children," she says. "And I couldn't do what I do in my job and raise three children without Tim's understanding and support."

They spend 10 days in Maui, Hawaii, each year on a family vacation in the spring.

She credits her success to a tremendous amount of discipline, a desire to achieve, and having many supportive friends and family. "I would also say to those who are starting out, believe in yourself and know that the opportunities are endless," she says. "My success is a combination of good, old-fashioned hard work and a willingness to ask questions."

She is also very involved in the mentoring process. "I feel very privileged to have been able to have a career and absolutely love what I do," she says. Nor does she think there is a glass ceiling for women. "I think we impose some of those ceilings on ourselves," says this CEO. "I have been fortunate in working with companies that are very supportive of women."

Though she and her brother, Tom, work in similar lines of business, Schugel says they have never had any problems competing with each other.