Re/insurance icon Brian Duperreault and communications consultant Wendy Davis Johnson have each received an award for encouraging more interest in re/insurance as a career.

The duo received the Industry Talent Champion Award at the Emerging Leaders Conference in Nashville, Tennessee earlier this week. The event is hosted by the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, AM Best, and Insurance Careers Movement — a project initiated by Mr Duperreault and Ms Davis Johnson 12 years ago.

Insurance Careers Movement executive director Kirsten Marr presented the accolade, saying it was for exceptional leadership and work to strengthen the insurance talent pipeline and to attract more people to the re/insurance industry.

Ms Marr said that as co-founders of the Insurance Careers Movement, Mr Duperreault and Ms Davis Johnson had engaged industry leaders around the globe to work together to address talent changes and opportunities.

“Through visionary leadership and storytelling that elevates purpose and possibility, the legendary Brian and Wendy have inspired generations to see insurance as a career of impact,” Ms Marr said.

Mr Duperreault is executive chairman of Cedar Trace Holdings, while Ms Davis Johnson was consultant to the chief executive of Hamilton Insurance Group. She is also the author of Mr Duperreault’s recent biography Faith and Purpose. The pair have worked closely together since 1997.

“During 2014, I was researching speeches for Brian when I discovered that there was a looming talent crisis,” she said. “The generation in the C-suite was approaching retirement. There was little to no interest in North America and the UK/Europe among young people to consider insurance as a career.”

She found that existing initiatives attempting to address the issue were uncoordinated and were not gaining traction.

Ms Davis Johnson brought this to Mr Duperreault’s attention, and he agreed to use his reputation and high profile to get the attention of those who could make a difference.

“We expected a couple of dozen participants and ended up with over 200 from companies around the world,” Ms Davis Johnson said.