Most people might not have any idea about reinsurance and reinsuring companies. Reinsurance is a form of insurance cover for insurance companies. Or in other words, it is a practice where an insurance company (the insurer) transfers a portion of its risks to another (the reinsurer). General Insurance Company (GIC) is the 12th largest reinsurance company in the world.
This company is on the track to reach the 10th position and the one who leads this company is none other than a Malayali woman, Alice G. Vaidyan. She is the Chairman and Managing Director of GIC. She hails from Mavelikkara, Kerala. She is the 7th most powerful woman in business, listed by Fortune India.
At present, she is in cloud nine after successfully leading the third-largest IPO (Initial Public Offering) in India. Her company GIC collected 11,370 crores through the IPO held in 2017 in October. GIC is the largest reinsurance company in India with 25 to 30 percent of its business from foreign countries. It has branches in London, Dubai, Malaysia, Moscow, etc.
This year GIC will become a syndicate member of Lloyds, the world’s largest reinsurance market in London. GIC aims to make India the international hub in the reinsurance sector. Alice wanted to become a doctor. She learned science till her graduation. Then she took English Literature as her post-graduation subject. In 1983, she got the job in New India Assurance as direct recruitment officer. She started working in GIC since 2008. From there, she started learning about the reinsurance field.
Reinsurance companies take care of disasters like natural calamities, terrorism, accidents, etc. Reinsurance companies will always be vigilant about disasters. They will be calculating the percentage of loss well in advance and will take necessary steps to overcome that loss. GIC’s IPO began as the strongest nonlife insurance company in the public sector. GIC faced many challenges during those days. GIC introduced one of the largest IPOs’ in India at a time when the trend was just beginning in the market.
