Women in Leadership: Jurate Kucinskiene

Jurate Kucinskiene, what is your job at ERGO?

I'm Head of the Pricing and Reinsurance department in the ERGO Life Insurance SE. I'm responsible for the Life and Health business lines in all three Baltic countries. My tasks' profile is very wide: from portfolio analytics, products pricing, over negotiations for better reinsurance conditions to supporting other company's departments.

How did you start your career?

I had an unusual start to my actuarial and pricing career: after having finished school I was planning on studying Business Management Information Systems. Seen that on my application I had the option to list additional course-wishes, I added Mathematics as an afterthought. To my big surprise, I failed the entry criteria by a tiny margin. I was now enrolled in Mathematics. Some years later I graduated with a Financial and Actuarial Mathematics master’s degree. My mentor of my bachelor’s thesis invited me to join the Actuarial team at ERGO. After 10 years, the Actuarial department was split into two and I became Head of the Pricing and Reinsurance department in the Baltic states.

How would you describe yourself?

I’m a calm and creative person and don't need big crowds or a lot of noise or communication - in fact, networking dinners sometimes even are a drain on my energy.

Strange for a leader? I agree.

However, I use my creativity and my calmness to my advantage in my daily work. I’m a mathematician who creates products, analyzes data and forecasts the future. Here I believe that my creativity is my dark horse.”

What would your colleagues / your boss say when asked what sets you apart? ... what you can do better than everyone else on the team? ... what is difficult for you?

I believe that I’m that piece which makes our team the best one.

On a professional level, my strengths are finding solutions, cooperating and building teams, taking on responsibilities and seeing the big picture, providing support and mediating in difficult – this is what my boss and colleagues would say about me.

What is difficult for me? My colleagues would answer in chorus – to say NO.

How do you switch off in the evening? How do you manage to balance demanding work and private life?

My most recent hobby is gardening. I like to spend time in nature. This switches me off 100 %.

I’m bad at managing work and private life. Honestly? I personally don’t think that this is really possible. And I want to invite all women to take it easy. We are women, mothers, wives, daughters, we are leaders. We don’t need to be perfect.