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Experience in the field helps risk manager understand key issues
Unlike many counterparts, Scott B. Clark was born into the insurance business.
In 1917, his great-grandfather founded Merchants Property Insurance Co. of Indiana, a small Indianapolis-based property insurance company that still is family-owned. "I kind of grew up in the business," said Mr. Clark, risk and benefits officer for Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
Given his family ties, Mr. Clark never considered working in another field. "It just seemed very natural," he said. "I never thought I would end up as the risk manager for a public entity, but everything happens for a reason."
Aside from the family business, Mr. Clark sold accident and health insurance for Combined Insurance Co. of America while attending the University of Illinois and graduating in 1980 with a bachelor's in business administration.
After graduation, he joined Crum & Forster Insurance Cos. and participated in a yearlong program that exposed him to all aspects of the insurance business, including underwriting, claims, loss prevention, accounting and actuarial analysis. He chose the claims arena and became a multiline field claims adjuster in Freeport, Ill.
His first opportunity in risk management arrived in 1981, when he became a claims manager with Alexsis Risk Management Services Inc. in Chicago, which was a subsidiary of the brokerage known at the time as Alexander & Alexander Services Inc....