Tell us about your family, interests, hobbies, etc.

My husband Narender and I have been together for 42 years and we have two sons who have been doing well in their lives and careers. I would consider my family my biggest accomplishment! Besides enjoying my work at Beacon Hill, I love to cook. It is relaxing for me to cook a meal after spending the day in front of my computer. We also love to travel to see our family and friends all over the world whenever we get the chance. I love to spend time with my granddaughters, Sydney and Lindsay and I also volunteer at a nursing home once a week.

What is your professional background and how it has led you to working in environmental insurance?

I have been in accounting for more than 30 years. I stared at Beacon Hill 12 years ago and before that I was a Controller at a gourmet food distributer in Sterling, VA for 14 years. When my sons were in college we decided to move to a smaller city. At that time, Charlottesville was named “one of the best places to live” by USA Today, so that factored into our decision to move here. That’s when I began working at Beacon Hill; I had no experience in environmental insurance accounting at the time, but learned fast and I’m happy to still be here.

What is the most important lesson you have learned in your career?

Have pride in your work. Put 100% into whatever you are doing. Learn from your mistakes.  All these years I learned to do my work without any complaints and to keep a positive attitude. I think you lose a lot of energy if you start concentrating on negative thoughts and it becomes hard to achieve good results.

If you had to choose one word to describe the most important motivator to be a leader in your career, what would it be and why? What are you doing specifically at Beacon Hill to help you achieve this?

Understanding. Having a true understanding of the people I’m working with and the issues that arise is such an important part of working as a team. When you are working with a large group of people, it is very important to understand everyone on both a personal and professional level. Everyone has a different personality and will handle situations differently. When I work on small or big issues with people in our office, our agents, or carriers, I always keep in mind that fully understanding their problems and being patient is the first step to working well together. We have very good relationships with all of our carriers and agents. They can rely on us to work toward a resolution on any situation usually with one phone call or email. At Beacon Hill we all take pride in teamwork.