The Insurance Brokers’ Association of the State of New York (IBANY) celebrated our industry’s rising stars last Thursday evening, June 16th, at Battery Gardens, NYC. We are proud to announce that Albert Leung, CPCU, CLU, and Customer Care Manager and Senior Program Underwriter at Distinguished Programs, was named IBANY’s Emerging Leader of 2016 in the MGA/wholesale broker category, recognized for his exceptional growth and contribution in the insurance profession.
Every year, association members are invited to select an employee as an IBANY Emerging Leader in recognition of his or her outstanding accomplishments, demonstrated leadership and commitment to the industry. From this group of designees, IBANY’s Board of Directors, acting on the recommendations of the IBANY Awards Committee, selects the Emerging Leaders of the Year in three categories: retail broker, MGA/wholesale broker and associate member. The Awards Committee takes into consideration each Emerging Leader’s account growth, commitment, contributions, and leadership – both inside and outside the industry. To qualify for selection, Emerging Leader honorees must be 40 or younger with a minimum of three years and a maximum of 10 as insurance industry professionals. Their employers must be IBANY members, and they may not be senior-level officers at their firms.
“I’m both humbled and honored to have been selected by Distinguished and the IBANY for this recognition,” said Albert, who began working in the insurance industry right out of college and in 2007 joined Distinguished as an underwriter for our NY Brownstone & Brick Program. He also served on our chairman’s award-winning Action Learning team to help determine how best to effectively distribute each of Distinguished’s products. Today, Albert heads our Customer Care division where he plays an integral role along with his team in looking at efficiencies and being proactive with agencies and brokers.
Echoing the sentiment expressed by many previous honorees, Albert never expected a career in insurance. Yet upon joining Distinguished, he found a culture of innovation and camaraderie and an environment where challenging the status quo is encouraged and change is a good thing. This has allowed him to thrive and look for opportunities to make a difference. “My hope for the future is that there are more firms that go beyond past traditional insurance companies, one where the industry challenges the norm and is open-minded to change.”
Albert follows in our very own Tyler Nickels’ footsteps, who was named Emerging Leader of the Year in 2015 in the same category. Congratulations Albert!
