Talking Points: Thomas Marra, CEO, Symetra Financial

Since taking the reins last year at Bellevue-based Symetra Financial Corp., Thomas Marra, the former president of the insurance giant Hartford Financial Services Group, has put in new management and is moving the company on track to generate greater growth and profitability.

Leslie Helm | January 2011 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION

Credit: Andrew Waits

Early life: I was raised in a small town called Lakewood, N.Y., an hour from Buffalo. We are all suffering Buffalo Bills fans. My father was my principal when I was in junior high. There is a funny story about me getting sent to the principal’s office for a ruckus in the lunchroom. At retirement, he was superintendent of schools. I learned about how great my father was, unfortunately, at his wake, when all the old students and teachers came by.

First job: I worked as a stock boy but my favorite job was unloading meat for a meatpacking company’s delivery truck. Sometimes, there would be a half-hour between stops in these small towns and I would calculate what I was getting paid for just sitting there talking to the driver.

College: I figured I would be a statistical whiz for some specialty company. When I discovered actuarial science, I saw a way to use math to get into a field with a lot of credibility.

Career: I went to The Hartford straight out of college and worked there for 29 years. I rose to be president and chief operating officer. I built an organization with multiple lines of business. I was one of the drivers in developing the life [insurance group]. During the [financial] crisis, the life company suffered the worst and I ended up leaving the company.

Lessons: If you really look at the history of insurance companies, more problems have occurred because of problems with the assets, like real estate or junk bonds that are backing up our policies. At Hartford, we did a lot of financial modeling. We categorized the crisis as a one-in-a-hundred-years event. But the tech bubble was a similar event. If it happens twice, can that be true? Financial models just aren’t as credible as mortality tables. There have been millions of insured lives that are the basis for those tables. But financial models are a relatively recent event. And some of the securities had only been around for five or six years. Even though the investment department didn’t report to me, I had a huge stake in its performance. You can’t be a bystander. You can’t assume that someone else has that part of the equation covered. I am urging all my managers [at Symetra] to actively be involved and understand how we manage those risks.

Transition: After Hartford, I did a short gig with Boston Consulting Group