Meet Entela Hana, Chief Financial Operations – US
Please tell us about your career journey and your path to Sompo.
I started my career in public accounting and spent more than a decade working across various industries, from industrial manufacturing to consumer electronics to retail operations to public benefit corporations. Working in public accounting was a very enriching experience, one that I recommend to all CPAs!
After completing a couple of IPOs and debt listings, I was looking for a different challenge and at that time AIG was interested in bringing in talent with varied backgrounds to work on a number of different transformation initiatives – and I took the plunge. During my time at AIG, I worked on financial close redesign and business remediation, product launches and country start-ups, traveling the globe in the process as well!
What attracted me to Sompo was the ability to bring all of that expertise under one umbrella, as the Chief Financial officer of the company’s U.S. operations. I joined Sompo a little over a year ago, aware that that Sompo Japan was a pretty big player in the insurance industry, but not aware of just how large Sompo’s U.S. footprint was. We’re closing 2021 with over $8 billion in gross premium written, double the amount of premium from just a couple of years ago! This level of exponential growth brings its own opportunities and challenges, and I am excited about our ability to rise to the occasion as a Finance organization.
What advice do you have for prospective Sompo candidates?
Sompo has a great record of profitable expansion. It’s an organization that values originality, agility and has a strong set of core values – our motto is “Promise. Trust. Protect. At the center of everything we do.” We try to live up to these values every day – if this attracts you, then join us and we’ll give you a fantastic opportunity to grow with us!
Tell us about an initiative at SI that you are most excited for in 2022.
Our continued geographic and product expansion! Insurance plays a key role in mitigating the challenges that businesses and individual face. Over the years, we have accumulated a tremendous amount of data that we are leveraging in helping our partners & customers better prepare/mitigate the challenges of today and those coming up over the horizon.
What is your idea of a perfect day outside of the office?
Summers at the beach with family & friends – the more the merrier! The sun shining, with plenty of umbrellas and plenty of sunblock (because safety first!) … the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, a breeze wafting in from the ocean, easy conversations, a few games for the more ambitious/competitive ones in our group – that’s my idea of a perfect day!