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Lynn Averill, Second Vice President

PAST When Averill joined National Life of Vermont (now National Life Group) as a high-school graduate in 1973, one of her first tasks was making name badges and registration packets for Warren Nash, the company’s conference planner. (Nash was one of the founders of the Insurance Conference Planners Association, now FICP.) “I remember it like it was yesterday,” she says. “We took 1,076 people to the Acapulco Princess. I thought it was fascinating.” She was promoted to director of the department in 1990, and then to second vice president in 2004.

CRED Her company named a new CEO in November 2008 and hired a new CMO in February 2009. With the new leadership has come a corporate reorganization and scrutiny of conferences. Some programs that became redundant in the new structure were eliminated while others were combined. Averill participated fully in the discussions.

GIVING BACK Averill was elected to the FICP (then ICPA) board of directors in 1998 and became the association’s president in 2001. “I saw a need for more cohesiveness between the planner board and the hospitality partners committee,” she says of the group. “I wanted to make a difference.” She now serves on FICP’s Membership Committee.

ADVICE “In this business, relationships are critical,” says Averill, who is known among suppliers for her openness and integrity. “It helps when you’re in the planning stage, it helps on site, and it helps when you have issues to deal with, whether it’s attrition or a service problem.”

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