“Leading with Determination”

Today, Leslie Wiernik, CEO, NASP, is termed an industry expert due to her technical knowledge about the industry, her willingness to take risks, and her strong communication and listening skills. All these qualities are armed with her ability to pivot quickly, building and leading teams with the willingness to nurture them towards productivity. But to reach the position she had to cross numerous roadblocks. “Mine had historically been a male-dominated industry. Not only were there limited corporate objectives to encourage promoting women to leadership roles, but women were cautioned about being too aggressive and striving for those roles.”

She overcame them by participating in every leadership skills course that she could find, taking the lead on projects, and exceeding corporate and personal goals for years. “Yet when I was promoted to a leadership position, I found myself being scrutinized– everything from my qualifications to whether I could still be a good mother to my children. I never wavered. It just made me more determined. ,” she says. “In one instance, as I was leading a large insurance claims investigation a public official asked, “who’s the guy in charge of this investigation?” I stepped forward and replied “me.” Witnessing some eye rolls and snickering, it became apparent to me at that point that my qualifications and leadership skills may have gotten me here, however, I needed to go an extra step that perhaps my male partners did not, which is to work even harder to earn the same respect.”

Leslie has been told that she leads like a man but with the heart of a woman. Some women may object to that statement, but she takes it as a compliment. The best of both worlds. Leslie has been a pioneer at implementing numerous mentoring programs for her (primarily female) staff and board members. She developed a tuition reimbursement program for staff members and helps define their strengths, interests, and goals. She strongly encourages young women to strive for leadership roles through various platforms and has developed Women in Subrogation programming for the industry.

Speaking about her role model, Leslie says that strong women in her family, educators, and colleagues have influenced her immensely over the years. She first-hand witnessed how difficult it was at times for them to have a voice and says that each has inspired her through their struggles and achievements. Armed with these exceptional qualities, Leslie has been leading the company to great heights.

NASP was born in 1998 to provide subrogation education and networking to the insurance industry. NASP helps the industry aggregate claims data to identify trends and then provide training to assist with recovery. That aggregated claims data is shared with the groups such as the Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, etc., to effect product safety. NASP was strong and financially healthy pre-pandemic and has continued to grow and expand offerings over the last two years.

Other associations and companies within the network that did not have long-term strategic goals before the pandemic has become irrelevant. Technology has played a large part in NASP’s success.

The company pivoted yet again to develop hybrid educational programming and networking in the post-pandemic climate.

As a result of pivoting quickly when the pandemic began in early 2020, NASP has been able to continue offering valuable subrogation education and networking opportunities to the industry without a hiccup. For the days to come, NASP is ready to provide in-person educational events that will pivot to a hybrid model in 2022 to allow the nearly 35,000 folks from around the world to continue honing their subrogation skills and obtaining necessary accreditation for licensing in a way that best suits their needs and comfort level.

NASP is also moving towards a digital transformation of benchmarking studies to capture and compile data more efficiently. In 2022, NASP will roll out a digital Digest of NASP’s award-winning Subrogator magazine. The magazine has been available to members in digital format for several years, but in 2022, a digest version will afford readers more timely information in an easy-to-navigate format. IEWL.