It’s not only what you know, but who you know.

For Dana Al Nammari, a commercial underwriter based in Montreal, the Fellow Chartered Insurance Professional (FCIP) program not only expanded her property and casualty insurance knowledge, but her professional network as well.

“What does the FCIP mean to me now, in retrospect?” said the marine lines specialist, who completed all of her course work for the FCIP program in March. “You develop your network way beyond what you could possibly do on your own, and way faster.”

Al Nammari, FCIP course facilitator Seán Finucane and Ted Hellyer, vice president of programs at The Insurance Institute of Canada, will all be available at the 2015 FCIP Leadership Webinar to provide information and answer questions about the program. 

The FCIP offers a comprehensive business education with a unique focus on the p&c insurance industry. Guided by expert facilitators, the online program offers an in-depth look at a variety of topics in the p&c sector – including leadership, strategy, financial management, enterprise risk management and emerging issues.

Al Nammari said her study of these topics often caused her to go outside of her immediate work circles to answer questions raised in the FCIP program.

“Because of the nature of the questions you ask, people will notice you,” she said. “Your network will start expanding. A larger network means that when you need a piece of information, and your direct circle doesn’t have it, you are able to go outside. The FCIP program gave me that.”

Originally from Jordan, Al Nammari already had an international circle of business associates. One of her early mentors, a risk manager for the national airline in Jordan, first convinced her to consider a career in insurance.

After studying in university abroad, and aided by the fact that she is trilingual in Arabic, French and English, she became an energy underwriter for the reinsurer, HCC.

Al Nammari emigrated to Canada in 2006, shortly after HCC closed its Jordan office. She joined Intact Insurance in Montreal as a commercial underwriter in 2007.

She left Intact for AXA Insurance to pursue her passion for marine insurance.  “Four months later, AXA was purchased by Intact, so I was back,” she said. “I was very happy. I had the knowledge of the processes and did not have to re-learn systems. That’s how I ended up back in marine as a senior underwriter.”

After blazing through the Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) designation in a little over two years, she then set her sights on the FCIP.  “I absolutely loved it,” she said of the FCIP program. “In a heartbeat, I would do it again.”

Are you ready to take the FCIP program? Our brief FCIP Self-Assessment Quiz can tell you whether the FCIP is a good fit for you at this point in your career.