Profile
"West Oak’s success has come from always putting our clients’ best interests first and always finding ways to improve and add more value to them"
Andrew mcquiston,
west oak family office, wellington-altus private wealth
Sharon Brown grew up in a small village in Cheshire, and from the age of 13, worked several jobs, from hair washer at the local barbers to selling wedding dresses at the village bridal shop and modelling for local designers. She spent her summer holidays working for a small insurance broker doing their filing, and in her spare time, she swam and played netball at county level and competed on her horse.
At 16, she left home to live in East Anglia. She entered the world of insurance as a technician for Willis Faber in Ipswich and London. She progressed rapidly and had a brief interlude in 1995 to have her first child, Oli. Having established a good grounding in insurance, she left Willis in 1999 to have her daughter Lauren. She has a passion for sport and a keen interest in the medical sciences, which she inherited from her dad, who was a keen sportsman and national swimmer. She decided to study sports therapy and ran her own successful business treating professional athletes, cancer patients and office professionals while working alongside orthopaedic surgeons, physiotherapists and doctors in a multidisciplinary medical environment.
“I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome – a condition affecting the collagen in my body that mostly affects my joints – meaning that I am hypermobile,” says Brown. “I dislocate joints easily and have had multiple subluxations over the years. This means that I now suffer from constant joint pain. My children have inherited the condition, and I was told that we really shouldn’t participate in much more than darts. Clearly, we all ignored that advice.”
In 2006, she applied her newly acquired skills to the injury rehabilitation sector, initially working with Premier League and Championship football clubs providing rehabilitation equipment to help return players to play after injury. She also worked with several large insurers and UK corporations to provide rehabilitation to the ‘industrial athlete,’ enabling businesses suffering from musculoskeletal absence to get employees back to work fast.
In 2011, she joined Miles Smith as a head of health schemes. She created a bespoke insurance product combining mental health and musculoskeletal rehabilitation called Early Intervention Scheme, which was successfully integrated into the company’s customer base. She then undertook a restructuring of the distribution function and joined the board as broker relationship director. Her flair for marketing, product and product distribution led to her promotion to group distribution and marketing director and latterly as their chief sales officer, responsible for delivering the company’s growth targets. She orchestrated the sale of the company to private equity, and in 2019 she left to join Quantum Legal Costs Cover, which rebranded as Harbour Underwriting in 2020.
“I have never been involved in legal insurance, and I’m not a lawyer, so the legal lingo has been like learning a second language,” she says. “It has been a steep learning curve, but it has demonstrated how many transferable skills I have. Despite not really understanding the ‘legalistics,’ the same logic applies in terms of running a business and distributing a product.”
Sharon Brown
Managing Director
Harbour Underwriting
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Bio
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Milestones
2020
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
Receive an excellence award
2020
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2019
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
TeD Talk Speaker
2019
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2018
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
title of milestone
2018
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2020-2021
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Received Lexology Client Choice Award (Labour and Employment – Canada)
2020-2021
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2014-2022
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Received Best Lawyer in Canada Award (Employment and Labour Law)
2014-2022
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2014-2022
2020-2021
2018
2019
2020
Sharon
Brown
Managing Director
Harbour Underwriting
Read on
Special Report
Home
Bio
Milestones
Profile
Milestones
2019–present
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
Managing Director at Harbour Underwriting (formerly QLCC)
Insurance Business Elite Woman, 2021
2019–present
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2011–2019
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Chief Sales Officer at Miles Smith Insurance Group
Insurance Business Woman of Influence, 2018
2011–2019
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2006–2010
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Business Development at Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Services
2006–2010
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2000–2005
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Business Owner at Sport and Body Therapy
2000–2005
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1989–1999
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Business Consultant at Willis
1989–1999
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1989–1999
2000–2005
2006–2010
2011–2019
2019–present
Sharon Brown
Managing Director
Harbour Underwriting
Read on
Special Report
Home
Bio
Milestones
2020
2019
2018
2020-2021
2014-2022
2020
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
Received Best Lawyer in Canada Award (Employment and Labour Law)
2020
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2019
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
TeD Talk Speaker
2019
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2018
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
title of milestone
2018
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2020-2021
Human Resources Magazine | key media
Received Lexology Client Choice Award (Labour and Employment – Canada)
2020-2021
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2014-2022
human resources | key media
Received Best Lawyer in Canada Award (Employment and Labour Law)
2014-2022
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Milestones
Career Accolades
2019–present
2011–2019
2006–2010
2000–2005
1989–1999
2019–present
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
Managing Director at Harbour Underwriting (formerly QLCC)
Insurance Business Elite Woman, 2021
2019–present
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
2011–2019
Human Resources Magazine | key media
Chief Sales Officer at Miles Smith Insurance Group
Insurance Business Woman of Influence, 2018
2011–2019
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2006–2010
Human Resources Magazine | key media
Business Development at Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Services
2006–2010
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2000–2005
Human Resources Magazine | key media
Business Owner at Sport and Body Therapy
2000–2005
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1989–1999
human resources | key media
Business Consultant at Willis
1989–1999
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Career Highlights
2019–present
2011–2019
2006–2010
2000–2005
1989–1999
2019–present
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
Managing Director at Harbour Underwriting
(formerly QLCC)
Insurance Business Elite Woman, 2021
2019–present
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
2011–2019
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Chief Sales Officer at Miles Smith Insurance Group
Insurance Business Woman of Influence, 2018
2011–2019
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
2006–2010
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Business Development at Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Services
2006–2010
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
2000–2005
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Business Owner at Sport and Body Therapy
2000–2005
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
1989–1999
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Business Consultant at Willis
1989–1999
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
Career Accolades
2020
2019
2018
2020-2021
2014-2022
2020
Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media
Receive an excellence award
2020
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
2019
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
TeD Talk Speaker
2019
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
2018
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
title of milestone
2018
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
2020-2021
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Received Lexology
Client Choice Award
(Labour and Employment – Canada)
2020-2021
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
2014-2022
Ted Talk in collaboration with key media
Received Best Lawyer in
Canada Award
(Employment and Labour Law)
2014-2022
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. A volutpat laoreet suscipit duis. Diam aliquam sed ut massa viverra a, eget libero.
Career Accolades
Milestones
Milestones
Milestones
harbourunderwriting.com
linkedin.com/company/harbour-underwriting
info@harbourunderwriting.com
44 (0)20 3829 9400
8 Waterloo Place, SW1Y 4BE, London, UK
