The People Behind Davies: Interview with Kyle Streetman, Vice President of TPA Services

In celebration of Insurance Careers Month, we interviewed Kyle Streetman, the Vice President of TPA Services at Davies. In our interview, we discussed his background in insurance, what has prepared him to take on his current role, and the benefits of working in the industry. If you have ever considered working in the insurance industry, read on to to learn first-hand what it’s like to work in the vast world of insurance.

Can you tell me about your role and how you got to where you are today?

I’m the Vice President of TPA services at Davies. At the highest level of what I do, I manage the third-party administrative aspect of the transportation division, both from a business development and operational segment.

On the operations side, I oversee the multiple third-party administrative programs, such as domestic third-party administrative programs, personal auto, stateside commercial auto, general liability, contract liability, and peer-to-peer sharing apps, just to name a few.

On the business development side, I conduct new client acquisitions and manage the process from the point of first interaction with the client (essentially onboarding the client, reading the contract, revising the contract, doing the pricing and negotiation) all the way through to implementation, then manage the implementation segment as well (set up of the new program). At that point, I hand it off to the operational manager or director and I would oversee it from a higher level. I’m not really involved in the day-to-day operations, more so the initial contact, initial pricing, and set up of the program, which I like a lot.

I initially started in 2010 at the Littleton Group as an independent adjuster working within our field division for about a year in our Houston office and then I moved to our Austin office and was a field adjuster there. Within 6 months, I was selected to be the manager of the Austin Field office for IA adjusting and then oversaw two other offices on the field adjusting side. Around 2014, I took over the management of a few small TPA programs. So, I became a TPA manager of multiple programs, did a part of the staffing piece as well, and transitioned out of the Austin independent role. In the beginning of 2017, I assumed the position of Vice President of TPA services when the previous VP somewhat retired and I’ve been in that position ever since then.

What are some specific parts of your job that you enjoy and what are some of the most interesting programs you’ve worked on?

I don’t do the same thing over and over, every program is different, every client is different. Myself, I’m more of an extrovert so I like to interact with interact with people, give presentations, and meet with people, attend conferences. But also, from an operation aspect, every new program requires a different challenge and there are different nuances and there’s different requests from different clients, so I enjoy setting up new systems and building new programs, especially if it’s something we haven’t done before. We did one, it reimburses individuals for their defence costs if they received marijuana related crimes, which was interesting because we’d never dealt with that before. We also worked with a vehicle sharing service setting up their program and working through their nuances. I really enjoy developing a new process for markets that may be underserved or don’t necessarily exist.

In your opinion, what prepared you best to take on your current role?

Having the experience of managing programs. You don’t have to be an expert in everything, but you need to know a little bit about a lot of things. I think that’s important. I think the ability to speak in front of people is also important too. So, if you can talk in front of people and not get nervous and not worry about that and give a presentation and know enough, I think this role can be done. I think those are the two things that best prepared me for the role.

What has been your biggest professional accomplishment thus far in your career?

One big project of mine that I’m corporately most proud of was managing the staffing program for one of the largest auto carriers, which ended up being a giant revenue piece. The carrier initially wanted around 20 people right out of the gate, which I didn’t really need any additional help for that except from the administrative side (getting licenses and getting them through payroll). But then they started blowing up and wanted 30 people per week. So, we had to hire a team and a staff and get that together very quickly and we had staff in their Nashville office and virtually as well. By September, we were up to about 250 people from 0 in April. So that was something that we built organically. We had a team that was really good, worked incredibly hard, and were able to get the licensing necessary. It provided a significant amount of revenue-an excess of $10 million. The carrier was incredibly impressed with what we did on the staffing side, and it turned out to be a big success. So, I think that program is my biggest accomplishment from a business standpoint just due to the sheer size, volume, and profit. There are other things I’m proud of that I’ve accomplished within the organization but nothing of that scale.

What are the benefits of working in the insurance industry?

There is a very large range of opportunities in the insurance industry, so you can find an opportunity that really fits your skills and your interests. So, you can really look at what your personality best fits to. For my role, like I’ve mentioned, I think one of the biggest benefits is meeting people, traveling, interaction with interesting people, I like to work on new things. So, in insurance, there’s always a role that fits anybody or any personality. You just have to find which one is the match for you. There are different roles that fit different personalities and in insurance, it’s such a wide span. There’s something for everybody.

If you would like to continue the conversation or learn more about the TPA services we provide, please reach out to Kyle Streetman, Vice President, TPA Services at kyle.streetman@us.davies-group.com.