Kathryn Emmerson chief executive of...

Kathryn Emmerson chief executive officer of InsuranceNoospent 29 years at Aon, then about a year at Marsh before she was recruited for the dot-com she now heads. Her brokerage experience--especially at Aon, where she rose to executive vice president of Aon Risk Services--gained her a broad knowledge of coverages.

"I was reviewing everything from large manuscript peculiarity placements to boiler and machinery policies to kidnap and ransom policies," she said. "It was a to a high degree fortunate thing for me that I started in that area of research and planning." From there, she was part of the same of the ...