Today we’d like to introduce you to Ted Dimitry.
Hi Ted, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Although I was not born in Houston, my family moved here when I was two years old so I consider it my home town. I grew up in West Houston and graduated from Memorial High School in 1991. I went to college at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. W&L, as it is known, is in the Blue Ridge Mountains. At the time, the town of Lexington had around 6,000 residents and was a very different environment than the sprawling suburbs of Houston. Originally, I had intended to go to law school after graduating from college…. However, the mid-90s was what I call the “John Grisham era” – when everyone and their cousin was getting a law degree. While I have cast no aspersions on the practice of law, I determined that the life of a law student/young lawyer was not for me. Therefore, in 1994 and with two-thirds of a liberal arts degree under my belt, I pivoted and received a summer internship at the Houston office of a large, international insurance brokerage firm called Alexander & Alexander (A&A).
Although it may sound odd to some, I was hooked by the insurance industry that summer. More precisely, I was intrigued by the “business of risk,” especially risk transfer/risk management in the energy sector. Although I graduated “cum laude” from W&L in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History (something we called “the H-Train to Law School” back then), I decided to pursue a career in insurance and was given the opportunity to live and work in London, England. I will never forget my friends and classmates boasting about going to New York, Dallas, Atlanta (which was unfortunately being called “Hotlanta” at the time), Chicago or San Francisco when someone turned to me and asked where I was headed. Saying “London” certainly took the cake!
I was only there for six months, working on a student visa for an insurance broker called Alexander Howden, Ltd. – the UK subsidiary of A&A. While there, I was initially a technical trainee, checking submissions for Energy and/or Marine insurance coverage for accuracy before the actual “brokers” took those risks into Lloyd’s of London and the general London company insurance market. That may sound ho-hum to many but I assure you it was not. Being in London and working in Lloyd’s and the general London market is akin to being on Wall Street in New York for finance or Houston in energy/oil and gas, Eventually, I was able to enter Lloyd’s and various London insurance companies and market certain renewals. Although I was not completely unique, being a Yank in the London market was still relatively uncommon back then… and it was an incredible experience. To this day, I will never forget when I approached a senior underwriter on the floor of Lloyd’s with a renewal slip. He looked at me over his reading classes and asked where I was from. I told him and he promptly replied, “F*ck off!”
I tell that story partially because it is funny. However, it was very formative for me. Although I was 23 at the time (and London is a GREAT place to turn 23, by the way), the sudden and tacit rejection of my marketing efforts were a shock to my naïve system… and a necessary one. Ultimately, I viewed it as a test and succeeded in getting the slip completed by approaching different underwriters and being a bit more assertive. While in London, I developed professional relationships and strong friendships that I maintain to this day. Although I haven’t been back since before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, every time I go to London and walk the streets of the City near Lloyd’s, I run into someone I know. When that happens, I feel like that 22-23 year old again.
Anyway, I returned to Houston in March of 1996 and began working for A&A’s Houston office as a technical trainee in the Energy Department. Unfortunately, my heady London days were over and I found myself a casualty of consolidation in the global insurance business. After being laid off a couple of times in the late 1990s, I determined that I needed more quantitative skills than my History major had provided. So, I took the GMAT on a whim in the spring of 2000, got a score that was fairly decent (despite not having really prepared that much) and applied to Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management. To my surprise, I was accepted and quit working in order to earn my Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) as a full-time graduate student.
While I owe a lot of my worldview to W&L and my time in London, I owe a lot of my resilience to my time at Rice. I say that because in the spring of my first year there, the “dot-com bubble” burst. While that was a little scary, I did not go to graduate school with the intent of becoming an internet millionaire. I was looking to get into finance or find a management position in an oil company or some other heavy industrial group…. However, fate had other plans for me.
The tragic events of September 11 sent shockwaves through the global economy, causing a general economic slowdown. Soon after that, the off balance sheet transactions of Enron and several other corporations were exposed. While I hardly felt sorry for myself, it was a tough to know that I was $60,000 or more in debt with few career prospects coming my way in the spring of 2002. Graduation came and went and I still did not have a job…. As a result, my eyes turned again to the insurance business – specifically, the energy and marine sectors of the insurance business.
I also owe a tremendous debt to my wife, Susan, who I met and started dating while I was a full-time MBA candidate with no money and rapidly dwindling career options. She was working at the time and I often wonder what she saw in me, a floundering grad student with little direction as the economy struggled along in 2001-02. She stuck with me, though, and even paid a couple of electricity bills for me when I got behind (although I always paid her back). I will forever be grateful to her for her support and encouragement during that tough time… as well as much more that would come later.
I started again in the insurance business in September of 2002, again working as an insurance technician for a large insurance broker in Houston. Although I only worked there for about a year, my subsequent positions were with a variety of firms, each stint averaging about six years. During this time, I was lucky enough to start a family with Susan and my career really started to hit its stride.
I am the first to say that I am not your “typical salesperson.” I learned early on that I am not very good at giving someone an elevator pitch in order to quote their corporate insurance program. In fact, I often refer to myself as an “accidental producer.” It all started with solving problems that my competitors either did not know how to solve or did not WANT to solve. Over time, that accumulated momentum and I became known as a bit of a problem solver… providing cost-effective risk solutions for clients whose margins are at risk by their own operations. To many, that sort of thing is a tedious endeavor. To me, however, that is the type of challenge I like to conquer.
I’ve also been fortunate enough to have time to “give back.” Over the years, I volunteered at the Houston Technology Center (HTC), the Houston Mariners Club (HMC), Rice University’s Jones Graduate School Alumni Association (JGSAA – basically the Rice MBA alumni), the local Washington & Lee alumni chapter, the Wilchester Men’s Club (WMC), the Greater Houston Port Bureau (GHPB) and the Houston Marine & Energy Insurance Conference (HMEIC). All of these are special to me but the HMEIC really allowed me to both give back to my community but also promote the obscure little slice of the “business of risk” in which I work. Through HMEIC and the other causes I have supported over the years, I was also able to raise my own profile, both personally and professionally.
At the very end of 2019, I joined a wonderful insurance brokerage firm called Higginbotham with the intent of launching an Energy & Marine Practice in Houston. As 2020 got underway, I was able to generate some pretty good momentum and help elevate the already respected name of Higginbotham into the energy and maritime circles in which I circulated. Unfortunately, that momentum was interrupted by a global pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns. The good news for my family and me was that Higginbotham takes care of its own. The firm has a fantastic culture not only of giving back but also of treating employees like family. Higginbotham’s management was patient and allowed me to continue to build, albeit at a slower pace, through much of 2020. I now have a team of wonderful Energy & Marine specialists and we are gaining tremendous momentum in the middle market!
Having a company culture of giving back, Higginbotham has also come to support the various causes about which I care deeply and for which I have volunteered. I am no longer asked to justify the registration fee for a conference that benefits student scholarships or make a case for volunteering to support a worthy cause. Additionally, Higginbotham has been very supportive of me when family issues have arisen, allowing me to be a better father and husband to my family. I am not one to say this often, but I am truly blessed with a wonderful family and a great employer.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As previously mentioned, industry consolidation in the late 1990s were bumps in the road early in my career (I was laid off twice in my 20s – once in 1997 and again in 1999). September 11th did not directly impact me but it certainly threw off my career plans… the Enron implosion and subsequent recession did not help much either. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdown of 2020 has definitely made things hard. This has been exacerbated by a very stiffened insurance market and the global supply chain issues that many industries face. Now, with war in Ukraine, global commodity markets in chaos and intense inflation… the road ahead will be anything but smooth.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Depending on which list you read, Higginbotham is the 19th or 20th largest insurance brokerage firm in the United States. It is also the largest insurance broker that is based in Texas, being headquartered in Fort Worth. The Houston office – where I work – is the second largest in the firm in terms of both people and production. I am the Energy & Marine Practice Leader for the Houston office and am excited to be carrying the Higginbotham brand into my little slice of the global insurance market during these baffling early 2020s. We are building a top flight risk and insurance practice that services the needs of companies active in the energy and/or marine (maritime) sectors. This includes everything from oil and gas to renewables; from offshore platforms to offshore wind; from inland waterways to global logistics; and everything in-between.
As noted earlier, Higginbotham is a place where values are important – especially the values of trust, generosity, respect, honesty, accountability and, believe it or not, honor. This is probably what I am most proud of from a brand perspective. Higginbotham is proof positive that good can and will prevail.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Perseverance is essential to success… but so long as that perseverance is done respectfully and honestly.
Contact Info:
- Email: tdimitry@higginbotham.com
- Website: www.higginbotham.com
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P65Rb6sQfTo
Image Credits
Higginbotham Insurance Agency, Inc.
Marine Insurance Seminars, Inc.
