From the Gobi Desert to the City of London – introducing Gerel Rentsenpurev
I was born and brought up in a traditional family in the wind-swept Gobi Desert of Mongolia. My early childhood was spent herding livestock, tending their offspring and playing with them. I am now about as far away from that as you can imagine - today I am in London, dreaming to be the first Mongolian working in the globally renowned London Insurance Market.
It all started with working as a Sales Executive of personal lines for a local insurance company in Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar, following my undergraduate program. Initially, it was just a job. However, gradually over time it became my passion and now I see it as my true calling for a successful future career. The more I learned about the values insurance creates, the more I fell in love with this sector. So, I spent six years with my previous employer, a Mongolian company called Bodi Insurance. Fortunately, they valued and encouraged all my work and efforts and at the age of 26, I became the head of their first-ever health insurance department. I was regarded as their rising star and everything felt comfortable there.
However, that wasn’t enough - it was my life-long ambition to study insurance in London. I’m currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Insurance and Sustainable Risk Management at Glasgow Caledonian University, London campus. I will also have the Advanced Diploma in Insurance, CII by the summer of 2023. Then, I plan to work for two or more years in an insurance company in the City of London following my graduation this November. In doing so, I believe I will be equipped with enough theoretical knowledge and gain vital practical work experience in my chosen field. With this combination, I hope to become a CEO when I go back to my native Mongolia.
However, in reality, in London, everything has been a bit more challenging than I expected. Despite my relentless hunt for suitable jobs, I have received countless rejection emails from the internship programs from all the prestigious insurance companies I could name. I became shy, I became unconfident and even doubtful. I asked myself why this may be the case, over and over. Eventually, I began to realise that it’s all about the skills gap. The gap between the so-called underdeveloped and developed parts of the world. Even if I was doing my best with the limited resources allocated to me in Mongolia, I never had the education that someone in a highly developed world could receive. I could never gain the experience from an insurance company with a humble history of 25 years that would match the 250 years or so long-established multinational companies. Discovering this gap motivated me to try even harder and ignited a newly found desire inside me.
My ambition is now to establish a consulting company that works for the educational and professional improvement of insurance sector employees as well as increasing the understanding of risk management and insurance of the population of underdeveloped markets, such as my country.
In terms of insurance, Mongolia is an isolated frontier. No big numbers to attract international insurance companies or reinsurers. All in all, 17 insurance companies are trying their best to cover the risks that Mongolia faces. I strongly believe that if there was someone from a developed market who could advise and show support, these companies could develop professionally within a space of time to level up with their other nations’ counterparts. And I want to be the pioneering bridge between those two different levels of markets.
“On the rooftop of my university where I look at the buildings and enjoy my dream.”
Lastly, I’m grateful that in cosmopolitan London no one insists that I change my race or my religion, or my name. Instead, London encourages me to be a better version of myself. So, I will learn and I will thrive.
This is off the beaten track, I know. Nevertheless, I will not only pursue this path but also will create the path to London Insurance Market from the under-represented part of the world the sake of my country’s fellow future learners.
To get in touch with Gerel, connect on LinkedIn!