Breaking barriers – and breaking records in reinsurance
Ashvita Suvarna may still be young, but she's leading one of India's largest facultative reinsurance teams – and rewriting the playbook for what leadership looks like.
But she didn’t follow the traditional path into insurance. Her story is one of adversity, resilience and the transformative power of collective effort.
Turning struggle into strength
“I come from a humble background,” explains Ashvita. “It wasn’t always that way, but when I was very young, we suffered a big loss in business, and went from being quite comfortable to losing almost everything.
“For much of my childhood, we were a family of four in a tiny home. Struggle was part of life.”
Determined to lift her family out of hardship, Ashvita began working at just 14, juggling jobs alongside school and college work to bring in much-needed income.
When her friends went home after a day of study, she went on to her part time jobs in admin, business services and event management. Then, when her tenacity led to admission onto an MBA specialising in insurance, it opened a career she’d never dreamed of accessing without a university education.
She secured a role as a trainee, then a broker, and quickly rose through the ranks to become a principal consultant – proving that hard work and determination can truly shape a career no matter where you start.
Taking a fresh approach
New challenges beckoned and, in 2019, Ashvita joined Howden to help build a reinsurance offering for the Indian market. Reinsurance plays a key role in keeping the insurance market stable. It lets insurers share some of their risk with another company – called a reinsurer – so they’re better protected against big claims or disasters, like major floods or earthquakes.
The team started from scratch. No revenue. No clients. No track record. But where others saw risk, Ashvita saw opportunity. She’d built resilience the hard way and steadfastly refused to take ‘no’ for an answer.
“Reinsurance is often seen as the ‘risk of last resort’, but I believed that with the right strategy and support, even the most complex risks could be placed,” she says.
This is where Howden’s global footprint really came into play.
Reaching out to her international colleagues, she leaned into their expertise to create solutions where other brokers in the local market had failed or had no appetite to try.
“The whole ecosystem is what makes things happen,” she explains. “It’s about looking around, seeing where the expertise lies, and bringing in the right people.”
It’s the kind of innovative thinking Howden people are known for – and it paid off for Ashvita.
She proved that she had what it takes to turn ambition into achievement – and despite being one of the youngest on the team, she was asked to step up into leadership.
“I was happy, but feared failure too. I was so young, so inexperienced. But my managers saw something in me. They encouraged me to break out of my comfort zone and made sure I knew they had my back.”
Their belief in her was well founded, as a slew of new accounts and business wins followed.
Delivering against the odds
Closing Howden India’s biggest ever placement, for a major private-sector organisation, was a pivotal moment in Ashvita’s journey.
“It was larger than anything the team had ever done. In fact, it was larger than anything Howden India has ever done. We brought in colleagues from Dubai, Singapore, London. It truly represented the spirit of Howden, where regions from across the world come together, fight together, win together.”
“Howden India was nowhere in this sector – then we won an account, which was massive. People in the industry started to take notice,” says Ashvita.
In 2023, she was tasked with a new challenge – building Howden India’s dedicated facultative reinsurance (FAC) team.
FAC is a specialist type of reinsurance for large, complex or very specific risks – anything from high-value buildings and infrastructure projects to space travel and blockbuster movie productions. With India’s economy booming, such projects are on the rise and FAC is playing a key role.
“It was a challenge. I was already running at 200%. Then, suddenly I was running at 400%. It’s been chaotic sometimes, but I had to succeed. Not just for the business but for me and for my team,” she says.
Leading with impact
Today, Ashvita’s team has grown to be one of the largest third-party facultative brokers for financial lines, casualty and specialty risks in India.
“My team are all young, all entrepreneurs”, she says. “I push them to take risks, to go beyond their comfort zones, knowing that I have their back. Howden placed its trust in me – now it’s my turn to do the same for my team.”
Together, they’re achieving extraordinary things.
Ashvita’s leadership style rests on nurturing talent, fostering cross-team collaboration and building a culture where good things happen because of strong relationships and shared purpose.
“Honesty, integrity and innovation are our bedrock,” she explains. “When we take care of these, the numbers take care of themselves.”
