Blue Ocean Global Technology Interviews Joseph Talmadge | Senior Vice President, Practice Leader at Heffernan Insurance Brokers

Joseph Talmadge is a Senior Vice President at Heffernan Insurance Brokers, where he leads a practice group specializing in insurance strategies for Directors & Officers, Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity, and Family Offices. His team delivers tailored risk management solutions to publicly traded companies, asset managers, and late-stage venture funds, serving sectors like healthcare, energy, education, technology, real estate, and media. Outside of work, Joseph prioritizes health, family, and community connections.

Blue Ocean: Tell us about your professional life. What inspired you to build a career in the insurance sector?

Joseph: It was my immigrant grandmother from El Salvador who gave me a chance to enter the insurance business. In 2001, after a degree in Information Science, she hired me as a young professional in her brokerage based in Silicon Valley. She took me under her wing and mentored me professionally for the first five years of my career. I am very grateful for her as my mentor, which is how I ended up in insurance. At first, I had not planned on staying, but slowly, I started getting fascinated with the ins and outs of the industry. It continues to be an interesting field for me, stable, yet incredibly dynamic.

Blue Ocean: What does a typical day look like as Senior Vice President and Practice Leader at Heffernan Insurance Brokers?

Joseph: A typical day for me involves a constant translation process between client goals and insurance company underwriter goals, so communicating with a lot of people. What used to be emails at one point in time has now evolved to back to back calls. Our company consults with experienced professionals in every industry, ranging from health care, energy, aviation, food, and transportation to real estate. Our clients are not versed in the intricacies of the insurance world. Hence, to bridge the gap, we work as the point of communication between these creative entrepreneurs, executives and investors and the world of insurance. We need to understand their goals and then bring an insurance strategy to accomplish their goals. A typical day is full of communications to meet this end.

Blue Ocean: What trends in risk management and insurance strategy are you most excited about, especially in dynamic sectors like cryptocurrency, autonomous vehicles, or biotech?

Joseph: I have done work in all of those sectors and what excites me the most is a paradigm shift in terms of how we view capital. For many years, we have been operating in a world of the traditional US dollar and how we think about the value of capital based on the dollar. We live in a world where cryptocurrency is challenging traditional ideas of money and that will eventually have an implication in the world of insurance as well. I do not know where we will end up in terms of the agreement we make on how to value assets, but the idea of insurance is here to stay – it will always be a promise from one party to another – what’s exciting is the efficiencies that can be gained with new ideas of digital assets and how those ideas can help the promise of an insurance contract.

From the autonomous vehicle standpoint, historically, most countries have laws in and around auto liability. Those laws have been determined by how we understand who’s responsible for bad or unlawful behavior. Those concepts are being challenged right now with the sort of ethical nature of programming in autonomous vehicles. It is bringing up a new way of thinking and responsibility.

As it relates to Biotech, my partner is a neurobiologist and her research is fascinating. There are incredible breakthroughs happening and we are likely to be finding novel ideas about all biological processes based on the data we are collecting, with discoveries being made that have been previously inaccessible because of compute power. The acceleration of data processing power is very exciting because the speed to a previously unknown knowledge set is compressing dramatically.

Joseph Talmadge – Senior Vice President, Practice Leader at Heffernan Insurance Brokers

Blue Ocean: You’ve built a reputation for delivering tailored, scalable solutions to top-tier clients. How have you differentiated yourself and your team in this competitive landscape?

Joseph: You know how in games, some teams are good and some are not because of the practice the former does? The analogy can be applied to the insurance industry, too. You can be very competent today, but the best teams practice and learn every day for a very long time. Those iterations on a knowledge set take time and are not easy to replicate. So while we all play the same game, certain teams are more thoughtful, creative and adaptable to change than others. We seek to learn, daily. We ask questions, understand the problem, and then bring a solution to the table that can be iterated upon as dynamics change. Sometimes, the questions we ask produce new products or develop a new opportunity in the market. Lately, some of these questions have been in the field of generative AI. We are bringing products to the table that have not existed before. The products are not products for product’s sake. They are products that align with the concerns and needs of several customers who are in the generative AI market. This can support their growth as well as make them confident in offering their product to the market.

Blue Ocean: In the fast-evolving insurance industry, what unique value do you and your team bring to clients like venture funds, private equity firms, and family offices?

Joseph: Most people initially come to us because they are looking for cost reduction, but we really offer a much deeper value. Clients engage with us because they want better visibility and a clear strategy for their insurance and risks. Additionally, our team has an unparalleled degree of versatility in terms of industry vertical expertise – this is hard to find with our competitors. Another differentiating point with our firm is that we want to have visibility and will actively engage in a larger enterprise risk strategy. We feel strongly that you cannot address advisory services for company and executive risk without understanding the strategies for crisis response, say, for example, with a recall and contamination issue, or a cyber issue, or a substantial, negative PR event, or a natural catastrophe causing a major loss of revenue. We try to understand the impact to the company and execs in all of these different areas and support the teams that are going to be responsible. We dive deep into the risk facing directors and officers along with right sized insurance placement, regardless of industry – all companies need protection against their governance risk and duties and responsibilities in those roles. We are the advisors who connect the dots on insurance and risk across the enterprise and bring a plan to execute based on our client’s goals.

Blue Ocean: What advice would you give to your younger self as you were starting your career in this multifaceted industry?

Joseph: I would tell my younger self to be really thoughtful about who you surround yourself with and make sure to ask for help regularly. When I was younger, I didn’t ask for help as much as I could have. Oftentimes, you want to hang out with a peer group that’s similar to you. Still, it’s important to be around people with experiences that are different and broader than yours, especially tenured professionals. They have so much to offer.

I would ask for help sometimes, but I never felt like I was in a position to really leverage what they had to offer. And as I’ve grown older, what I’ve realized is there’s a lot of really smart people that really want to help and will make themselves available if you just ask.

My grandmother always told me, “Closed mouths don’t get fed” and that advice has always stuck with me.

Blue Ocean: With such a high-pressure role, what is something you are most grateful for, either professionally or personally?

Joseph: I would say the number one thing is my health and then probably very close to that is my family. We are human. We require community and we all experience community in different ways. I’ve been fortunate enough to have two beautiful kids, a loving partner, parents who are still alive, and sisters who I have a good relationship with. So I feel very grateful for my family and the ability to watch my children grow. I have investments in the healthcare space or fitness space and I really care about those investments because I have always felt that no matter what is happening in your life, no matter how successful your career is, none of it matters if you don’t have your health.

Blue Ocean: When you’re not developing innovative risk strategies, what are some hobbies or interests that bring you joy and balance in life?

Joseph: Funny, I won an award at my company for our 35th anniversary for the most likely person to take a business conversation off topic and it is because I really care about people’s hobbies and interests and what kind of things get them moving in life.

Joseph’s Weekend Painting session

If I didn’t have to pay the bills, I would probably do art. I’ve been sketching for quite a while. I oil paint, probably not as much as I would like to, but I do a fair amount. I paint with my kids. I paint by myself. I paint with my colleagues. I paint in the woods.

I will usually organize myself to have artwork in the background because I think it changes everything about how you think and that’s probably a big one is just getting creative. Then I spend a fair amount of time exercising, taking care of myself, and doing outdoor activities. I like to ride motorcycles when the weather’s good. I’m very much an outdoors person.

Joseph’s Motorcycle ride in the Marin Headlands

Blue Ocean: Is there a quote or philosophy that has guided you through your career and personal life?

Joseph: It would be to enjoy the present moment. It is the greatest gift that we have. I would say that has been a really big theme in my life is to really be present with what’s actually happening right now, because I do feel that in the hustle and bustle of all of the things that we do in life and all the expectations that are imposed upon us, all the responsibilities that we have, we are constantly thinking about the past and what has happened. Or we are constantly thinking about the future and what is possible. We are not really spending a lot of time being present at the moment and grateful for what’s actually happening right now, which for me, is when you are most alive. I feel like that has been something that has stayed with me in my darkest moments and it has been with me in my lightest moments.

Conclusion

Joseph Talmadge’s insights remind us of the power of asking for help, surrounding ourselves with diverse experiences, and staying open to learning. His values in life also remind us that even if one has a successful career it is equally important to take care of our health and find meaningful connections in community and family. These lessons are a valuable reminder to focus on what truly matters in both our personal and professional lives.