Eight leadership questions for Suzanne Stevens, BrightRock CEO

I am always mindful of the extraordinary bravery of South Africa’s women and their ability to drive change in our society when I think of what our Women’s Day represents. In many respects, while the circumstances we find ourselves in today are vastly different, the impact women have in our homes, families, communities and society at large, still holds true. 

Below are questions and answers for Suzanne Stevens, BrightRock CEO:

Q1.  Where It Began

My journey began almost 30 years ago when I headed up the marketing division for a financial services company that was, at the time, a start-up itself. So, you could say I’ve always loved the challenge of building something new. 

My experience in marketing taught me the importance of a relentless focus on understanding and meeting your clients’ needs as your first and primary focus. I became passionate about helping people feel empowered by the products they buy, and that same belief continues to underpin what we do at BrightRock today. 

BrightRock was built by a team with diverse skill sets and backgrounds. In those early years, the business was led by a team of co-founders rather than having a single person in the role of CEO. This collaborative leadership approach fostered a culture of open and vigorous debate where every voice was important, and every perspective was worth hearing and considering in our decision-making. That’s stayed with me throughout my leadership journey at BrightRock and encapsulates what I strive for in my leadership style as CEO today. 

I believe that empowering the people in our team, encouraging open communication, and remaining flexible are crucial to harnessing innovative ideas and navigating change effectively.

By fostering an environment of trust and inclusivity, I aim to inspire ongoing collaboration and resilience in everything we do.

Q2.  The First 90 Days

I was appointed as CEO in January 2025, after serving as Deputy CEO for the preceding five years and the transition itself was a planned and systematic process, so in many ways my role had already started long before those first 90 days. Having said that, I had two key focus areas in those first few months.

The first was to ensure a sense of ongoing continuity and a smooth transition rather than a dramatic changing of the guard. The second was to, through a process of consultation and collaboration with all stakeholders, help to distil and communicate a very clear sense of BrightRock’s strategic focus and the opportunities for innovation and growth in order to take the business into its next chapter.  

Q3.  Leading Through Pressure - Present Day

I believe that South Africa’s protection gap continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing our industry. Too many consumers remain underinsured, particularly when it comes to disability and income protection. A big reason for this is that affordability is a major issue in our current economic environment. This makes it increasingly important for product providers to find ways to deliver more meaningful protection for every premium rand that clients spend.

I think this is where the importance of qualified, independent advice can help bridge that gap. In difficult times, clients turn to a trusted adviser to guide their decision-making. Clients are more likely to value and retain protection when they understand exactly how it contributes to their ability to achieve what matters most to them through a well-structured, personal financial plan.  

Q4.  The Cost of Leading

I’ve never been one for the idea of strict "work-life balance" – life and work are so intertwined, and the tension of trying to constantly keep everything in a perfect state of balance just adds additional stress in my view! 

So, if I’ve had a busy day, I’ll often cook a meal for my family, and then once we’ve had dinner, I’ll log back in to catch up on emails – there are always more of them than there are hours in the day. On the other hand, there have been times where I have been at the school during the day when one of my children is playing sport or performing in a school play, and I am proud of prioritising those occasions too. 

Our family also has a Sunday lunch tradition where our family gathers around the dining room table to share a meal and catch up. These are the moments that make up for the hustle and bustle of the week.

This philosophy hasn’t always spared me from a small sprinkling of guilt for those occasions where the trade-offs have been tough to make.

Q5.  Being Underestimated

When I joined the industry, I was often the only woman around the table in business leadership environments. I had the privilege of working with incredible mentors that supported me, and importantly, they constantly pushed me out of my comfort zone. As a result, I had to learn to find my voice in new (and uncomfortable) environments. 

My experience as a woman in the South African financial services industry is that we operate in a challenging, competitive, world-class industry where delivery at a high standard is a prerequisite for success. And I have seen over the course of the past 30 years that many women succeed in our industry and play an important role in shaping the discourse and building a supportive and nurturing culture in our environment. I believe that an enabling business culture that supports everyone in your business actually drives a high-performance, motivated team. 

Q6.  Insurance, Made Personal

For me, the meaning of what the life insurance industry delivers truly came to the forefront during COVID. Many of our acquaintances were learning how to bake bread and, obviously, dealing with the stress and uncertainty that came with a worldwide pandemic and lockdown. But at BrightRock, this was one of the busiest times in our business’s history and our teams worked day and night. In fact, during COVID, we paid more claims in one year than we had in the previous seven-year history of our business. 

Every day, we dealt with families who were faced with the financial and emotional impact of the disease. We paid countless temporary disability claims for business owners and professionals who were booked off work, in some instances for many months owing to long COVID. Other families faced the loss of multiple family members due to the disease. And we not only saw an increase in claims related to COVID itself, but increases in claims due to cancer, heart disease, and many other illnesses.

While it was an intensely stressful period, it was also a meaningful period during which we experienced the very real impact what we do has on people’s lives at a scale I hadn’t experienced before.

 Q7.  The Advice You Needed

A number of years ago, I did my skipper’s ticket to do surf launches – that is taking a motorised boat out from the beach through the incoming crashing waves. I have a vivid memory of standing on the beach and telling my husband “I can’t do this! It is too frightening.” His words to me were “Just get on the boat”. Needless to say, I qualified as a skipper. 

That lesson has stayed with me over the years, and is one I would have given myself much earlier in my leadership career. So much of what we do as a leader is to learn to navigate uncharted and choppy waters. But the first and most important step is to get on the boat and apply all the knowledge and skills you already have. It’s all about being clear on the overall mission at hand and being prepared to navigate what ever the next wave brings, and not about having each small step mapped out ahead of the journey. 

Q8. What is the one book you would recommend to your audience, and why?

I recently reread the Jim Collins book “Good to Great”. I had read it very many years ago, but found the recent read a great reminder that what differentiates great businesses is not necessarily the leadership behaviour that is glamorised in popular culture. Humility and a clear and dedicated focus to delivering for your clients should always remain guiding, unwavering principles.