May Ng | WTW

May Ng, Toronto Growth/Market Leader, WTW

May Ng has never been comfortable standing still.

Early in her career in the property and casualty insurance industry, she moved quickly. Promotions came fast, and before long, she was often the youngest person in the room. Just as often, she heard the same advice.

Slow down. Be patient. Wait your turn.

Ng heard it, but she never truly accepted it.

“I had all this energy to always want to do more and achieve more,” she says. “So when someone told me to wait, I didn’t like hearing it.”

At times, that ambition was framed as overachieving. That never sat well with her either.

“Was it really a negative to want more and be successful?” she says.

Instead of dialling herself down, Ng kept going. She worked hard, pushed for more, and kept striving after every milestone. One line stayed with her through those years and still captures how she thinks about growth: “Why settle for the middle when you can be at the top?”

She’s quick to note it was never about status for its own sake. It was about refusing to shrink her own potential just because someone else thought she had time.

Ng’s rise in the industry

Today, Ng is Willis’ Toronto growth and market leader. Her path into the industry, though, was far less intentional than the career she ultimately built.

As a second-year student at the University of Toronto, she was juggling part-time jobs and trying to break into the corporate world. A friend in insurance offered to pass along her résumé. Ng thought she would end up in finance or HR and, in fact, her first summer placement was in finance. She quickly realized it was not for her. The next summer, she moved into claims.

The work was hardly glamorous. It involved filing, answering the phones, and plenty of paper cuts. But something there immediately pulled her in.

“The best part, really and truly, is that the industry has some of the best people ever,” she says. “People who want to mentor you and watch you succeed, but also know how to have fun.”

When she graduated, she was offered a full-time role as a claims adjuster. She accepted without fully knowing what the job would entail. It did not take long for the industry to win her over.

“Not even a month in, my love for the industry started,” she says.

Mentorship

The breadth of opportunity kept her there, and also the relationships. Insurance, she says, is one of those rare sectors in which almost any skill set can find a home, whether in marketing, accounting, sales, underwriting, IT, or claims. Underneath it all, it remains “through and through, truly a relationship industry.”

That belief also shaped how she approached mentorship. Ng did not wait for someone to discover her and offer guidance. She went after it.

“My mentors have been many different people. Both men and women. People who were my managers, people who saw potential in me and wanted to mentor me, and clients who wanted to elevate me,” she says.

She asked questions directly. She sought out opinions. If she saw someone successful, she wanted to know how they got there.

“I never waited for mentorship to come to me. I sought it out.”

Now she tells women entering the industry to do the same — and go one further. Find more than one mentor, she advises. Find people who will champion you and speak for you when you are not in the room. Then, when the time comes, pay it forward.

Ng believes the industry has changed in meaningful ways for women.

“Some of the situations I had been in or part of are no longer tolerated today,” she says. “Certain comments and actions are just not okay, and it took a lot of people to stand up and say that they are not okay.”

That progress matters to her. So does what comes next.

Now a parent, Ng says the challenge is no longer proving that she can do it all. It is knowing how to prioritize without guilt. Advice she heard from another successful woman landed at exactly the right moment.

“You can have it all, just not all at the same time.”

That perspective changed her. She stopped trying to be everywhere and started focusing on where she could bring the most value.

“It made me a better person, parent and colleague,” she says.

Her advice to women considering the industry is direct and unmistakably her own.

“Don’t let anyone tell you what your limits are,” Ng says. “Even if you have the slightest gut feeling that you might be interested or want to or can do it, just do it. The rest will fall into place.”