Brady Young Receives VCIA's Industry Service Award

At its annual conference held August 7–9, 2018, the Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) presented its industry service award to Brady Young, president and CEO of Strategic Risk Solutions (SRS).

In presenting the award, Rich Smith, executive director of VCIA, noted that "industry service award recipients are chosen annually by the VCIA Board of Directors in recognition of VCIA members that have best supported the captive insurance industry and made contributions to its overall vitality and general welfare. In the Board's judgment, Vermont's captive insurance industry would not have the reputation for quality that it does; would not have grown into the world leader that it is; and would not be the number one domicile in the US without these individuals."

Mr. Smith stated that "the Board considered the following factors in selecting Brady for the award:

• He has over 25 years of captive insurance experience and is recognized for his knowledge and support of the captive insurance industry nationally and internationally.
• He founded and built his organization up by developing innovative alternative risk strategies and programs for his clients.
• As he put it so succinctly: his success speaks to the entrepreneurial power of backing yourself and putting the control in the hands of the people who can most influence the result—his employees.
• By fostering a culture that continues to evolve and reflect the eclectic mix of personalities and values he has attracted some of the best and brightest to his organization from the start.
• He speaks regularly at national industry conferences and has served on the Boards of many industry organizations."

In accepting the award, Mr. Young said, "Rich I would like to thank you and the VCIA Board for this incredible honor. I am very humbled to receive it especially given the illustrious list of past winners. It's scary that I know all of them personally and have worked with most of them in one way or another over the past 30 years.

"While it's great to get an award like this I want to accept this giving full recognition to the incredible team of people that I work with at SRS not only in our Vermont office but elsewhere as well. It's great to know I have a team that I can count on fully and always has my back and more importantly is always thinking about our clients and taking care of their needs.

"I see Jan Klowdoski and several other clients here and want to thank all of you for your support. Tomorrow will mark our 16th year as an independent company and while we now have over 100 staff and 400 clients, when we first started it was a little nerve-racking. Thank you for trusting us and letting SRS be your captive management partner.

"In closing, this is a message for all the young people in the audience—which I will define as anyone under 40. This is a great industry you are working in and the future has never been brighter. It's up to you to take it forward and find new ways and new opportunities to use captives to help clients better manage risk and continue to save money. There is a lot more innovation to happen—grab the baton and run with it."