Gallagher Taps Pro Athletes for summer insurance internships

The Insurance firm Gallagher is taking advantage of a new type of summer intern: professional athletes.

Last year, the insurance giant expanded its internship program to offer positions to professional athletes, giving them a way to prepare for life after sports. In return, Gallagher discovered that the stars also tend to shine from the field.

“They know what it is to work hard and how much time is that way to get to success,” said Chris Mead, Marketing director of Gallagher. “They know what it is to be part of a team and how to lead one.”

This year, Gallagher opened the program to eight members of the Chicago stars of the National Women's Soccer League. Leilanni Nesbeth and Chardonnay Curran, a current and previous midfielder of the team, respectively, took the opportunity of remunerated internship.

“It means a lot for us to be able to put our foot on the door,” Nesbeth said in an interview with CNBC.

“I've never had a job outside football,” Curran said. “Being a professional football player was my first career, and I've never been in a corporate environment.”

Gallagher began his association intern for athletes in 2024, piloted with four NFL Atlanta Falcons players.

For six weeks, participants obtain commercial experience, development of professional skills and professional tutoring, while learning insurance brokerage, sales and corporate culture.

Gallagher, sponsor of the Chicago NWSL team, adapts their internship program so that athletes participants accommodate their demanding schedules.

For many, that support is crucial. Professional sports careers can be short and unpredictable, and profits can vary widely. NWSL's average salary is approximately $ 125,000 per season, according to the League.

Gallagher's goal is to prepare athletes for what comes next.

“We entered there without knowing anything about insurance, and now I could probably lead the head on the RP,” Nesbeth joked, referring to a term of the industry that means “risk placement services.”

For Curran, it was about changing the preconceived notions about the insurance industry.

“After doing the internship, everything I thought about insurance was exactly the opposite,” he said.

Curran and the Chicago stars agreed to separate days after talking to CNBC.

Mead said that Gallagher has hired some of the athlete interns as employees when their game races have ended.

He said that in Europe, the company employs a professional rugby player who is one of its stars vendors.

“There is a time when the bulb sounds and see how to celebrate a victory in the field is not different from celebrating a victory after a sale or doing something wonderful for a customer,” Mead told CNBC.

The ties between insurance and professional sports are not new.

For years, State Farm has directed collad commercials with the former field of the New York Giants Eli Manning, the former Indiana Pacers escort, Reggie Miller, the Kansas City Qb Patrick Mahomes, the Indiana Caitlin Clark fever guard of the WNBA and a large number of others.

On Monday, AIG announced that it was becoming the first company of Fortune 500 to take a participation in an EFL League Two club, with an investment in Salford City Football Club in the United Kingdom

Nationwide, a NWSL partner, also directs a similar internship program with league players, which offers them a professional development program at the insurance company in Columbus, Ohio.

“Our hope is that the players leave with new skills and experiences that can serve them now and in their careers after the game, maybe back in Nationwide,” said Jim McCoy, vice president of Nationwide sports marketing.