Even before Jodie Kaufman Davis graduated cum laude and earned her Juris Doctor degree from the College of Law at Michigan State University in East Lansing, her career path seemed to be preordained.
As a third-generation member of a family in a business founded by her grandfather, she’d already completed a critical step in the journey: Both her parents also were lawyers. But rather than join the family business, Kaufman Davis headed to Toronto, where she joined a law firm and advised Canadian and U.S. companies on M&A transactions, as well as handling capital market financing and cross-border transactions.
Of course, she made the move because of the proverbial offer she couldn’t refuse.
“It was a man,” Kaufman Davis says, with a laugh. “We met at summer camp when I was 19 years old and we’ve been together ever since.”
After eight years at the Canadian law firm, Kaufman Davis was on track for a partnership, but not wholly committed to the idea.
“There were challenges,” she recalls. “After I had my second of three children, it was time to decide if I was on the right path for a variety of reasons, especially as a young mother. I really wanted to make meaningful and impactful contributions.”
Around this time, as Kaufman Davis was pondering her future, her father came to Toronto for a visit. He showed his daughter the newly opened office of Burns & Wilcox, the most recent addition to the global network of insurance companies overseen by the H.W. Kaufman Group.
“My father always made it clear that if any of us ever wanted to try the business, we were most welcome,” Kaufman Davis says. “In January 2014, I decided to give it a try. At first, it was a part-time gig to learn the business. Then, my first big role was leading, building, growing, and developing Burns & Wilcox in Canada.”
Ever since making that first move, and the leap from law into the insurance business, Kaufman Davis has never looked back. She stayed in Canada for another six years, taking on additional responsibilities in the business, before returning home in 2020.
“My husband and I decided it would be best to come back here to Michigan and work with my father and my brother, as we continue to build the business and perpetuate it from generation to generation,” she explains.
As the family business has grown over the years, so, too, have Kaufman Davis’ responsibilities — but her attitude hasn’t changed a bit since her earliest days on the job.
“When I first started, I was in my early 30s, and the daughter of the owner,” she says. “I didn’t have an insurance background, so in order to give myself credibility, and having comfort and confidence in a board room, I had to roll up my sleeves.”
She still does.
“I’m definitely not in an ivory tower,” Kaufman Davis asserts. “I’m really big on relationships, and I don’t think you make them sitting behind a screen or at a desk. You make them with your team, and with clients and business partners, by getting out there and being in front of them. So I still meet with all our new hires on a regular basis. We just opened in Dubai, and I went there and met with potential clients. That’s a huge part of who I am.”
Kaufman Davis and her brother, Danny, have lofty goals for their business, which is still helmed by their father, Alan Kaufman.
“We have a strategic plan to double our global business over the next five years, and we’re already almost one-and-a-half years in,” she notes. “There’s really three critical parts of it. No. 1 is an investment in talent, so we’ve been adding great people to our team.
“No. 2 is our investment in technology — over $100 million to ensure that our employees, clients, and business partners are set up for success, with access to the tools we need to handle our business. And No. 3 is to invest in infrastructure, so talent and technology can create a stronger infrastructure to support all of our global businesses.”
To that end, the H.W. Kaufman Group made a significant investment in its own backyard.
“We bought a building in Capitol Park in Detroit and opened an office there,” Kaufman Davis says. “We participate in a lot of activities and events. And every October, we hold our annual leadership meeting here and bring our leaders from around the world to downtown Detroit to show off our city.”
Perhaps inevitably, AI is now being utilized to exponentially improve the efficiency of the business.
“We recently launched RB Jones Innovates, which is a specific division focused on utilizing AI and machine learning to test out new ideas,” Kauffman Davis explains. “For instance, reviewing underwriting guidelines from an insurance company partner previously might have taken several hours. Now, using our AI tool, we can grasp a better understanding of those guidelines in seconds.”
Kaufman Davis is clearly thrilled with her career, and everything the family business is accomplishing around the world.
“My first and foremost priority is my family; my husband and our three children,” she says. “But at Kaufman, I have a unique role in looking at our organization globally and exploring how best to optimize each business, identifying where there are partnership and collaborative opportunities for the benefit of our associates and the company overall.
“Philanthropic involvement also is important to me, and (it’s) fundamental to our culture. It started with my grandfather when he founded the company 55 years ago. He understood that being the best insurance professionals required us to be active in the communities where we do business. My father has carried this forward, and today we’re working with organizations that are having a positive impact in the 60-plus cities worldwide where Kaufman has offices.”
