Insurance coverage agency Gallagher is tapping into a brand new sort of summer season intern: skilled athletes.
Final yr, the insurance coverage big expanded its internship program to supply positions to professional athletes, giving them a pathway to organize for all times after sports activities. In return, Gallagher found the celebs additionally are inclined to shine off the sphere.
“They know what it is wish to work arduous and the way lengthy that path is to get to success,” mentioned Chris Mead, Gallagher’s chief advertising officer. “They know what it is wish to be a part of a workforce and how one can lead one.”
This yr Gallagher opened this system to eight members of the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League’s Chicago Stars. Leilanni Nesbeth and Chardonnay Curran, a present and former midfielder with the workforce, respectively, jumped on the alternative for a paid internship.
“It means so much for us to have the ability to get our foot within the door,” Nesbeth mentioned in an interview with CNBC.
“I’ve by no means had a job exterior of soccer,” mentioned Curran. “Being a professional soccer participant was my first profession, and I’ve by no means been in a company setting.”
Chardonnay Curran, then of the Chicago Stars FC, earlier than a recreation between Chicago Stars FC and North Carolina Braveness at First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park on Might 17, 2025, in Cary, North Carolina.
Gregory Ng/isi Photographs | Isi Photographs | Getty Pictures
Gallagher began its Partnership Intern Program for athletes in 2024, piloted with 4 gamers from the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
Over six weeks, members acquire enterprise expertise, skilled talent growth and profession mentorship, whereas additionally studying the ins and outs of insurance coverage brokerage, gross sales and company tradition.
Gallagher, a sponsor of the Chicago NWSL workforce, tailors its internship program for the athlete members to accommodate their demanding schedules.
For a lot of, that help is essential. Professional sports activities careers may be quick and unpredictable, and earnings can fluctuate extensively. The typical NWSL wage is about $125,000 per season, in accordance with the league.
Gallagher’s aim is to organize athletes for what comes subsequent.
“We went in there understanding nothing about insurance coverage, and now I might in all probability bore your head off about RPS,” Nesbeth joked, referencing an business time period which means “threat placement providers.”
Leilanni Nesbeth takes a shot on aim throughout a recreation between the Chicago NWSL workforce and Bay FC at PayPal Park on Might 5, 2024 in San Jose, California.
Karen Hickey/isi Photographs | Isi Photographs | Getty Pictures
For Curran, it was about altering preconceived notions in regards to the insurance coverage business.
“After doing the internship, all the pieces I considered insurance coverage was the precise reverse,” she mentioned.
Curran and the Chicago Stars mutually agreed to half methods days after she spoke with CNBC.
Mead mentioned Gallagher has gone on to rent a number of the athlete interns as staff when their taking part in careers are over.
He mentioned in Europe, the corporate employs an expert rugby participant who’s certainly one of its star salesmen.
“There is a time when the sunshine bulb goes off and so they see how celebrating a win on the pitch isn’t any completely different than celebrating a win after a sale or doing one thing great for a buyer,” Mead instructed CNBC.
Protection off the sphere
Ties between insurance coverage {and professional} sports activities aren’t new.
For years, State Farm has run catchy commercials that includes former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, former Indiana Pacers capturing guard Reggie Miller, Kansas Metropolis Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark of the WNBA and a bunch of others.
On Monday, AIG introduced it was turning into the primary Fortune 500 firm to take a stake in an EFL League Two membership, with an funding in Salford Metropolis Soccer Membership within the U.Okay.
Nationwide, an NWSL associate, additionally runs an analogous internship program with league gamers, providing them an expert growth program on the insurance coverage firm’s headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.
“Our hope is that the gamers stroll away with new abilities and experiences which will serve them now and of their post-playing careers, maybe again at Nationwide,” mentioned Jim McCoy, vice chairman of sports activities advertising for Nationwide.
