IIABNY Top Honor to WAHVE Founder Sharon Emek

IIABNY Top Honor to WAHVE Founder Sharon Emek

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York (IIABNY) presented WAHVE founder Sharon Emek, Ph.D., CIC with its highest honor: The 1882 Fellow Award during the organization’s leadership dinner on May 14, 2014 in Riverhead, N.Y. following the IIABNY’s 132nd annual business meeting.

The 1882 Fellow Award recognizes the individual member who has most significantly contributed to IIABNY, the industry and her community. Emek was the second female chair of the board in the association’s history and also served on a variety of committees at the state and national level. She was the first woman to receive the Sidney O. Smith Government Affairs Award from the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America. Emek also earned the Distinguished Service Award from IIABNY in 2006, recognizing individuals who have made a lasting and outstanding contribution to IIABNY. IIABNY has presented the 1882 Fellow Award (named for the year of the founding of IIABNY) each year since 2009. The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York, Inc. was founded in 1882. More than 1,900 agencies and their 18,000 employees currently rely on the DeWitt, New York-based not-for-profit trade association for legislative advocacy, continuing education and other means of industry support, according to IIABNY.

Work At Home Vintage Employees offers a unique, cost-saving, remote contract staffing solution for insurance agents and brokers. WAHVE engages vintage professionals “pretiring” or phasing into retirement who work from home on a dedicated basis fulltime or part-time, long-term or shortterm. Since 2010, WAHVE has provided remote staff offering quality work at a significant cost savings to hundreds of independent insurance agencies and other insurance firms.

Agent associations in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Florida, Texas, Utah and Wyoming endorse WAHVE. WAHVE is a participating employer in AARP’s Life Reimagined for Work initiative, is listed as a work-at-home option by Clark Howard, and is certified as a woman business enterprise by the National Women Owned Business Corporation (NWBOC).