To succeed in insurance brokerage, according to Scott Sink, requires adhering to a certain guiding principle.
And it doesn’t involve selling insurance.
“Selling insurance is not difficult,” Sink says. “It’s doing the little things: returning phone calls, responding to emails. I call it the blocking and tackling of the industry.”
With the instincts and effectiveness of an all-pro offensive lineman, Sink developed a reputation in his business as a great protector.
“He’s an exceptional person,” says insurance veteran Penny Goodwyn, who has worked alongside Sink for decades. “He is renowned as an expert in our field, but he is also loved by his clients, his peers and his team.”
After three decades building a robust energy practice — and countless relationships — at McGriff, Seibels & Williams, Sink briefly retired, only to re-enter the game leading London-based Howden’s emerging U.S. natural resources office in Birmingham, Alabama.
“It really got my juices flowing from the standpoint that it’s a startup operation,” he says. “To build something the way you want it built and the way your clients want it built, to build a platform that’s client-focused (with a) great culture — it’s been a lot of fun.”
Those who know Sink best know that customer focus is his calling card — and that permanent retirement was always a long shot. “I think he really loves what he does,” says Goodwyn. “He’s passionate about making sure he has the right program in place, that his clients have the best service possible.”
For Sink, it all comes back to protection.
“When you have relationships for that long of a period, it’s based on the fact that they have confidence in you and you take care of them,” he says. “They know you’re going to be there when there is a problem.”
Sink was born in West Virginia, the second of three sons. Their parents came from modest families. “Both of my grandfathers were coal miners,” he says.
Rather than follow a similar path, Sink’s father, Jack, chose to pursue higher education. “He joined the Air Force out of high school, then went to college on the GI Bill at West Virginia University,” says Sink.
Shortly after Sink was born, his parents decided to move from their home state. They had high hopes for their kids and felt “there wasn’t a lot of opportunity there,” he says.
They landed in Auburn, Alabama, where Jack earned his PhD and taught in Auburn University’s College of Education. In 1973, he was offered a position at a certain rival school to the east.
“He dragged me kicking and screaming to Athens,” says Sink. “I mean, I was a huge Auburn fan. I hate to admit that. But you really cannot live in Athens and not be a Georgia fan. So my allegiance changed pretty quickly.”
Attending Cedar Shoals High School, Sink sold Cokes at Sanford Stadium and bagged groceries at Bell’s grocery store.
A child of two educators, “there was no question I was going to college,” he says. Naturally, he enrolled at UGA.
All-in on football fandom, Sink was among those rushing the Sugar Bowl field after Georgia’s 1980 championship (and gracing the next day’s Atlanta Constitution). Academics were slower to take shape.
Dabbling in computer science, “after my first Fortran class and having to type up computer cards, I quickly realized that that wasn’t for me,” he says.
A roommate’s offhanded suggestion changed Sink’s trajectory.
“He said, ‘Scott, you ought to go down and meet with one of the professors to learn about the risk management and insurance program.’ I had a meeting with Dr. E.J. Leverett, who started the program. After sitting with him for an hour, I walked out of his office knowing that’s what I wanted to do.
“I took the introductory class, and the rest is history.”
A giant in the utility sector, as Sink tells it, “I sort of fell into the energy industry.”
Recruited by Virginia Power out of Terry, he took an entry-level position with the company at its Richmond headquarters.
“I learned as much as I could,” he says. “I crawled around in transformers and turbines, then decided after three years it was time for me to move on to the brokerage side of the business.”
He’d fallen in love with a young UVA graduate named Linda Gill, and the two moved to Baltimore, where Sink started his brokerage career with Alexander & Alexander.
“I worked for them for seven years, cutting my teeth on large energy accounts,” he says. “In my free time, I was given the opportunity to call on utility accounts in that area, and I kept running into this boutique firm out of Birmingham: McGriff, Seibels & Williams. I got to know (them by) competing against them.”
Alastair Muir-Taylor, who worked alongside Sink for years at McGriff and recently rejoined him at Howden, says competitiveness was a defining trait.
“We kept him at a distance for a while,” says Muir-Taylor, but “his career trajectory was pretty obvious. He had big client names already as a young person. He’d made inroads with some key accounts in our sector.”
It happened that McGriff was looking to expand. “A group of us sat around and thought, ‘Who’s up-and-coming? Who’s a young person who’s got credibility?’ And Scott was number one on the list.”
The Sinks moved south and started a family. Daughter Brittany arrived first, then, three years later, son Taylor.
Leading McGriff’s energy practice, Sink helped grow it to a dominant 35 percent market share.
The main driver? When clients had problems, he was there.
“Where the rubber meets the road is when there’s a claim and the policy has to respond,” he says. “One of my clients had a big gas explosion. … The claim ended up exhausting their liability limits — over $800 million. And we collected every penny of that from the market.”
One is a subtropical destination known for Caribbean cuisine and pink sand beaches, the other a stately European capital brimming with historical landmarks.
Three thousand miles apart, London and Bermuda share a designation as two of the world’s largest and most important insurance markets.
“Both markets have been critical to me in my career,” says Sink. “I’ve spent a lot of time in both, building relationships and building programs for my clients.”
As Sink reached new heights, he began reflecting on his journey. He thought about meeting Leverett all those years ago, and about the program that prepared him for success.
He hoped to pay it forward. “I wanted to do something to impact students, something where they could get real experience.”
In 2012 Sink helped launch the Bermuda Insurance Market Study, an immersive spring break trip for students in the C. Herman Terry Risk Management and Insurance Program. “I got a couple of my broker and company partners to participate,” he says. “We took 10 students for a week, and it was a huge success.”
Bermuda quickly became an in-demand study away offering. In 2019, Sink helped create a sister trip to London to serve more students.
His list of Terry commitments doesn’t stop there. A member of the RMI Program Advisory Board, in 2022 he and Linda made a major financial gift to support RMI students and faculty.
And there is the growing web of family ties. Brittany (BBA ’14, MAcc ’15) studied in the J.M. Tull School of Accounting — and married a triple Terry major, Paul Chitwood (BBA ’15) — while Taylor (BBA ’18) followed in his dad’s footsteps as an RMI grad.
Sink’s advice to the next generation?
“Relationships are important,” he says. “Most of my clients are good friends of mine, and most of the people I work with are good friends of mine. It’s a family.”
As a professional protector, “you develop friendships, and you become part of the (same) team,” he continues. “It’s very rewarding to work with people who appreciate what you do day in and day out.”
