Meet the Experts: Monica Gallagher
In this Meet the Experts, we speak with Monica Gallagher, October Three’s Administration Practice Leader, to discuss her career, love of dance, and more.
1. Thinking of your career overall, or considering other organizations in our space, what do you find most unique about working at October Three?
Yeah, it's a great question. I love that October Three is solely focused on defined benefit plans. October Three “wants to” be in the pension business, and we’ve become an employer of choice for fellow DB gurus. I thoroughly enjoy working with DB plans. There's an incredible variety from traditional to cash balance plans. So, it's never-ending. There's always something new to learn, which is kind of exciting. And I really enjoy working at such a special place with phenomenal colleagues.
2. How did you get into this industry?
During the first few years of my career, I worked for an insurance company, paying medical claims to group employers. Then, I had the opportunity to work for a company with a wonderful reputation at the time, Hewitt Associates. That career move allowed me to transfer my math and analytical skills to the retirement arena and began my “destiny” working with pension plans.
Hewitt Associates was a lot like October Three in that they both have a learning culture, and I love to learn. Pension plans come in all sizes and shapes, various plan designs from traditional to cash balance, and we get to work with clients in all types of industries. Basically, the learning never stops!
3. What's one project or achievement you're particularly proud of?
When I joined October Three in 2014, our goal was to build a first-class, top-notch pension administration group that would provide white glove service to our clients. Our passion and mission has been to really focus on three things:
Taking care of a client’s pension participants and delivering on the employer’s brand promise. Retirement should be a special event and celebrated. Our role is to ensure the participant’s retirement experience is smooth and that they feel taken care of during the process. We apply the same level of attention when a death occurs, helping the survivor with the benefit payment process.
Giving our clients peace of mind by mitigating any risk, whether that be compliance-related (we ensure all i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed), financial risk (managed by our actuarial colleagues), or even possible employee relations risks.
And thirdly, our goal is to save our clients time by managing all of the required processes and transactions. As a result, our clients can spend their valuable time on other core business priorities.
Bottom line, I am very proud of the team that we have built at October Three, delivering on our passion and mission.
4. What's one thing you wish others could know about your role?
The breadth of my role includes a wide variety of focus areas, from our people and clients to our technology and sales. I also think that an important part of my role is to share knowledge, coach/mentor, and help our team grow and develop. So I would say the wide variety of ways that we take care of our team, and how we transfer that to our clients.
5. What's a book, podcast, or other resource you'd recommend to others, and why?
I admit to being in the retirement industry for over three decades, and so many of the books I read were during my early to middle career years. Therefore, I thought that I’d share a few of the books that have stuck with me over time.
The first two are about the evolution of businesses – “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap” and “Barbarians to Bureaucrats: Corporate Life Cycle Strategies.” Both books speak to the growth of small, entrepreneurial, innovative companies, noting that as they grow and naturally need more structure and more processes, the risk of becoming bureaucratic with tons of red tape restrictions and delays increases.
My second two books focus on people management – “The 2 R Manager, When to Relate, When to Require & How to do Both Effectively” and “The Effective Manager.” What I liked about both of these is that they had very practical examples you could put to use immediately, not just theoretical concepts.
6. What's a skill or hobby you have outside of work? Have you ever applied something you learned from a hobby to your role?
I often hear that people don’t like to read anymore, but I personally love to read. I also love music and dancing. A little trivia about me is that years ago, I was a volunteer/apprentice teaching Latin dancing. It was a lot of fun, great exercise, and a very good stress reliever.
People often ask me if I’m a good dancer, and I tell them that my daughter is a college professor teaching Modern Dance, and that she is the artistic dancer, and I’m the enthusiastic dancer.
Something I have found that overlaps is that people who were very math-oriented could pick up dancing pretty quickly. They could get the rhythm, you know? I don't know how much of that relates to work, but dancing is a good way to relax so that you can come back the next day and hit the ground running.