EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
Adrian Lewis
LIFE & DISABILITY SERVICES PRACTICE MANAGER
Meet Adrian – a Group Life & Disability Insurance wizard 🧙🏻! With 20+ years of experience in the industry, including over 5 years at FastTrack, Adrian has seen it all – and knows how to provide solutions for just about anything as well. In his spare time, he cherishes giving back by donating his time to families in need and he has a goal of resuming his seminary studies to obtain a Masters in Divinity 🙏.
What is your current position with FastTrack? How long have you been in it?
I am the Life & Disability Services Practice Manager, and have been in this role since May 2016.
What is your typical workweek like?
A typical day at work is filled with online meetings with people at every level of our’s and the client’s organizations. I meet with the teams who are my primary responsibility each morning to review any heightened issues or concerns to provide updates. The rest of the day is spent solving problems; working with the client to design, document, and develop new features for the online portal; providing updates on IT tickets; and generally working to build the relationship.
Do you work with any specific customers?
I work solely with The Standard.
Describe your career path at FastTrack?
This is the only position I have held within FastTrack. Prior to coming to FastTrack, I have had a 20+ year career in the group life and disability industry, including 17 years as an employee of my current client. I have held a number of roles, including LTD analyst, claim team manager, implementation team manager, and managing a department handling STD, LTD, Life, Dental, and Short Term Medical claims.
How has FastTrack helped your personal and professional development?
Working at FastTrack has definitely improved my communication skills. I work with an amazing team at FastTrack 💪. Each person takes great pride in their work with a tremendous amount of ownership and accountability. I have gained a great bit of confidence in using the insurance knowledge that I bring to the table. But along with that confidence has come an equal amount of humility. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with and learn from the technologists as we work together to develop solutions and improvements for our clients. However, in doing so, I have been humbled by the need to speak two languages. To my colleagues, I have to be able to communicate the needs of the client in a way that the insurance jargon is understandable to the technologists. Conversely, I have learned to communicate to the client the functions and capabilities of the system in a way that us understandable to the insurance experts. I have learned to always be cognizant of my audience, and that communicating common information requires tailoring the information to each specific audience.
What is something you love about working at FastTrack?
Working for a small company allows you to have more input in developing solutions and bringing those solutions to fruition more quickly.
Do you have any accomplishments within the organization you’re particularly proud of?
I am certainly proud of the work we have done with The Standard to not only maintain the relationship, but to establish a foundation and level of credibility that has enabled us to grow tremendously and become a preferred vendor.
What is your favorite book, TV show, movie, or podcast?
My favorite book series is an historical fiction trilogy from Greg Iles that covers unsolved murders from the Civil Rights era in Mississippi (Natchez Burning, The Bone Tree, and Mississippi Blood). I continue to be amazed by the ordinary people who not only survived perilous times, but lived as fully as they could and maintained their humanity.
Do you have any hobbies or special interests?
I enjoy exercising 🏃. Over the years, I have run quite a few half marathons, 5K’s, and 10K’s. But more recently that has been replaced by long walks and circuit-training in the gym. Being consistent has enabled me to me reduce medications.
When conditions change, I also hope to resume my role as a volunteer driver with Ronald McDonald House charities. Prior to the pandemic, I volunteered monthly since 2013. My daughter was born prematurely with a health condition, so being able to help families in similar situations has been a real joy for me ❤️.
Additionally, within the past year, I have taken up shooting at indoor ranges, and enjoy shooting with my brother when I get the chance. But my long term goal is to resume my seminary studies and obtain my Masters in Divinity.
What type of activities are you most likely to be up to on the weekends?
Most of my time on the weekends is spent at church where I am an associate minister and also the treasurer. But I also catch up on my DVR.
What is your favorite vacation destination? What’s one you haven’t visited yet but would like to in the future?
My favorite vacation destination is the North Shore on Oahu 🌅. In the future, I would love to travel to the Maldives.
What person would you most like to switch places with for a day?
I have a nephew who is a police officer. I would trade places with him for a day to see what he experiences and how he is able to help serve people.
What’s the first thing you would do if you won the lottery?
I would buy a new cell phone, change the phone number, and destroy my old phone 😝.
What is your favorite 21st century innovation?
I am amazed by the evolution of virtual meetings. In a previous role, I traveled frequently, sometimes up to 40,000 to 50,000 miles per year to visit clients and attend various meetings across the country. I remember my daughter commenting once that there had to be an easier way. The pandemic has forced us to convert to virtual meetings through online platforms for business continuity. Although I miss the face-to-face meetings, I am grateful that we are able to continue working remotely. It has allowed me to work while away from home and spend more time with family.
What’s something you loved doing as a kid? Do you still do it now?
As a kid I just enjoyed the freedom of playing outdoors. We played football in the street, basketball in our backyard, hide and seek, and so on. I’m old enough that I remember life before video games and social media. I still enjoy time outdoors now, but at a much slower pace. Usually now my outdoor time is made of walks along the waterfront and through downtown Vancouver.
Who is one of your personal heroes?
My personal heroes are my parents. I am fortunate to have been reared in a family that I never had to look elsewhere for role models. They raised each of us with what I learned later to have been meager resources. But each of my siblings and I went to college and stayed out of trouble.
What is your motto for life?
“Do all the good you can, for all the people you can, in all the ways you can, for as long as you can.”
If there was a movie about your life made, who would you want the narrator to be?
Richard Pryor.
Is there anything not mentioned above that you would like people to know about you?
The most gratifying part of my job is knowing that—even at the periphery—I am able to help people in their time of need. What we do is vital to helping the claim handlers pay claims to people who are experiencing severe disabilities and are in need. Knowing that I am able to help people in need makes it all worth it 🤗.
Connect with Adrian on LinkedIn
