Brenda (Ballard) Austenfeld is a managing director of RT Specialty and CEO & President of RT Specialty’s National Property Practice, providing leadership to brokerage teams in sales and strategy initiatives while managing the relationships of key market and client partners, as well as being a member of RT’s Executive Management team.  Brenda’s guidance and established relationships with global underwriters and company executive leadership has helped RT’s Property Practice grow exponentially and become well-known for its ability to creatively and effectively handle specialized and catastrophic property exposures.

Brenda joined RT Specialty through RT’s acquisition of Westrope & Associates, where she was a Partner and Executive Vice President of their National Property Practice. Before joining Westrope, Brenda served as a property broker and held several leadership roles at retail brokers Alexander and Alexander and Aon Risk Services.

Brenda serves on the Executive Board of Directors for the Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association (WSIA), the Board of Directors for the WSIA Diversity Foundation, and the Board of Directors for The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB).