MUNCIE, Ind. -- Bilingual skills are among the top abilities needed in the increasingly global insurance industry, say four Ball State University alumni leaders in the field.

"Bilingual job applicants are very attractive to my firm, particularly American speakers of Portuguese," said Paul S. Bell ‘67, vice president and actuary of American International Group in Wilmington, Delaware.

Bell and other business alumni exchanged ideas at a meeting of the BSU Actuarial Science Advisory Board and the BSU Insurance Advisory Board held at the Ball State Alumni Center.

Bell strongly recommended that all business graduates have a foreign language competency. Students need to prepare to work with people from other societies, the group agreed.

"The need to understand foreign cultures is critical," said Raymond J. Ohlson ‘72, president of Standard Life Insurance Company in Indianapolis. "My firm is especially interested in accounting and MIS graduates with these skills."

Ohlson’s firm acquired a Luxembourg-based insurance company, where staff members speak 15 languages and operate in nearly 100 countries.

Academic exchanges are one way to expose students to different cultures, said Alberto A. Garcia ‘68, vice president/international of American General Corp, Houston.

Garcia, who lived for more than 10 years in Muncie following graduation and now travels extensively for his firm, offered to be the intermediary for Ball State to explore exchanges with top institutions in the Spanish-speaking world.

With relatively few foreign nationals in top positions abroad in his firm, Metropolitan Life vice president and senior actuary Steve Meyers ‘76 emphasized the need to inspire American graduates to consider careers that would take them abroad.

"When I was a student, few of us would consider jobs even in New York where I am now based," he said. "With globalization on the rise, Ball State graduates need to recognize and prepare for international opportunities."

The recent interchange among the alumni resulted in some plans which might lead Ball State students toward more international positions. The group expressed a willingness to make presentations to business classes and will help identify potential exchange partner institutions in non-English speaking environments. The alumni said they are also willing to identify firms that could potentially support scholarships for students to gain essential overseas experiences.