Her Story
About Lori
Lori Washburn is a Managing Director of Agency Business Solutions at Hylant, where she oversees enterprise innovation across the organization, shaping the strategy, governance, and delivery model that turns emerging technology into production capability for multiple business units. Based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, she brings a foundation of insurance industry expertise, with more than a decade of specialized experience in insurance technology, with particular depth in agency management systems, data migration, and automation. Her career began on the retail side of the industry, where she managed client accounts and agency operations, before she moved into corporate leadership in 2018 to focus on integrations, onboarding, and enterprise database development for large brokerages. Throughout her nine years at Acrisure, Lori rose steadily through progressively senior roles in AMS integration and business operations, eventually helping to design and lead an internal integration and implementation program that guided the onboarding of more than 100 newly acquired agencies. That work sharpened her ability to align people, process, and technology across complex, multi-entity organizations — a skill set she now applies at Hylant in building teams that manage agency management systems, automation initiatives, and emerging AI-driven service capabilities. She holds a CIC designation and an Oklahoma property and casualty producer's license, and she is currently working toward her Certified Risk Manager credential. Lori credits much of her professional growth to time spent in large organizations that demand collaboration across departments and transparent, non-siloed decision-making — principles that continue to guide both her leadership style and her personal values of honesty and teamwork. She is a vocal advocate for technology adoption within the insurance industry, encouraging the next generation of professionals, especially women, to embrace innovation rather than fear it, viewing the wave of upcoming retirements as an opportunity to build new roles and career paths that didn't previously exist. In recognition of her contributions to the field, Lori has been selected as one of the Influential Women representing Oklahoma City for 2026.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lori
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the years I've spent working within large, distributed organizations, where cross-functional collaboration isn't optional — it's essential. Operating in environments where decisions can't be made in silos has shaped how I lead and how I approach problem-solving across teams.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
One principle has guided me throughout my career: hire and surround yourself with people who are smarter than you in their areas of expertise. Organizations excel when leadership is confident enough to bring together talented people, trust their contributions, and give them autonomy to lead. In those environments, collaboration becomes a force multiplier and leaders find themselves leading other leaders rather than managing people who do not feel empowered to act.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I encourage young women entering this field to lean into technology rather than shy away from it. Embracing it and helping lead its adoption allows us to streamline routine work and, in turn, create more elevated, meaningful roles within the industry.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge I see is technology adoption and change management, particularly among tenured employees who may be resistant to rapid change. At the same time, I see significant opportunity: a coming wave of retirements is opening the door to build new teams, new functions, and roles that never existed before.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Transparency, honesty, teamwork, and cross-functional decision-making are the values I hold most important, both professionally and personally.
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