Family ties bind at FM Global

FAMILY AFFAIR: Four members of the Razee family work at insurance giant FM Global. Pictured above, from left, are: Corporate Travel Manager Karen Marie Razee, Collections and Reinsurance Manager Ken Razee, Senior Administrative Assistant Michele Razee and Senior Field Surveyor Joshua Razee. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
FAMILY AFFAIR: Four members of the Razee family work at insurance giant FM Global. Pictured above, from left, are: Corporate Travel Manager Karen Marie Razee, Collections and Reinsurance Manager Ken Razee, Senior Administrative Assistant Michele Razee and Senior Field Surveyor Joshua Razee. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Four members of the Razee family found their way – one at a time – to jobs that have turned into rewarding careers at FM Global, one of the world’s largest industrial and commercial property insurers.
Kenneth Razee is manager of ceded insurance and premium collections and has 37 years with the company. His wife, KarenMarie Razee, is manager of corporate travel with 12 years at FM Global.
Their son, Joshua Razee, is a field surveyor with 15 years of service and Joshua’s wife, Michele Razee, is a senior administrative assistant who has been with FM Global for 10 years.
The Razee family is one of at least 50 families who have members related by birth, marriage or other extended-family relationships who work at FM Global headquarters in Johnston, as well as at the company’s research campus in Glocester and at Massachusetts offices in Norwood and Waltham.
“It’s something that’s grown organically and something we like as a company,” said FM Global Senior Vice President for Human Resources Enzo Rebula, who has been with the company for 33 years. “We find that employees who enjoy working here refer their relatives because they think it’s a great place to work.”
There’s no nepotism or favoritism involved, assured Rebula. FM Global doesn’t hire just because someone is a relative.
“We’re not looking to hire relatives, we’re hiring the best person for the job,” said Rebula. “Sometimes we do hire relatives and sometimes we don’t.”
There are rules about relatives. A main one is they can’t report to each other.
“We don’t want to be in a situation where a family relationship can influence a performance or salary review,” said Rebula.
Another human resources policy is that members of senior management are not allowed to have children or other relatives employed at the company.
Members of the Razee family arrived at FM Global each in their own time.
Joshua Razee, 34, started in a part-time job on the grounds crew during the summer when he was a 19-year-old college student. He had taken classes in Computer Aided Design in high school and done well, then started college and majored in mechanical engineering.
“To be perfectly honest, I didn’t do very well in college,” said Razee, whose father, Kenneth Razee, already worked at FM Global at the time. “My father had told me what a good company it was and how people moved up in the company. I wanted to have a stable, full-time job.”
His part-time job worked out well, so when a position for a full-time groundskeeper opened up, he applied and got it.
“It wasn’t too long after that I tried for more,” said Razee. A field-survey position opened up, so he applied, and once again, was chosen.
“I’ve done training and shadowed our field consultants. I’ve been able to learn from other people,” he said.
“A field surveyor goes to our client sites and gathers data for insurance plans,” said Razee. “Part of what we do is identify building construction and fire-protection equipment and it takes a good amount of mechanical knowledge.”
Razee is currently enrolled in an online program to earn a degree in fire science.
“It’s been an amazing opportunity for me to come from the groundskeeper position and to use my knowledge and experience to move up in the company,” said Razee. “It’s been great for me and my family. I have two young kids and we have a house and I wouldn’t be anywhere near this if it weren’t for FM Global.”
When his now-wife, Michele Razee, who was his fiancé at the time, was ready for a career change, he said, “Why don’t you look at FM Global?”
She did and was hired.
“I worked for Fleet Bank and it was merging with Bank of America,” said Michele Razee. “I was working in a call center and it was questionable about what I was going to do.”
She began as a library assistant at FM Global’s research campus in Glocester, assisting engineers. “I worked at the research campus for four years and from there I came to the corporate office in Johnston as a senior administrative assistant,” she said. “I was getting married and looking for advancement – we were buying a home.”
Michele and Joshua Razee live in Burrillville and ride to work together most days, with their two children.
“There’s a day care, Kindercare, right next to FM Global and our children go there,” said Michelle. The children are 5 and 2 and it works, she said.
“We leave about 7:15 a.m. and get to day care about 7:45. By 7:52 or so we’re in the parking garage and he goes to the first floor and I go to the third floor and I’m at work by 8 o’clock.”
Another advantage is that Joshua’s dad, Kenneth Razee, and his stepmother, KarenMarie Razee, live in Massachusetts but both work at FM Global, and it offers time for the young children to connect with their grandparents after work. “One of the things I find interesting is that when Josh was little, I was working at FM Global and he went to Kindercare here,” said Kenneth Razee. “Now he works here and his children go to the same Kindercare. The first time I went over there to pick up my grandson, it struck me – we’ve really come full circle.”
Kenneth Razee’s wife, KarenMarie Razee, entered that circle a little later. They weren’t married when she began working there as a consultant for the in-house travel company in 1999. She was still a consultant when she was involved in bringing home traveling employees after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
Four company employees were in meetings with clients in the World Trade Center when it was struck, and they perished, said KarenMarie Razee.
“I felt, even then, that I was part of FM Global,” she said, joining the company full time in 2002. She and Kenneth Razee were married in 2007.
“We made it clear to each other, even when we were dating, that we … don’t talk about work,” she said. One benefit of working at the same company, she said, is she and her husband usually ride together from their home about an hour away in Carver, Mass.
Another family pair that’s found a home base for their careers at FM Global are Rebecca Marino and her brother, Mark Bardol.
Coincidentally, they arrived on the same day, July 31, eight years apart.
Marino, FM Global’s design-services manager, began in 2000, moving from a fulfilling job as art director at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., when the commute eventually got to her.
“I was hesitant at first. As a creative person, I had to get over the insurance idea, but this is really a unique company,” said Marino, who lives in Providence.
When her brother was at a point of change, she suggested he look into FM Global.
“I worked as an electrician during high school, then got an associate degree in physical therapy, but never worked in it,” said Bardol. “Then I worked with my brother. We had an exterior-siding business.
“I came to FM Global, originally, after my brother passed away seven years ago,” he said. “I wasn’t really interested in continuing the business and the economy wasn’t doing very well anyway. “After my sister mentioned FM Global, a position as a research technician caught my attention.”
He applied and was hired.
FM Global’s risk management includes extensive work on fire and damage prevention, and the research technician’s job includes setting up mock situations similar to a client site.
FM Global has paid for a portion of Bardol’s education at New England Institute of Technology. “I’m getting a technology degree,” said Bardol. “It’s a full bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering and I’ll graduate in September.”
Bardol has one more confirmation of his sister’s belief that FM Global is a good place to build a career – he has recently been promoted to senior engineering assistant in electrical hazards. •

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