Survivor Fever - Survivor Palau

From A 'Survivor' Loincloth To A Suit

May 27, 2007
By DIANE LEVICK, Courant Staff Writer

He's pitching group life and disability insurance to brokers, who mostly don't know - or care - that he skewered a shark with a machete to feed his starving "Survivor" tribe on the Pacific island of Palau.

You're probably wondering why Westman, 43, would settle for a sedate second career - or even need one - after the TV prize he won and the high-energy life he's known? After all, his passion was a 20-year career as a New York firefighter, rising to lieutenant of Ladder Company 108 in Brooklyn.

But $1 million from "Survivor" doesn't go that far after taxes, and a multitude of family and financial reasons convinced him to move on - including his wife's increasing worries about his firefighting job after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"I always did feel that there was something else out there," Westman said. "I had a nagging sense that something had missed me, and corporate America is something I wanted to be part of."

So Westman found a new challenge in December with a nearly 200-year-old insurance company. He works in the New York City office of The Hartford Financial Services Group and takes the 5:44 a.m. train in from Sayville on Long Island, where he lives with his wife, Bernadette, and three young children.

The fame from "Survivor: Palau," which was shot in late 2004 and aired in 2005, has begun to fade, and it doesn't bother him. Getting on the show wasn't his idea anyway, though he had the physique - 5 foot-11 and a muscular 190 pounds - before dropping 30 pounds during the competition.

His wife pushed him to apply, threatening to enter herself if he didn't.

"I realized I was faced with the alternative: instead of 39 days on an island, I was going to be 39 days at home [alone] with the three kids," Westman said during a visit to Simsbury last week for additional training by The Hartford.

Joining the cast of the TV show "was the lesser of two evils," he said with a chuckle.

The show, which presents players with a series of challenges, features ever-changing alliances and plenty of back-stabbers. Westman wasn't one of them. He remained well-liked and respected, according to fellow Survivors and viewers of the show.

"He just played it with a lot of integrity," said Jennifer Lyon, one of the final four Palau players. He was "very stubborn. When he said he was going to do something, he'd always follow through with it."

Westman says he "played it real clean," because the victor must face a jury of players who vote on whether to award the $1 million. "I was able to sit and tell seven people on the jury, `I didn't lie to one of youse,'" he recalled in his New York accent.

The $1 million prize amounted to about $540,000 after taxes, but he's not complaining.

"I'm a blue-collar guy who paid for three college educations with 39 days of work," he said. "That's a dream opportunity."

After funding Section 529 college savings plans for all three of his children, the little money left over went to home repairs.

"It's life-enhancing but not life-changing money," Westman said.

He said he realizes the average American would almost be disappointed that he didn't buy a Porsche or a boat.

"I bought a much nicer grill than I would normally have spent the money on," he offered.

It was clear he'd still need a job. Westman left the fire department, having locked in a pension with 20 years of service. If he had stayed 30 years, he figured, he'd be in his 50s and not as attractive to corporate America.

The first year after "Survivor," he earned some "silly easy money" from his brief fame. The Caribbean Joe casual clothing line hired him as a model and spokesman.

He played a firefighter on an episode of the soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful."

"Hollywood didn't come breaking my door down following the appearance," Westman said.

Articulate and personable, he agreed to a variety of speaking engagements. He spoke without pay, for instance, for the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and got paid to speak by Cochlear Corp. USA, a maker of electronic implants that provide some hearing to the deaf.

The inspiration for those talks - and Westman's fateful link to The Hartford - was his daughter Meghan. She'd been left profoundly deaf by meningitis when she was 18 months old. She received a cochlear implant at 23 months and was mainstreamed by kindergarten. Today, nearly 11, she's playing violin, singing in the choir, and is an "absolute star," Westman beamed.

After 9/11, The Hartford invited the families of five affected firefighters who had children with disabilities, including the Westmans, to be guests at the annual Hartford Ski Spectacular in Colorado, a sports event for the disabled.

Westman had the day off on 9/11. But he had rushed to the World Trade Center to help, arriving after the two towers fell, but in time to see the collapse of an adjacent building where The Hartford and other companies had offices.

At the ski event, Westman got a feel for The Hartford's "ability philosophy" and liked it. The thinking, he said, is that "people don't want to be sitting on the sidelines as a result of their disability. They want to be part of an active life."

He returned repeatedly to the event as a volunteer, and it gave him a chance to meet some of The Hartford's senior executives. They suggested he call them when he was ready to switch careers. In December 2005, he called but there wasn't a job opening for him until last November.

In December, he became a "priority account representative" in training and now works with brokers to sell insurance to employers of fewer than 1,000 people.

The Hartford didn't hire Westman because of his "Survivor" celebrity, but it didn't hurt, said Bob Reiff, vice president and director of the distribution and field service organization in the company's Group Benefits division.

"He's a very motivated and driven individual," Reiff said. "He's a big-picture kind of guy." Westman "really connects well with people," and "he's really got a salesperson's DNA," Reiff added.

Undeterred by Westman's lack of insurance knowledge, The Hartford hired him based on his life experiences, such as the team-building and leadership qualities developed as a firefighter. Besides, insurance can be taught.

Westman says he doesn't bring up his "Survivor" experience when he calls on brokers.

"I want to be seen as the group benefits rep from The Hartford, not the guy running around in a loincloth," he said.

His mission is to get brokers, who shop around among insurers, to put The Hartford in the running as often as possible for employers' life, disability, and accidental death-or-disability coverage. He focuses on the strength of the company's contract language and claims-handling ability in getting people back to work, not just on price.

He finds his firefighting skills translate well to the job. Just as no two fires were alike, no two sales situations are identical.

"You have to analyze it, come up with a plan of action, and implement it," he said.

Westman, whose salt-and-pepper hair is prematurely graying, also finds that starting the new career at 43 helps him connect on a personal level with brokers, who are often in his age range and share common interests and priorities.

Although The Hartford is pleased with his performance so far, Westman figures his biggest challenge will be how to effectively organize and manage his time.

He's already cinched the camaraderie on his new job. Sitting for this interview in front of a Simsbury Inn fireplace, he made sure to call out greetings to colleagues as they arrived for the training session.

The smiling Survivor explained, "This is my new tribe now."