When Geneau Thames was 9 years old, she saw a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. on TV. Curious, she asked her mother what he was doing. “He’s a lawyer, so he’s helping people,” her mother told her. That struck Thames. “I remember thinking: Okay. I want to do that,” says Thames, vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary for Harford Mutual Insurance Group. “What that looks like has certainly changed throughout the years, but at its core, my path has always been wanting to be someone who does something for someone else.”
That’s precisely what she does for Harford Mutual, the commercial carrier based in Bel Air that provides insurance to businesses from small mom-and-pop shops to larger establishments, from New Jersey to Georgia. “We're not owned by stockholders,” Thames says. “We're owned by our policyholders. They make the decisions that reflect and maintain our solvency so that we can continue to pay claims. And I think that's the difference: When you're a mutual holding company, you’re really invested in the interest of the people you serve.”
Thames didn’t see herself as corporate counsel. After graduating from law school in 2004, she clerked in the Baltimore City Circuit Court. Initially interested in criminal law, after less than six months on the criminal docket, she realized it wasn’t for her. “I didn’t have the heart for it,” she says. “I felt like everybody lost, especially in Baltimore City. The kids we saw in October, we saw them back on the felony docket in May.”
So she pivoted, joined a law firm, and tried civil cases for a decade. One of her clients was Harford Mutual. She was at Harford HQ on a training when her predecessor announced he was resigning. When the question came up of who would take his place, someone in the room said, “You’re looking at her.”
“I just laughed it off at first,” she says. But Harford was serious. After a conversation with CEO Steve Linkous, Thames was hired on the spot.
As much as her heart wasn’t in criminal law, it’s with Harford.
“People are involved, but there's a separation,” she says. “I’m someone who leads with my heart. I'm maternal in nature. And when I was sitting on the criminal docket, especially as I had a young son at the time … I couldn’t do it. But the [transactional] nature here allows me to be engaged, to love what I do, and to enjoy the energy and the academic vigor associated with the work.”
As GC, Thames is a generalist: she needs to know about everything from zoning issues to employment, to mergers, to regulatory work, lobbying, and more. “It keeps me checked in,” she says. “I have no opportunity to become bored. It’s drinking out of a fire hose at all times, and I love that.”
Thames geeks out recalling the historic merger she led between Harford and a Kentucky-based company. “We had to bring that company here to Maryland to get it domesticated. Then we had to create a mutual holding company, and from there, we merged,” she says, eyes dancing. “It was one of the most complicated things I’ve ever done professionally.”
But it wasn’t the hardest thing she faced emotionally. In 2016, at 38, Thames went to the doctor for a routine checkup and bloodwork. When she returned to go over the results, her doctor asked, “Are you feeling tired?” “Of course I’m tired,” Thames told her. “I work full-time and have three children. I’ve been tired for 17 years.” Her doctor sent her for another test. “I was just about to leave for Bermuda, so I didn’t have time for this,” Thames says. But she went.
The diagnosis was acute myeloid leukemia, one of the most aggressive forms of blood cancers. She found herself at Johns Hopkins within 24 hours, fighting for her life. “I remember cross-examining the doctor because I simply didn’t believe it,” she says. “You never see cancer coming.” She stayed in-patient for 33 days receiving intense bouts of chemotherapy. In 2017, she received a bone marrow transplant and has been cancer-free since.
Thames says her community rallied around her, particularly her colleagues at Harford Mutual and the people she met at There Goes My Hero, a Baltimore-based nonprofit that works to save the lives of those with blood cancers. One of its initiatives is Color the Registry, which seeks to diversify donor registries. “The bone marrow registry doesn't look like the United States at large,” Thames says. “That's not for any other reason other than access and education, people not knowing that we need to have as many people of color, and not just African-American, but Asian-American, Latino-American. DNA matters.”
Thames struggled to find a viable donor who needed to be of African descent. Eventually, a clinical trial saved her life. So called to the work of There Goes My Hero, she now serves as its president. “It is my great passion,” she says.
Thames’s penchant for doing good works in the community and paying it forward is mirrored by Harford Mutual. The #HMIGGIVESBACK initiative encourages Thames and her colleagues to engage with the community through company-coordinated events, and offers paid leave for volunteer opportunities. Harford’s charitable giving is grounded in supporting organizations that focus on addressing poverty, health and safety, diversity and inclusion, and community arts and education. “
Another perk of the job for Thames is the location. Born and raised in the Bronx, the former city girl loves her cozy hometown of Bel Air. “Bel Air is like a little slice of Americana,” she says. “It’s been a great place to raise a family, to work, to walk around. I think the folks in the town of Bel Air ultimately don't care where you come from. They care about you getting up every day, going to work, and doing your part to make the community better. I think that’s Harford County in a nutshell: contributing meaningfully in your way, and that’s all they ask.”