SESP 100: Advantage Sahara
The School of Education and Social Policy is highlighting notable alumni who have helped shape education and social policy for the last 100 years, as part of our Centennial celebration. Visit our Centennial website.
As captain of the men’s tennis team during his undergraduate days, School of Education and Social Policy alumnus Jamie Sahara (BS02) learned to lead a team long before he ever ran a company.
Today, he uses those skills as founder and president of Applied Underwriters, which helps governments, businesses, and people deal with financial risk, a role he's held since 2019, when he and a partner bought the company from Berkshire Hathaway.
Tennis and insurance may seem worlds apart, but Sahara sees more overlap than you'd expect. Leading and motivating a team, managing different personalities, getting people aligned, and helping people work well together under pressure all carried over into what he does now.
"No two days are the same," he said. "Every day presents a new challenge, a new situation, or a new opportunity to solve something."
Sahara’s day-to-day job involves running an insurance business and everything that comes with it: building relationships, anticipating client needs, evaluating potential risk, solving problems, and building a company culture. An avid golfer, he helped create what became one of the premier charity golf events in the country, the Applied Invitational, to bring together clients, partners, friends, and business leaders.
In both tennis and his career, he’s found that his success often comes back to how well he manages uncertainty. "You very quickly have to be okay with not knowing what's on the other side, and if you're not, you're just going to have a ton of anxiety," he said. "Going through the unknown and seeing the other side — you work hard, and dedicate yourself, and prepare — there is going to be another side."
To Sahara, uncertainty isn't something to fear, because it's part of growth.
"The people who tend to do well over time are not the ones who have every answer on day one, but the ones who stay adaptable, keep learning, and continue moving forward when the path isn't obvious," he said.
Heading to the Midwest
Sahara, who grew up in Santa Maria, California, initially came to Northwestern to play tennis, but at the School of Education and Social Policy, he soon began to think about more than his backhand.
"I was surrounded by people who were curious, thoughtful and engaged in a different way," he said. "I had stepped into a different kind of environment. A different kind of culture. And that started to change how I saw myself, and what I thought I could become."
He was first introduced to the insurance industry while still a student, when General Re came recruiting. He interviewed and got the job. "At the time, I didn't realize that interview would lead to a lifelong career," he says.
But his career path didn't follow a neat line. After getting his third termination notice in 12 years, he sat alone in his car and made a decision: The next 40 years of his life would feel different.
"From then on, I stopped trying to force the things that wouldn't fit," he said. "If I couldn't find the right environment, maybe I needed to build a new one."
Over time, he did. He also found partners and friends who believed in what he was building and wanted to become a part of it.
Building a ‘good culture’
Sahara, a member of the School of Education and Social Policy’s Board of Advisors, now lives in Irvington, N.Y., with his spouse and their two children, ages 10 and 12.
He returned to campus to deliver the 2026 SESP convocation address, where he shared memories of lifelong friendships and of the library, the tennis courts, and The Deuce.
He also spoke about the importance of building a good culture, or creating places where people bring out the best in each other.
"If it doesn't exist, build it," said Sahara, who learned this lesson the hard way early in his career. "Take risks. Try things. Sometimes they'll work out. Sometimes they won't. But whenever possible, choose happiness, choose to make others feel welcome."
"People will look to you, not just for direction, but for how to behave. How to belong. How to fail. How to respond. And how to treat each other," he said.
"Many people can come up with a good idea. But what turns a good idea into something real is whether people believe in it. Whether they feel like they're part of something bigger. Because when people feel like they're in the club, they show up differently. That's what makes things work. That's good culture."