NEW YORK — More than $1 million was raised for the Spencer Educational Foundation at its gala dinner yesterday, when over 750 industry executives gathered to celebrate insurance industry education. This year’s dinner at the Waldorf Astoria set records for both attendance and dollars raised, Spencer said.

Proceeds from the event will help pay for scholarships for students and professionals studying risk management and insurance, as well as provide funds for the foundation’s grant programs.

Since 1979, the foundation has awarded more than $5.3 million in scholarships to undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate students and risk managers and provided more than $2.2 million in grants.

The event also honored John Q. Doyle, CEO of Global Commercial Insurance for AIG (below left), and Warren J. Mula, CEO of Aon Broking for Aon Risk Solutions (below right), for their contributions to the insurance profession.

“The impressive numbers that we have generated this evening speaks to the incredible generosity of this industry,” Mula said during his remarks.

“The many insurance companies and brokers, agents and clients that are assembled here today celebrate this special industry of ours.”

He continued, “Clearly the world today is more complex in many ways and much more fragmented than it was when my grandfather began his career. Obstacles to achieving business objectives and seizing opportunities for growth are more complex. To empower economic possibility requires everyone to be smart, agile and involved around the topic of risk. This is the tremendous responsibility we have in our industry. The bar has indeed risen as the magnitude, speed and complexity of risk increases.”

Mula said that the job of risk managers is to minimize risk in order to help organizations take risk. He added that attracting and retaining talent for the industry has become increasingly difficult.

“Brilliant minds are needed to create technology to deal with the incredible amounts of data that we are all confronted with daily,” he said.

Doyle noted that the industry is all about people and trust and he pointed out that a wide variety of skills and talent are needed for the industry to flourish.

Spencer Educational Foundation Chairman Brion Callori said in a statement,  “We are very appreciative of all the support that the industry continues to provide the Spencer Educational Foundation which allows us to fulfill the educational and professional goals of the next generation of industry leaders. We look forward to another 35 years of delivering exceptional opportunities through our scholarship and grant programs that directly benefit the entire industry.”

In addition to the honoring Mula and Doyle, the gala also featured remarks by:

• St. John’s University senior and this year’s Spencer Scholar, Bailey Noone, who shared her story of how the Spencer Educational Foundation has impacted her life.

• St. Francis College’s Academic Dean, Allen Burdowski, who spoke about the foundation’s $50,000 grant that has helped fund the development of the school’s risk management and insurance curriculum.

• Debra Rodgers, senior vice president of global risk management for Aramark, who spoke of her participation in the internship program and how the grant she receives from the foundation allows her to secure resources to train  future risk management leaders.