Helping P&C insurers drive innovation and turn possibilities into realities.
Episode 13, Season 6
Episode 12, Season 6
Tom brings 25 years of experience in solving the complex problems of digital content to the role of CEO of indico. Prior to joining indico, Tom was the Chief Product Officer at Cxense (see-sense), a leading Data Management provider and founder of Ramp, an enterprise video content management company. Tom also held senior roles at Fast Search, Miva Systems, and Lycos. He has extensive experience with company building and venture-backed startups and holds an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from Wharton.
Episode 11, Season 6
Michael is a serial entrepreneur with over 15 years experience launching technology companies in the mobility space. As the CEO and Founder of Xtract, his mission is to transform how telematics data is leveraged in claims management - automate decision-making and improve the overall customer claims experience.
Episode 10, Season 6
Andreas Martin is the CEO of Upptec, a Swedish insurtech company transforming personal property claims handling through automation. Passionate about innovation, he started as a summer intern over a decade ago and has held roles like Chief Product Officer. Today, he focuses on international expansion while enjoying life in Malmö with his partner and their English Cocker Spaniel.
Episode 9, Season 6
Dan Sandaver is the visionary Founder and Managing Director of Codafication, a groundbreaking digital technology company revolutionizing the insurance claims process. With his personal two decades of frontline experience in claims management and disaster response, Dan has a unique perspective on the challenges customers face in rebuilding their lives after major natural catastrophes.
Recognizing the need for a more meaningful and efficient claims experience, Dan founded Codafication, a Brisbane-based SaaS powerhouse now serving some of the world's largest insurance carriers. This privately funded company is at the forefront of digital transformation, tackling industry challenges like regulatory compliance, supply chain optimization, and innovation in claims handling.
With a rapidly growing team of over 50 experts and a footprint expanding into global markets, Codafication is setting the standard for what’s possible in insurance technology. Under Dan’s leadership, the company isn’t just scaling—it’s reshaping the future of claims management.
Episode 8, Season 6
Prashanth is a Principal in our Insurance Practice and serves as the leader of both the Insurance Technology and Operations practice and
the Embedded Insurance practice. Additionally, he is the Lead Client Partner for some of our most strategic clients, bringing over 25
years of experience to the role.
Prashanth acts as a trusted advisor to the Property and Casualty Insurance industry and its leaders, focusing primarily on technology
strategy, large-scale business transformation projects, and navigating emerging technology disruptions. He excels in helping clients
solve their most complex challenges by leveraging his deep industry knowledge, innovative thinking, and a collaborative approach. As
the co-lead of our Insurtech practice, he has advised numerous early to late-stage startups, guiding them through critical growth phases
and strategic pivots. He also leverages an ecosystem of partners, including startups, to deliver cutting-edge solutions that drive
efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and create competitive advantages for his clients.
Before joining our firm, Prashanth worked at The Hartford, where he held multiple roles, including leadership positions in the
Commercial Lines Technology organization and as the head of IT Strategy and Enterprise Architecture.
Episode 7, Season 6
Valkyrie is the CEO and Cofounder of Faura, an insurtech startup that provides loss control solutions to insurers with high-risk books of business. She began her work as a data analyst and engineering intern at SpaceX before being awarded the 776 Fellowship to work in sustainability. Since then, she's launched assessments in wind, hail, and wildfire to add climate resilience data to the insurance market and is now operational across the country. She has previously spoken at the Gartner IT conference, SXSW, the Aspen Ideas conference, and more.
Episode 6, Season 6
Owen Williams is a technology leader with over 30 years of experience in the insurance industry. As Chief Information Officer at Ascot Group, he drives innovation and digital transformation across the organization.
Prior to joining Ascot, Owen held senior leadership positions at prominent insurers including Everest Group, Chubb, Tokio Marine, and Hamilton Group. His track record of implementing cutting-edge technology solutions has earned him industry recognition, including the Novarica Core Impact Award (2020) and two Novarica Digital Impact Awards (2020, 2022).
Owen holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor's degree in Management with a concentration in Information Systems from Post University.
At Ascot Group, Owen leverages his extensive expertise to spearhead strategic technology initiatives, enhancing operational efficiency and driving business growth in the specialty insurance market.
Episode 5, Season 6
Rose provides innovation leadership via business ecosystems, technology, unique
insurance solutions, and enhanced client service initiatives. Rose is a thought-leader
and Ambassador for AXA, and co-founder of the award-winning AXA XL Ecosystem.
She has 22+ years of experience in engineering, construction, risk management,
insurance, and expert witnessing. Ms. Hall earned her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers
University, and her master’s degree from Stanford University.
Episode 4, Season 6
Simone Dossetor
CEO, Insurtech Austrailia
Episode 3, Season 6
Heather Wilson, CEO Clara Analytics
Heather H. Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of CLARA Analytics, has more than two decades of executive experience in data, analytics, and artificial intelligence, including as global head of innovation and advanced technology at Kaiser Permanente and Chief Data Officer of AIG and Citigroup. While at AIG, she was named the Insurance Woman of the Year by the Insurance Technology Association for her data innovation work. Wilson has been a steady supporter of diversity. She launched the Kaiser Permanente Women in Technology group, focused on mentorship and retention for women in math, technology, and science, and at AIG, she launched Global Women in Technology and served as executive sponsor of Girls Who Code.
Episode 2, Season 6
Brad Lontz has a 25+ year career in technology leadership across diverse industries. He drives growth through technology-business alignment, organizational development, and project excellence. Brad has been the Chief Information Officer for CopperPoint Insurance Companies since December 2019 responsible for technology operations and leading the technology integration of acquired companies. Previously, Brad served as the Chief Information Officer for the California Dental Association where he worked to improve the company’s information technology program execution, transform its insurance operation, launch a new e-commerce distribution business. He was the Chief Information Officer for Nautilus Insurance, a national multi-line insurance firm. He also spent eight years at Liberty Mutual Insurance Company in several IT management and development roles of increasing responsibility. Brad, hailing from Indiana, holds a BS in Computer and Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Indiana University. His industry commitment includes roles at the AZ Society of Information Management and the Arizona InspireCIO Group.
Episode 1, Season 6
William Pieroni
Mr. Pieroni is Chief Executive Officer of ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations
Research and Development), the global standards-setting body for the insurance industry.
ACORD standards, assets, and solutions enable seamless information exchange and transactions
across insurance stakeholders worldwide. ACORD’s 36,000 participating organizations include
(re)insurers, agents and brokers, financial services organizations, solution providers, and industry
associations, leveraging ACORD assets to support over 90% of global premium. ACORD
maintains offices in the United States and United Kingdom, with professionals and members
spanning over 100 countries.
Mr. Pieroni’s career includes senior roles at major brokers, insurers, technology firms, and
consultancies. Prior to his appointment as ACORD’s CEO, Mr. Pieroni served as the Chief
Operating Officer of Marsh, responsible for the firm’s worldwide operations. Prior to that he
served as Senior Vice President in the Office of the Chairman at State Farm. Mr. Pieroni’s
extensive financial services background includes tenure as General Manager of IBM’s insurance
business, partner at Accenture, and consultant with McKinsey & Company.
Mr. Pieroni earned his Bachelor of Science in accounting with University Honors & Distinction
from the University of Illinois. He also received his M.B.A. with Highest Distinction from
Harvard University School of Business Administration, where he was named a Baker Scholar.
www.linkedin.com/in/bill-pieroni-99740670
Episode 21, Season 4
Special Episode: Top P&C Soundbites on Generative AI
We took top insights on generative AI from insurance industry leaders who appeared as guests during the first half of the year—and packaged them into a single "best-of" episode. From the most compelling GenAI use cases to strategies for mitigating AI hallucinations to the dangers of GenAI-enabled fraud and more, it's a potent encapsulation of the state of GenAI adoption in P&C insurance during H1 2024.
Episode 20, Season 4
Mojgan Lefebvre
Executive Vice President
Chief Technology & Operations Officer
Mojgan Lefebvre is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology & Operations Officer for Travelers.
She is responsible for the company’s technology, data, analytics, cyber security and business operations
including business resiliency, customer service, premium audit and billing across the enterprise.
Before joining Travelers in 2018, Lefebvre served as global Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Liberty
Mutual’s commercial business and held leadership positions of increasing responsibility across a variety
of other industries, including medical device company bioMérieux and strategy consulting firm Bain &
Company.
Lefebvre founded Travelers’ internal professional group EmpowHER+, focused on enhancing the careers
of women in technology and operations with the help of allies, and is the executive sponsor of the
company’s partnerships with nonprofits Girls Who Code and AnitaB.org. She was also one of the
founding members of T200, a tech peer community with a mission to foster, celebrate and advance
women’s leadership in tech.
She is one of Forbes’ CIO Next 50 Innovative Technology Leaders, a CIO Class of 2022 Hall of Fame
inductee and a member of the National Diversity Council’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology.
She was a 2017 Digital Insurance Women in Insurance Leadership Award recipient and a finalist for the
2020 MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award.
Lefebvre graduated summa cum laude with her bachelor's degree as the class valedictorian of Georgia
Tech’s College of Sciences and earned her MBA from Harvard Business School. She has lived and worked
in many countries and speaks French and Farsi fluently. She lives in Boston with her husband and two
college-aged daughters.
Episode 19, Season 4
Margaret Resce Milkint
The Global Insurance Practice Leader at Diversified Search Group
Margaret Resce Milkint is a talent strategist, DEI champion, and evangelist for talent innovation, transformation, and excellence, serving as the Global Insurance practice leader and a member of the Board practice in Diversified Search Group's Chicago office. From CEOs to Chief Medical Officers, her expertise spans across the C-suite and boardroom.
Expertise
Margaret's executive search career spans more than 35 years, specializing in the insurance and healthcare sectors. She has led searches for key roles, including CEO, COO, CFO, Chief Actuary, CIO, CRO, as well as Chief Medical Officers and Physician Executives. Her invaluable insights also encompass boardroom dynamics, specializing in Director searches.
She has a depth of knowledge in the property and casualty, life, health, and reinsurance sectors, including insurtech, and has successfully completed searches in disciplines such as actuarial, analytics, underwriting, claims, operations, risk, finance, investment, legal, technology, sales/distribution, and marketing.
Margaret advocates for DEI within the insurance sector, driving impactful initiatives. As the North America co-champion for Dive In, the global DEI festival in insurance, she has significantly expanded its reach since 2015. She also played a pivotal role in career development for women and progressive male professionals in the insurance field.
Episode 18, Season 4
Sri Ramaswamy
CEO, Charlee.ai
Sri Ramaswamy, Founder & CEO - Patent holder, thought leader, frequent speaker with more than 22yrs experience in data, advanced analytics and AI in Insurance (15yrs+) and banking. Launched 2 analytics products for Insurance prior to starting Charlee. Sri is on the board of Insurtech Association and on the leadership council board of NSBA and SBTC (NSBA council).
Under the vision of Sri, Charlee.ai became the first Insurtech A.I. company to leverage natural language processing (NLP) on claims structured and unstructured data for predicting attorney involvement, litigation and severity. Charlee helps reduce claims expenses, litigation, and efficiently manage reserves. Charlee.ai holds 3 patents for its built-in claims large language models, and ontologies and Charlee continues to grow and help insurance companies with reducing claims severity and litigation under the vision of Sri.
Episode 17, Season 4
Chris Raimondo
Partner, EY, Americas Insurance Technology Consulting Leader
Episode 16, Season 4
Guru Vasudeva
Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Nationwide
Guru Vasudeva is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Infrastructure & Operations at Nationwide Mutual Insurance, a $26 billion revenue financial services and insurance company. In this role, he manages Cloud Computing, On-Prem Hosting, Digital Workplace Solutions, Networking, Security Solutions and IT Help Desk services for the enterprise.
Guru is charged not only with providing infrastructure and operation support for 2,000+ applications, but also transforming these services to using Cloud, DevOps, Automation, Infrastructure as Code and Agile Infrastructure practices. Guru's deep experience in Agile, Lean IT, and Software Engineering at scale positions him uniquely to transform the infrastructure function.
Prior to this role, Guru has held several senior leadership positions at Nationwide including Enterprise CIO of Program & Application Services, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Business Unit CIO, and Chief Architect. In these roles Guru has led several functions including IT strategy, enterprise architecture, cyber security, disaster recovery, large program management, and application development and maintenance.
Guru represents Nationwide in regional economic development activities in the Greater Columbus area such as the Columbus 2020 initiative. He is one of the architects of the Columbus Collaboratory, an entity formed by seven Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Columbus to focus on big data, cyber security and talent development and attraction.
Guru has over 28 years of experience in operations and information technology. Before joining Nationwide, he spent six years at IBM as an executive architect focused on conceptualizing, selling, and delivering large Internet-based business solutions for insurance, retail, and government organizations. He has also worked for AT&T and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
A results oriented leader, Guru has demonstrated success in strategic planning and leading transformational initiatives, as well as running and continuously improving large-scale operations. He excels in applying process discipline and technology to deliver measurable business outcomes.
Episode 15, Season 4
Derek Zahn
Chief Claims Officer at Pure
Derek is responsible for leading PURE’s claims organization. Prior to joining PURE, Derek spent four years at AIG in their Global Claims Department as the Head of Homeowners and CAT Response, where he focused primarily on overseas claims operations. He has been in the insurance industry for over 25 years and has worked for Farmers, Zurich and Maryland Casualty Insurance.
Derek is a graduate of the University of Maryland and currently lives in San Diego, CA. In his free time, Derek enjoys spending time at the beach with his wife and their two children.
Episode 14, Season 4
Charanjit Saggu
Director of Underwriting Innovation
Charanjit Saggu is the Director of Underwriting Innovation at Zurich North America, where he spearheads transformative initiatives in the field of underwriting. With his deep understanding of emerging technologies and their application in insurance, Charanjit has been instrumental in driving advancements in risk assessment and decision-making processes. His expertise in leveraging AI, machine learning, and data analytics has resulted in streamlined operations, improved risk assessment accuracy, and enhanced customer experiences. Charanjit's visionary leadership continues to shape the future of underwriting, cementing Zurich North America's position as a leader in the industry.
Episode 13, Season 4
Wesley Todd
CEO, CaseGlide
Wesley has spent his entire career helping level the playing field for insurance companies in claims litigation.
Wesley started his career defending insurers in the epicenter of the litigation crisis: Florida. He had firsthand experience seeing the challenges insurers and defense attorneys faced: attorney advertising, litigation finance, and nuclear verdicts. He was practicing law when the Florida market hit its turning point – insurance was no longer affordable or available due to litigation. He left his successful legal career to build the CaseGlide software so that the Florida insurers could fight to maintain an insurance market. CaseGlide helped lead the Florida market to modern litigation which led to a healthy insurance market.
After years of restricting access to only the most litigious jurisdictions, CaseGlide recently began accepting national insurers into its software. Today, CaseGlide provides dozens of insurers and hundreds of law firms with the technology to help streamline litigation process compliance, automate administrative processes, and leverage analytics. CaseGlide’s technology has helped insurers connect directly with their law firms and unload vast legacy processes. To support insurers in this journey, CaseGlide also has built the industry’s leading litigation operations team.
Today, Wesley continues to lead the industry’s innovation pace to keep up with the plaintiffs’ bar, AI, and litigation finance.
Episode 12, Season 4
Shane Cassidy
Executive Vice President Insurance
Capgemini Financial Services SBU
Shane Cassidy is the Executive Vice President and Managing Director for Capgemini’s market leading Insurance Business Unit. In his role, Shane is responsible for designing Capgemini’s go to market strategy and services to the evolving and demanding needs of the Insurance marketplace. Shane’s primary responsibility is to build strategic long-term relationships with Capgemini’s customers and partners through defining and delivering strategy, core capability transformation, and operational excellence leveraging domain specific skills and Capgemini’s global delivery capabilities. Shane has supported many of the markets most transformational programs and helped define long term strategies that deliver growth and profitability for many of Capgemini’s customers. Shane is often in Executive and board level discussions to aid in building long term strategies that deliver the desired business outcomes to many of the leading Insurance companies. Additionally, he is recognized as a thought leader and evangelist focused on Data enablement, Automation, AI, Machine Learning and the role of FinTechs and InsureTechs in the Insurance industry evolution. He has also defined and launched Capgemini’s Insurance connect solution that delivers cloud-based core insurance services along with full Insurance processing to the market. He is passionate about driving the journey to true digital agility and a revised expectation of product manufacturing and pricing intelligence to the Insurance ecosystem. He is passionate about technology but even more passionate about the impact it will have on business processes, strategy and outcomes when designed and delivered effectively.
Episode 11, Season 4
Episode 10, Season 4
Tim’s diverse experience allows him to provide clarity and practical guidance to investors, companies, governments, and institutions across several emerging technology spaces - including generative and regenerative AI, automation, robotics, smart cities, 3-D printing, climate tech, blockchain, crypto, fintech, and web3 innovations.
Tim has spent much of his career working at the intersections of technology, policy, governance, and operations offering his unique ability to articulate highly complex information in accessible ways that challenge his audiences to re-think the world around them. He channels his expertise into informative and inspirational presentations on emerging technologies and cultivating future success.
Episode 9, Season 4
David Tobias
David Tobias is co-founder and chief operating officer at Betterview, the Property Intelligence &
Risk Management Solution that the insurance industry depends on to identify and mitigate
property risk, improve underwriting and inspection efficiency, and build a more transparent
customer experience. Betterview is a venture-backed San Francisco based company with
funding from the insurance industry such as Nationwide, EMC Insurance, MaidenRe, Guidewire
Software, and venture first such as ManchesterStory, Alumni Ventures & Compound.
Prior to co-founding Betterview, Tobias spent 17 years as president of Research Specialists Inc.
Under his leadership, RSI grew into a national company working for some of the largest US
insurance companies, before Tobias sold the company in 2019. A veteran of the insurance
industry and property inspection business, Tobias is focused on finding actionable, usable
solutions to insurance-specific problems.
Full Contact Information:
Name: David Tobias
Title: Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer
Company: Betterview
City/State: San Francisco, CA
Stephen Lathrope
Stephen Lathrope is Global Head of Insurance at ICEYE, responsible for ICEYE’s Insurer business
world-wide. He works with leading Insurers, Reinsurers, Brokers and MGAs to help them to drive
value from the business application of ICEYE’s unique Earth observation, natural catastrophe analysis
and persistent monitoring capabilities.
Prior to joining ICEYE, Stephen was Group CEO at SSP, a Private Equity backed Insurer, MGA and
Broker policy administration, pricing and distribution software business based in the UK, with
operations and customers on four continents
Before joining SSP, Stephen spent 20 years with Accenture, where as a Partner in the firm’s financial
services practice he led the insurance industry programme in the UK and had responsibility for sales
and delivery for leading UK and international insurers. He also led the UK Financial Services strategic
deal origination team.
Stephen is a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
Episode 8, Season 4
Mark Garret
Episode 7, Season 4
Martin Welch | HEMIC
Marty is the Chief Executive Officer of Hawaii Employers’ Mutual Insurance Company (HEMIC), the largest writer of Workers’ Compensation insurance in the State of Hawaii. HEMIC insures nearly 7000 Hawaii businesses, which employ over 75,000 workers. Prior to joining HEMIC in 2012, Marty served as President and Chief Operating Officer for Employers Holdings, Inc., a multi-state Workers’ Compensation carrier. There, he drove the formulation and implementation of online quoting, binding, and policy issuance capabilities for small market workers’ compensation customers, led the strategic integration and operational synergy of a $200 million acquisition, and played a key role in Employers’ demutualization and initial public offering strategy. Marty serves on the Executive Committee for the American Association of State Compensation Insurance Funds (AASCIF), and the Governing Boards for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) and the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI).
Episode 6, Season 4
Special Episode: Top Soundbites on Generative AI, Digital Payments & More
We took the best insights shared by insurance industry trailblazers who appeared as guests on the InsurTalk podcast during the last half of the year—and served them up in a single, can't-miss episode. From digital payments to Generative AI to insurtech ecosystems and beyond, it's the perfect way close to 2023—and get inspired for the year ahead.
Episode 5, Season 4
Ian Drysdale
As CEO, Ian has driven One Inc to become the leading digital payments network in the insurance industry, growing revenue at a 60% compound annual growth rate. Since 2021, One Inc has increased its annual payment volume to $65 billion, while working to ensure superior innovation, value, and experience for its clients and their policyholders.
Ian brings over twenty-five years of senior leadership experience from some of the largest payments companies, including First Data, WorldPay, and Elavon. Ian led Zelis Healthcare’s high-growth Payments division. Zelis recapitalized and merged in 2019 at a value of $5.7B.
Before joining One Inc, Ian was an Executive in Residence for Great Hill Partners, identifying and pursuing investment opportunities in the Financial Technology sector and advising Great Hill Partners' FinTech portfolio companies. Ian holds a BA from Bishop's University, Canada, and an MBA in International Business from Florida Atlantic University.
Episode 4, Season 4
Michael Hall
Vice President at Golden Bear Insurance Company responsible for Multi-line Department with a large focus on our Cannabis Program. I started writing cannabis business in 2018 for Admiral Insurance Company (WR Berkeley), and took over the cannabis department at Golden Bear in 2021.
Episode 3, Season 4
Anand Presundar
Over 18 years of demonstrated people and thought leadership across Financial Services, and Analytics.
Sound business problem identification and resolution through data based analytics across Customer, Marketing, Claims, Risk Management, Collections and Operations.
Proven track record of performance in Digital enabled through Advanced Analytics, and Senior Management expertise in Advanced Analytics solutions and execution across Insurance, Banking and Capital Markets.
Specialization: Analytics/Consulting, Cognitive AI, Machine Learning, Advanced Visualization, Distribution, Claims, Consumer Banking, Consumer Credit, Database Marketing, Risk Management, Customer Lifetime Value, Collections Strategy, Data Vendor Management
IP in Customer Lifetime Value, Telematics data driven Driver Risk Score, Cognitive AI
Lisa is an innovative, highly-experienced insurance executive who combines her deep decades of experience serving as CXO (CFO, COO, CSO) for some of the largest insurance institutions (e.g., MunichRe, Famers/Zurich, ING/Voya, PwC) with her entrepreneurial drive to rapidly help startups succeed in the insurance industry in North America. Her thought leadership, ability to create innovative and ingenuitive insurance solutions across P&C, life and health insurance marketplace provides targeted guidance and solutions to expedite launching insurtechs across North America and globally.
Partha Srinivasa serves as executive vice president and chief information officer at Erie Insurance.
Srinivasa joined ERIE in 2022 from Verisk Analytics, one of the world’s largest data analytics firms. At
Verisk, he served as Senior Vice President & Chief Data and Insurance Information Officer, responsible
for the company’s insurance segment technology as well as enterprise-wide data and analytics. Prior to
Verisk, he held multiple technology leadership roles as a global CIO and CTO at companies including
Zurich Financial Services, Tokio Marine HCC, Farmers Insurance and Safe Auto.
Srinivasa brings more than 25 years of IT experience to ERIE’s executive team, including technology
expertise in platform modernization, cloud and digital transformation, innovative technology solutions
for insurance, talent upskilling and enabling data analytics and insights.
Srinivasa has earned global industry recognition, including being named a Top 10 Global CIO in 2015 and
Top 10 CTO in the world in 2013. A native of India, he earned a master's degree in management from
the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India and a bachelor's degree in engineering from
Annamalai University, India.
Episode 21, Season 2
Q&A With Laura Drabik: Harnessing the Power of Ecosystems
Laura joins Ash Faraj, host of the InsurBreak podcast series from Zelros for an in-depth conversation about harnessing the power of insurtech ecosystems to your competitive advantage.
Episode 20, Season 2
Navigating the Complexities of Digital Transformation in P&C Insurance
Arun Prasad
Principal, US Financial Services/Insurance,
Deloitte Consulting LLP
Arun has more than 25 years of experience delivering technology and strategy consulting services to the Insurance industry. Within
Deloitte he has a number of leadership positions and current serves as Deloitte’s Global Insurance Sector Consulting Marketplace
leader. During his tenure at Deloitte. Arun has partnered with carriers, brokers, disruptive start ups looking to define and to execute
strategic initiatives to accelerate growth and increase operational efficiency through the use of technology.
Arun has a strong technology background and recently led a multi-disciplinary project to launch a disruptive insurance start-up which
utilizes a digital platform to engage with customers and prospects. His hands-on experience across banking, securities and insurance
as well as other industries enable him to provide clients with insights from organizations across the maturity spectrum.
His other recent client work include developing the operating model for a global insurtech, post merger integration of two global P&C
insurers, implementing a new core operating platform for a US P&C insurance carrier, development of a strategic enterprise
architecture roadmap for the for a global insurance carrier including infrastructure, applications, data management and operational
processes and developing an IT strategy for a global P&C insurer.
Some of his insurance clients include AEGON, AIG, American Family, AXA, Chubb, Ironshore, Guardian Life, Liberty Mutual, Lincoln
Financial, MetLife, Northwestern Mutual, Principal Financial, QBE and State Auto Insurance. In addition he has served a number of
global banking and securities clients across the Financial Services industry.
Prior to joining Deloitte, Arun co-founded and ran a successful Internet consulting services firm focused on developing leading edge
digital solutions for public and private sector clients.
Episode 19, Season 2
Commercial Insurance 2023: The Digital Tipping Point
Episode 18, Season 2
8 Insurance Technology Trends to Master with Insurtech 'Vanguards'
Why P&C insurers face mounting pressure from inflation, new risks, soaring costs, and heightened competition—and how new additions to Guidewire's Insurtech Vanguards program can help them rise to the challenge.
Episode 17, Season 2
Navigating Wawanesa's Cloud Journey
Cam Loeppky
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Wawanesa Insurance
A member of Wawanesa’s executive leadership team, Cam Loeppky is responsible for IT operations, technology, cybersecurity, data management, and digital delivery. He has more than 20 years of executive experience in financial services and is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors and Chairman of the Board for the Centre for the Study of Insurance Operations.
Episode 17, Season 2
Leveraging the Cloud to Innovate Faster
Tatjana Lalkovic, Senior Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer, Technology Solutions and Enterprise Project Management Office at Definity Financial
As Senior Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer, Technology Solutions and Enterprise Project Management Office at Definity, Tatjana is a change agent driven by curiosity. She’s passionate about leveraging innovative digital technologies to solve business problems and deliver customer-centric experiences. As the leader of Technology Solutions and delivery practices at Definity, she is focused on evolving our technology, digital and agile capabilities to support continuous business transformation and a strong market position.
Tatjana is an experienced transformation leader, and skilled at driving business outcomes with a focus on digital, omni-channel experiences, data/artificial intelligence, and e-commerce technologies. She’s held progressively senior digital & technology leadership roles across telecommunications (Rogers Communications) and Financial Services industries (TD, CIBC, CI Financial, and Fidelity Investments), with keen focus on transformative technologies and innovation. Tatjana was also the recent recipient of the Guidewire Cloud Pioneer Award for her expertise, insight, and leadership in pushing for tech innovation in the insurance industry that led Definity to becoming the first Canadian P&C insurer to have its core insurance platform take advantage of Guidewire Cloud Platform capabilities.
Tatjana is a strong advocate for women in leadership and was previously leading Women in Technology for TD Bank. She regularly enjoys speaking with aspiring leaders in the technology space. Tatjana holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computer Sciences from the University of Belgrade and serves on the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) board of directors and Guidewire Advisory board.
Episode 16, Season 2
"You Can't Efficiency Your Way to Success"–And Other Insights on P&C Innovation
In an all-new podcast episode, we revisit some of the expert insights from insurance industry leaders who appeared as guests in 2022. From insurtech ecosystems, to geospatial analytics, to embedded distribution models and more, these incisive soundbites showcase some of today's biggest insurance industry tech trends—and the bold moves tech-forward insurers are making to thrive in 2023 and beyond: https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-egp96-136fbaf #PandCinsurance #innovation
Commerce Ventures Principal Vivek Krishnamurthy on the Near-Term Evolution of Insurance
Vivek is an investor at Commerce Ventures where he focuses on early stage opportunities in enterprise software and infrastructure for financial services. The Fund’s portfolio includes companies like Bill.com, Marqeta, Snapsheet, Socure, Flueid, Mulberry, CovrTech and ~80 others. Prior to joining Commerce Ventures, Vivek was a member of the investment banking team at Financial Technology Partners where he worked on a number of M&A and private placement transactions for growth and late stage companies in the broader InsurTech & FinTech ecosystem (e.g. GreenSky, Yapstone, Prosper, Enservio)
ICEYE's Global Head of Insurance Stephen Lathrope on Flood Intel & Winning Pitch Day '22
Stephen Lathrope is Global Head of Insurance at ICEYE, responsible for ICEYE’s Insurer business world-wide. He works with leading Insurers, Reinsurers, Brokers and MGAs to help them to drive value from the business application of ICEYE’s unique Earth observation, natural catastrophe analysis and persistent monitoring capabilities.
Prior to joining ICEYE, Stephen was Group CEO at SSP, a Private Equity backed Insurer, MGA and Broker policy administration, pricing and distribution software business based in the UK, with operations and customers on four continents
Before joining SSP, Stephen spent 20 years with Accenture, where as a Partner in the firm’s financial services practice he led the insurance industry programme in the UK and had responsibility for sales and delivery for leading UK and international insurers. He also led the UK Financial Services strategic deal origination team.
Stephen is a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
Mountain West Farm Bureau VP Tim Hays on Cultivating the Farm Bureau of the Future
Tim Hays has spent the last couple decades leading digital transformation efforts for pharmaceutical & manufacturing companies. With a track record of over 30 successful full-life-cycle ERP implementations, he has been constantly at work transforming companies through technological innovation & business intelligence. Tim is currently Vice President of Mountain West Farm Bureau & 360 Insurance companies where significant digital transformation is being enabled by the implementation of the Guidewire Cloud Insurance Suite, and multiple cloud ready platforms. He currently lives in Colorado & Wyoming with his wife of 25 years and their children. Outside of really enjoying his work, if it involves gasoline, gunpowder, or granola, he’s probably into it!
Launching Beneva: EVP, Business Performance Catherine Desgagnés-Belzil Tells All
Holding of a bachelor’s degree in business computing from Quebec’s Laval University, Catherine Desgagnés-Belzil has managed to stand-out throughout her career in the field of information technology by her dynamism and determination.
Catherine joined the Quebec public sector in 2001 and since then, her career has been rich in various professional experiences and marked by a significant involvement in the field of information technology governance. She has been active for several years in structuring activities such as implementing effective enterprise architecture strategies, establishing project offices, developing organizational transformation strategies and providing strategic advice to senior management. In addition, Catherine has implemented and managed major business solutions, some of which play a key role in the delivery of public services to Quebec citizens. She is also actively involved in numerous initiatives in her industry, including those that promote the information technology sector and related careers, and more specifically, she is involved with organizations that promote and encourage the employment of women in IT, such as Le code des filles and Numérique au féminin.
For the past 10 years, Catherine has held strategic IT management positions in the Quebec public service. Most recently, she held the position of Vice President of Business Solutions at the Quebec’s government Shared Services before becoming Assistant deputy minister in charge of Digital Transformation for the Government of Quebec, during which time she set up the Quebec’s Digital Center of Excellence and deployed the government's digital transformation plan. She then became Chief Information Officer of the Government of Quebec. In this role, she was responsible for the governance and management of information technology for the entire government. During this period, she developed and tabled the First Government Cybersecurity Policy and set up the Government Cyber Defence Center and the Government Cyber Defence Network to coordinate the cybersecurity efforts of Quebec public organizations.
Attracted by the challenge of the La Capitale/SSQ Insurance grouping, she left the public administration in 2020 to join Beneva. Today, as Executive Vice President and Leader - Business Performance and Information Technology, she is participating in the implementation of this new organization and contributing to the development of its DNA.
Ernst & Young Partner Bob Reveal: The Rise of Alternative Distribution
Robert Reveal is a partner/principal at Ernst & Young. He has 30+ years of experience in the Digital/Operational/IT transformation space producing quality results for top 20 financial institutions. His focus over the past 10 years has been on platform modernization with the lens of addressing digital experience for customers/employees/partners, simplfying the technology landscape, providing operational efficiences via automation and ensuring regulatory and compliance areas are properly addressed.
Specialties: System modernization, IT and operational transformations, digital transformation, enterprise wide large scale architecture, design and deployments for Fortune 500 companies.
2022 Elite Women in Insurance—Two Winners Are Here With Your Altitude Adjustment
Andy Taylor, CEO of Gore Mutual Insurance Company, on Navigating P&C's Next Horizon
Andy Taylor is the Chief Executive Officer at Gore Mutual Insurance, Canada’s
oldest mutual property and casualty insurance company. He currently leads
the company’s ‘Next Horizon’ strategy, which supports the company’s ambitious
transformation to become a digitally led, purpose-driven, national scale insurer.
Having worked with the Board of Directors and the executive team to develop the
strategy over the past two years, in his role as CEO he will oversee the complete
transformation of the company’s operating model and technology platforms to create
best-in-class solutions for brokers and customers.
Andy joined Gore Mutual in 2005 and has held progressive senior roles within
the organization, most recently holding the position of Chief Financial Officer
and Chief Risk Officer at Gore, where he was responsible for strategic finance,
investments, reinsurance, and risk management. He is currently a member
of the Board of Directors of Gore Mutual as well as the Chair of the Board of the
company’s subsidiary distribution business and a member of the Board of the Institute
for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR). Before coming to Gore, Andy spent
several years working on the advisory teams for several multi-national Chartered
Professional Accountant firms. Andy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in
Economics from Western University and is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA).
Bryan Falchuk, Insurance Industry Technology Expert
& Author of 'The Future of Insurance'
Bryan Falchuk is the Founder and Managing Partner of Insurance Evolution Partners, which advises carriers and their partners on how to navigate an evolving industry facing disruption and change. Bryan spent 20 years in the insurance industry, including serving as Head of Claims for Hiscox USA and leading Growth for insurtech communications solution, Hi Marley. Bryan has also held leadership roles in corporate strategy, operations and distribution at carriers like Liberty Mutual and Beazley. He was a consultant in McKinsey & Company’s insurance practice, and is on the advisory boards of several startups focused on the insurance industry.
Bryan is a best-selling author and public speaker, including several TEDx Talks. His best-selling book series, The Future of Insurance: From Disruption to Evolution, shares case studies of legacy and startup carriers overcoming the barriers to change we all face in the industry to innovate to help Insurance move forward and evolve.
Grange Enterprise Innovation Officer Brent Hammer on Accelerating the Insurance Revolution
Brent Hammer CPA, MBA, CPCU
Innovation Officer at Grange Insurance
As AVP, Enterprise Innovation Officer, Brent drives innovation efforts in support of the enterprise strategy and guides decisions on innovative solutions to boldly position the Grange Enterprise for the future. Brent has 15 years of Property & Casualty insurance industry leadership experience, as well as "Big 4" public accounting and Fortune 500 experience. Brent has a Bachelor degree in Accounting from Ohio University, MBA from the University of Dayton, and is a licensed CPA and Property & Casualty Insurance Agent in the state of Ohio. He has also earned several insurance designations, including Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), and Associate in Reinsurance (ARe)
HSCM Ventures' Adrian Jones On All Things Insurtech—What's In, What's Out in 2022
Adrian Jones is a partner at HSCM Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of Hudson Structured Capital Management Ltd., an alternative asset manager in re/insurance and transport. Before joining HSCM in 2021, he was Deputy CEO of P&C Partners at SCOR, where he set-up and led SCOR P&C Ventures. From 2010 to 2016, he was head of strategy at RenaissanceRe. He started his career in 2001 at Bain & Co and has lived in New York, Paris, Bermuda, Brussels, and Stockholm.
Imran Ilyas, PwC, Global & US Guidewire Alliance Lead and P&C Insurance Transformation co-leader
Imran is a Partner with PwC’s Insurance Practice, combining 20+ years of industry and Management consulting experience, primarily in the P&C insurance industry for Global, National and Regional carriers. He specializes in helping clients with Business & IT strategy, Digital and Core Systems Transformation using Agile techniques
In addition to serving clients, Imran has been a leader in enhancing PwC capabilities in the areas of P&C Insurance Transformation. He has led multiple speaking engagements and led webinars on the topic of Digital & Core System Transformation.
Imran is also recognized for his abilities in facilitating, mobilizing and leading large-scale transformation programs. He has a proven track record leading high performance teams within large organizations to delivering breakthrough business value.
Imran has an Executive MBA from Kellogg School of Management. He also has a Master's of Science and Bachelor's of Science degrees in Computer Science from DePaul University.
Special Year-End Episode–Expert Insights on Igniting Innovation
Bob Frady
Vice President, HazardHub
Guidewire
Bob Frady is the co-founder and former CEO of HazardHub — Guidewire's newest acquisition — which instantly presents more than 1,000 data points via its API,providing unmatched insight to the underwriting process. HazardHub gives insurers, MGAs, and partners the freedom to smash their dependence on outdated, inferior hazard and risk products by combining high-quality data with cutting-edge technology. This data includes water, fire, air, and man-made perils along with building characteristics and building permits. Bob has made a career of using data to develop smarter answers to difficult questions. He is a graduate of Cornell University with a degree in Applied Economics.
Shane Cassidy
Executive Vice President Insurance
Capgemini Financial Services SBU
Steven Van Belleghem
Global Thought Leader in Customer Experience
Steven Van Belleghem is a global thought leader in the field of Customer Experience. His passion is spreading ideas about the future of customer experience.
Steven believes in the combination of common sense, new technologies, an empathic human touch, playing the long-term game and taking your social responsibility to win the hearts and business of customers over and over again.
Steven is the author of multiple international bestselling books including ‘The Conversation Manager’, ‘When Digital Becomes Human’, ‘Customers the Day after Tomorrow’, ‘The Offer You Can’t Refuse’ and a technology thriller called Eternal.
Devi Mohanty
Vice President, Product Development & Innovation
USAA
Devi joined USAA in March 2018 as Senior Strategy Officer in Property and Casualty to lead the strategy team in developing the P&C strategy. After four months, he was asked to take over leadership of the Auto Product Development and Innovation team in P&C. In this role, Devi oversees multiple teams responsible for identifying, defining, prioritizing, and designing new insurance products and solutions for the future needs of the member.
In Auto, Devi leads the Auto Product Development team to coordinate activities across the enterprise on shaping disruption as the auto insurance industry goes through an evolution with emerging models of mobility. His leadership has been instrumental in the development of SafePilot™, USAA’s proprietary behavior-based insurance auto policy enhancement leveraging telematic technologies.
Devi is also responsible for initiating and overseeing USAA’s Small Business Insurance division, the first new product offered in P&C in over 30 years.
With an eye ever towards the future, Devi additionally leads the expansion efforts into new P&C Ventures, including ownership of P&C business development and mergers and acquisition, where he and his team, in collaboration with Corporate Development, explore and develop strategic business relationships to complement or improve product offerings.
In this capacity, Devi recently led a cross-functional team responsible for the acquisition of a usage-based insurance product (UBI) start up, Noblr, Inc., the first acquisition in P&C’s 100-year history. The acquisition accelerates USAA’s UBI entry-to-market in auto insurance, enabling the launch of a new telematics-driven product that will give members the ability to reduce insurance rates.
Devi has a unique balance of strategy, consulting, and entrepreneurial experience with an emphasis on working with senior leaders to develop and implement strategies. Past roles include leading the Enterprise Strategy, Innovation and Strategic Ventures at The Hartford Insurance Company and as a strategy consultant with A.T.Kearney. During 1999-2003, Devi co-founded a dot com start up with funding from leading venture capital firms.
Devi earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Delhi in Physics and has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad as well as an MBA from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. In his free time, Devi likes to spend time with his family, wife and two kids, running and biking, listening to podcasts, music and movies.
Marty Young
CEO
Buckle
Marty Young is the co-founder and CEO of Buckle, the inclusive, digital financial services platform serving the emerging middle class and gig economy. In addition to insurtech and fintech strategies, Marty also leads Buckle in M+A execution. He is a globally recognized Wall Street professional with 20+ years of special situations experience in executing 75+ transactions worth $30+ billion, as both a trusted financial advisor and executive officer. He also serves as Managing Director of M3 Partners, the top Wall Street restructuring boutique, and on the Advisory Board of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Marty is a West Point graduate and has a master’s degree in Operations Research from Georgia Tech and a master’s in business administration from the NYU Stern School of Business.
Thomas Erichsen
Group EVP and CTO
Topdanmark
As Group EVP and CTO heading Innovation, Business Development & Technology at Topdanmark, Thomas Erichsen is responsible for Innovation and experimentations and Product Management, Software Delivery and IT Operation of platforms, solutions and infrastructure serving customers across the group covering insurance and life insurance.
His previous roles at Alm. Brand, Nordea, and PA Consulting Group provided him with extensive experience in setting strategy and in leading large operation as well as large scale business- and IT development organizations and leading digital transformation programmes in a global setting.
Roby Shay
Vice President of Enterprise Solutions and Chief Information Officer
Grinnell Mutual
Roby Shay joined Grinnell Mutual in October 2015, as Vice President of Enterprise Solutions and Chief Information Officer.
Shay is responsible for all aspects of technology at Grinnell Mutual including infrastructure, procurement, cybersecurity, architecture, and application development. He also serves as a mentor for the Global Insurance Accelerator.
Prior to joining Grinnell Mutual, Shay was managing director of Market Rate Consulting, a boutique consulting firm focused on IT strategy, architecture, and project delivery, which he co-founded and subsequently sold.
Shay also served in wide variety of technology leadership roles at American Century Investments, John Deere, and Aviva.
Shay holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Iowa State University. He has three children and lives in Johnston, Iowa.
Denise Pavlov
Chief Operating Officer
Topa Insurance
Denise has over 38 years of experience in the insurance industry with an emphasis in Commercial and Personal lines Underwriting and Customer Service. As Chief Operating Officer at Topa Insurance, Denise oversees the company’s claims, human resources, marketing, products, program development and underwriting. Denise joined Topa Insurance in 2018 as Chief Underwriting Officer after working as a consultant for the company. In the beginning of 2020, Denise assumed her current role as COO. She previously worked for Mutual of Enumclaw Insurance, GMAC Insurance, the California State Automobile Association and Western United Insurance Company. She’s held roles including senior vice president of operations, vice president of operations and chief underwriting officer.
Outside of her work at Topa, Denise sits on the boards of the California FAIR Plan Association, Cannasure Insurance Services and Volta Insurance Solutions.
Irene Bianchi
President and CEO
Peel Mutual Insurance Company
Irene is a graduate of Queen’s University and the University of Windsor School of Law and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, Canada. She is passionate about servant leadership, customer service and bringing innovation to the forefront.
She started her career in insurance over 30 years ago as in house claims counsel at Canadian Surety. She then moved to RSA Canada and built a National in house litigation team there. She went on to various leadership roles within Claims for the next several years and in 2002 was promoted to Vice President of Claims, accountable for strategy and execution across Canada. In 2007 she assumed the additional role of Vice President of Corporate Facilities and Procurement. In 2011, Irene also assumed the role of Vice President of Claims for the Johnson Corporation, the direct to consumer arm of RSA Canada. In 2012, Irene was also charged with leading the strategic direction of RSA International Claims which included operations in Italy, Ireland and Scandinavia.
In 2015, Irene moved to Aviva Canada to the role of Executive Vice President, national claims. In 2016 Aviva bought the Royal Bank of Canada property and casualty insurance book of business. Irene was then charged with merging the Aviva and RBC claims operations across Canada to create a new claims culture for over 1,600 claims professionals.
In 2017 Irene also led a Global Claims Initiative for Aviva involving life, heath and property/casualty claims.
In 2018, Irene joined Peel Mutual Insurance Company as President and CEO. She was charged with revitalizing the organization to focus on customers.
Since joining Peel, Irene has introduced Guidewire across the organization and partnered with many innovative companies to ensure service excellence for customers and brokers.
Kylie Burtenshaw
Enterprise General Manager, Serenity
Insurance Australia Group
Kylie joined IAG in January 2017 as Executive General Manager, leading our Insurance transformation program Serenity to build the foundations for how we support our customers in the future.
Serenity is IAG’s largest single business transformation program. Its objective is to reshape IAG's traditional insurance business to one that is simpler, more efficient and digitally enabled. This multi-year program is delivering changes across Australia and New Zealand including:
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Products that are easier to understand.
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Simpler claims and policy processes that enable us to work faster, smarter and focus more on
our customer experience.
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Clear and easy interactions for our customers by modernising our claims and policy
communications.
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The option for customers to do more online using enhanced digital capability.
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Fewer and more user-friendly claims and policy management systems.
Kylie is an insurance industry leader in large-scale, business-critical transformation programs. She has spent the last 18 years successfully leading programs that range from end-to-end technology integration to full-scale company mergers and has delivered multi-million dollars in benefits and savings for the business and shareholders. Kylie has held a range of operational and strategic roles during a career spanning 20+ in the financial services sector. She holds a Bachelor of Business and an MBA.
Rao Tadepalli
CIO
Seibels
Rao Tadepalli, a successful CIO with more than 25 years of experience in USA and held several executive positions including Director, Vice President, and Senior Vice President. Rao is a forward thinking business and technology executive that drives for clear vision and superior execution of strategy. He has the rare combination of management experience, Executive Leadership and deep technical knowledge with Innovation focus. These skills have helped him gain success both in corporate world and the startup world. He is a recognized leader in the Insurance industry, a thought leader and a sought after speaker at conferences and by Industry publications. Creative and Innovative thinker with sound knowledge of disruption in the Insurance Industry and the challenges it presents along with the solutions available to prepare for these challenges.
Currently working as a CIO with Seibels Insurance Services, and InsurTech advisor to Plug and Play, Silicon Valley.
In the past Rao was Senior Vice President and CIO at Great American Insurance. His efforts to lead process improvements and technology transformation earned Celent’s Model Insurer award in 2017. He is also an advisor to several Silicon Valley Startups.
Jeroen Morrenhof
CEO and Co-founder
FRISS
With a background in both computer science and business administration, Jeroen Morrenhof worked as a management consultant in the insurance industry. Frustrated by repeatedly hearing that fraud was just a cost of doing business, Jeroen co-founded FRISS together with Christian van Leeuwen. Jeroen is extremely happy to lead a global team dedicated to stopping insurance fraud through their proven SaaS technology. As CEO of the company, Jeroen feels privileged to lead FRISS in fulfilling its mission: “To make insurance more honest” because of a belief that fraud undermines the trust that is the foundation of insurance.
Gary Hagmueller
President and CEO
CLARA Analytics
Gary has been a leader in the technology industry for over 25 years, with a deep focus on building AI & Machine Learning applications for the Enterprise market. Over the span of his career, he has raised over $1.2B in debt and equity and helped create over $7.5B in enterprise value through 2 IPOs and 4 M&A exits. Gary holds an M.B.A. from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, where he was named Sheth Fellow at the Center for Communications Management. He also holds a B.A. with honors in Business from Arizona.
Amrish Singh
General Manager
Metromile Enterprise
Amrish is the general manager of Metromile Enterprise, the software-as-a-service business group of the namesake pay-per-mile car insurance leader. He joined Metromile in 2018 to launch the business group and help insurance companies around the world automate their operations, reduce losses associated with fraud, and unlock the productivity of their employees with automation and machine learning technologies.
A lifelong technologist, he has dedicated his career to helping companies operate with greater efficiency and provide a premium customer experience in the enterprise software industry. Before Metromile, he spent more than 16 years in enterprise-product, management consulting, and software engineering leadership roles, including as a founding chief technology officer of a startup and advisor to entrepreneurs, to help scale enterprise software startups.
Amrish holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business, a master's in information systems with summa cum laude honors from Carnegie Mellon University, and a bachelor’s in information technology from a German international university.
David Tobias
Co-founder and COO
Betterview
David Tobias has been in the insurance industry all his life. His father founded Research Specialists Insurance inspections over 48 years ago. David took over that business in 2010 and grew it into a national company working for some of the largest US insurance companies, ultimately selling the company in 2019. In late 2015 David co-founded Betterview (with David Lyman) to provide the insurance industry with Remote Property Intelligence for P & C Carriers. Betterview is a venture-backed San Francisco based company with funding from the Insurance industry such as Nationwide, EMC, MaidenRe, Guidewire, and Venture first such as ManchesterStory, Alumni Ventures & Compound.
Episode 6
Matthew Turack
Group President
Echelon Insurance, CAA Insurance, and Orion Travel Insurance
Matthew is a dynamic, team-oriented, and innovative President who possesses excellent interpersonal, analytic, and project management skills. Over Matthew’s 20 years of insurance experience, he has successfully lead teams of underwriters, actuaries, claims, and sales/service professionals in product design, rate making and the development of risk models.
Matthew has been honored to speak at many insurance industry events about the organization’s success and experiences in implementing industry-leading technologies.
Matthew holds a Bachelor in Business Management degree; Certificate in Risk Management; completed the Business Design Program at the Rotman School of Business, and is a Chartered Insurance Operations Professional. He is also currently completing his Certified Professional Accountant designation. On a personal note, Matthew is a devoted husband and father of two girls, and is also an avid golfer.
Episode 5
Jeremy Jawish
Chief Executive Officer
Shift Technology
Shift Technology CEO and Co-founder Jeremy Jawish became acutely aware that fraud detection was one area of the insurance industry that was ripe for disruption while working with a leading global insurance company. There, the seed was planted related to how artificial intelligence and advanced data science could be used to better detect fraud in the insurance claims process, leading to even greater claims automation and ultimately improved customer satisfaction. Jawish, along with co‑founders Eric Sibony and David Durrleman transformed the idea into reality and now insurers around the world trust Shift’s AI-native solutions to help them solve some of their biggest challenges.
Episode 4
Val LaBarba
Head of Digital Transformation and Change Management
Farmers Insurance
Val LaBarba joined Farmers in 1991 and recently was promoted to Head of Digital Transformation and Change Management within the Farmers Claims Team working under the Head of Claims Strategy & Automation. In this role, Val is responsible for delivering on the GWCC multi-year transformation, developing the Claims Digital Strategy and building out an Enterprise Change Management structure within the Claims organization. In this role, Val has responsibilities for other key claims strategic initiatives as well as leading the Agile transformation.
With over 25 years of experience, Val has an impressive track record of bringing quality management, strategy deployment, process improvement & digital transformation within Farmers Insurance. Her journey has included positions within Farmers such as Product Management, Service Operations and PMO.
Episode 3
Samantha Liscio, Ph.D.
Chief Technology and Innovation Officer
The Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB)
As Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at the WSIB, Samantha is responsible for digital transformation, leveraging technology and customer experience to streamline processes, provide value and modernize the business. She drives IT operational excellence, directs innovation and ensures the highest possible value from technology assets and investments.
Samantha has over 20 years of experience in IT leadership roles. In previous positions with eHealth Ontario, Accenture, and the Ontario Public Service, she led the design and implementation of large-scale digital transformative initiatives.
Currently Samantha serves on the Ryerson University IT Business Mnaagement Program Advisory Council and the Toronto CIO Governing Body. She has been a past Board member of the CIO Association of Canada, the Institute for Citizen-Centred Services and Cornerstone Family Violence Prevention Centre. Samantha holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and a Ph.D. from Queen's University in Belfast.
Episode 2
Alice Keung
Chief Transformation Officer
Economical Insurance
A senior executive leader with extensive experience in strategic and digital transformation, leveraging data and digital technology to drive innovation, agility and efficiency, creating new business models and driving industry sector disruption. Alice Keung is well recognized in Canada and globally for building and leading high performing Change Teams.
As the CIO of Economical, Alice Keung led the digital transformation of the company, most notably the development and launch of Sonnet Insurance, Canada’s first digital direct channel in the Property & Casualty sector. Sonnet has revolutionized the insurance buying experience by making it simple, easy, personalized and accessible. Sonnet has been recognized for its innovation in Canada and globally.
Under her leadership, Economical Insurance has transformed the way the company engages with the brokers. With the introduction of Vyne, an industry game changer, Economical Insurance provides the brokers with customer-centric products and pricing for all personal lines and individually rated small market commercial autos, faster services with automated flow through processing and a streamlined workflow by leveraging big data and cloud technology. Vyne has won multiple awards for customer services and innovation.
Alice holds a BA, MBA from the John Molson School of Business, Montreal and was recognized twice as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network. She was also recently, named Global Top 100 Insurance Executives by Insurance Business. She is also an accredited independent corporate director (ICD.D).
Episode 1
Vittorio Giusti
Chief Operating Officer
Aviva Italy
Vittorio Giusti is responsible for all insurance and non-insurance services at Aviva Italy. This includes claims and underwriting for both life and general insurance, as well as transformation and IT. In addition to being the COO, Vittorio is also a member of the Management Committee and CEO of the company’s General Insurance legal entity. He began his 25-year career as a claims agent and then created an entrepreneurial startup where he became CEO. He was CIO of Zurich Italia and later became Country COO and COO for Latin America operations.