Liberty Mutual, AIG, Markel: Insurtech, insurance career moves

July 28, 2022 6:30 AM

The John Hancock Tower, right, stands in the city skyline in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. Boston ranked fifth among U.S. cities in the value of commercial real estate transactions, averaging $332 per square foot, according to according to a second-quarter 2014 report from Real Capital Analytics and Transwestern. Photographer: Scott Eisen/Bloomberg — The John Hancock Tower, right, stands in the city skyline in Boston, Massachusetts on Oct. 7, 2014

Liberty Mutual Insurance Global Risk Solutions announced the appointment of Elizabeth Geary as president of insurance solutions. Geary will build teams specializing in emerging customer risks like cyber and energy. Matthew Moore, the GRS president of underwriting, said in a statement: "Our vision is to provide holistic solutions to our customers through a purposeful portfolio of product and risk expertise while delivering consistent underwriting profitability through the cycle. We are thrilled to have Elizabeth join our team, as she brings the rare mix of skills and experience necessary to deliver enhanced global capabilities to our customers and underwriters as they adapt to dynamic and emerging risk environments."

Charlie Fry is the vice president, reinsurance purchasing and risk capital optimization at AIG. Fry, who joined the company in 2017 and departed in 2020, will take over reinsurance purchasing strategy and placement execution. Fry will report to Peter Zaffino, AIG chairman and chief executive officer. Zaffino said in a statement: “I am very pleased to welcome Charlie back to AIG. The continued execution of our reinsurance strategy is essential to our progress toward becoming a top performing company. During Charlie’s previous tenure at AIG, he played a key role in AIG’s underwriting turnaround and established a framework for reinsurance purchasing and risk and volatility mitigation efforts across our global portfolio. I have worked with Charlie for many years and am confident he will make significant contributions to AIG as we progress our deployment of capital and continue to improve our risk adjusted returns.”

Tim Pasik, who joined Markel in 2014, has been named the managing director of commercial casualty product lines leader for Markel Specialty. Pasik will provide oversight on commercial, retail and wholesale, product lines. "We're looking forward to continuing to drive profitable growth for Markel's commercial casualty product lines," said Alan Rodrigues, executive underwriting officer, casualty, in a statement. "Tim's leadership qualities, ability to build relationships, and strategic problem solving will help support our customers in finding the best possible solutions for their risks."

Vesttoo hires Minas Kalachian, former managing director at Allianz, as the head of structuring. Kalachian will lead the development of financing solutions for company clients and will manage a team of product specialists. "I'm pleased to announce the joining of Mr. Kalachian to our team," said Alon Lifshitz, chief financial engineer and co-founder of Vesttoo, in a press release. "His joining comes at an opportune moment. As demand for capacity grows along with investor hunger for uncorrelated assets, we must answer it with rapid scaling. Minas' ample experience will be invaluable to the crafting of new and innovative financing solutions."

AXA XL announces new cyber insurance roles including Rachel Rossini as product manager for cyber and technology E&O and Vern Suckerman as U.S. head of complex accounts. Rossini, who joined AXA XL in 2018 and was most recently cyber underwriting manager for the company’s West Zone, will lead the go-to-market in the U.S. for cyber insurance. Suckerman will lead the underwriting of complex cyber and E&O accounts by building insurance program structures. Jeremy Gittler, AXA XL's head of cyber insurance in the Americas, said in a statement: "As digital threats grow more sophisticated and malicious, we keep enhancing our underwriting approach to help our clients manage cyber risks. These new roles will help us direct more focus on our growth strategy and find innovative ways to address our clients' more complicated cyber & tech E&O risks." The company also announced the appointment of Matthew Waters as head of U.S. middle market as the company expands into the U.S. commercial insurance market.

The Amalgamated Family of Companies, including the life insurance company, has announced the appointment of Sanjay Chojar as senior vice president and chief information officer. Chojar will be responsible for the company’s information technology needs, including IT operations and implementation of technologies such as AI, ML and cloud. Previously, he served as global head of finance technology for Millennium Capital. "We are pleased to welcome Sanjay to our leadership team at the Amalgamated Family of Companies," said President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Mallen, in a press release. "His deep technical knowledge of the latest emerging IT trends and hands-on experience across diverse platforms and applications, coupled with a broad background in financial services, will be a valuable asset to our organization, further building our competitive edge and facilitating our continued high level of customer service."

Joe Strickland has joined FutureProof, an AI-focused insurtech, as head of underwriting. Strickland previously worked as senior vice president for wholesale property at AIG’s Lexington Specialty Insurance Agency. Fid Norton, FutureProof co-founder and chief insurance officer, said in a press release: “We are thrilled to welcome an underwriter of Joe’s caliber to FutureProof. Joe’s underwriting acumen, coupled with our next-generation hurricane model, will help us to address the crisis in the Florida homeowners insurance market. Our digital platform, powered by our model, will price and manage risk more profitably, because our model quantifies climate risk and social inflation factors such as litigation and assignment of benefits with unprecedented granularity, so we can offer a more accurate price signal to the market.”

Boxx Insurance, a cyber insurtech, announced the appointment of Eric Newman as chief operating officer and Steve Penney as chief technology officer. Penney, who joined the company from Deloitte, will lead technology and data strategy for the company. Newman will support strategic growth development, governance, legal and compliance functions. Newman has held executive roles at PayPal and RiskIQ. "I am delighted to further strengthen our leadership team," Vishal Kundi, BOXX's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. "As we gear up for the next phase of growth, I am excited to welcome Eric and Steve. They bring deep expertise and experience and their appointments underline our ability to attract talented individuals to our team."