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2 December 2022 Features Insurance

Ten visionaries to watch in the re/insurance industry

If you’re looking for inspiration, then look no further. Intelligent Insurer has chosen ten re/insurance industry visionaries for 2022, listed in alphabetical order. These leaders are unafraid to spearhead new ideas and tackle the trickiest of issues with innovative thinking. These people are always on the lookout for the next big thing that could change everything. These are our visionaries to watch in 2023.

Marc Archambault, chief executive officer of Life & Health, PartnerRe

Marc Archambault, chief executive officer of Life & Health at PartnerRe, is responsible for pioneering projects that offer clients greater insights and growth and that leverage technology to better underwrite risk.

In 2021, the company launched DUET Edge, a digital underwriting solution for life insurers that is designed to help drive growth for PartnerRe’s clients.

Under Archambault’s leadership, the business developed this digital underwriting solution so its life reinsurance clients can automate their risk underwriting. It means that medical underwriting and vocational, sports and international travel risks are all handled through an interactive online path, which is seamlessly linked to predictive algorithms.

In 2019, PartnerRe launched a wearables pilot with Dacadoo, a pioneer in the digital health space. This pilot banked valuable knowledge about wearables technology. Further work, using PartnerRe’s advanced data analytics capability, enabled the group to share insights with life and health clients.

Archambault is a member of PartnerRe’s Executive Leadership Team and has worked in the industry for three decades.

Mark Budd, head of innovation, Zurich Insurance

As UK head of innovation at Zurich Insurance, Mark Budd leads the team of Innovation Foundry, an initiative that focuses on working with long-time partners from scratch rather than looking to merge with or acquire them at a later date.

He is also an advocate of sustainability and in June this year, supported Zurich UK’s launch of a new smart building product, called Zurich Insite. This is designed to help businesses cut property losses and boost sustainability. It uses self-installed smart sensors that monitor the real-time ‘health’ of buildings to support operational efficiency, risk reduction and optimised energy use. The tech analyses operational and environmental data flowing around buildings and can collect up to 26,000 data points every hour ranging from building temperature and air quality to occupancy levels and lighting.

Budd said that unlocking the power of data is the key to achieving safer, smarter and more sustainable buildings.

“By providing more effective controls over energy usage, this technology can help businesses to enhance their efficiency, reduce utility costs and promote a greener workplace. This is even more critical as firms adapt to changing occupancy levels brought on by agile working,” he said.

Ryan Cole, vice president, head of eIQ Innovation Team, Everest Insurance

As the head of Everest’s eIQ Innovation Team, Ryan Cole works across the insurtech ecosystem of startups, venture capital firms and trading partners championing leading edge technologies. He prides himself on eIQ being a trusted partner for each business unit and measures success by delivering impactful innovation that solves meaningful problems rather than just bringing in shiny new initiatives.

Cole is clear that getting the change management process right is fundamental to the success of tech innovation. To ensure an engaged change management process, his eIQ team works directly with business units across a division to drive thoughtful and practical change rather than resorting to the traditional approach where innovation is the responsibility of one team or it happens in silos in a business.

As part of the collaborative process, Cole focuses on laying the groundwork for successful engagement. He ensures that the team defines change management upfront, provides transparency around what artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can actually do and offers a reality check on what and how much work needs to be done. He recognises the importance of identifying a project champion/early adopter to drive adoption and ensures that there’s a keen focus on the biggest solvable pain point in the initial plan. Cole also advocates for keeping the bigger picture in mind in terms of the potential future value and ability to expand on the project.

Mónica García Cristobal, head of transformation, Mapfre

Mónica García Cristobal recognises that while the pandemic has been a traumatic catalyst for the transformation of customer service it has also reinforced the use of new technologies that have clear benefits now and in the future.

García Cristobal has flagged telemedicine as one such example and acknowledges that while it might appear to be mainly active in developed countries, the technology has the potential to democratise access to health care in developing countries. This is particularly significant as 3G continues to connect ever more remote areas.

Mapfre’s head of transformation is known for being strategically committed to innovation and understanding that technology is an accelerator in the face of changing customer needs. “Innovation is one of the necessary steps towards transformation. And, like transformation, it must involve the entire company. That’s why it’s important for it to be organised and reinforced through corporate strategies,” she said, speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2021.

Commenting on Mapfre’s partnership with Amazon, she said: “After the situation we have been through [with the pandemic], we are more emotional and seek more simplicity. We need to respond to customers in real time, in a personalised way, and be more timely and also more relevant. We need to microsegment. Artificial intelligence can help us better understand and serve customer needs.

“We care about families and young people. We must identify their tastes and preferences, and find out what they need. That’s why we’ll be on the channels where they are, such as Amazon and Twitch.”

Georges Desvaux, chief strategy and business development officer, AXA

Georges Desvaux believes that digital innovation is at the heart of driving progress and recognises that traditional insurance is no longer the answer to evolving client risks.

His stated ambition is to help shape and execute the global transformation of AXA from payor to partner for all the company’s clients, particularly in commercial lines and in health and protection. To achieve this, he said, will mean redefining the value insurance can add.

Desvaux joined AXA in 2019 as chief strategy and business development officer and is part of the company’s Management Committee. Before this he enjoyed a 30-year career at McKinsey & Company where he held a number of senior roles in the US, Germany, Belgium, France, China, Japan and Africa. He held the post of senior partner in McKinsey’s Hong Kong office, where he co-led the Insurance and Private Equity Practice in North Asia and served on McKinsey’s global governing body, the Shareholders’ Council and chaired its Governance Committee.
He is an advocate of developing senior talent and is a keen mentor and sponsor of younger colleagues. He also champions gender diversity and initiated the “Women Matter” McKinsey’s research series on the role of women in corporations.

Stéphane Flaquet, group chief operating officer, Hiscox

Stéphane Flaquet views his role at Hiscox as a unique opportunity to drive impactful initiatives and to help shape the future by enhancing current capabilities and seizing new opportunities.

With a strong focus on driving process maturity, continued digital transformation and service excellence, Flaquet plays an important part in ensuring that Hiscox continues to build a better business that delivers for its customers.

Initially, he joined Hiscox as chief operating officer for Hiscox Europe, became group IT director in 2012, and then chief executive officer for Hiscox Europe between 2016 and 2021. He was appointed to the newly created role of group chief operating officer in June 2022.

In his current role he oversees different critical central functions, including Group Claims, Group IT, Property Services, Procurement and Group Marketing, to ensure the continued effective and efficient delivery of core services.

Gabriel Lazaro, SVP head of digital, Chubb International

Based in Singapore, Gabriel Lazaro is responsible for the growth of Chubb’s digital international insurance business across 51 countries and territories. He is focused on growing digital offerings in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific and works with the consumer and digital teams globally to expand Chubb’s distribution through digital ecosystem partnerships.

Lazaro’s innovation around insurance products and value propositions includes the technology that allows for a seamless customer experience. His digital credentials include 12 years in mobile content firms and the post of head of digital for emerging markets at AIG.

Lazaro knows that it’s his responsibility to provide a clear vision to inspire his team and ensure everyone is aligned and moving towards the same goal. He is quoted as saying that it’s imperative to empower people to unleash their creativity.

He has described himself as passionate about innovation and delivering tangible results. He has lauded Chubb’s “very diverse group of professionals”, commenting that an entrepreneurial spirit runs throughout the organisation.

Tal Potishman, innovation and change director, Markel

Tal Potishman is responsible for innovation at Markel UK, as well as leading the change portfolio and management information and data teams. In his role he develops and delivers innovation across the company and is leading optimisation and efficiency programmes for Markel to rethink operating model and tech use. This work is expected to improve processes and capabilities throughout the business with an eye on what will be needed in the future and how the markets might evolve.

He has more than 20 years’ experience to call on as a corporate development and strategy consultant and advisor to the c-suite. His previous experience, which focused on innovation and rapid transformation, includes work for McKinsey & Company where he supported organisational development and process improvement and optimisation for clients in industrial and financial services sectors.

Potishman also has direct engineering industry experience from his time at McLaren Automotive, where he helped develop the company’s first volume road car and set up a significant part of the systems and processes for the company.

Danilo Raponi, group head of innovation, Generali

Danilo Raponi is the group head of innovation at Generali, a unit that drives and scales innovation. He is also the managing director of Generali’s global Innovation Fund, which finances, promotes and supports the group’s most promising innovation projects across the globe. The fund’s premise is ‘innovation everywhere, for everyone’.

Raponi joined Generali in 2021 from Munich Re, where he held a number of innovation-related roles, including lead of Munich Re’s Global Innovation Framework.

At Munich Re he co-founded and co-led innovation initiatives to develop behaviour-based personal finance apps and in his role as senior manager at the reinsurer’s global unit Capital Partners he worked with innovative parametric products. He was also involved in formulating a comprehensive response to the challenges of COVID-19.

Raponi has extensive experience in both life and non-life re/insurance and has worked at Swiss Re and Hannover Re, in addition to advisory positions at several tech startups. He has worked as a consultant in the innovation/insurtech space, as insurtech lead for Ernst & Young in Germany.

Darryl Siry, chief technology officer, SiriusPoint

Since SiriusPoint launched in 2020, a key priority has been to develop an industry leading technology approach, according to Darryl Siry, chief technology officer at the re/insurer.

In 2022 he has expanded his team, recruiting a diverse set of expertise to transform operational efficiency and business support at the company.

Under his leadership the team are integrating the company’s platforms and improving IT functionality to deliver major transformation. This encompasses SiriusPoint’s strategic goal to be a technology enabled insurer and includes its cloud transformation, the establishment of a robust data and analytics platform, and adopting modern technology architecture and practice.

Siry said that the company’s platforms and operational capabilities are core to its ability to be nimble and data driven and that technology enhances functions across the business from underwriting and risk management to finance and operations.

He recognises the need for clear vision and the drive to deliver results. It is with this in mind that he has hired and developed people with the skills and diverse approaches to realise the company’s ambitions in its insurance business and the disruptive MGAs and insurtechs SiriusPoint partners with.

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