Allianz appoints first chief data officer for AGCS unit

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS), the corporate insurance carrier of Germany's Allianz Group, has appointed Ali Shahkarami as the company's first chief data officer.

With this newly created role, Allianz says it aims to create a ‘data first’ decision making culture.

Shahkarami will be responsible for the development and delivery of AGCS data strategy and will report directly to its chief operating officer Bettina Dietsche. Together with the AGCS Data Solutions & Architecture team, which is reporting to him, he will be tasked to expand AGCS’ data governance framework to ensure privacy and fidelity of all data and applications and ensure that it has the capabilities needed to deliver business-ready solutions.

Shahkarami joined AGCS in 2012 as head of catastrophe risk research where he was responsible for research and development activities to capture risks of man-made and natural catastrophes. In 2018, he moved to AGCS’s digital incubator initiative XSE to become the global capability lead for underwriting where he lead activities on digital transformation of client facing functions.

AGCS stated that data and analytics are important drivers for the future success and form an essential part of the company’s transformation strategy.

“Data and analytics are of vital importance for our success and for supporting our clients – not only for reporting and steering but also to boost analytic capabilities in Underwriting and Claims, and to discover new insights and opportunities,” said Dietsche.