Digital commercial lines insurer Embroker announced the appointment of a chief insurance officer and a chief technology officer.
Steve Prymas, Embroker’s new chief insurance officer, brings 20 years of experience to the company, having served as vice president, Specialty Lines manager, and most recently, global chief underwriting officer of Cyber for GenRe. Previously he served at The Hartford for 17 years, with increasing responsibility ultimately culminating in his position as vice president, head of Hartford Financial Products.
Jonas Edgeworth joins Embroker as the new chief technology officer, with 20 years of experience in fintech, data science and cyber security. Most recently he served as the chief technology officer at the payments platform Veem, and prior to that as the vice president of Engineering, head of Interest Rate Products Technology at Goldman Sachs. A
Founded in 2015, Embroker is headquartered in San Francisco and has raised more than $50 million in funding from investors.
Markel Promotes Castriotta
Markel Corp. announced that Kelly Castriotta has been appointed managing director, global cyber underwriting executive. In her new role, Castriotta will lead the global underwriting strategy for cyber products as well as cyber risks impacting various lines of business for Markel.
Castriotta has a background spanning more than 15 years in underwriting, products, operations, claims and litigation. Before joining Markel, she held senior positions at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty’s North American operations as head of product development for Financial Lines and the head of Cyber, Tech, & Media underwriting. In 2018, she led one of the industry’s first implementations of “silent cyber” solutions by creating new products, training tools, and operational roadmaps for all internal disciplines as well as external trading partners.
Castriotta, who joined Markel in 2020, replaces Kara Owens, who decided to leave Markel. Castriotta is based in Chicago.
Willis Towers Watson Appoints Kaufmann and McPhail
Willis Towers Watson has named James Kaufmann and Michael McPhail to its property/casualty practice within its Insurance Consulting and Technology business.
Both Kaufmann and McPhail will focus on product, pricing, claims and underwriting, including delivery of consulting services and technology sales.
Kaufmann joins from AIR Worldwide where he led all client-facing aspects for their casualty catastrophe modeling platform. Prior to joining AIR, Kaufmann was a manager in the insurance and actuarial advisory practice of EY. He started his career at Travelers Insurance where he served as a senior actuarial assistant focused on commercial lines pricing.
McPhail joins from insurer USAA where he spent 13 years and most recently worked as chief actuary of international companies. In this role, McPhail had regulatory accountability for all aspects of the international actuarial function, including pricing, reserving and reinsurance. He also worked as a pricing director and pricing analyst.
Boston-based Kaufmann will report to Sean McDermott, P/C Eastern division line of business leader. Dallas-based McPhail will report to Klayton Southwood, P/C West division line of business leader.
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty Expands Executive Management Team
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) made two appointments to its North America executive management team.
Carol Laufer will join AGCS as the new regional head of Liability, North America, based in New York. She replaces Dieter Hautzer, who is retiring from AGCS following a 30-year career where he has led the North America Liability team since 2009.
Laufer joins AGCS from Zurich North America, where she held the position of U.S. National Accounts/Commercial Insurance, head of Excess Casualty since 2017. Prior to Zurich, she was with ACE USA since 2008, the last three years as executive vice president, Excess Casualty. Laufer also spent 10 years before that in various primary casualty leadership roles with AIG.
Effective August 1, 2021, Michael Pignataro will be the new North America regional head of Energy & Construction. He takes over this role from Tim Cook, who was responsible for the Energy & Construction line of business since 2017. Cook is ending a four-year assignment at AGCS North America and transitioning his duties to Pignataro through September 30.
Based in New York, Pignataro has been with AGCS since 2018. For the past year, he has been an underwriting manager, overseeing the U.S. Construction team. Prior to that, he was an executive underwriter responsible for major builder’s risk placements in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic U.S. Pignataro specializes in construction property insurance, with a blend of U.S. and international underwriting experience within the oil, gas, chemical, heavy industrial and power generation industries. Previously, he held construction underwriting roles at AIG, Talbot and XL Catlin.
Upon their effective dates, Pignataro and Laufer will both report directly to Bill Scaldaferri, president and CEO, AGCS North America.
Topics Willis Towers Watson
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