Liberty Mutual; Crum & Forster; USAA: Career moves

September 13, 2022 6:30 AM

Commuters walk along a passage after travelling by boat on the River Thames in London, UK, on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. The Office for National Statistics are due to the release the latest UK Labor Market Statistics on Tuesday. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg — Commuters walk along a passage after travelling by boat on the River Thames in London on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022.

Crum & Forster promotes Nick Economidis, who joined the company in 2018, to senior vice president of eRisk, which includes cyber insurance products. "Crum & Forster is an industry leader in cyber risk management, and we're building the best underwriting team in the market," said Economidis in a statement. "Ransomware, data breach events and privacy-related litigation are real challenges for both large and small businesses, but we're working hard to bring solutions to the market to help our partners concentrate on their customers."

Arturo Perez-Reyes is the new senior vice president, cyber lead strategist at Newfront, a brokerage. Perez-Reyes previously worked at HUB in cyber and technology. "The Cyber market continues to be very challenging for companies," said Rod Sockolov, executive vice president and property & casualty leader at Newfront, in a statement. "With the addition of Arturo to our growing Cyber practice, we are ensuring our clients will obtain the best results."

Liberty Mutual Insurance appoints Kevin Smith as president of global risk solutions North America. Smith has worked previously at CNA and Chubb. "Kevin's extensive background and leadership skills uniquely qualify him to accelerate our transformation to deliver consistent underwriting profitability and leverage the full global capabilities of Liberty Mutual to solve our clients' and broker partners' risk needs across North America," said GRS President Neeti Bhalla Johnson, in a statement.

USAA announced the promotion of several executives. Lindsey O'Neill is the new senior vice president and chief communications and corporate responsibility officer. Tara Leweling, who joined the company to lead environmental, social and governance, will also be vice president and chief diversity and sustainability officer. Both will report to Ameesh Vakharia, USAA chief strategy and brand officer. Vakharia said in a statement: "I'm excited to broaden Lindsey and Tara's roles on my leadership team because they bring incredible experience and passionate leadership. We have a unique opportunity through these concentrated efforts to make an even greater impact on the financial security of the military community as USAA embarks on its second century of service."

Boost Insurance, an insurtech infrastructure platform, announced the hiring of Emy Donavan as its chief underwriting officer. Donavan was mostly recently with Fin Capital, where she was a venture partner, prior to that Donavan worked as global head and CUO of cyber, tech and media at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty. She will lead the company's underwriting and product development. "Emy is a highly accomplished senior insurance executive with a proven record of leading the development and execution of complex P&C programs while consistently delivering profitable underwriting returns," said Boost's CEO and Founder Alex Maffeo, in a statement. "She is passionate about fostering innovation across the industry and challenges the status quo to find solutions where others accept the norm. Emy shares our excitement for the insurtech movement and I am thrilled to be working with her as we effect positive changes across the industry for the modern insurance customer."

Kaitlyn Mattson

Managing Editor, Digital Insurance