Foresters' leadership changes; Novidea announces CTO: Career moves

July 21, 2023 6:26 AM

Commuters exit Panepistimio metro station, in Athens, Greece, on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged to bring incomes for Greeks significantly closer to their European peers and to accelerate the pace of debt reduction. Photographer: Nick Paleologos/Bloomberg — Commuters exit Panepistimio metro station, in Athens, Greece on July 5, 2023.

Digital Insurance reviews a high volume of news leads every week for this and other stories. Please send press releases and other information to kaitlyn.mattson@arizent.com

Foresters Financial announced that Rene Zanin will take over for Louis Gagnon as its president and chief executive officer on an interim basis. Gagnon left the position for personal reasons, according to a press release. Zanin rejoined the company in 2015.

Steven J. Goulart will retire as the chief investment officer and president of MetLife Investment Management, the company announced. John McCallion, the current CFO, will take over leadership of MIM at the end of August. Marlene Debel, CRO, will lead Insurance Investments. Ramy Tadros, regional president of MetLife's U.S. business, will lead MetLife Holdings. The company is currently searching for a new MIM president who will report to McCallion.

Novidea, a cloud-based insurance platform, has announced Erez Nissim as its chief technology officer. Nissim, who most recently was EVP at Playtika, will lead research and development as well as product development. "Erez's extensive experience in leading complex software development projects for global companies, from inception to market analysis, requiring definition, technical system design, and product development, makes him the perfect fit to lead our technology team and keep us a step ahead of our competitors, worldwide," said Roi Agababa, CEO of Novidea, in the press release.

Crum & Forster have promoted Craig Belanger to senior vice president of business services group. Belanger joined the company in 2013 and will continue to focus on product management, technical product ownership and robotics/process improvement. Don Parker, COO, commercial lines & executive risk for Crum & Forster, said in a statement: "Craig stepped into his first major role as VP of Operations and – leveraging the group's strengths – kick-started their transformational journey into a first-class service organization."

Swiss Re announced Ali Shahkarami as its global head of property and casualty solutions. Shahkarami, who was most recently the chief data officer at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, will lead a team of insurance and data experts for the company's newly launched Reinsurance Solutions division. Russell Higginbotham, CEO Reinsurance Solutions, said in a statement: "We're delighted to welcome Ali to our global Reinsurance Solutions team. With his extensive insurance knowledge, complemented by his outstanding data and technology background, Ali knows exactly our clients' business and digital needs. Together with his team, he will deliver cutting-edge solutions across the entire P&C value chain, leveraging Swiss Re's advanced data insights and industry-leading risk knowledge."

Embroker named a new CEO. Ben Jennings, who previously served as CRO for the company, will take over the position following the departure of the founding CEO last year. Jennings said in a press release: "Technology is the catalyst to bring Embroker into the next era of insurance for businesses. That's why my first priority is further building our platform so we can innovate faster and better, meeting the needs of businesses where they're going tomorrow — not just where they are today."