MetLife hires head of M&A; USAA names new chief HR officer: Career moves

August 19, 2022 6:35 AM

Hudson Yards during a heat wave in New York, US, on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. With temperatures rising into the 90s Fahrenheit, New York City and the Northeast heading into its longest heat wave of the summer. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg — Hudson Yards during a heat wave in New York on July 20, 2022.

MetLife announced a new head of mergers and acquisitions. Adora Whitaker will join the insurer as its executive vice president and head of corporate development, mergers and acquisition in October. Chief Financial Officer John McCallion said in a statement: "M&A is a strategic asset for MetLife as we remain focused on deploying capital to its best use and position our firm for the future. With her vast experience advising on and executing strategic transactions for a global client base across the insurance industry, Adora is well-positioned to provide strong leadership of this critical area that contributes to MetLife's next horizon strategy."

USAA names Tamla Oates-Forney as its new chief human resources officer. Oates-Forney will lead teams focused on talent development, acquisition, pay and benefits and culture. Previously, she was senior vice president and chief people officer at Waste Management, before that she spent 20 years at General Electric in various roles. President and CEO Wayne Peacock said in a statement: "Her leadership and expertise in developing people and teams who can deliver excellent business results are a great match as we envision and execute on strategy for our second century. We are excited for Tamla to join Team USAA!"

Erie Insurance announced Lance Hyde as vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion. Hyde will lead the company's DEI team and initiatives. He previously worked as director of global inclusion and diversity at Koppers International, there he developed the company's inclusion and diversity strategy. Hyde will report to Chris Marsh, the chief diversity and community development officer at Erie. Marsh said in a statement: "With his demonstrated collaborative work style and results-driven approach, I'm confident Lance is well-equipped to help lead ERIE through our next evolution of DEI."

Tokio Marine Highland appoints a new chief administrative officer, chief operating officer and specialty property division president. Linda Long, who joined Tokio Marine Highland in 2001, will take on the role of chief administrative officer. Long will focus on human resources as well as other financial and legal activities. Eric Wurmser is the new chief operating officer, he joined the company in 2019. Wurmser will lead product development and digital distribution including claims, marketing and operating system coordination with Tokio Marine Kiln. The new president, specialty property division is Kelly Cretti, who joined the company in 2019. In her new role, she will be responsible for design and delivery of insurance products and services for financial institutions.

Liberty Mutual appoints two people to newly created roles within its Global Risk Solutions, a commercial and specialty reinsurance unit. Crystal Ottaviano will join as GRS chief risk officer, and Chantal Rodriguez will be the Liberty Mutual Reinsurance chief underwriting officer. Ottaviano previously worked as chief risk officer at Swiss Reinsurance America and head of risk management at Hiscox U.S. Rodriguez, who was most recently Liberty Specialty Markets head of enterprise risk management, will lead underwriting performance across reinsurance products. Liberty also recently announced Brandon Fick as its North America chief underwriting officer and Nate Zangerle as its chief underwriting officer for Global Surety.

AXA XL Insurance announced the promotion of Michael Perrotti to chief underwriting officer for its marine insurance business in the Americas. Perrotti, who previously held positions at Zurich North America, The Hartford, and Travelers, will oversee underwriting and management of the company's marine insurance products portfolio in the U.S., Canada and Bermuda. AXA XL also recently announced Greg Johnson as its underwriter for war, terrorism and political violence business in the U.S., based in Los Angeles.

Pie Insurance, a workers' comp insurtech, announced the appointment of Ekta Aggarwal as its chief product officer and Erin Mesick as vice president of finance. Aggarwal was most recently a part of Microsoft Viva, Employee Experience Cloud, in its product and behavioral science team. She will be responsible for scaling Pie's product team and innovation. Mesick will lead financial planning and budgeting for the company, as well as lead the financial planning and analysis team.

Crum & Forster announce Nick Cook as its chief risk officer. Cook, who most recently worked as chief risk officer for the Surplus & Specialty division at the company, will expand the risk management framework to improve identification and measurement. Marc Adee, chairman and CEO said in a statement: "As we and other businesses navigate uncertainty, I am confident Nick will do a terrific job leading our team and continuing to look for and mitigate emerging risks." In this newly formed role, Cook will lead claim audit and claim litigation management in addition to continuing to oversee catastrophe modeling and the ceded reinsurance function."

Kaitlyn Mattson

Managing Editor, Digital Insurance

Career moves

C-suite