This year's Women in Insurance Leadership: NEXT cohort brings illustrates the breadth of the industry, with representatives from the carrier, insurtech and brokerage sectors. These leaders on the rise exemplify the power of transformative thinking from a younger generation, as each has been recognized for at least one digital innovation that helped their companies break through in a time of crisis. Read on and click through to meet this year's class.
Laurna Castillo is VP, Western State Product for CSAA Insurance Group. In this role, she is responsible for nine State Product Managers managing the long-term growth of their markets. Castillo also led CSAA’s Wildfire Risk Management project, bringing several departments together to help the company adapt to the changing reality of large-scale fire activity in the states she oversees. She was nominated by Ryan Vigus, EVP, Personal Lines Product. Read more about Laurna
Alexandra Lanning is director of communications for CBIZ Benefits & Insurance Services. Her collegues regard her as confident and possessing excellent instincts, which led to her leading the company's coronavirus/COVID-19 task force. Before that, she established a CBIZ Young Professionals group that raises funds for nonprofits and supports leadership and career growth. She was nominated by Robin Widdis, VP of Operations, Employee Benefits. Read more about Alex
Christine Pfeiffer is head of operations for Next Insurance, joining the small-business insurtech in 2017. She oversees operations and customer support, having been responsible for increasing automation in the customer journey to help it scale up. This includes implementation of chat- and voice-bots in the claims and support functions. Before Next, she worked at Uber. She was nominated by COO Sofya Pogreb. Read more from Christine
Ann Shepard is head of product and customer experience for digital broker AP Intego. She is responsible for delivering the company's products through the partnerships it makes with companies like Intuit and Square. Before AP Intego, she worked for AgencyPort and AAA of Washington State. She was nominated by Eric Harnden, Managing Director. Read more from Ann
