Liberty Mutual Insurance Continues to Grow Global Risk Solutions Office of Underwriting With Two Key Appointments
Liberty Mutual Insurance announced appointments to two newly created roles in Global Risk Solutions (GRS) Office of Underwriting. Effective September 26, Julia Chu will join as Head of Underwriting Planning, Performance & Portfolio Management, and Thomas Leahy will become Global Product Leader, Financial Lines. Both will report to GRS President of Underwriting Matthew Moore.
Chu will establish a global GRS underwriting strategy, working with leaders across the commercial and specialty (re)insurance unit, while providing actionable insights to manage market dynamics and drive results. She brings more than 20 years of strategy and transformation leadership experience, and joins from Markel, where she was Chief Risk Officer.
Leahy will be responsible for Financial Lines globally. In this role, he will set the global product strategy, monitor overall performance of the portfolio, and partner with the newly appointed chief underwriting officers across GRS to ensure successful execution. He has more than 20 years of leadership experience, including more than 15 with Liberty Mutual. Leahy is currently President, Professional Liability, for GRS North America Specialty.
“With the appointments of Julia and Tom, we continue to build an unparalleled team that adds value to brokers, partners and clients by bringing our global expertise and resources to help better manage complex and emerging risks,” said Moore. “Julia and Tom will help drive underwriting performance through consistent global product strategies and portfolios based on a common view of risk.”
Chu and Leahy are the most recent appointments by Moore since he was named GRS President of Underwriting in April of this year. Earlier this year, he appointed Chantal Rodriguez as Liberty Mutual Reinsurance Chief Underwriting Officer, Brandon Fick as North America Chief Underwriting Officer, Nate Zangerle as Chief Underwriting Officer for Global Surety and Elizabeth Geary as President, Insurance Solutions.
Liberty Mutual Insurance Appoints Leaders to Two Important New Roles in Global Risk Solutions
Liberty Mutual Insurance announced the appointment of two individuals to newly created leadership positions within Global Risk Solutions (GRS), its commercial and specialty (re)insurance unit. Effective September 1, Crystal Ottaviano will join as GRS Chief Risk Officer, and Chantal Rodriguez will become Liberty Mutual Reinsurance Chief Underwriting Officer. Ottaviano will report to GRS Chief Financial Officer Alison Erbig. Rodriguez will report to both GRS President of Underwriting Matthew Moore and Liberty Mutual Reinsurance President Dieter Winkel.
As GRS Chief Risk Officer, Ottaviano will build differentiated global risk expertise capabilities that support a forward-thinking, risk-aware underwriting mindset designed to deliver exceptional value to Liberty’s partners and customers. Ottaviano, who has more than 25 years of risk management experience, joins from Aspen Insurance Group, where she was Group Chief Risk Officer. Throughout her career, she served in many senior leadership roles, including Chief Risk Officer of Swiss Reinsurance America and Head of Risk Management at Hiscox US.
“Given today’s tremendously complex and interconnected risk environment, a CRO’s key function in implementing and maintaining comprehensive risk frameworks and fostering a strong risk culture has never been more important,” said Erbig. “Crystal plays a vital role in helping deliver superior underwriting performance by creating these frameworks to drive risk-informed decisions. I’m delighted to have her join my team and bring her tremendous risk leadership to GRS.”
As Liberty Mutual Reinsurance Chief Underwriting Officer, Rodriguez is accountable for underwriting performance across its broad set of flexible treaty reinsurance products, delivered through 18 offices across the globe. She is a 13-year veteran of Liberty Mutual, most recently serving as Liberty Specialty Markets Head of Enterprise Risk Management. Throughout her 17 years in the industry, she has successfully shaped and executed reinsurance strategies, delivered robust and consistent underwriting risk assessment and appetite, and led cross-functional international teams.
“Chantal’s proven underwriting, actuarial, and enterprise risk management leadership will drive outstanding underwriting performance across Liberty Mutual Reinsurance,” said Moore. “She, together with the recently announced chief underwriting officers for GRS North America and Global Surety, will help us deliver holistic solutions to clients’ complex and emerging risks by bringing industry-leading products and risk expertise to every client interaction.”
Photo: Liberty Mutual Global Risk Solutions Chief Risk Officer Crystal Ottaviano and Liberty Mutual Reinsurance Chief Underwriting Officer Chantal Rodriguez
Liberty Mutual appoints Janelle Edem Senior Vice President, Global Risk Solutions
Liberty Mutual Insurance has appointed Janelle Edem Senior Vice President, Global Risk Solutions (GRS), Liberty Mutual’s global commercial and specialty lines (re)insurer, which provides a full range of innovative traditional insurance, specialty and reinsurance risk solutions to businesses around the world.
Reporting to GRS President Dennis Langwell, Edem will lead GRS’ strategic planning and process excellence work. She will continue to serve as GRS Chief of Staff, a position to which she was appointed early last year.
“Janelle has been a valued member of the GRS executive leadership team over the past 15 months,” notes Langwell. “Her knowledge of our industry, business and customer expectations will be important to our long-term vision and strategy planning process. She has been a model leader, helping to foster a diverse, inclusive culture at Liberty Mutual through her active engagement with our employee resource groups and commitment to mentoring others.”
Edem joined Liberty Mutual in 2005 after graduating from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, with a Master of Business Administration. Since joining Liberty Mutual as a management consultant in the corporate strategy group, she has held roles in managed care, claims, advanced analytics and client management.
Edem – recognized in 2015 by Wharton School’s Boston chapter with the Joseph Wharton Alumni Leader Award – also participated in the Next Generation Leadership program from The Partnership Inc., a leading organization that supports multicultural professionals at all levels in an increasingly diverse and global workforce. Additionally, Edem is a member of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Leadership Board.