Head of Financial Lines, Underwriting

Zurich North America is seeking a Head of Financial Lines of Underwriting to lead our U.S. National Accounts Financial Lines Business Unit.

This role reports to the U.S Head of National Accounts, and our preference is for the position to be based in our New York Office, but we will consider other Zurich office locations with business travel expected.

The Head of Financial Lines has full responsibility and oversight of underwriting activities for our four market baskets, to include D&O, Cyber, Financial Institutions, and Private / Nonprofit (PNP), and utilize their expertise to manage and drive the overall success of our complex Financial Lines business.

This is a critical role and requires advanced knowledge of Underwriting and Financial Lines business and an influential approach to business relationships and oversight of strategic underwriting practices.

In addition, this role collaborates with Zurich leadership in actuarial, claims, technical underwriting, distribution and regional management, operations, and other business units for cross selling efforts.

We are looking for a strong leader that will deliver a collaborative value chain with our Brokers, and customers, with the ability to communicate to clients and drive and cultivate relationships.

Responsibilities Include :

• Establishing key performance targets and financial budgets for underwriting unit in order to optimize business performance in line with set objectives.
• Interpret and review the commercial drivers in the market and the organization s strategic goals, translate into objectives to develop cross-functional business cases for complex projects and programs and act as program sponsor to ensure effective delivery of projects.
• Develop and maintain relationships with program distributors in support of business retention, new business and determine their insurance-related needs and provide solutions.
• Manage relationships with key internal stakeholders in order to identify opportunities for service improvement to ensure commercial viability and customer satisfaction.
• Participate in leadership team meetings to provide specialist guidance and enable the implementation of policies, projects and change initiatives to produce profitable results.
• Recommend and implement action plans after reviewing agency books of business and profit / growth results and trends.
• Support the organization's sales culture by being a Help Point for distributors, agents, brokers, and customers.
• Develop a people management plan to drive performance management in the organization and to optimize performance within the team, and manage performance of team members, including ensuring team members comply with company policies and expectations and take appropriate action.
• Contribute to the business strategy to align underwriting strategy with wider business goals.

Basic Qualifications :

• Bachelor’s Degree and 15 or more years of experience in Underwriting or Market Facing or Risk management from the Carrier or Brokerage side within the Commercial Insurance Industry
• 5 or more years of management experience
• Financial Lines experience
• Business unit management experience

Preferred Qualifications :

• Previous experience running a complex business unit with P&L responsibility with a proven track record of growing and retaining a large book of business
• Advanced and in-depth knowledge of Financial Lines business
• Established broker relationships and superior skills in relationship building, active listening and win-win negotiating
• Strong executive presence and the ability to interact with the C-Suite
• Strong people management experience including development of talent
• Ability to manage vision and purpose, lead the organization through innovative and creative thinking
• Strong collaboration, negotiation, conflict resolution, and influencing skills

As a condition of employment at Zurich, employees must adhere to any COVID-related health and safety protocols in place at that time ().