Women in Insurance
Tech Conference
Date: September 18 & 19, 2024
Location: Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Boston - USA
#WITC2024
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ABOUT US
Thank you for joining us at the Women in Insurance Tech Conference, taking place on September 18-19,
2024, at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Boston. We are excited to welcome you to this prestigious event
where we celebrate the remarkable women leading the insurance industry's transformation.
Over two days, you will hear from influential women leaders from top insurance companies as they explore
the latest technological disruptions, including AI, ML, Big Data, and IoT. Expect to engage in insightful
discussions, interactive sessions, and thought-provoking presentations that focus on the future of
insurance.
We’re not just here to empower women in insurance—we’re here to empower the entire industry through the
influence and leadership of women. You’ll join over 250 insurance decision-makers, both men and women,
as we tackle digital transformation challenges and forge new strategies for success.
Key topics will include leadership in the insurance sector, customer engagement models, and the role of
cutting-edge technologies. This is your opportunity to hear directly from top industry leaders, exchange
ideas, and network with professionals shaping the future of insurance. We look forward to welcoming you
and ensuring your experience is both insightful and inspiring!
OVERVIEW
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Day 1- 18th September
8:00am Registration
7:30am to 8:35am WOMEN LEADERSHIP BREAKFAST & THINK TANK WORKSHOP by BENEKIVA
Exclusive Invite-Only Event: To secure your spot at Benekiva's Women Leadership Breakfast
& Think Tank Workshop, request a profile review today. Limited seats available –
don't miss this unique opportunity!
8:40am Welcome Note by Altaworld
8:45am Opening note by Chairperson
8:50am Round table discussion: Changing Dynamics of Women leadership in insurance world
Panellists:
Whitney Day, Senior Vice President, Workforce Absence Management, Hub International
Janet D. Moylan, SVP, Chief Operations Officer, North American Underwriting Group,
Allied World Insurance Company
Janet D. Moylan, SVP, Chief Operations Officer, North American Underwriting Group,
Allied World Insurance Company
Aileen Smith, SVP, Bermuda Professional Liability Division, Allied World Insurance Company
Pat Hidlt, Head of Claims Management US & C, Uber Technologies
Caitrin McSherry, Vice President Client Service, Liberty Mutual Insurance
Moderator:
Meredith Barnes-Cook, Partner, ReSource Pro
9:40am Case study: Successful Digital Transformation Journey in Insurance
Laurel Jordan, Insurance TPA Officer & Solutions Lead, Sutherland
10:05am ABC’s of getting to the executive level
10:35am Morning refreshment & Networking
Bobbie Shrivastav, Co-Founder & COO, Benekiva
11:15am Beyond Survival - Unleashing the Power of Women to Transform the Future of Insurance
Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President, Toronto Insurance Women's Association (TIWA)
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Salena Mailk, Director of Digital Product, Purpose-Built Solutions, WWT
Caitlyn Buckanavage, Senior Sales Manager, HPE
1:20pm Customer Engagement & Digital Era
1:50pm Strategic Leadership: Balancing Operational Excellence with Executive Priorities
Vibs Abhishek, CEO & Founder, Alltius
3:05pm Generative AI and Inclusion in Fintech and Insurance
3:35pm Afternoon refreshment & Networking
Panellists:
Valkyrie Holmes, CEO & Co-Founder, Faura
Lillian Corman, Corporate Development, Inspiring Girls organization
Rebecca Ray, Vice President, Excess Casualty, Allied World Insurance Company
Panellists:
02:30pm Panel discussion: InsurTech Startups: Young Women Entrepreneur Session
Moderator:
Marissa Buckley, CO-Founder, RevUp
Moderator:
Bobbie Shrivastav, Co-Founder & COO, Benekiva
12:35pm Lunch & Networking
Jill Muenich, VP-Independent Distribution, Homesteaders Life Company
Sharon Reed, SVP, illumifin
Jackie Morales, Life & Annuity Transformationalist, Digitizing Insurance
Denise Garth, Chief Strategy Officer, Majesco
11:45am Panel discussion: Customer engagement in Insurance Technology
Moderator:
Gina Hardy, Chief Executive Officer, North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association
Panellists:
Priya Raghunatha, Vice President-Product Management Insurance, LPL Financial
Brett McKenzie, Founder, CoVerse Communications
Janicia Koh, Chief Strategy Officer, Aktivo labs
Marlena Sarunac, Fractional CMO, The Company Advice
Michelle Rosen, Managing Principal, CAPCO
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6:50pm End of Day 1
Panellists:
5:55pm Closing remarks by Chairperson
6:00pm Drink reception and Networking
Moderator:
Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President, Toronto Insurance Women's Association (TIWA)
Jennifer Wilson Cyber Leader, Newfront
Caitlin Alpern, Senior Underwriter Cyber & Technology, AXA XL
Panellists:
Moderator:
Xu Cheng, Head of Business Intelligence, Ascot
Ann Boger, CEO, Bramble & Bird Consulting
Devyani Gupta, Co-founder & CEO, Arrow Head
4:10pm Panel discussion: Breaking Barriers: Bridging the Gender Gap in Software Engineering
4:55pm Fireside chat: Cybersecurity in Insurance: Protecting Customer Data
5:25pm Fireside chat: Building a Tech-Savvy Workforce: Training and Development
Panellists:
Vidya Sundaram, Senior Vice President, Group Benefits CIO, The Hartford
Cilsy Harris, CIO Insurance and Service Applications, The Hanover Insurance Group
Bobbie Shrivastav, Co-Founder Benekiva
Linda DeSantis, Global Strategy, Technology and Operations, Berkshire Hathaway
Moderator:
Kerry Macca, Founder, Fractional Consultant, KM Consulting
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Vinita Jajware-Beatty is President of the Toronto Insurance Women’s Association (TIWA), a not-for-profit
trade organization. As President, Vinita acts as a resource for the entire insurance community including
brokers; underwriters; claims; actuarial; and risk management professionals. In addition to her role with
TIWA, Vinita serves as Chair of Dive In Canada, a DEI initiative from Lloyds of London. As an insurance
professional with a risk management and property claims background, Vinita brings over 23 years of
career experience to many diversity and inclusion initiatives within the insurance industry, including
chairing a Women in Insuretech and Global Insuretech conference series through the India-based
organization Altaworld. Along with her work with TIWA, Vinita is the Chief Operating Officer of Enkompass
Power & Energy Corporation. A national engineering and field services firm, Enkompass has operations
rooted in industries including construction; telecommunications; healthcare; manufacturing; food and
beverage; pharmaceutical; mining; and insurance.
Vinita Jajware-Beatty
President
Toronto Insurance Women's Association (TIWA)
Day 1- 18th September
Whitney Day
Senior Vice President, Workforce Absence Management
Hub International
Within HUB People & Technology Consulting, Whitney leads the Workforce Absence Management (WAM)
practice with a clear focus on helping clients build and foster effective absence management
programs. Whitney has more than 18 years of experience in the Group Benefits, Disability and Total
Absence Management industry, including 13 years of consulting for many Fortune 500 companies across
industries. She utilizes this experience to develop strategies to create quality client engagements,
projects, and relationships. Prior to HUB, Whitney spent the first half of her career on the carrier side of the
market in operations leadership at MetLife. The second half of her career has been focused on Absence
Management consulting and she was most recently a Principal at Mercer. With her expertise in driving
growth through internal and external relationship management, Whitney’s focus is continuing to develop
and expand HUB’s high-quality absence managements programs and services. Whitney graduated with
a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carthage College, and is holds an Illinois Life, Accident & Health
Producer’s License.
Meredith Barnes-Cook is a Partner in the Advisory and Research practice at ReSource Pro, where she
helps carriers and solution providers thrive in a complex and changing digital world. She is an
award-winning insurance go-to-market and transformation strategist with almost four decades of
industry operations and technology experience. Before joining ReSource Pro Consulting, Meredith
spent 33 years at Liberty Mutual, where she was responsible for numerous digital, product, and
organizational transformations and new operating models. Most recently, she was the industry GTM
strategist at Ushur, an AI customer experience SaaS startup, driving growth and brand awareness
across both the P&C and LA&H segments.
Meredith Barnes-Cook
Partner
ReSource Pro Ecosystem
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Janet Moylan is a transformational operations expert, conference speaker and published author with
over 25 years of commercial insurance domain expertise. Janet is known for making bold, calculated
moves to achieve growth agendas and pioneering outside-the-box solutions to translate vision and
strategy into reality. As SVP, Chief Operations Officer of North America Underwriting Group for Allied
World Insurance Company, Janet steers 3 cross-functional teams in delivering operational excellence
and execution of large-scale strategic initiatives in support of billions in written premium. Janet is an
executive member of the Allied World Innovation Council and played a pivotal role in the company’s
win of the 2022 Hackett Digital Award and ISG Award for Digital Leadership. Janet joined Allied World in
March of 2012 as Vice President of the Property & Casualty Business Operations Team. Prior to
Allied World, she held executive positions at XL Insurance and American International Group. Her
background includes Strategic Planning and Execution, Underwriting Operations Management,
Business Process Management, Relationship Building Partnerships, Budget and Cost Control
Management, Performance Culture Leadership, and Talent Mentorship. Janet graduated from Bucknell
University and holds the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter Designation and Associate in
Risk Management Designation.
Janet D. Moylan
SVP, Chief Operations OfÏcer, North American Underwriting Group
Allied World Insurance Company
Aileen Smith, Senior Vice President Professional Lines, joined Allied World as the product leader for
Employment Practices Liability and Wage and Hour Liability in March 2017 and now oversees all
Professional Lines Coverages within the group, including D&O, EPLI, Cyber, Errors and Omissions
and Healthcare. Prior to joining Allied World, Aileen was a Senior Vice President at Beecher Carlson
where she managed the Professional Lines book of business. Before joining Beecher Carlson, Aileen
was a Vice President in the Professional Lines department at XL Bermuda where she managed a book
of primary and excess EPLI and D&O business. Aileen also spent 4 years at Marsh Bermuda as a
Senior Vice President Professional Lines broking Fotune 1000 business. Prior to moving to Bermuda,
Aileen was a retail broker at Marsh Boston. Ms. Smith brings 25 years of underwriting and broking
experience to the team, 21 of which have been spent in Bermuda underwriting and broking
Professional Liability for Fortune 1000 clients.
Aileen Smith
SVP, Bermuda Professional Liability Division
Allied World Insurance Company
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Pat Hidlt
Head of Claims Management US & C
Uber Technologies
Patricia (Pat) currently serves as the Head of US&C Claim Management and Oversight for Uber's Global
Insurance team. With more than 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, Pat has held senior
leadership roles in both field and home office claims across major insurance carriers, self-insured entities,
and local government insurance trusts. Pat is often described as a "claims geek" thanks to her passionate
advocacy to grow talent in the space and the advancement of the claims profession. A first-generation
Hispanic college graduate, Pat earned her BA in Political Science and Modern Languages and Linguistics
from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. In 2019, she reached a significant milestone by
completing a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Johns Hopkins University. As an industry
leader, Pat has served on the Risk Management and Advisory Board at the University of Baltimore and as
Chair of Governor Hogan's Commission on Hispanic Affairs. Currently, she is a role model and board
member for Inspiring Girls, USA, and has been a long-time supporter of Junior Achievement in Maryland,
Phoenix, and Connecticut.
Caitrin leads our Global Risk Solutions North America Client Service organization dedicated to delivering
holistic service offerings for approximately 4,600 clients with ~$4.0B in premium under management.
Client Service act as trusted advisors to clients and brokers, engaging in meaningful discussions, utilizing
technical industry knowledge, and leveraging all the resources available to offer consultation and meet
current and future needs of clients. Caitrin joined Liberty Mutual 12 years ago and has since held several
leadership positions within U.S. Retail Markets and Global Risk Solutions. These roles involved overseeing
large teams in claims and various service-oriented departments. In these capacities, Caitrin prioritized
delivering exceptional customer experiences, fostering inclusivity, and enhancing overall productivity.
Caitrin is passionate about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and has served in leadership roles on two of
Liberty Mutual’s Employee Resource Groups – WE@Liberty and ABLE@Liberty. She is an active board
member of the Boston Chapter for the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation. She earned a Bachelor
of Arts and Master of Business Administration from Boston College.
Caitrin McSherry
Vice President Client Service
Liberty Mutual Insurance
She joins us from EXL Services where she was the Assistant Vice President of TPA Operations and Claims
Center of Excellence Lead. Prior to that she spent over 23 years at DXC Technologies supporting multiple
Insurers across Technology platforms, Business Operations and Customer Experience domain as well as
leading Client transitions and Conversions. Her early career was focused primarily on the Claims function,
and she has continued to be a strong advocate for Claims Transformation and Digitalization. At
Sutherland, Laurel will focus on developing the Insurance TPA offering and building out capabilities in
partnership with our various Horizontals and Product and Platform teams.
Laurel Jordan
Insurance TPA OfÏcer & Solutions Lead
Sutherland
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Bobbie Shrivastav
Co-Founder & COO
Benekiva
Bobbie Shrivastav is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, author, speaker, technology innovator, and
digital transformation expert. She is passionate about helping organizations modernize legacy
processes through digital disruption, re-engineering, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Her expertise in
information technology and experience leading successful enterprise-level initiatives spans nearly two
decades. Presently, she is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Benekiva, a software company
where she leads the product development, customer care, and delivery of transformational technology
solutions to help modernize the insurance industry. Bobbie’s unwavering commitment to innovation, her
customer-centric approach and thoughtful development of industry-evolving solutions have earned
her the reputation as an industry leader.
Ms. Hardy serves as Chief Executive Officer for two insurance companies: The North Carolina Joint
Underwriting Association (NCJUA) and the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA).
These companies collectively insure $152 billion in property exposures for 506,475 risks and are
recognized as leaders in promoting resilient construction. In 2021, Insurance Business America named Ms.
Hardy as one of the Elite Women in Insurance. In 2022, Governor Roy Cooper awarded Ms. Hardy the
Order of the Long Leaf Pine, an award presented to individuals who have a proven record of extraordinary
service to the State of North Carolina.
Gina Hardy
Chief Executive OfÏcer
North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association
With an insurance industry experience spanning 15+ years, Priya consider her key area of expertise to be
at the intersection of business and technology, driving innovation, transformation and change. Her
experience in the industry has taken her through the entire insurance value chain starting with working
for a carrier like Prudential, risk management firm like Marsh, fraternal insurance agency like Knights of
Columbus and an insurtech like Covr Financial. Priya’s current role at LPL Financial expands her horizons
into insurance distribution and broker dealer side driving digital innovation. She is passionate about the
insurance industry and grateful to be part of it for the impact it has on the society, both directly and
indirectly.
Priya Raghunatha
Vice President-Product Management Insurance
LPL Financial
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Brett McKenzie is the Founder & Principal Strategist of CoVerse Communications, the go-to
communications co-pilot for bold insurance brands. Leveraging 15 years of experience in insurance
marketing, distribution strategy, underwriting, and branding for companies like Zurich, Fireman's Fund,
Allianz, EvoSure, and Foresight, Brett built CoVerse in 2023 to provide unparalleled, SME-level
communications services to insurance businesses and professionals. Through its content, creative, and
brand work, CoVerse empowers and connects the storytellers of the insurance universe, with a mission
to illuminate financial literacy for consumers and communities. CoVerse currently serves more than two
dozen insurance carriers, brokers, insurtechs, influencers, and innovators around the world. Prior to her
tenure in the insurance industry, Brett managed media relations initiatives for numerous private,
non-profit, and political organizations, including President Barack Obama's Democratic National
Convention in Charlotte, the Chicago Association of REALTORS®, and John Kerry's presidential campaign.
Brett McKenzie
Founder
CoVerse Communications
Janicia Koh brings over 12 years of product development, commercialization, and growth expertise in
health technologies. She is currently the Chief Strategy Officer leading Aktivo Labs' business in North
America. In this role, she is responsible for running the operations of the North American office, expanding
the reach of Aktivo, and driving growth initiatives for the company's offerings globally. Before her current
role, Janicia was the Head of Products for Aktivo Labs, where she launched a holistic well-being platform
and collaborated with several Fortune 1000 clients to tailor customer experiences with Aktivo-enabled
solutions. Janicia combines technical expertise with business acumen in health technologies to
continuously deliver strategically aligned business outcomes for clients. She previously built an illustrious
career in medical devices, running R&D and Product Development in several early-stage medical device
companies. Janicia received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the National University
of Singapore and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a strong advocate for
Women in STEM.
Janicia Koh
Chief Strategy OfÏcer
Aktivo labs
Marlena's experience spans 15+ years, ranging from corporate consulting to marketing strategy in new
market categories at a range of startups from insurtech to health tech. She has held marketing
leadership positions at companies such as: MasterCard, The Advertising Research Foundation, mllnnl
digital agency, Ideon, Particle Health, and most recently, as the co-founder and head of marketing
consulting at The Company Advice, a fractional thought leadership agency for tech companies. She
advises on customer engagement strategies and data-driven, analytics-first growth marketing
strategies that focus on revenue outcomes, while building powerful brands that move the industry
needle. Marlena is a graduate of Lehigh University, where she holds an M.Eng in Mechanical Engineering.
Marlena Sarunac
Fractional CMO
The Company Advice