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Now on to our weekly round-up of the latest announcements, press releases and notices on career and company news of interest to our community…
Retirements
Robert Suglia, Vice President and General Counsel of Amica Announces His Retirement
Robert Suglia, Vice President and General Counsel of Amica Insurance has announced his retirement. A well-known member in the New England insurance industry, Mr. Suglia began his career with MetLife, before spending the majority of his career with Amica. Prior to entering the insurance industry, Mr. Suglia obtained his law degree from Boston University. After announcing his retirement via his LinkedIn page, Agency Checklists got in touch with him to see if we could share it with our readers. He was kind enough to let us reprint the announcement here.
I am pleased to announce my retirement from Amica Mutual Insurance Company effective May 31, 2019. I have had the privilege of working at Amica for the past 25 years, and have completed 30 years in the insurance industry since my initial hire by MetLife Auto and Home.
It has been a pleasure working with my colleagues here at Amica and throughout the insurance industry, where I have been able to associate with hard working and dedicated insurance professionals.
While I am looking forward to an active retirement, it is difficult to leave so many good industry friends behind, and I hope I am able to stay in touch with many of you. I could not have found better companies to work for where I was able to develop my skills as a lawyer and learn about insurance, government affairs and compliance.
Thank you all for your support over these many years.
Appointments
Plymouth Rock Assurance Names Sarah Cook as CMO
Plymouth Rock Assurance today announced that it has named Sarah Cook as Chief Marketing Officer of Bunker Hill Insurance Company, effective immediately. In this role, Cook will oversee sales, partnerships, corporate communications, marketing, advertising, brand, and digital efforts supporting independent agents, partners and direct-to-consumer channels when they involve Plymouth Rock’s popular home insurance products.
“Sarah adds expertise, leadership, excitement and depth to what is becoming one of the strongest homeowners teams in the industry,” said Bill Martin, who leads the efforts of Plymouth Rock’s Home Insurance Group. “She brings more than 20 years of insurance industry experience. Her track record of success will be applied to rolling out our innovative new home insurance products and to scale our operation across the Northeast.”
Cook leads marketing for property insurance across all states in which Plymouth Rock operates.
“This is an exciting time at Plymouth Rock, and I’m thrilled to join an organization that is driving innovation in the homeowners insurance market, delivering a dramatically simple and superior experience to our customers, partners and agents,” said Cook. “Plymouth Rock’s industry-leading products combined with its outstanding reputation and entrepreneurial spirt made it an easy decision to join the team.”
Cook joins Plymouth Rock from The Hartford Financial Services Group, where she held multiple senior leadership positions, most recently as Vice President of Marketing Strategic Partnerships in Personal Lines. She brings significant multi-channel direct to consumer and agency marketing experience, including digital and traditional marketing. She also brings expertise in building and growing relationships with agents and national strategic partners, including The AARP® Automobile and Homeowners Insurance Program.
Prior to The Hartford, Cook held various positions with AIG, Zurich and Aon, with primary focus on distributing insurance products through employer groups, strategic partners, agents and direct-to-consumer distribution channels.
MassMutual Appoints Gareth Ross as Head of Enterprise Technology and Experience
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) announced that Gareth Ross has been named head of the new Enterprise Technology and Experience (ETX) organization, which is responsible for all of the company’s internal and external technology and digital efforts, as well as direct to consumer marketing efforts. Notably, industry leaders Arthur Riel and Jim Routh have also joined MassMutual and the ETX organization as head of Core Technology & Initiatives and head of Enterprise Information Risk Management, respectively.
“Gareth brings a distinct combination of strategic vision and proven ability to build and lead top teams to this expanded role,” said Roger Crandall, MassMutual Chairman, President and CEO. “I am confident that Gareth and his strong leadership team will continue to develop superior technology and digital solutions to deliver a seamless experience to our policyowners, customers, distribution partners and employees.”
Since joining MassMutual in 2008, Ross has held various leadership roles, beginning in Corporate Finance and Strategy, heading up the company’s distribution strategy team within the insurance business, and establishing MassMutual’s direct to consumer business and industry-leading data science capabilities. Under Ross’ direction, MassMutual has invested in data science over the past six years, establishing an in-house data science group that creates knowledge and builds services from data that enable enterprise-wide data-driven decision making through science and applied research.
Prior to MassMutual, Ross held financial planning, management consulting and business analyst roles with Capmark Financial, General Motors, the New York Treasurer’s office, the Coca-Cola (Japan) Company, the World Bank, Fidelity Investments and Deloitte Consulting.
Two top leaders from the tech and cyber security industry have also joined MassMutual and its ETX leadership team:
Arthur Riel has been named head of Core Technology & Initiatives, a newly created role that oversees the prioritization and delivery of strategic technology projects across the company, as well as internal and external information systems applications, platforms and infrastructure.Riel brings more than 30 years of experience in system and application design and technology delivery to MassMutual, as well as an exceptional track record in developing and executing complex business and technology strategies. He has worked in senior technology management roles at various organizations, including Moody’s, NYSE EuroNext, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Most recently, he served as Chief Enterprise Architect and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Finance IT for The World Bank.
Riel also founded two technology companies in the areas of computer science training and compliance technology solutions, has taught hundreds of courses in both academic and industry environments, and authored several research papers.
Jim Routh has been appointed head of Enterprise Information Risk Management. In this role, Routh will drive a holistic information risk management approach across the company, with a focus on managing cybersecurity risks, ensuring all cybersecurity-related regulatory and compliance requirements are met, and overseeing the safeguarding of MassMutual’s information assets. Routh is a well-known visionary and recognized leader in the cyber security industry who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, and a demonstrated track record for delivering security capabilities that drive business results. Most recently, he served as chief information security officer (CISO) for CVS Health, where he led the security integration for CVS Health in the acquisition of Aetna and developed a three-year plan for achieving enterprise-level resilience. Prior to that, Routh served as CISO for Aetna, global head of application and mobile security at JP Morgan Chase and CISO at KPMG, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. and American Express.
Routh is a former Board and Committee Chairman of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) and the former Chairman of the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (H-ISAC). Routh received the 2017 Evanta Breakaway Leadership Award and 2016 ISE Luminary Award, among many other awards and honors throughout his career.
“I’m excited to welcome some of the nation’s leading tech talent to MassMutual and our ETX leadership team,” said Ross. “Arthur’s entrepreneurial mindset and proven ability to lead major initiatives and Jim’s reputation as a thoughtful and innovative leader who builds exceptional and diverse teams will be invaluable as we work to establish and drive MassMutual’s vision for all of our technology and digital efforts.”
