The Top 25 InsurTech Executives Of 2020

The Financial Technology Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 InsurTech Executives of 2020. The financial technology industry has been rapidly expanding, with more consumers opting for the convenience of digital transactions. Within this high-growth industry, InsurTech companies have seen a boost in usage, particularly amid the uncertainty brought about by the pandemic. To address this growing demand, InsurTech executives and the companies they lead have continued to develop and offer innovative solutions for insurers, enterprises, and individuals alike.

This year’s awardees were selected for their depth of expertise in insurance technology, their ability to build strong organizations, and the quality of products and services offered by their companies. Their leadership capabilities span product development, sales strategy, marketing, operations, technology, and other areas. As digital transformation accelerates and takes over traditional practices, we can expect the following executives to remain at the forefront, bringing to market innovative and secure solutions that provide businesses and individuals the best in insurance technology.

 

1. Yashish Dahiya
Company: PolicyBazaar
Title: Co-Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer

Yashish Dahiya is the Co-Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Indian insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar. He co-founded the company in 2008 to help Indian consumers effectively compare and purchase insurance policies. In the decade since, Dahiya has led PolicyBazaar to achieve rapid adoption and incredible growth amid the rapid increase in internet and mobile users in India. Today, more than a quarter of all Indian life insurance plans go through the platform, as does over seven percent of the country’s retail health insurance business. The company has raised over $626 million over 10 funding rounds, with participation from leading investors such as SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund, Tiger Global Management, and Tencent Holdings Ltd. Riding this success, the company aims to go public in September 2021.

Dahiya is no stranger to leadership. Before his entrepreneurial venture with PolicyBazaar, Dahiya was the CEO of global online insurance broker First Europa. In this role, he was responsible for leading the company’s global expansion across nine geographical markets. He also previously served as managing director for leading pan-European online travel aggregator ebors.com. He began his career as a management consultant at Bain & Co. and a business unit head at Illinois Tools Works. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from IIT Delhi and his Master of Business Administration degree from INSEAD.

 

2. Ben Salzmann
Company: Acuity Insurance
Title: President and Chief Executive Officer

Ben Salzmann is President and Chief Executive Officer of Acuity Insurance, a provider of personal and business insurance solutions. For more than 20 years, Salzmann has led the award-winning company, which has supplied insurance services for nearly a century. Under Salzmann’s leadership, the company has seen exponential growth in revenue, reaching $1.5 billion in 2018, with a policyholder surplus in excess of $2 billion. Now, Acuity insures over 100,000 American businesses, as well as vast numbers of homes and personal vehicles across the nation.

In addition to leading the company’s growth, Salzmann has fostered a diverse and productive workplace for his employees. In 2019, Acuity was recognized as Best Workplace for Diversity by Forbes Magazine, one of many accolades the company has earned for its employee environment. Before joining Acuity in 1990, Salzmann worked for Foremost Insurance of Michigan, where he participated in early research for using AI in insurance. He holds a degree in computer information systems from Aquinas College in Michigan and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Wisconsin School of Business.

 

3. Seth Birnbaum
Company: EverQuote
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Seth Birnbaum is a Co-Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of EverQuote, an online insurance marketplace. Founded in 2011, EverQuote's mission is to empower insurance shoppers to better protect life's most important assets—their family, property, and future. EverQuote's vision is to use data and technology to help make insurance simpler, more affordable and personalized ultimately reducing cost and risk.

Birnbaum founded EverQuote with his work spouse Tomas Revesz EverQuote's CTO and the company's Chairman Dave Blundin, all three who met through MIT. He's honored to work wtih a great team working their collective butts off to help transform the insurance industry from offline to online and to digitized products. Previously, he co-founded two other companies, has a bachelor of Science degree in biology and mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology along with some cool patents in computer science and pharmaceutical discovery (neato)!

Seth Birnbaum unexpectedly passed away the weekend prior to this article's release.  We extend our deepest sympathies to the Birnbaum family and EverQuote organization.  In the spirit of celebrating Seth's life, we decided to go ahead and publish his inclusion in this year's awards underscoring the recognition he so richly deserves.

 

4. Jeremy Jawish
Company: Shift Technology
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Jeremy Jawish is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shift Technology, the Paris-based insurance fraud detection and claims automation company. Alongside Co-Founder Eric Sibony, Jawish was drawn to form Shift in 2013 after observing the inefficiencies in manual fraud detection during his time at a major French insurer. Now as CEO, Jawish has led Shift’s efforts to automate this insurance fraud detection process to great success. The company now has offices in Boston, Toronto, Tokyo, Singapore, London, Madrid, Zurich, and Hong Kong in addition to its Paris headquarters, has raised more than $100 million in funding, and serves leading insurers in 25 countries. Recently the company also announced a record $60 million in revenue for the third quarter of 2020.

Prior to co-founding Shift, Jawish was a strategist at Goldman Sachs specializing in FICC-Exotic Volatility Inflation. He also helped insurer AXA develop a fraud detection solution based on statistics and social network analysis. Jawish received his Master of Science degree in probability and finance from Université Pierre et Marie Curie as well as his Master of Science degree in financial mathematics from Ecole Polytechnique.

 

5. Julian Teicke
Company: Wefox
Title: Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Julian Teicke is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wefox. He developed the Wefox online insurance management platform to help customers, insurance brokers, and insurance companies maintain clear communication. Now Europe’s leading InsurTech company, Wefox, has over half a million customers. Within a year, Teicke was able to announce a Series A investment of $28 million, and in December 2019, the company announced a $110 million in a Series B extension. The company has grown to employ a staff of over 400 and is continuing to expand throughout the continent, focusing on customer ownership of data as a primary goal.

Wefox was launched in 2014, while Teicke was still at DeinDeal. He shares the credit for the ideas behind this business plan with his father, who is a 30-year veteran of the insurance industry. Before creating his own company, Teicke helped launch Chocri in the U.K. and helped ease Groupon into U.K. markets. In 2011, he co-founded the Swiss e-commerce website DeinDeal, where he served as chief operating officer until 2015. Teicke received a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from the University of St. Gallen.

 

6. John Swigart
Company: Pie Insurance
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

John Swigart is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pie Insurance, an insurtech specializing in workers’ compensation insurance for small businesses. In addition to providing services directly to small enterprises, Pie partners with local, regional, and national agencies to provide workers’ comp insurance to their customers. In less than 3.5 years since being founded, the company has reached $100 million in cumulative written premium, and recently raised $127 million in funding toward its continued growth and expansion.

In 2020, Swigart was recognized by EY as a Mid-Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year for his excellence in leading Pie Insurance to rapid success. Prior to founding Pie, Swigart spent 13 years as an executive with Esurance, including a decade as chief marketing officer. During his tenure with Esurance, the company built its premium volume to over $1 billion before it was purchased by Allstate in 2013. Swigart is also a Board Member for Hope Unlimited for Children, a Brazil-based organization providing educational and vocational training to high-risk youth. Swigart holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Haverford College in Pennsylvania.

 

7. Max Drucker
Company: Carpe Data
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Max Drucker is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Carpe Data, a provider of data solutions for insurance companies. Carpe Data provides evaluation and scoring products to property and casualty (P&C) and life insurance companies, utilizing next-generation data such as social media and other online content. Drucker is an innate entrepreneur who loves building teams and creating innovative products, and he enthusiastically leads Carpe Data’s development and execution.

His career began over 20 years ago with a brief stint as a quality assurance engineer for Apple, just prior to Steve Jobs’ return. His first venture in Silicon Valley was with eCoverage, an early entrant in online insurance. Later, he founded and successfully grew Steel Card, another innovation in online insurance technology, which is now owned by LexisNexis. In 2010, he was recognized by Insurance and Technology Magazine as a Top 10 Innovator of the Decade. Drucker received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science from Colorado College.

 

8. Peter Colis
Company: Ethos Life
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Peter Colis is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ethos Life, a next-generation life insurance startup specializing in simplifying life insurance enrollment. Founded in 2015, Ethos Life uses predictive technology to quote life insurance rates quickly from its mobile app, using self-reported information and existing medical records, eliminating the need for a medical exam in most cases. In a short time, Colis’ company has raised $100 million in funding from backers including GV, Sequoia, and Goldman Sachs, and is expanding with vigorous momentum.

Before founding Ethos, Colis and his fellow Co-Founder Lingke Wang started Ovid Corp, a marketplace that helps seniors access the equity from lapsing policies. As a leader, Colis is constantly challenging himself and rewriting his job description to best suit his company’s needs. In addition to managing Ethos, he is an angel investor for Sequoia Capital and a member of the Forbes Finance Council. He and Wang met as students at Stanford University, from which Colis holds a Master of Business Administration degree.

 

9. Scott Walchek
Company: Trōv
Title: Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Serial entrepreneur Scott Walchek founded Trōv—touted as the world’s first on-demand insurance platform—in 2012 with the goal of meeting customers’ insurance needs where they live, work, and move. The company’s app allows users to insure individual items with “micro-duration policies” that can be toggled on and off by partnering with insurance carriers based on geographic region. To date, Scott has led Trōv through several successful financing rounds with over $98 million in total funding. Over the past few years, under Walchek’s leadership, the company has hit several significant milestones. These include partnering with major European vehicle manufacturer Groupe PSA’s service, Free2Move, as well as launching its on-demand personal property insurance services in the U.S.

Walchek’s success with Trōv is based on his over 20 years of experience building technology companies, from his most recent venture as founder and CEO of DebtMarket to earlier ventures with C2B Technology and venture capital fund Integrity Partners. Walchek was also a key lead investor in Baidu’s IPO, the most successful foreign IPO in NASD history. In addition to his entrepreneurial success, Walchek also serves as the Co-Founder and President of the W Charitable Foundation.

 

10. Tim Attia
Company: Slice Labs
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Tim Attia is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of on-demand insurance cloud platform provider, Slice Labs. Attia launched the company in 2015 with a clear mission: to change, improve, and redesign insurance. Under Attia’s leadership, Slice Labs pioneered a suite of on-demand insurance products geared toward gig entrepreneurs. More recently, the company’s Insurance Cloud Services (ICS) are helping to modernize traditional insurers by providing them with the tools and platform necessary to make the leap to become digital insurers. The company also recently announced a collaboration with AXIS Insurance to distribute AXIS Home Based Business Insurance to help protect small businesses.

Prior to founding Slice Labs, Attia served as executive vice president of sales and marketing for insurance industry digital distribution platform BOLT Solutions, where he was responsible for sales, marketing, and business development. Earlier in his career, he held senior positions at Exigen Insurance Solutions, Camilion Solutions, Ajengo, and CGI Group. Attia attended Canada’s McGill University, where he received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in electrical engineering.

 

11. John Fees
Company: GradGuard
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

John Fees is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GradGuard, a specialized insurance marketing company focused on college students. GradGuard is a service of the Next Generation Insurance Group, offering insurance and benefit packages for college-aged students and their families. The company provides industry-leading packages for tuition, renters, and life insurance, available through a network of over 300 learning institutions, affording unique benefit opportunities for young adults as they navigate higher education.

An entrepreneur with a proven track record of success, Fees boasts nearly thirty years of experience developing financial services, insurance technology, and affinity marketing platforms geared toward university students. Previously, Fees co-founded Y2M: Youth Media and Marketing, a digital publishing platform, which he sold to Viacom in 2006. He also served as a managing partner at Access Venture Group, an investment holding company operating companies in financial technology and media and marketing services. In addition to holding a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Arizona State University, Fees also has a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

 

12. Priscilla Hung
Company: Guidewire Software
Title: Chief Operating Officer

Priscilla Hung is the Chief Operating Officer at insurance industry platform provider Guidewire Software, which offers a platform for property and casualty insurance carriers in the U.S. and worldwide. In her role, Hung oversees the company’s operations, including product development, cloud operations, corporate and product strategy, alliances, customer support, and information systems technology and security. The company recently announced that ABI Document Support Services (ABI) has joined Guidewire PartnerConnect as a solution partner, which will enable Guidewire ClaimCenter users to order records and receive relevant communication and documents from ABI. Hung joined Guidewire in 2005, and she assumed her current role after holding a variety of leadership roles at the company.

Hung’s background prior to joining Guidewire includes extensive enterprise software experience at both public companies and startups. She came to Guidewire from Ariba, where she was director of operations and director of global channels and alliances. Hung also spent time in channel, business development, and product marketing positions at Sun Microsystems, Pyramid/Siemens Nixdorf, Oracle, and Uniface/Compuware. She received her Master of Science degree in industrial engineering and an operations research degree from Cornell University.

 

13. Meghan Joyce
Company: Oscar Health
Title: Chief Operating Officer

Meghan Joyce is the Chief Operating Officer at technology-focused health insurer Oscar Health. In her role, Joyce is tasked with several key responsibilities including building, scaling, and spearheading Oscar’s operations. She is also charged with partnering with CEO Mario Schlosser in order to ensure that the company achieves long-term strategic growth. The company now has more than 420,000 members across 29 cities and annual growth of about 70%. Notably, the company was also instrumental in assisting members in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and was the first company to provide a nationwide database of COVID testing locations.

Joyce came to Oscar from Uber, where she most recently served as regional general manager. In this role, she supervised rider and driver experiences and business outcomes in cities across the country, with a P&L under management that increased 10,000 times during her tenure. She also served as a senior policy advisor for the U.S. Department of the Treasury and spent time at Bain & Company as both an investor and a consultant. Joyce received her Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School and her Bachelor of Arts degree in history of science from Harvard College, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

 

14. Andrew Johnston
Company: Willis Re
Title: Global Head of InsurTech

As the Global Head of InsurTech for Willis Re—the broking reinsurance arm of leading global advisory, broking, and solutions company Willis Towers Watson—Andrew Johnston heads up a team tasked with vetting hundreds of technology candidates on behalf of his company’s clients. Willis Re’s clients are mainly traditional, incumbent insurers, meaning that Johnston plays a critical role in helping these companies adapt to new InsurTech innovations and stay abreast of new developments in the industry. The company recently completed a $100 million insurance linked-securities deal for Minnesota Life, a life insurance subsidiary of Securian Financial Group. Johnston brings a wide variety of experience to his role, including expertise in financial risk, intercultural communication, politics, policy analysis, languages, and political science.

Johnston started at Willis Re as a research analyst and was promoted to his current role shortly thereafter. Johnston’s career started in research and academics, which has contributed to the diverse background he brings to his current role. With a doctorate in politics, he spent six years as a researcher of political violence at SOAS University of London. He also consulted for the United Nations and the Documentation Center of Cambodia. Johnston received his PhD in politics, his Master of Arts degree in pacific Asian studies, and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Japanese and economics from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

 

15. Dan Manges
Company: Root Insurance
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Dan Manges is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Root Insurance. In 2015, Manges co-founded the mobile technology-powered car insurance carrier with the goal of providing customers with car insurance rates based on driving behavior rather than demographics. As the CTO, Manges spearheads Root Insurance’s effort to utilize smartphone technology to measure driving behavior. Over the past four years, he has helped to lead the company through multiple successful funding rounds. Just last month the company went public, raising $724.4 million at $27 per share, and bringing the company’s valuation to $6.7 billion. The company sold 2 million more shares than expected, making it the largest IPO in Ohio history.

Prior to co-founding Root Insurance, Manges was the founding chief technology officer at credit card payment tool provider Braintree and helped guide the firm on its journey from a merchant services company to a technology company. Manges also spent time as a senior consultant to ThoughtWorks after beginning his career as a software developer at JPMorgan Chase. Manges has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer information systems from DeVry University.

 

16. Francois de Lame
Company: PolicyGenius
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer

Francois de Lame co-founded independent online insurance marketplace PolicyGenius with Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Fitzgerald in 2014 with the goal of providing users with personalized quotes, side-by-side comparisons of tailored policies, and comprehensive insurance solutions for all of a user’s needs without going through an insurance agent. In the past five years, de Lame has helped PolicyGenius further establish itself as a leader in the industry and raise $161 million in funding toward the aim of making the company a one-stop-shop for financial protection. The company also recently launched a new mobile app that allows users to create wills and trusts, as well as shop for life and home insurance, right from their phones.

Before he co-founded PolicyGenius, de Lame was a senior associate at management consultant McKinsey & Company, where he focused on insurance companies, strategy, marketing, and the public sector. He also served as chief marketing officer for online recruiting website Identified, and as trade marketing manager for multinational beverage company SABMiller. He received his Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard University and his Bachelor of Business Science degree in economics and finance from the University of Cape Town, where he graduated with honors.

 

17. Nissim Tapiro
Company: Next Insurance
Title: Co-Founder and CTO

Nissim Tapiro is the Co-Founder and CTO at Next Insurance. In his role, Tapiro has been integral in helping the online small business insurance provider achieve its goal of transforming the insurance experience for small businesses and has helped expand the company’s product offerings to over 1,000 different and unique business types. Just last year, the startup achieved unicorn status with a $250 million funding round. The company duplicated that success this year, bringing in another $250 million in a Series D round in September. The company also recently announced its integration with Intuit to enable QuickBooks users to purchase general liability, professional liability, and workers’ compensation coverage through its platform.

Tapiro’s background prior to co-founding Next is in research and development and product management. He was previously director of engineering for Intuit as well as vice president of research and development for mobile personal finance service Pageonce. Tapiro also spent time as a senior product manager at HP Software and as a senior R&D manager at Mercury. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and mathematics from Tel Aviv University.

 

18. Aviad Pinkovezky
Company: Hippo Insurance
Title: Chief Product Officer

Aviad Pinkovezky is the Chief Product Officer of Hippo Insurance, the InsurTech company offering simpler and smarter home and condo insurance. Pinkovezky has been with Hippo Insurance since 2016, starting as head of product before being promoted to Chief Product Officer in 2018. In his current role, Pinkovezky helps develop the company’s offerings, aimed at leveraging AI technology to boost customer experience and improve the policy life cycle. To achieve this, the company provides a streamlined process, modern insurance coverage, smart home systems, home maintenance services, outreach during damage-causing storms, among other services.

Pinkovezky came to Hippo from LinkedIn, where he was a senior product manager responsible for growing the company’s Company Page ecosystem by almost 300 percent. He also worked briefly at McKinsey & Company and spent 10 years as an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces. Pinkovezky received his Bachelor of Science degree from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and his Master of Business Administration degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

 

19. Jamie Yoder
Company: Snapsheet
Title: President

Jamie Yoder is the President of Snapsheet, a company whose goal is to transform the end-to-end claims process through digitization and intelligent automation. Yoder was appointed as the President of the virtual claims technology provider based on his years of industry-relevant experience with PricewaterhouseCoopers. As President, Yoder has been charged with leading all go-to-market activities across the company’s business lines, from virtual appraisals to Snapsheet Payments and digital engagement and claims management. Under his leadership, the company recently announced the launch of Clear Claims with Clearcover, the fastest auto damage process in the market.

Yoder has been at the forefront of the insurance and technology industry for decades. Prior to joining Snapsheet, he served as the insurance advisory practice leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers for eight years and advised clients on a wide range of management issues. He was also a managing director in Diamond Management & Technology Consultants’ Global Insurance Practice for 15 years. He is a recognized speaker and writer within the InsurTech industry, contributing to Bloomberg, WSJ, Best's Review, and more. Yoder received his undergraduate degree from Indiana University in Bloomington.

 

20. Matt Stein
Company: Metromile
Title: Vice President, Product

Vice President of Product Matt Stein brings over 20 years of experience crafting well-loved products to car insurance startup Metromile. Metromile is a San Francisco-based car insurance startup that offers pay-per-mile insurance and a driving app. In his current role, Stein is responsible for leading and integrating the company’s product, design, and project teams. The company continuously looks to expand its offerings to its customers and recently announced a partnership with Ford in which Ford will make Metromile’s pay-per-mile insurance offering available in its new connected cars.

A veteran in the tech industry, Stein came to Metromile in 2015 from cloud-based software pioneer Salesforce, where he was director of product design for the community cloud. In this role, he was responsible for managing a team of designers, design engineers, and researchers to craft engaging and visually appealing user experiences. Prior to Salesforce, Stein was with software company Autodesk for 10 years, spending time on the company’s product, design, and engineering teams. Stein received his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

 

21. Hari Balakrishnan
Company: Cambridge Mobile Telematics
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Hari Balakrishnan is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world's leading telematics and analytics provider for insurers, rideshares, and fleets. As CTO, Balakrishnan has led CMT in utilizing groundbreaking mobile sensing, statistics, artificial intelligence, and behavioral science in order to more accurately model driving behavior, a key foundation for the company’s DriveWell behavior-based insurance program. Balakrishnan’s technological innovations at CMT have played a key role in the company’s success, including its raise of $500 million in 2018 from the SoftBank Vision Fund and the recent launch of its “Safest Driver” Mobile App which rewards drivers for safe behavior.

In addition to his role at Cambridge Mobile Telematics, Balakrishnan also serves as a Professor of computer science at MIT. At MIT, he led the MIT CarTel project with CMT’s Chief Scientist Sam Madden and was instrumental in authoring several award-winning papers and developing technologies that led to CMT’s formation. Prior to CMT’s founding, Balakrishnan also co-founded StreamBase and contributed to Sandburst. A member of the National Academy of Engineering since 2015, he received his PhD in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley and his Bachelor of Technology degree in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

 

22. Peter Licursi
Company: Zipari
Title: Chief Revenue Officer

Peter Licursi is the Chief Revenue Officer of Zipari, the New York-based company that provides health insurance companies with real-time insights and visibility into the customer journey. Earlier this year, the customer-focused company launched its Superior Member Experience Solution, which offers health insurance plans with technologies that modernize customer experience. In his role as CRO Licursi brings over 25 years of sales and management experience to help the company revolutionize the customer experience in the industry. He has been charged with growing efficient, predictable revenue for the company and turning the company’s vision into a long-term actionable strategy—and his results speak to his success. Since joining Zipari in 2015, Licursi has rapidly expanded the company’s reach from 150,000 members to more than 10 million.

Licursi has a proven record of bringing organizations to acquisition, and consistently achieves revenue goals over planned objectives. Prior to joining Zipari, Licursi was vice president of sales at Entuity, a position he held for 10 years. He previously held the same position at Merrill Corporation. Licursi also held senior roles in sales at BMC Software, Intershop Communications, Netlogic, and Apple. Licursi received his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Iona College and studied business, management, marketing, and related support services at the NYU Stern School of Business.

 

23. Chris Reynolds
Company: BriteCore
Title: Chairman and Co-Founder

Chris Reynolds co-founded enterprise-level insurance processing software company BriteCore in 2004 and currently serves as the company’s Chairman. Since then, he has helped shepherd the company through the initial creation of its insurance processing suite to its current position on the Inc. 500 list. Reynolds has been with the company for over 16 years, initially serving as its chief operating officer before moving into his current role. Under Reynolds’ leadership, the company has raised $62.6 million since its inception. With a focus on providing the best possible experience for customers, BriteCore recently announced a strategic partnership with managed services company Xceedance to aid in implementation maintenance and support BriteCore’s platform.

Prior to helping found BriteCore, Reynolds was a network administrator at Midwest Financial Networks. Reynolds was also the recipient of the NAMIC Service Award in 2011, as well as the “Governor’s Missouri Entrepreneur of the Year” award from Governor Jay Nixon. He graduated from Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer information systems and business and received additional certification from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

24. Ryan Swanson
Company: Sureify
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer

Ryan Swanson is the Co-Founder and current Chief Operating Officer at Sureify. He helped found the life insurance enterprise platform five years ago and since then he has taken on a number of key functions as his company looks to bridge the gap between insurance companies and the next generation of insurance clients. Among Swanson’s responsibilities at Sureify is heading up product operations and information security operations. He also plays an integral role in client and partner integrations on the engagement and servicing side of the company’s platform. Under his leadership, the company has expanded its team and its offerings to meet the needs of its growing customer base.

Prior to co-founding Sureify, Swanson served as the director of operations at enterprise application development company Vendus Product Labs. He also co-founded and served as the co-architect of the job search application Dapsity. Swanson began his career in public finance as an analyst in the City of San Jose’s finance department. He graduated from Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business with a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing.

 

25. Benjamin Clarke
Company: Bold Penguin
Title: Co-Founder and Chief Data Officer

Benjamin Clarke is the Co-Founder and Chief Data Officer at Bold Penguin, an Ohio-based InsurTech company that aims to rapidly increase speed-to-bind for commercial insurance. In his current role, Clarke has sought to “build out the next generation of commercial insurance products and features.” However, unlike many other new insurance exchanges that seek to eliminate the insurance agent, Clarke and his fellow Co-Founder, CEO Ilya Bodner, have looked to enhance the independent agency system and reduce the friction in the insurance buying process between businesses, agents, and carriers—and the company has raised over $50 million in funding in the process. The company also recently acquired RiskGenius, which will add RiskGenius’s data and analytics products to Bold Penguin’s SaaS platform.

Prior to founding Bold Penguin, Clarke served as president and CTO of marketing engineering agency The Shipyard, a company he co-founded in 2009. Clarke also helped found cloud application developer BlueChip Applications and entry-level-focused recruiting company LifeAgora. Clarke is also a member of the United States Chamber of Commerce Advisory Board, which focuses on university technology transfer and technology policy. He is a published author in Fast Company, Huffington Post, and Ad Week on a variety of technology and data related topics. Clarke received his Bachelor of Science degree in molecular genetics from The Ohio State University.