Chief Underwriting Officer

Underwriting Leadership Position

Primary responsibility for leading the strategic direction and operational management of the underwriting function. Additional responsibilities include driving underwriting excellence, including general underwriting policy and underwriting management best practices. This includes advancing underwriting profitability, governance, product and pricing strategies, adoption of new tools, data and analytics and empowering our underwriters to make informed underwriting decisions within that framework. As a leader within the organization, this individual will help shape the overall direction of the business, identify growth opportunities, innovate our product set, anticipate, and react to market trends, and drive profitability across the portfolio. While the primary product is Commercial Auto, the successful candidate should have experience operating across a wide range of insurance products and exposures including excess, property, casualty, liability, marine, and credit and financial lines. As such, the role requires strong core knowledge of North American insurance markets, including captive and independent, with a concentrated focus in commercial auto. Our approach to the market and portfolio of customers and products requires the ability to pivot from portfolio underwriting to individual account underwriting and back. Leadership and management responsibilities for the Commercial Auto team. The fundamental areas of engagement and responsibility are :

Overall Underwriting Leadership

• Manage Ford Pro Insure's overall commercial auto underwriting function including production, guidelines, reinsurance utilization, loss results, referrals, and renewals
• Set, manage and achieve underwriting targets to ensure profitable growth; establish and monitor relevant KPI's including submission rate, quote ratio, bind ratio, etc.
• Manage a team of underwriters including effective delegation of underwriting authority (balancing speed to market against effective risk controls), mentoring / coaching, and providing vision and growth opportunities
• Manage strategic distribution partners (e.g., wholesalers, brokers, MGA, etc.) including monitoring of profitable production targets, go-to-market strategies (in conjunction with the sales teams) and issues resolution
• Collaborate with actuarial teams to validate pricing assumptions and ensure alignment with underwriting guidelines
• Work closely with both internal and external customers to ensure the highest underwriting standards
• Champion and represent the underwriting function while effectively interacting with other internal stakeholders / function
• Strive to exceed Ford's customer service expectations throughout the buying / servicing / renewal process

Portfolio Optimization & Technical Underwriting

New Product Development

Underwriting Governance and Controls

UW Audit Process

Risk Management

Authority Management & Governance

Training & Talent Development

Product Development and Management

Ford Pro Insure Expansion

Qualifications, Skills, and Experience