Claims People: Beazley, Preferred Medical and AGCS

Specialist insurer Beazley has promoted Steven Chang to global head of complex claims and Kati Bynon to global claims leader for health care.

The two appointments follow Beth Diamond’s promotion to group head of claims in February 2020.

Chang, a trained attorney, was previously global claims team leader for health care, the London-based carrier said in a press release. He joined Beazley in 2006. Chang is based in Beazley’s New York office and reports to Diamond.

Bynon has managed claims for Beazley clients for the past 11 years, the carrier said. A former medical malpractice attorney, Bynon has extensive experience of managing complex healthcare professional and life sciences product liability claims. She is based in New York.

Beazley manages six Lloyd’s of London syndicates and underwrote $3 billion in gross premiums worldwide in 2019.

Preferred Medical, a national workers’ compensation pharmacy benefit manager and ancillary services provider, announced that Amy L. Wrightsel has been promoted to chief executive officer and Craig Towner to chief operating officer.

Wrightsel was formerly chief operating officer; Towner vice president of operations.

Preferred Medical said the appointment formalizes Wrightsel’s role as leader of the Louisville, Ky.-based company. She has informally functioned as the CEO for several years, the company said.

Wrightsel has been with Preferred Medical for 17 years, starting as a client service associate.

Towner now leads Pharmacy Benefit Management and Ancillary Service Operations for Preferred Medical. He will focus on the design and implementation of the company’s day-to-day operations, processes and resources.

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty has appointed Ali Shahkarami as chief data officer, a new position.

Shahkarami he will be responsible for the development and the delivery of AGCS data strategy and will report directly to AGCS Chief Operating Officer Bettina Dietsche, the company said in a press release.

AGCS, based in New York City, said its board of directors created the new position because data and analytics are important drivers for the future success of the company and are an essential part of the company’s transformation strategy.

Shahkarami will focus on aligning various data initiatives, tools and investments with AGCS’s business and data strategy as well as Allianz Group’s data strategy. Together with the AGCS Data Solutions & Architecture team, which is reporting to him, he will empower and expand AGCS’s data governance framework to ensure privacy and fidelity of all data and applications, the company said.

Shahkarami joined AGCS in 2012 as head of catastrophe risk research, where he was responsible for research and development activities to capture risks of man-made and natural catastrophes. In 2018, he moved to AGCS’s digital incubator initiative XSE to become the global capability lead on underwriting, where he led activities on digital transformation of client facing functions.

A successor for his present role as Global Capability Lead for Underwriting within AGCS’s digital incubator initiative XSE will be announced shortly, the company said.

Shahkarami is a citizen of Canada. Before joining AGCS, he held various positions as risk modeller and obtained a PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.