Yosha DeLong among 2019’s Business Insurance Women to Watch

Yosha DeLong, technical director, cyber and professional lines for Zurich North America, is among the honorees named to the 2019 Business Insurance Women to Watch. On December 12, she and the other honorees were celebrated at an awards luncheon and ceremony in New York.

Since 2006, the Women to Watch Awards have showcased an outstanding group of female executives in the insurance and risk management sector. This year, fifty honorees—20 winners from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 30 from North America and the rest of the world—were selected through a rigorous nomination and judging process.

“I’m so honored to have received this award from Business Insurance, as well as to have been nominated for it by Zurich,” DeLong said. “It was an amazing experience to accept this award, along with and surrounded by all these incredible successful women, including past honorees and my current Zurich colleagues, Lynn Zeitler and Lori Bailey.”

Zeitler, a 2016 Women to Watch winner; Bailey, a 2017 winner; and Zurich North America Chief Underwriting Officer Brandon Fick were on hand to support DeLong as she received her award, along with several other Zurich colleagues, including members of Zurich’s Women’s Innovation Network (WIN).

“I look forward to continuing my involvement with Women to Watch in the future and hope to inspire future award winners and women leaders,” DeLong added.

As technical director of cyber and professional lines, DeLong helps Zurich customers protect themselves from cyber risk. She is responsible for coordinating and monitoring cyber as a peril across all lines of business, as well as oversight of all professional liability lines of business. In this position since 2017, she leads the continued development of Zurich’s cyber risk efforts and is accountable for the performance of the Cyber Security & Privacy portfolio through technical underwriting strategy and governance, product development, risk selection and pricing.

DeLong is a key contributor for Zurich to the public sector dialogue around cyber insurance. She has participated in classified discussions on cyber threats to the U.S. public sector with the White House in 2018 and roundtable discussions on cyber needs with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She co-chaired the 2018 Advisen Cyber Risk Insights Conference and has been a speaker and panelist at numerous cyber industry events.

DeLong has created a name in the cyber insurance space not only for herself but for Zurich. Through her speaking engagements and relationships with brokers and clients, she has established Zurich as a viable and contributory cyber insurance carrier.
 
Joe DePaul, head of FINEX Cyber/E&O, North America for Willis Towers Watson, said in his recommendation letter on DeLong’s behalf, “Yosha’s career and experiences as an underwriter in management and professional liability, as well as her brokerage experience, have well positioned her to truly understand the complex nature of cyber risk and exposure. She understands well, how cyber correlates with and into other lines of business, and how providing creative solutions in the space can not only help our clients by providing true risk transfer solutions, but also act as a leader and innovator in the space through the products and services Zurich can offer.”