Live at RIMS

Host:

Justin Hicks
Communications Business Partner 
Zurich North America

Justin Hicks joined Zurich North America as a Communications Business Partner in May 2023 and currently supports the internal communications efforts for the Direct Markets business unit and the Operations and Technology function. Before joining Zurich as a Communications Business Partner, Justin served as a public affairs communications specialist at State Farm from 2015, supporting claims executives and leaders. In 2020, he became the first fully dedicated internal communications manager at Rivian's electric vehicle manufacturing plant. 

Episode One: 

Live at RIMS with Keith Daly

Record date: 05/05/25
Air date: 05/05/25 

Future of Risk is recording live at RIMS RISKWORLD! Social inflation and legal system abuse impacts everyone: the insurance industry, businesses and customers. Keith Daly, Chief Claims Officers for Zurich North America, discusses the drivers and impacts of legal system abuse. Plus, he talks about a multi-industry legal system abuse coalition that Zurich helped found, and some of the tort reform successes that we’re seeing across the country.

Guest:

Keith Daly
Chief Claims Officer
Zurich North America

Keith Daly is Chief Claims Officer for Zurich North America, where he is responsible for leading the Claims unit in delivering transactional excellence in claim handling and achieving a consistent level of superior customer service. Prior to his current position, Daly was President of Personal Lines for Farmers Insurance®, where he was responsible for product development, strategy and underwriting efforts for the Farmers® Personal Lines, Bristol West® and Foremost® lines of business. He also previously served as Chief Claims Officer for Farmers, and before that led their Property and Auto Claims units. 

Episode two:

Live at RIMS with Paul Lavelle and Tobias Cushing

Record date: 05/05/25
Air date: 05/06/25

Future of Risk is recording live at RIMS RISKWORLD in Chicago! AI is transforming the insurance landscape. Paul Lavelle, Head of U.S. National Accounts, and Tobias Cushing, Deputy Chief Underwriting Officer, joins us to share how AI is helping Zurich's underwriting claims professionals focus on data analysis, decision making and relationship building rather than data entry. Plus, they discuss the importance of managing AI risks by keeping humans involved.

Guests: 

Paul Lavelle
Head of U.S. National Accounts
Zurich North America

Paul Lavelle is the Head of U.S. National Accounts for Zurich North America and is responsible for the direction, management and performance of all large commercial Property & Casualty business in the U.S. Lavelle has more than 30 years of insurance experience and has held a number of claims and underwriting senior leadership and management roles. Prior to his appointment to Head of U.S. National Accounts, he served as Chief Claims Officer for Zurich North America. 

Tobias Cushing
Deputy Chief Underwriting Officer
Zurich North America

Cushing is the Deputy Chief Underwriting Officer for Zurich North America and is responsible for supporting profitable growth through the delivery of data-driven insights and enhancement of technical capabilities for Zurich North America’s underwriters across all lines of business, including Property, Casualty, Specialty Lines, Excess and Surplus and Crop insurance. Toby Cushing joined Zurich in March 2022 as Head of Construction Casualty, then moved to Zurich’s Technical Underwriting group in September 2023 as Head of Motor. 

Episode three:

Live at RIMS with Stan Bernard 

Record date: 05/05/25
Air date: 05/07/25

Future of Risk is recording live at RIMS RISKWORLD! Middle Market is growing! And Zurich’s capabilities align to our customer needs. Stan Bernard, Head of Industry Practices for U.S. Middle Market at Zurich North America, highlights the areas Zurich is investing in that are helping to fuel our growth.

Guest:

Stan Bernard
Head of Industry Practices U.S. Middle Market
Zurich North America

Stan Bernard is the U.S. Middle Market Head of Industry Practices for Zurich North America, where he is responsible for driving growth and profitability across all U.S. Middle Market customer industry segments nationwide. Bernard joined Zurich in 2021 from CNA Insurance, where he held positions of increasing leadership in the middle market space, most recently as Assistant Vice President Commercial Officer. His previous roles include underwriting, sales and analyst positions at Chubb, Liberty Mutual and Wachovia Bank.

Episode four:

Live at RIMS with Jon Tate

Guest: 

Jon Tate
Head of Core Risk Engineering
Zurich North America Commercial Insurance

Jon Tate, Head of Core Risk Engineering, provides leadership to all aspects of Construction Risk Engineering and supports the development and delivery of Risk Engineering strategy with an emphasis on risk assessment, risk improvement, claims insights and thought leadership. He has over 25 years of experience in the insurance and construction industries, and sits on the Board of Advisors of the Construction Industry Institute (CII). During the last five years, he has also been active in research projects aimed at understanding and rebuilding the construction industry’s skilled workforce.