The Leadership in Insurance Podcast - Insurtech & Innovation

Alex Bond
  • 5.0 (6)
  • Technology
  • Updated Weekly

The insurance industry gets better through sharing innovation. On the Leadership in Insurance Podcast we speak to insurance thought leaders that are changing the game. The LIIP is a podcast helping Insurance professionals, Investors and supporters learn what it takes to achieve and succeed in the global insurance industry. We specifically look at what it takes to build a modern insurance business and how great teams are built, we share their stories to educate and inspire change to help build the future of insurance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 2d ago

    Dax Craig on Building an AI-Native MGA — With a Team of Five

    This week, host Alex Bond is joined by Dax Craig, co-founder and CEO of Comeryx — a serial insurance entrepreneur. In this conversation, Dax shares: ✅ His journey from a wireless start-up in grad school to founding two prior insurance ventures and why he came back for a third ✅ Comeryx's AI-native approach to small commercial insurance, targeting hard-to-place ENS risks through wholesale brokers with no-touch processing from submission to renewal ✅ How a five-person team is aiming to deliver the output of 50-75 employees and why profitability matters more to him than growth for growth's sake ✅ Why MGA structures beat traditional carriers on speed and innovation and his warning against MGAs drifting into becoming carriers ✅ What's really overlooked in small commercial insurance, and where investors are repeating mistakes from the mid-2010s It's a conversation about building lean, staying disciplined on profitability, and why real distribution expertise still beats hype in Insurtech. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Dax Craig on Building an AI-Native MGA — With a Team of Five

  2. Sep 7

    Balaji Devarasetty on Building the "Agentic Agency" at Vertafore

    🎙️ NEW EPISODE: Leadership in Insurance Podcast This week, host Alex Bond is joined by Balaji Devarasetty, CTO of Vertafore, to talk about bringing AI and outside-industry thinking to insurance technology. In this conversation, Balaji shares: ✅ His path from banking to payments to crypto — and how that cross-industry experience shapes how he approaches insurtech ✅ Vertafore's vision for the "Agentic Agency," using AI to modernize the tech stack without ripping out legacy systems ✅ How the Orange Partner Program's 40+ partners and hundreds of APIs let agencies of every size extend their platform, rather than building everything in-house ✅ How AI is closing the gap with other industries — cutting regulatory updates from days to hours and commission reconciliation from hours to minutes ✅ Why attracting the next generation of insurance talent means rethinking user experience, not just technology   It's a conversation about modernizing legacy systems without ripping them up, why the best insurtech ideas often come from outside insurance, and what it takes to build technology the next generation really wants to use. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Balaji Devarasetty on Building the "Agentic Agency" at Vertafore

  3. Aug 31

    Peter Colis: How Ethos Turned a 10-Week Process Into 10 Minutes

    🎙️ NEW EPISODE: The Leadership in Insurance Podcast This week, host Alex Bond is joined by Peter Colis, co-founder and CEO of Ethos — the vertically integrated platform that's rebuilding how life insurance gets underwritten, sold and serviced in the US. In this conversation, Peter shares: ✅ How Ethos went from a Stanford dorm-room idea in 2016 to the largest direct life insurance marketer in the US ✅ The three pivotal decisions behind Ethos's growth — from vertical integration to automating 95% of underwriting decisions instantly (vs. a 20-30% industry average) ✅ Why building a real competitor to Ethos is harder than it looks, and what makes their culture different from traditional carriers ✅ His view on where LLMs will (and won't) fit into life insurance distribution ✅ How Ethos's agent platform is democratizing access to life insurance for the mass and middle markets It's a conversation about innovation, execution, and building a category-defining company — as told by someone who's done it twice over: through years of private growth and now as a newly public company. #LeadershipInInsurance #InsurTech #LifeInsurance #Leadership #Ethos #Innovation Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Peter Colis: How Ethos Turned a 10-Week Process Into 10 Minutes

  4. Aug 24

    Bill Harris on 10 Years of InsurTech and What's Next at ITC Vegas

    🎙️ NEW EPISODE: The Leadership in Insurance Podcast This week, host Alex Bond sits down with Bill Harris, co-founder and Chief Customer Officer of ITC (InsureTechConnect), ahead of ITC Vegas 2026 (Sept 29 – Oct 1). In this conversation, Bill shares: ✅ How InsurTech has evolved over 10 years — from disrupting legacy carriers to helping them adopt technology at scale ✅ The AI investment numbers reshaping the sector, and why he's excited (with eyes open) about where it's heading ✅ What's new at ITC Vegas this year, including dedicated Cyber and AI summits ✅ Why 80-85 of the top 100 global carriers now show up — and what keeps 9,000+ attendees coming back ✅ His take on why the best opportunities at ITC happen outside the formal agenda — in the hallway conversations and serendipitous meetings It's a conversation about scale, connection, and why ITC has become the industry's annual homecoming. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Bill Harris on 10 Years of InsurTech and What's Next at ITC Vegas

  5. Aug 17

    TigerLab's Blueprint: Building Insurance Technology for the AI Era

    In the latest episode, host Dan Briselden sits down with Tobias Bergmann CEO & Founder, and Bassel Hamadeh, Head of Innovation at TigerLab — a company that has been building insurance technology from Southeast Asia to global markets for nearly two decades. What makes TigerLab's perspective different: 🔧 Founded before the InsurTech boom — they've lived through 2.0 and are now helping carriers, MGAs and brokers navigate 3.0 🌍 Global reach with deep domain expertise — from Malaysia to Europe to an expanding US presence ⚙️ A product-led approach that combines a core platform with bespoke builds so clients get exactly what they need, fast What else they cover: 🤖 Where AI is actually delivering ROI right now and where it isn't ready yet (spoiler: confidently wrong is worse than no decision at all) 📧 Why email triage, document ingestion and multilingual support are the unglamorous AI wins that are transforming underwriting workflows 💡 The build vs. buy debate and why domain expertise will separate the long-term survivors from the white-labelled newcomers 🧑‍💼 Why human relationships in insurance will remain irreplaceable even as automation reshapes the size and shape of teams Whether you're an MGA scaling fast, a carrier weighing your AI strategy, or simply curious about what two decades of insurance tech experience looks like in practice, this is a grounded and honest conversation from people who've seen the industry evolve from the inside. 🔔 Follow Leadership in Insurance so you never miss an episode #LeadershipInInsurance #InsurTech #AI #CoreSystems #MGA #Insurance #Podcast #TigerLab Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    TigerLab's Blueprint: Building Insurance Technology for the AI Era

  6. Aug 10

    The Psychology of Risk: Gráinne Murphy on Behavioural Science for Insurance

    In the latest episode, host Alex Bond sits down with Gráinne Murphy from Swiss Re's Risk Data Solutions to explore how behavioural science is reshaping insurance — from underwriting to claims to AI adoption. A few highlights: 🔹 Why under-insurance persists — people consistently undervalue future risk against present-day cost 🔹 How behavioural science helps debias expert judgment in underwriting, especially for novel or high-volatility risks where data alone isn't enough 🔹 Why loss aversion is a far more powerful lever than statistics for getting people to buy insurance 🔹 Inside Swiss Re's AI transformation — how an "AI champions network" is driving real adoption and trust in AI tools If you work in underwriting, pricing, or product — or you're just curious about the psychology behind why people buy (or don't buy) insurance — this one’s a must-listen. #LeadershipInInsurance #InsurancePodcast #BehavioralScience #SwissRe #InsurTech #RiskManagement Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    The Psychology of Risk: Gráinne Murphy on Behavioural Science for Insurance

  7. Aug 3

    Replacing Jorgen: Henri Kasurinen (Nomain) on AI and Legacy Knowledge Transfer

    In this episode, Alex Bond talks to Henri Kasurinen, CEO and co-founder of Nomain, about modernizing mainframe systems in insurance. Henri explains the problem Nomain was built to solve: organizations often depend on one long-serving employee — the "Jorgen" of the business — who holds deep, irreplaceable knowledge of legacy systems. Nomain's AI-powered knowledge platform aims to capture and scale that expertise before it walks out the door. Key themes from the conversation: 🔹 Insurance vs banking — insurers rely more heavily on batch processing, which has slowed modernization compared to banking's real-time demands 🔹 The real barrier is cultural, not technical — approval processes, lack of incentives, and fear of losing relevance often block progress more than the technology itself 🔹 Finding the right pace — Henri makes the case for incremental, targeted rollouts (team-by-team) over ambitious org-wide overhauls 🔹 What's next for Nomain — expansion into Germany first, then the UK, alongside growing excitement about open-source LLMs offering better data sovereignty for European insurers A candid look at what it really takes to modernize legacy infrastructure in a highly regulated industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Replacing Jorgen: Henri Kasurinen (Nomain) on AI and Legacy Knowledge Transfer

  8. Jul 27

    From Loss to Leadership: Ron Gura on Building Empathy Into Insurance

    Ron Gura didn't build Empathy because he saw a market gap. He built it because he'd lived through loss — including the death of his brother — and knew the industry was getting it wrong. Not on purpose. But wrong nonetheless. In the latest episode of The Leadership in Insurance Podcast, host Alex Bond sits down with Ron, Co-Founder & CEO of Empathy, for one of the most human conversations the show has had. Because at the heart of it, that's exactly what this is about. Ron explains how Empathy provides continuity of care through technology and services for life's hardest moments — bereavement, legacy planning, disability — partnering with insurers and employers to transform what has historically been a transactional process into something genuinely supportive. They also get into: ✅ Why 91% of beneficiaries are satisfied with claims — but fewer than 1 in 10 repurchase from the same carrier ✅ The "orphan claim" problem — 70% of US life insurance claims have no assigned advisor ✅ How AI should make humans more human, not replace them ✅ What the $100 trillion generational wealth transfer means for life insurers right now ✅ Empathy's expansion into Canada and Europe — and what's coming next With 200 employees across multiple offices and a live partnership with Zurich serving over 3 million people, this is a company that's moved well beyond vision into execution. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    From Loss to Leadership: Ron Gura on Building Empathy Into Insurance
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About

The insurance industry gets better through sharing innovation. On the Leadership in Insurance Podcast we speak to insurance thought leaders that are changing the game. The LIIP is a podcast helping Insurance professionals, Investors and supporters learn what it takes to achieve and succeed in the global insurance industry. We specifically look at what it takes to build a modern insurance business and how great teams are built, we share their stories to educate and inspire change to help build the future of insurance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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