Zurich North America names Ann Chai Chief Risk Officer

Zurich North America has appointed Ann Chai as Chief Risk Officer, effective January 16.

Chai, who was Head of Finance for U.S. Middle Market at Zurich, succeeds Colleen Zitt, who returned to Zurich North America’s Finance team in the new role of Vice President of End-to-End Process Controls.

As Chief Risk Officer, Chai is responsible for leading all aspects of Zurich North America’s Risk function. This includes:

•     Ensuring groupwide governance and risk management responsibilities are met
•     Developing and implementing risk policies and monitoring adherence
•     Sponsoring projects and programs that contribute to the delivery of global initiatives
•     Taking accountability for meeting North America regulatory requirements

Chai will be a member of Zurich’s global Leadership Team, the Risk Management Executive Committee and Zurich North America’s Executive Committee.

She is based in Zurich North America’s Schaumburg, Illinois headquarters and will report directly to Zurich Group Head of Risk Peter Giger.

“With more than 20 years of financial and actuarial experience, and her proven leadership in U.S. Middle Market, Ann is the ideal person to lead the North America Risk function as we work to achieve our mission to embed a disciplined risk culture across the Zurich organization,” said Giger.

In her most recent position with U.S. Middle Market, Chai was responsible for financial planning, metrics and reporting to ensure delivery of underwriting results and expense management. Prior to that, she was Vice President & Actuary for Zurich North America’s Finance & Actuarial team. She joined Zurich in 2010 after working in several actuarial roles in both finance and data.

Chai is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a board member of Abacus Actuaries.