Chris Lewis

Christopher Lewis

Head of Excess & Surplus

Zurich North America

Skills and experience

Christopher M. Lewis is Head of Excess & Surplus (E&S) for Zurich North America. He is responsible for developing and executing E&S strategy and actions to best respond to the needs of customers and brokers, while helping Zurich better serve the E&S market and achieve growth in it.

Prior to joining Zurich, Lewis served as President and CEO of International Financial Services Group, a private excess and surplus lines insurance company.

He began his career as a Senior Economist in Washington D.C. at the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. He left Washington to join Ernst & Young, LLP, where he helped develop and implement an enterprise risk management consulting practice for financial services clients. From there, Lewis moved to NetRisk, LLC, where he was Managing Director and Head of Consulting Services. At The Hartford Financial Services Group, Lewis served in a number of positions of increasing seniority in both finance and risk management, ultimately serving as the P&C Chief Risk Officer and the Enterprise Chief Insurance Risk Officer.

External appointments

Lewis is a member of the American Finance Association, the American Economic Association and the American Risk and Insurance Association. He has published numerous articles on risk management, finance and insurance, and has taught finance at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Educational background

Lewis earned a B.A. in international finance and an M.A. in economics from the University of Connecticut.