Acord, the industry data standards body, has announced its new 2019 Board of Directors, as well as a number of returning members.

J. Spero Zacharias will continue as chair of the Board of Directors, which consists of 27 members, including nine new directors.

Acord president and CEO, Bill Pieroni, said: “Acord’s efforts in 2019 will be driven by execution, results, and most importantly value to our members. The expertise and leadership of our Board are invaluable in fulfilling this mission and improving the global insurance industry.”

The new directors include;

Steven Beard - CEO, Risk Transfer Group & RFIB. Beard was appointed as Risk Transfer Group CEO and RFIB CEO in May 2018. He joined the Group in December 2017 as its CFO and CEO of George Yard Services (a newly created central services company). Before this, he most recently served as Group CEO of technology and professional services company, Agilisys. Beard has also served as CO of Redwave plc, the UK based venture capital business. He started his career working for a series of Lloyd’s managing agents including Navigators, Brockbank and XL Capital. Beard is a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant.

Kirk Behrens - global chief operating officer, Aon Health Solutions. Behrens is responsible for developing and executing the strategic direction for global technology and operations at Aon Health Solutions. In addition, Behrens chairs Aon’s Global Operations & Technology Council. Before this he held a number of senior leadership positions within Aon’s Commercial Risk Solutions business and its global technology organisation during his more than 10 years with the firm. Prior to that, he held strategy, operations, and technology leadership positions at Marsh and was a management consultant at Accenture.

Helen Crooks - chief data officer, Lloyd's of London. Crooks has 30 years’ experience setting data strategy and creating data insight solutions spanning a range of markets including; FMCG / retail, telecoms, publishing, travel and financial services. She was the chief architect and technical director for Dunnhumby, and has subsequently enabled several major European organisations to effectively manage and utilise their customer data. Crooks started at Lloyd’s in August 2015, leading developments around data governance, AI and cognitive Intelligence, new data technology and a data literacy program designed to ensure Lloyd's has skills and expertise for the future.

Kevin Kennedy - chief information officer, Prudential Financial. Kennedy is vice president and chief information officer of various corporate centers; inclusive of law, compliance, business ethics & external affairs, global marketing & communications, long-term care, investor relations, operational risk, audit, and electronic records. Before joining Prudential, he served as managing director and chief technology officer at Jefferies, where he was responsible for the technology supporting the Investment banking division’s OneJef platform. Kennedy was also chief information officer for the Prudential Bache.

Patrick Molineux- managing director LIMOSS (London Insurance Market Operations and Strategic Sourcing). Molineux previously worked at CSC Computer Sciences Corporation, where he was most recently general manager responsible for CSC’s insurance business in the UK. Over his 20 years with CSC Molineux held roles including running CSC’s global insurance strategy, management consulting, sales and program management.

Dr. Ralf Schneider - executive vice president and head of global operations, Allianz. Dr. Schneider has been the Group CIO of Allianz since October 2010 and is also a former Board Member for IT of Allianz Technology SE. He also acted as the CIO of Allianz Deutschland AG, and holds various mandates in different Cyber Security related organisations such as the Cyber Security Sharing & Analytics e.V., the Deutsche Cyber Sicherheits Organisation and the Digital Society Institute of the ESMT in Berlin. He is the vice chairman of the Federal Association of IT users, a curator at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology, a senator of the National Academy of Science and Engineering, a founding member of the Industrial Data Space e.V.

Simon Squires - senior operations lead, UK & Ireland, International & Premium Collections, Middle Office XL Catlin, AXA XL. Squires has been the chairman of Ruschlikon UK for the past seven years, helping to facilitate implementations of Acord Standard messaging across a wide community of brokers, insurers, and reinsurers. Squires has previously held roles at IBM HUON, implementing insurance systems, RSA, in operations and finance, and PWC, working in London and internationally for insurance and financial services clients.

James (Jim) Tyo - Chief Data Officer, Nationwide. Tyo is responsible for overall strategic vision, planning, execution and management of all activities related to operation of the Enterprise Data Office (EDO) for Nationwide. Jim formerly worked at BB&T, one of the largest financial services holding companies in the U.S., where he was their first enterprise CDO, and USAA, a member-owned association dedicated to providing financial services to the military community and their families, where he began their first chief data office. Prior to USAA, he held senior positions within GE Capital and Key Bank.

Rafal Walkiewicz - CEO, Willis Towers Watson Securities. Walkiewicz joined Willis Towers Watson in 2014. He brings over 20 years of international experience working with financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, and in particular insurance companies. Walkiewicz began his career at BMT Brokers, where he managed one of the first Polish independent stockbrokers, asset managers and investment banking boutiques. Walkiewicz earned his M.Sc and Ph.D. in applied economics from Warsaw School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

The organisation also announced the following returning members of the Board of Directors:

Spero Zacharias, Board Chair, senior vice president, Chubb.

Tony Mattioli, Board Vice-Chair, chief information officer, Assured Partners, Inc.

John Artesani, executive vice president & chief operating officer, Lexington Insurance Company.

Christoph Carus, head of central division, Reinsurance Accounting, Munich Re.

Mark Cook, global chief information officer, Marsh.

Mark Esposito, senior vice president and CIO, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.

Sue Figueredo, senior vice president, Business Insurance Operations, Travelers.

Alessandro Luppa, founder & principal executive, Global Insurance Perspectives.

Robert Kelly, managing director, CEO, Steadfast Group Limited.

Mark Knipfer, chief operations officer, Zurich North America.

Dave Matcham, CEO, International Underwriting Association of London.

Gray Nester, ADS Insurance Business Information Officer/SVP, BB&T.

William Pieroni, president & CEO, Acord.

Robert Rusbuldt, president and CEO, IIABA.

Markus Schmid, division head IT & member of the group management board, Swiss Re.

Christopher B. Smith, executive vice president & head of global operations, MetLife.

Conor Whelan, chief information officer, JLT Group.

Carol Zacharias, SVP, underwriting counsel, QBE.