24 June 2020

Winners of InsuranceERM Americas Awards 2020 unveiled

The winners of the inaugural InsuranceERM Americas Awards 2020 awards have been revealed.

Risk team of the year went to the Milliman Chicago Life Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) team, for its “practical-first” approach to risk management.

As a group, they have garnered respect for thought-leadership. Most recently, as the Covid-19 pandemic engulfed the US, the team published a white paper articulating how they were seeing companies respond from an ERM perspective.

Prudential Financial’s Nick Silitch won chief risk officer of the year for displaying excellence both in times of crisis and in calmer periods when he has spearheaded the company's ERM programme.

Willis Towers Watson’s Ron Schuler was awarded chief actuary of the year for his long and outstanding contribution to the insurance industry. 

Young risk and actuarial professional of the year went to Albert Zhou from Third Point Re for being a rising star in the industry, both for his actuarial contributions and his status as a future leader.

Young risk professional of the year went to Milica Aksic from Axa XL for going above and beyond in her work at the company and helping develop the next generation of insurance professionals.

The American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS) won the actuarial team of the year in recognition for its data engineering and the actuarial services team’s efforts to modernise insurance products across the property and casualty space.

In the insurance technology space, Conning scooped stress scenarios software of the year for developing the stress testing package and supplementing stochastic models

Conning also collected insurance asset manager of the year with the judges praising its solutions for small and mid-sized companies to access markets.

Milliman Nodal won analytics solution of the year while Milliman Arius Enterprise was awarded cloud technology solution of the year.

Nodal is a web-based predictive modelling and decision-support system used for early claim intervention.  

Moody's Analytics AXIS solution was recognised as the actuarial modelling solution of the year. Judges praised AXIS's holistic modelling of "all risks addressing assets, liabilities, reinvestment and capital, for virtually all insurance product types".

Moody’s Analytics also won economic scenario generator software of the year.

Congratulating the winners, InsuranceERM’s North America editor, Sarfraz Thind, said: “The quality of entries was strong for this inaugural America's awards, particularly given the disrupted times. This year’s winners have proven to be of a high calibre and show the strength and diversity of work being done in the region."

Thind also thanked the judges for giving up their valuable time and sharing their expertise, as well as everyone who submitted entries.

The full list of winners in the InsuranceERM Americas Awards 2020 are below.

People and Teams

Risk team of the Year: Milliman Chicago Life ERM

Actuarial team of the Year: The American Association of Insurance Services 

Chief risk officer of the year: Nick Silitch, Prudential Financial

Chief actuary of the year: Ron Schuler: Willis Towers Watson

Young risk and actuarial professional of the year: Albert Zhou, Third Point Re

Young risk professional of the year: Milica Aksic, Axa XL

Companies 

Risk consultancy of the Year: KPMG

Insurance asset manager of the year: Conning

Alternative capital dealmaker of the year (ILS / collateralised reinsurance): James Troughton, Willis Re

Technology

Stress scenarios software of the year: Conning’s GEMS Stress Test Scenarios

Catastrophe Risk Modelling Solution of the Year: Metabiota

Analytics solution of the year: Milliman Nodal

Cloud technology solution of the year: Milliman Arius Enterprise

Actuarial modelling solution of the year: Moody's Analytics AXIS

LDTI solution of the year: FIS's Prophet

ESG (Economic Scenario Generator) software of the year: Moody's Analytics

ERM end-to-end solution of the year: Willis Towers Watson's Unify

Operational risk solution of the year: ViClarity

Data solution of the year: Willis Towers Watson's DataValidator

Cyber solution of the year: Verisk

How the awards were judged

Judges reviewed the submitted entry material and then voted in a secret ballot. Votes were counted and verified by InsuranceERM’s team.

All judges are senior industry experts from re/insurers across the Americas each chosen for their knowledge and objectivity.

The judges' decision is final and neither InsuranceERM nor the judging panel will enter into any correspondence regarding individual entries and/or the award winners.