Specialist insurer Beazley has announced the creation of a new digital business unit, which is intended help the company to reformulate its approach to developing and underwriting digital insurance solutions.
Existing digital initiatives and platforms created to further Beazley’s digital capabilities will now be led by a multi-disciplinary team headed up by Beazley Chief Operating Officer (COO) Ian Fantozzi.
Building on Beazley’s foundations in e-trading, the unit will aim to enhance the capabilities and reach of online platform myBeazley.
Beazley Digital will also bring together online trading portals into one central hub, and take responsibility for developing new underwriting and risk management solutions.
As head of the digital business unit, Ian Fantozzi will remain as Beazley’s COO, a role he has held for more than nine years, until a successor is appointed. He will continue to report to Beazley CEO Andrew Horton.
“Beazley’s digital business unit represents a natural progression for Beazley that will enable us to leverage digital technology to deliver enhanced value to brokers and clients alike – and to re-imagine the insurance relationship and value chain,” said Fantozzi.
“We have invested in digital trading over several years, building a comprehensive suite of specialist products that provide low or no touch insurance solutions for small businesses, with a rapidly expanding global reach,” he continued.
“By sharpening our focus and strengthening our digital strategy we’ll be quicker at building slick, end-to-end solutions that instil confidence in our business clients and brokers, freeing them from unnecessary risk to focus on what they do best and to thrive.”
Horton also commented: “Demand for e-traded underwriting solutions has grown significantly over the past 12 months, accelerating our own digital transformation programme. We have reached a pivotal point in this journey where we want to sharpen our focus by building a multidisciplinary team that brings together IT and underwriting excellence, dedicated to expanding and honing our digital distribution and e-trading strategy.”
“I am very pleased Ian Fantozzi has agreed to lead this team. As COO for the past nine years, Ian has demonstrated skilful leadership in managing cross-functional projects to drive change within Beazley and as part of broader London market transformation projects,” Horton went one.
“Building a seamless and intuitive digital trading platform to deliver simple, well executed insurance policies is a must for us to maintain relevance and deliver outstanding value to our partners.”
