Personal lines insurance agency Goosehead has appointed Justin Ricketts as executive vice president for technology and partnerships.
In his role, Ricketts will lead all aspects of the company’s technology. He will be responsible for propelling the evolution of Goosehead’s Digital Agent Platform, a direct-to-consumer platform that provides home and auto insurance quotes.
He will also focus on building upon Goosehead’s agent-focused technology and advancing its partnerships to amplify the use of its technology and processes.
Mark Miller, president and COO at Goosehead Insurance, said: “Justin Ricketts joins Goosehead at a time of pivotal transformation and growth for the company, particularly as we look to build continuous innovation across our platform and externally. He is a trusted leader and we are excited about the strategic skills that he brings to our company. We look forward to working closely with him as we drive digital transformation across the insurance category and provide smart digital tools that will make the insurance experience simple, transparent and efficient.”
This new hire for Goosehead follows the firm making a number of senior management changes back in May. It was then that Miller took over as president and COO. He took over the role from former Michael Colby, who left the company to pursue other endeavours.
The company also announced some other key management changes, including, Megan L. Bailey, who was named chief sales officer. In addition to her responsibilities overseeing franchise sales and corporate recruiting, she also leads the company’s corporate sales function. Michael Moxley was named chief service officer responsible for service, IT, and risk management. P. Ryan Langston was named chief legal officer responsible for all legal, compliance, human resources, and real estate functions.
In addition, Goosehead also announced that vice president Gary Delavan was responsible for developing a new line of business for the company. At the same time, Brian Pattillo was named vice president for strategy. Ted Olsen was named vice president for human capital development.
Those moves came a month after the firm reported a net loss of $5.4m for Q1 2022, including a loss from operations of $6.1m. This compares with a net loss of $1.1m for the same period in the previous year. Despite the larger loss figure, Goosehead grew its revenues by 32% to $41.3m during Q1, including a 37% increase in core revenues.
Ricketts joins Goosehead Insurance from Sabre, where he served as the chief product and development officer for Sabre Hospitality Solutions. In his role, he oversaw product management, product development, solution engineering, and platform operations. He also held executive positions at HMS Holdings, Unum Group, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and Kaiser Permanente.
Ricketts said: “I am honoured to join Goosehead and continue their unwavering commitment to bringing the most tech-forward solutions to their clients, agents, franchisees, and partners to help to simplify the insurance journey. Goosehead has a tremendous opportunity to transform the insurance industry and I look forward to working closely with the team to build upon the company’s momentum.”
