Liberty Mutual Insurance has named Monica Caldas as its new executive vice president and CIO in a role that she will take up at the beginning of next year.
Caldas will be replacing current executive vice president and CIO James McGlennon who is set to retire at the end of the year.
The firm said in a statement that Caldas joins the company’s executive leadership team and will report to Tim Sweeney, who was appointed CEO of Liberty Mutual, beginning in January 2023. Caldas was promoted to deputy CIO in March 2022 and is responsible for the technology roadmap across the organisation’s three business units — Global Risk Solutions, Global Retail Markets (GRM) and Liberty Mutual Investments.
David Long, chairman and CEO of the firm, said in a statement: “Monica’s deep passion for technology, data-driven solutions and the customer experience will continue to propel our digital transformation forward, delivering innovative results for our customers and employees.”
He added: “Her global experience and perspective, collaborative leadership approach and drive towards excellence will help guide our ongoing work focused on meeting the rising expectations for digital solutions.”
Long himself is set to retire from Liberty Mutual at the end of the year, as reported last week, and will be replaced by Sweeney. Following his retirement, Long will serve as the company’s executive chairman on its board of directors. He has been at Liberty Mutual for 37 years, becoming president in 2010, CEO in 2011 and chairman in 2013.
This comes after the firm saw its net income plunge $358m in Q1 2022.
Long, at the time, acknowledged the fall directly in a statement, blaming market uncertainties brought by macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds. He said that the firm was continuing to make progress on its strategic priorities.
He added: “Earnings in the first quarter reflect more moderate returns in our limited partnership portfolio compared to the exceptional returns we experienced last year and $144m of net realized losses resulting from recent market volatility. Pre-tax catastrophe losses in the quarter were $656m, down from $1.0bn in the prior year quarter which partially offset the weaker investment results.”
Also revealed in that round of financial results for Liberty Mutual was that net written premiums were up 11.2% when Q1 2022 and Q1 2021 were compared, with the largest increase being in global retail markets (12.3%).
