The pandemic years have underlined the crucial importance of technology in modern life as technology became a key enabler for many companies and communities. On the other hand, the time has also increased the inclusion of Women in technology verticals who earlier often remained woefully underrepresented in the Insurance technology workforce despite decades of progress towards workplace equality.
Wherein, as of today, fewer than 20% of IT roles are filled by women and only 5% of leadership positions across the world. Keeping this in mind, Altaworld decided to celebrate and promote Insurance’s foremost women of influence & leadership and provide inspirational role models for the future with its Women in Insurance Technology & Innovation Awards 2021.
The awards act as a catalyst for innovation in the insurance sector and have helped insurance companies develop better disruptive strategies. The award invites executive-level women and their contributions determined to make a difference in the insurance world. The WITI awards bring many great stories to the forefront of the insurance world, especially the ones where women led the industry during and post the COVID-19 pandemic addressing the unique and unforeseen set of challenges.
The awards are judged by an independent judging panel of recognized women insurance leaders who determine the winners through a fair and objective procedure. The WITI awards showcased the most exciting and practical innovation and technology implementation in insurance while showcasing the achievements of women in the insurance market.
The awards are categorized to showcase leadership at its best and recognize women of influence leading the future insurance industry. The awards were categorized into:
- Chief Technology/ Digital Officer of the Year
- Insurance women of the Year
- Young Insurance Women of the Year
- Women CEO of the Year
- Startup of the Year
The judging panel decided the credibility behind every award alongside a month-long nomination process. So, let’s celebrate and appreciate while complimenting the hardship of every woman during and post covid-19 pandemic.
The winners of the Women in Insurance Technology and Innovation Awards 2021:
- Melissa Wong, Group Chief Digital Officer of Bolttech, is the Chief Technology/ Digital Officer of the Year award winner. Melissa launched Bolttech’s first minimum variable product in Thailand and founded five insurance exchange businesses across Asia. She has built Bolttech’s digital team, which is the core of the digital native company. Melissa also led the agile methodology adaptation, which helped Bolttech speed up its execution, demonstrated at the launch of a co-branded partnership with one of Thailand’s leading Super App, LINE/Rabbit LINE Pay.
- Anna Carina Häusler, Director of Syncier, won the award for Young Insurance Women of the Year. As the director, Anna Carina is leading over 40 colleagues who have developed different products. In her job, she also manages all disciplines to a specific extent, from finance, business development, and sales, to HR and marketing. She is also a successful leader driving major funding rounds with further global players in the insurance industry. Syncier was also nominated for Startup of the Year as it supports both insurance companies and insutech providers. Anna was nominated for this award because she was recognized Syncier’s needs and even succeeded within two years in guiding its team and product to multimillion-dollar evaluation.
- Meredith Barnes Cook, Global Head of Insurance of Ushur, won the Insurance Women of the Year award. She has made a significant impact in the insurance industry. Meredith also advocated for the use of Intelligence Automation to engage customers and improve customer service while reducing costs. As global Head of Insurance, she has focused on transforming how insurance companies interact with their customers, agents, brokers, members, and claimants. Meredith has developed several intelligent automation solutions, including visual customer assistance, SmartMail, and invisible app.
- Margo Giles, CEO of GoGiles Inc., won the award for Women CEO of the Year. Over time, she has been involved as a female trailblazer in the very where crossover space insurance and technology. She became the Unicorn of Insurtech while spending her years servicing and writing policies at a small community insurance agency in Florida. She is the creator of GoGiles, where the space’s top talents are employees and consist of 70% of women and clients worldwide. She also focuses on diversity and inclusion in workspace mental and physical health initiatives and hiring practices that rival the company ten times her size.
- Ushur won Startup of the Year; Ushur provides innovative, intelligent automation solutions for insurance carriers to connect with their customers. It is a complete solution for intelligent automation companies like HealthSpire, Irish Life, and Unum. Ushur’s end-to-end platform accelerates time to value along with features like a no-code visual builder, a powerful tool for data extraction, and integrations with the backend system. Ushur started in 2014 with few employees, and today they have over 100 employees. Its innovative no-code solution improves the relationship between insurers and their customers by automating communication to reduce friction and achieve a faster response timer.
2020 and 2021 will definitely stand out in history due to the pandemic and we hope that this award will be the catalyst for innovation and technology in the near future. As pandemic brought changes in every industry, Altaworld has tried to honor every inspiring women across all market sectors who didn’t give up and tried their best to look forward even in difficult times.
