I.I.I. Economist to Lead Silicon Valley Working Group on Extreme Weather

For immediate release
New York Press Office: 212-346-5500; media@iii.org 

NEW YORK, May 21, 2019— Dr. Michel Léonard, CBE, vice president and senior economist with the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) was today appointed by the Silicon Valley Insurance Accelerator (SVIA) to lead its Extreme Weather Working Group. 

Dr. Léonard, who brings to the SVIA’s Working Group more than 20 years of experience in insurance and data analytics, will be appointed formally to the post when joining 34 insurers, startups, tech and data providers, legal firms and associations at the SVIA’s Insurance Innovation Consortium Kick Off Meeting, being held today and tomorrow (May 21-22), in Mountain View, Calif. The Consortium is collaborating on projects that accelerate the insurance industry’s digital transition.

The SVIA is one of the top influencers in InsurTech. Its mission is to foster the dialogue, connections, and solutions shaping the digital future of insurance.

“SVIA is thrilled to have the Triple-I join us for the launch of our first three Working Groups at the upcoming Insurance Innovation Consortium Kick Off Meeting in May,” said Natalie L. Wood, chief operating officer and co-founder of SVIA. Wood also noted that at the meeting SVIA will be announcing a new strategic partnership with Equifax that will include both data products and a development platform for the Consortium. “The diversity of the Consortium members and their contributions will help accelerate the initiatives and provide innovative solutions to the insurance industry,” Wood said.

“It’s exciting to bring together the Insurance Information Institute’s industry expertise with SVIA’s technology and venture network to deliver new data-driven tools to increase communities’ resilience to extreme weather events,” said Dr. Léonard, who is a thought leader in applied economics, data analytics, and catastrophic risk modeling. “Triple-I’s own resilience initiative focuses on the contribution of insurance to the pace of economic recovery after events such as hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires. This new partnership will create a framework to fast track solutions by facilitating the sharing of data, models, and insight, and further expand Triple-I’s ability to deliver value to its members throughout California.”

Dr. Léonard also will be speaking at SVIA’s upcoming InsurTech FUSION Summit, to be held on June 18-19 in San Francisco.

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