September 5, 2018, Los Angeles, CA. Praedicat, Inc., a market-leading risk analytics software company for property and casualty insurers and global industrial companies, today announced the appointment of Ms. Mary Merkel, retired Chief Underwriting Officer of Zurich North America, and Mr. John Hendrickson, former Director of Strategy of Validus Holdings, to Praedicat’s Board.
“With Mary and John’s deep knowledge of insurance underwriting and strategy, as well as management and operations experience more broadly, Praedicat is poised to deliver its cutting-edge products to our clients with deeper sophistication and immediate relevance,” said Dr. Robert T. Reville, CEO of Praedicat. “We are delighted to welcome them as directors.”
Praedicat mines the text of peer-reviewed science to find hundreds of emerging risks of human harm from commercial products and activities and connects the risks with specific corporations connected to the risks. Using machine learning, they have scaled the information to a database on specific emerging risks for 35,000 companies. This provides a unique resource for casualty underwriting. In addition, Praedicat delivers data on aggregations across risks for a portfolio of companies, which provides new insights to underwriters to drive diversification.
“Praedicat’s vision for the future of underwriting is exciting and I am pleased to contribute” said Mary Merkel. “I’m looking forward to applying my expertise and underwriting knowledge to help clients evaluate risks using Praedicat’s proprietary data and analytics.” Mary retired in 2016 from Zurich Insurance Company where she served as Chief Underwriting Officer for Zurich North America. In this role she led the development of the underwriting strategy for the United States and Canada. In her thirty plus year career with Zurich, Mary held other roles including Chief Underwriting Officer for Casualty on a worldwide basis, and Chief Underwriting Officer for Zurich’s Global Corporate business in the United States. Mary is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and holds a bachelor’s degree in Risk Management/Insurance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA).
Praedicat’s data and quantitative models are driving the development of new casualty (re)insurance products covering emerging risks. This is driving new opportunities for growth, while also facilitating more efficient and effective risk management strategies.
“The global insurance industry is changing rapidly, and Praedicat’s science-based approach to modeling represents an important innovation opportunity” said John Hendrickson, who brings deep experience in insurance corporate strategy and investment banking to Praedicat. John recently served as Director of Strategy for Validus Holdings, and was a director from the time of its formation in 2005. Prior to this, John was the Founder and Managing Partner of SFRi LLC, an independent investment and advisory firm specializing in the insurance industry. From 1995 to 2004, John held various positions with Swiss Re, including as a member of the Executive Board, Head of Capital Partners (Swiss Re’s Merchant Banking Division) and Managing Partner of Securitas Capital. John holds a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in History from Stanford University.
“Given the diverse experience and impressive accomplishments of each of our new board members, I am confident that their leadership will have a meaningful impact on Praedicat. I look forward to partnering with them to accelerate the company’s growth,” said Mr. Jacques Dubois, Chairman of Praedicat. “We are fortunate to add such high caliber members to our Board to help us achieve our potential as the market leader in risk analytics for the insurance industry and beyond.”
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About Praedicat
Praedicat helps companies take risks in the face of emerging risks. Praedicat’s science-based data and analytics are used by insurers and corporates to improve risk transfer and product stewardship. Praedicat is based in Los Angeles, California and has offices in New York and London.
To learn more, visit praedicat.com.
Media Contact
Praedicat, Inc.
5760 West Jefferson Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90016
Contact: Yvonne Torres
Phone: 424-672-6336
Email: media@praedicat.com