AmTrust boosts senior financial leadership amid class action lawsuit

New York-based property/casualty insurer AmTrust Financial Services has made several executive appointments and promotions, including hiring a new chief accounting officer, after the firm was recently embroiled in a class action lawsuit accusing it of improperly recognising revenue and bonuses.

Shareholder rights law firm Robbins Arroyo recently  announced that a class action complaint was filed against AmTrust in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, for alleged violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by AmTrust's officers and directors.

"Through these enhancements to our senior financial leadership team, we are further strengthening our internal controls, analysis and reporting environment, in support of our commitment to sound and transparent financial disclosure," said Barry Zyskind, chairman and chief executive officer of AmTrust.

The company has appointed Robert Schwarz to the newly-created role of chief accounting officer and senior vice president. In his new role, Schwarz will have the responsibilities for accounting policies and financial processes, including preparation of financial statements.

Additionally, Schwarz will work closely with the senior financial leadership team, including the CFO, deputy CFO, and global controller, on the maintenance of a strong, global Sarbanes-Oxley internal control environment.

An accounting and finance expert, majorly in the property/casualty insurance sector, Schwarz most recently served as vice president and assistant controller at Assurant.

"With AmTrust’s strategic growth in product scope and geographic reach, working to ensure our accounting and finance systems, expertise and skills are aligned to support our size and scale," Zyskind added. "We are pleased to welcome several new highly experienced senior finance and treasury professionals to the AmTrust team and to promote and recognize several other current executives in our finance and accounting organisation."

The company has also promoted Zachary Wolf, previously the vice president of strategic development, to the newly-created role of deputy chief financial officer and senior vice president as of February 2017.

The other appointments include Rohit Sood, who has joined AmTrust as head of investment accounting; Evan Greenstein as global treasurer and senior vice president; and Janice Hamilton as chief financial officer of AmTrust International and AmTrust at Lloyd's.

The company has also made several additions to its actuarial team, including Jeffrey Mayer as global chief actuary, Isaac Mashitz as chief pricing actuary, and Stephen Knobloch as chief reserving actuary.

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