Aurora makes major hire from WTW to build out senior leadership

Aurora, a digital commercial insurance platform for micro, small and medium-sized businesses, has strengthened its senior leadership with another key hire from  WTW ahead of its first product launch.

The company has hired  Ian Thomas (pictured) as head of product and insight, where he will be responsible for driving Aurora’s creative use of data with a focus on the intelligent use of insights.

Thomas joins from global broking group WTW, where he was director of risk, Insurance Consulting and Technology and focused on improving the application of data across the company’s insurance consulting and wider practices. Previously, he has held reserving, risk pricing and actuarial roles at insurers as diverse as DAS, Ageas and First Assist.

The MGA, Aurora, will go live with its first products this autumn. It uses data-driven insights and algorithmic underwriting to benefit all stakeholders in the insurance chain, from insurance providers, brokers, claims management firms and risk specialists, through to the end customer. The platform will enable the creation and design of bespoke policies aimed at providing targeted, quality insurance cover that meets end customers’ real needs.

Thomas is the latest addition to Aurora’s leadership team following the recent appointments of Carla Havemann, former partnership manager at Digital Partners, Munich Re, to head of partnerships & strategy, and Andy Race, former WTW cloud architect, to the role of head of architecture and engineering.

Thomas joins co-founders Jan Vincent-Finn (ex-WTW), Bijal Patel (ex-WTW), head of portfolio management and data & analytics Simon Meyer (ex-RSA), head of brokerage and customer operations, Lauren Stables (ex-AXA) and product and consumer lead, Georgina Balfe (ex-John Lewis).

Thomas said: “I’m very excited to be joining such an innovative and passionate team in Aurora. Their clear and transformative vision of how SMEs should be able access the right cover is ground-breaking and will no doubt benefit a huge number of businesses as the company continues to grow in the coming years.”

Aurora co-founder and CEO Finn added: “Ian will be fundamental in ensuring that we provide our customers with data-driven insight and education. His work will inform the future of the products we offer while communicating why and how these products are relevant. We hope our focus on serving the underserved and underinsured will be transformative for small to medium businesses.”

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