Aurora swoops on Munich Re after WTW for leadership build out

Aurora, a digital commercial insurance platform for micro, small and medium-sized businesses, has hired a senior Munich Re executive to bolster its leadership team.

Munich Re’s Carla Havemann is to join Aurora as head of partnerships & strategy, where she will drive the design and development of the company’s partnership ecosystem ahead of the launch of its first product in October.

Havemann was previously a partnership manager at Munich Re Digital Partners, responsible for managing insurance start-ups and non-insurance companies, both operationally and commercially.

The MGA, which will go live with its first products this autumn, uses data-driven insights to benefit all the stakeholders in the insurance chain, from insurance providers, brokers, claims management firms and risk specialists, through to the end customer. The platform aims to enable the creation and design of bespoke policies that provide targeted and quality insurance cover.

Aurora noted that Havemann’s role will be vital in identifying, building and managing an ecosystem of long-term partners. Havemann is the latest addition to Aurora’s leadership team following the recent appointment of Andy Race, former WTW cloud architect, to the role of head of architecture and engineering. She joins co-founders Jan Vincent-Finn (ex-WTW), Bijaj 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).

“Carla will be leading the development of a very comprehensive and sophisticated ecosystem. With proven expertise in developing and maintaining strong partner relationships and coming from an organisation that specialises in supporting digital insurance businesses, Carla has the innovative approach needed to think creatively about what customers need, and how we can work with a range of businesses to meet these needs,” said Aurora co-founder and CEO Vincent-Finn.

Havemann commented: “I’m really excited to be joining Aurora, a team of innovators who have joined together to build a genuinely customer-focused insurance proposition. The business has a clear vision for what the insurance experience should be for SMEs, and we have the freedom to develop a solution that fills that gap.

“I will be taking a holistic view of our entire operation, to identify where we can onboard the right partners to achieve the customer outcomes we want.”

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