AXA XL draws AIG cyber claims expert for North America build out

Re/insurer  AXA XL has continued to build out its cyber incident response team in North America with a number of new hires, including from AIG, to help businesses before, during and after actual or suspected cyber breaches.

The newest additions to the team include Jeanelle Dawes-Ghee, Yelizaveta (Liz) Veys and Bridget Mead as claims specialists, reporting to North America cyber incident response manager Gwenn Cujdik.

Access to the cyber incident response team is part of  AXA XL’s cyber insurance offering. Working with  AXA XL's breach response panel, including law firms and vendors, the team is dedicated to assisting clients prepare for and navigate cyber incidents through a strategic and swift response to a catastrophic ransomware event.

Dawes-Ghee joins  AXA XL from AIG where she served as a cyber, technology and media claims analyst, handling a variety of complex cyber incident response and professional liability matters from inception through conclusion.  She joins the team with a strong background in cyber incident response having assisted in the incident response of hundreds of events large and small, in both the public and private sectors.

Veys joins  AXA XL from a prior career in law enforcement working at the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office where she was involved in all aspects of a criminal prosecution in a wide variety of major felony criminal matters. She joins the team with “exceptional skills” in crisis management, investigation and litigation in high profile and high stakes events.

Also based in  AXA XL's Exton office, Mead brings considerable cybersecurity and data privacy legal expertise to her new role at  AXA XL. Mead worked as an attorney in the cybersecurity and data privacy practice group of an international law firm, where she handled a variety of complex cyber incident response and data privacy matters. Her expertise in cyber also includes co-authoring a textbook, Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Law: Risks and Mitigation.

Cujdik commented: “We've created quite a team! Jeanelle, Liz and Bridget's collective knowledge and experience managing crisis events and complex cyber incidents will certainly be invaluable to our clients before, during, and after a cyber event.

“To help avoid future cyber incidents, our clients will see tremendous benefit in partnering with this team to discuss pre-incident plans, services, and strategies to achieve better cyber and data security.  If a company does have a cyber incident, our cyber clients will be in very skilled hands, working together with the Cyber Incident Response team to achieve an optimal outcome.”

Did you get value from this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.