Insurtech firm Betterview hires Dan Shoham as chief science officer

Betterview, the insurtech platform provider for property transactions, has appointed Dan Shoham as its new chief science officer.

Before joining the company, Shoham was a lead data scientist at Farmers Insurance.

David Lyman, CEO and co-founder of Betterview, said: “We are very excited that Dr. Shoham chose to bring his unique skill set in predictive analytics, computer vision, insurance and entrepreneurship to Betterview.

“Having developed a proprietary risk score for buildings and properties, we are looking forward to leveraging Dr. Shoham’s expertise to further enhance our predictive analytic capabilities to help insurance companies quantify and price risk.”

The company's ‘Roof Risk Score’ is used by insurance companies on new business and renewals to assess the condition of roofs and the properties they insure. Carriers use the provider’s platform to investigate high-risk properties, as well as initiate risk-mitigation measures. Betterview is also expanding beyond the roof to take a holistic view of buildings and properties.

Shoham was awarded a PhD in mathematics from Temple University in 1986 and has previously worked at MIT Lincoln Labs, where he was part of a team that pioneered computer vision science to detect Soviet mobile ballistic missile launchers during the Cold War, and HNC Software (acquired by FICO), which created one of the first predictive analytic models used to identify credit card fraud. He also founded Edgewater Analytics, an angel-backed startup that developed predictive analytic small business creditworthiness scores.

Shoham said: “I feel the many roles in my life, from the far-ahead-of-its-time computer vision work at MIT in the 1980s, building some of the first commercially successful neural networks at HNC in the 1990s, founding predictive analytics startup Edgeware Analytics in the 2000s, and being a lead data scientist at Farmers Insurance in the 2010s, have all led to this day.

“I am looking forward to the challenge of leading Betterview’s computer vision and predictive analytics teams, and more importantly, using this opportunity to create value for an entire industry.”

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