Summit Residents Honored: QBE’s Kathleen Zortman, Jeff Grange

Zortman Selected to Business Insurance’s Woman to Watch

Kathleen Zortman, President, Property and Casualty, QBE North America, has been selected by Business Insurance as one of its 2017 Women to Watch. QBE North America is an integrated specialist insurer.

In its 22nd year, the Women to Watch awards was started to recognize women leaders doing outstanding work in risk management and commercial insurance.

"I am honored to be included in this group of outstanding women in the insurance industry," said Kathleen Zortman. "More importantly, I applaud Business Insurance for creating these awards to raise the visibility of women leaders in the industry and inspire others to join our ranks. We will be a stronger industry for it. I am also proud to be working at a company that enthusiastically supports the development of women and all people of diverse backgrounds through individual and daily efforts of mentoring as well through dedicated business resource groups."

Noting Ms. Zortman's contributions, QBE North America CEO Russ Johnston added, "When Kathleen joined QBE in 2015, she needed to give energy and direction to a complex set of businesses that had been acquired over the years. She started by immediately attracting top talent to her leadership team based on her reputation as a leader and mentor. With her new team, Kathleen acted decisively to drive underwriting and customer service excellence. She engaged our key brokers and instilled trust and enthusiasm about the direction of her business portfolio. As a result, our Property & Casualty business now has the momentum we need to drive our overall success as an integrated specialist insurer."

A 30-year veteran of the insurance industry, Ms. Zortman has proven her leadership and expertise through accomplishments on the carrier, broker and consulting sides of the business. Ms. Zortman joined QBE in 2015 from Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, where she served as Chief Field Executive managing an organization of 1,000 employees and $2.3 billion in gross written premium. In this role, she led distribution, underwriting and customer service across the Commercial, Programs, Professional Liability, Farm and Ranch, Entertainment and High-Net-Worth Personal insurance divisions.

Prior to Fireman's Fund, Kathleen held leadership roles at Chubb, Johnson & Higgins and Deloitte Consulting. Kathleen has a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Marketing from Boston College, and an MBA from Suffolk University.

Grange Selected to Risk & Insurance’s Executives to Watch

At the same time, Jeff Grange, President, North America Specialty Insurance and Global Credit and Surety Practice Leader at QBE, has been selected by Risk & Insurance as one of its 2018 Executives to Watch.

The Risk & Insurance Executives to Watch feature, now in its sixth year, highlights top insurance executives who are taking on substantial new responsibilities. The profiles of the 2018 Executives to Watch are published in the December edition of Risk & Insurance and online.

Mr. Grange’s responsibilities were expanded in 2017 to include the role of Global Credit and Surety Practice Leader. In this role, he oversees the growth strategy of the Global Credit and Surety (GCS) practice, and he also serves as a member of the QBE Group Underwriting Committee.

Mr. Grange joined QBE North America in 2013 as President, Specialty Insurance to build a national, market-leading Specialty franchise in addition to serving on the division’s Executive Management Board. Under his leadership, QBE’s Specialty business has grown from 3 businesses to 11 and introduced 30 innovative proprietary products. The QBE Specialty portfolio encompasses Accident & Health, Aviation, Commercial Errors & Omissions, Cyber, Financial Institutions, Healthcare, Inland Marine, Media & Entertainment, Private Company, Public Company, Surety, Trade Credit and Transactional Liability.

"It is an honor to be included in this group of executives in the insurance industry,” said Mr. Grange. “We are all trying to move our companies and the industry forward at a time when we must adapt to rapidly evolving technology, increasing globalization, and the need to attract a new and diverse generation of talent to the industry. Through all this change, we must keep an unflinching eye on our customers’ needs and understand how we can apply our expertise to deliver end-to-end solutions and an experience of excellence at every touchpoint – not just within each business line but holistically across the entire risk spectrum. It’s what we’re trying to do at QBE as a globally strong, integrated specialist insurer.”

Johnston noted, “When Jeff joined QBE in 2013, he brought his sharp vision and tremendous passion for building a Specialty business within the context of our overall approach as an integrated specialist insurer. The rapid and successful growth of our Specialty Insurance business has been one of the highlights of our progress in North America, and his assumption of a global role for Trade Credit and Surety in 2017 has already had a significant beneficial impact for our customers around the world. We’re excited about the path we’re on for 2018 and beyond.”

Mr. Grange has more than 25 years of insurance experience, including deep knowledge in underwriting and directors & officers liability and professional liability insurance. Prior to joining QBE, he was with Torus Group, where he served as Chairman of the Torus Group Underwriting Committee. Prior to joining Torus, Mr. Grange spent more than 20 years with Chubb Group, where he held a variety of leadership roles, including: Senior Vice President and worldwide manager for Chubb’s professional liability business that encompassed legal, technology, life sciences, media/entertainment, healthcare and financial institution customer segments; and then multinational business owner for Chubb Specialty Insurance. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Bachelor of Science in Human Physiology from McGill University, Montreal.