2016 Women to Watch: Gina Papush

Gina Papush
Global chief data and analytics officer
QBE Insurance Group Ltd.
New York
Age: 45

Gina Papush has only been with QBE Insurance Group Ltd. for two years, but she has been very busy.

Ms. Papush was appointed chief data and analytics officer of QBE this year and her responsibilities reach across all of QBE’s regions including North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand and emerging markets.

She joined the company in 2014 as the chief data and analytics officer for QBE North America. She says the use of data and analytics is “relatively new in the property/casualty space, but something I’ve been doing for pretty much all of my career.”

“I love being able to build and help the company to grow and create new capabilities, and QBE gave me a… unique opportunity to do that,” she said.

After moving to the United States from Ukraine in the 1990s, Ms. Papush began her career as a researcher and worked for companies such as GE Capital Card Services and Fulcrum Analytics Inc.

She later joined Citigroup Inc. as managing director and head of decision management for global mortgages.

Ms. Papush said working at the bank during the 2008 financial crisis was a crucial point in her career.

“I was the running the decision analytics team for the real estate business,” she said.

“It was very rewarding professionally. Once in a lifetime, you work through a crisis situation like that. I learned a great deal at Citi.” Ms. Papush said she believes the insurance industry could learn from the banking industry in terms of providing opportunities to women.

“When you look across banking, you see female CEOs and CFOs that are well-represented, but they could still do more,” she said. “There are very successful women in insurance who have come from a more traditional track of underwriting and insurance operations. I absolutely think it should be as attractive as banking and more so, because there’s a lot more to do.” 

Colin Fagen, group chief operations officer with QBE, said Ms. Papush “is a role model and has created a career pathway for aspiring data scientists and female leaders in the organization.”

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