2022 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Christine Gomes Executive vice president, emerging risk, ESG and special projects, North America financial lines
Chubb Ltd.
Boston
What Christine Gomes likes most about her career is the significance of the issues she is focused on.
When she was recruited at Brown University by Executive Risk Management Associates as its first underwriting trainee, she “was very intrigued by the idea of meeting CEOs and CFOs and understanding more about their businesses, as well as underwriting financial statements and stock performance.”
In her role at Chubb, she leads the Financial Lines Global Climate Committee, which has created global climate underwriting training and strategy for financial lines. She also drives the group’s efforts around environmental, social and governance underwriting.
In her new role, which began in June, her focus on climate change and ESG is “very relevant both in the insurance industry and the world,” she said.
“It is a fascinating time to operate in this area as there is a confluence of legal, regulatory, business, academic, political, health, economic and social influences that all shape the underwriting perspective.”
Ms. Gomes also appreciates the camaraderie of the problem solving that comes with her job.
“I enjoy the farm-to-table nature of the role — being able to identify an issue, bringing together the right folks to consider it, building a solution, and sharing the learnings and the steps forward with our team,” she said.
Steve Goldman, Chubb’s North America financial lines division president, said, “Over the years, Christine has proven to be a leading thinker and practitioner in public D&O, pushing the Chubb team to the top of the industry.”
An advocate for women in the industry, Ms. Gomes notes that more than half of the members of the Financial Lines Global Climate Committee are female. She also has been part of several mentoring programs.
Overall, the goal, she said, is to inspire the next generation of underwriters to “think beyond their desk to how the business and societal issues of today will impact current and future underwriting risk,” Ms. Gomes said.
