2023 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Penny Seach Group chief underwriting officer
Zurich Insurance Group Ltd.
Zurich
Penny Seach was more interested in marketing than risk analysis when she joined the insurance industry in her native South Africa 30 years ago but has since risen to the top of the underwriting profession.
She joined American International Group Inc. in 1993, but the role she signed on for was eliminated shortly afterwards when a new CEO arrived. She moved into claims before shifting to crisis management underwriting and later casualty underwriting.
The experience, particularly in crisis management where she covered everything from kidnap and ransom to political violence risk, highlighted the wide spectrum that insurance provides.
“There’s so much that we see from an insurance perspective that you just probably wouldn’t get in any other industry,” Ms. Seach said.
Recruited by a bank to work in its international trade division she missed the breadth of insurance and soon returned to the sector.
In 2008, she, her husband, who also works in insurance, and her family were ready to relocate and she took a job in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She later took another in Singapore before moving to Hong Kong, where she eventually joined Zurich in 2017, taking on various senior roles.
By 2021, she wanted to move to Europe to be closer to her husband, who had moved to Milan with Generali Group.
“Zurich were absolutely fantastic and there was a role that they opened up for me as the CUO for EMEA, which I stepped into,” she said.
She was promoted to her current role in January.
Ms. Seach’s approach to underwriting helps get others excited about the field, said Sierra Signorelli, CEO of commercial insurance at Zurich.
“She’s always talking to her underwriting teams about making underwriting fun and getting people passionate about what we do and being curious,” she said. “It’s so important to have people drive it that way.”
In addition to Ms. Seach’s role at Zurich, she is a board member at Blue Marble, which offers microinsurance to communities, such as farmers in developing nations, that have restricted access to insurance.
Gavin Souter
