Ascot Appoints Group Head of Underwriting Performance Management

Ascot announced today the appointment of Eric Herman to Group Head of Underwriting Performance Management. Eric will be based in the company’s Iselin, New Jersey office, dual reporting to Elizabeth Johnson, Group Chief Operating Officer and Mark Pepper, Group Chief Underwriting Officer.

In this newly created role, Eric will work closely across functions to optimize Ascot’s business portfolio and analyze market intelligence, trends and data to identify new opportunities for growth and innovation, execute on the company’s strategic and financial objectives, and provide guidance to optimize the allocation of Group capital.

Eric joins Ascot from Everest®, where he spent nearly a decade in senior corporate underwriting and business performance roles, most recently serving as Chief Underwriting Officer, North America. While there, Eric implemented a robust portfolio management process for the company’s $4B+ North American portfolio, developed advanced analytics capabilities to optimize reporting, and collaborated closely with business leaders across groups to identify growth opportunities and refine risk selection.

Prior to Everest, Eric spent time at Zurich North America, where he was responsible for overseeing the strategic and financial performance of all regional lines of business as Head of Business Performance. He began his career as an actuary at Prudential P&C/ High Point Insurance and obtained his Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society designation.

“Eric is a strategic thinker with decades of portfolio management, analytics and risk assessment experience,” said Elizabeth Johnson. “He has a proven track record of leading high-performing teams and facilitating cross-functional collaboration that will drive underwriting performance and optimize our opportunities across the global Ascot ecosystem.”

“Our talented underwriting and leadership teams across the globe will benefit greatly from Eric’s extensive industry background and acute ability to distill complex issues and large data sets into strategic guidance to improve our business outcomes,” said Mark Pepper. “I look forward to working closely with Eric as we continue to find ways to diversify and optimize our specialty portfolio to best serve the needs of our unique clients.