The Consulting Report is pleased to announce The Top 25 Insurance Consultants and Leaders of 2023. With the global insurance market poised to reach a staggering $12.7 trillion by 2030, it undeniably stands as one of the largest sectors in the financial landscape. However, insurance is also one of the least digitally mature industries, making it rife for digital disruption and significant growth.
Helping insurers shape the industry of the future are the men and women found in this year's roster of awardees. These honorees were nominated and chosen for their proven dedication to the insurance sector throughout their careers; and their consistent delivery of top-tier consulting services. As insurance consulting experts, these exceptional individuals play a vital role by navigating disruption, managing regulatory change and integrating technology – all in the name of helping their clients broaden and diversify products and services.
Among the notable individuals featured on this year's prestigious honoree list is Sarat Varanasi, who serves as the Business Unit Leader for Cognizant's P&C practice, the largest insurance practice with a staggering $1.2 billion in revenue. Additionally, Sandra Sancier-Sultan is a senior partner based in McKinsey's Paris office. Sancier-Sultan is at the forefront of McKinsey's Women Initiative in France, frequently lending her insights to conferences and engaging with the media on gender diversity and inclusion issues.
Lastly, we have Gaston Messineo, a leader in the EY-Parthenon Insurance practice. With more than 20 years of management consulting and corporate leadership roles, Messineo is a recognized thought leader in the industry, serving as a keynote speaker and panelist at industry conferences and events.
Please join us in celebrating The Top 25 Insurance Consultants and Leaders of 2023.
1. Alissa Ristic
Company: KPMG
Title: Managing Director, Digital Insurance
Alissa Ristic is a Managing Director in Customer and Operations at KPMG where she leads their Digital Insurance practice. Her focus is on providing insurance clients with more personalized, convenient and cost-effective services by using digital technologies to make improvements to process, products and services. With an extensive background across the US and UK insurance market, Ristic has held numerous senior leadership roles. Prior to KPMG, Alissa was the VP of Insurance at Lemonade with responsibilities including underwriting, insurance product, actuarial pricing and insurance operations.
Ristic was also the Chief Insurance Officer at Simply Business, a digital broker servicing small commercial operations. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion initiatives, and is a mentor for female talent developing their careers. Ristic is a Chartered Insurance Broker, and an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (ACII). She also holds a master’s degree in Risk Management and Insurance from Bayes Business School. Notably, Ristic has won industry awards for her work in Claims and Broking in the UK with a feature in Insurance Age magazine.
2. John Forni
Company: Grant Thornton
Title: Managing Director
John Forni is the Managing Director at Grant Thornton, the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd, one of the world's leading independent audit, tax and advisory firms. Their network has more than 60,000 professionals in more than 135 countries who are ready to help public and private organizations of all sizes take on today's challenges. Forni began his career in 1981 and brings over 25 years of experience advising U.S. and multinational corporations within the financial services industry on a diverse range of tax issues and strategies.
Forni is a CPA in the State of New York. He is a member of the AICPA and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. Forni earned his BS in Accounting and MBA, with a concentration in Taxation from St. John's University. Notably, his corporate tax experience spans all aspects of operating a complex multinational tax organization including tax operations, reporting, compliance, controversy, internal controls, tax planning, restructuring, transfer pricing, and tax technology implementation. In addition, Forni provides an executive perspective and hands-on experience in the development and implementation of domestic and international business tax strategies.
3. Sandra Sancier-Sultan
Company: McKinsey & Company
Title: Senior Partner
Sandra Sancier-Sultan is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Paris office, where she leads its insurance work in France. She is an active member of the firm’s banking, insurance, and asset management sectors in Europe. Sancier-Sultan works with leading financial institutions in France and the rest of Europe, advising top management on strategic, organizational, and operational questions. She helps clients define growth strategies, launching “direct” activities, developing multichannel operational strategies and models, and improving customer experience. She also organizes McKinsey’s Direct Forum, the annual conference of European direct banking and insurance executives.
Additionally, Sancier-Sultan is part of the group of partners who frame McKinsey’s research, publications, and events within the European banking sector. She also steers its marketing and retail activity within the insurance and asset management industries in Europe. Furthermore, Sancier-Sultan leads McKinsey’s Women Initiative in France. She regularly contributes to conferences and engages with the media on gender diversity and inclusion within organizations. She has co-authored the Women Matter series of reports. Sancier-Sultan graduated from ESSEC and holds an MBA from INSEAD.
4. Philippe Guijarro
Company: PwC UK
Title: Partner
Philippe Guijarro is a Partner at PwC UK. He first joined the company in 2003. At PwC, their purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. They're a network of firms in 152 countries with over 327,000 people who are committed to delivering quality assurance, advisory and tax services.
Guijarro works with people from different disciplines within PwC to achieve positive things in the pensions and life insurance sector. Through my work he has learnt that wellbeing helps with both work and personal life. As a consequence, he is committed to helping people thrive and support those who may need it. Previously, Guijarro was an actuary at Scottish Widows. He earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Sheffield University.
5. Gaurav Garg
Company: Oliver Wyman
Title: Partner and Global Head, Property and Casualty Insurance
Gaurav leads the Global P&C Insurance practice at Oliver Wyman. With over 30 years of in-depth insurance industry experience as a consultant and practitioner, he delivers high-impact outcomes for large corporations as well as new-age insurtechs, providing strategic direction at different phases of transformation for growth and profitability. He has demonstrated a strong track record of building successful businesses with sustaining long-term growth trajectories, both organically and inorganically. Prior to Oliver Wyman, Gaurav was an Executive Consultant at Chubb following a progressive career at AIG. As CEO of Global Personal Insurance at AIG, Gaurav was responsible for the global consumer P&C businesses.
He also previously worked at Oliver Wyman’s parent, Marsh McLennan as a Senior Partner and President of Growth Markets for Mercer. In addition to his executive roles, Gaurav served as Chairman of Blue Marble Microinsurance, Chairman of the American Insurance Association Personal Lines Executive Committee, and Chairman of the US-India Business Council Insurance Sub-Committee. Gaurav got his MBA in India, and subsequently did the Advanced Management Program from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also did a program from MIT Sloan School of Management on Digital Strategy for Business. He is a Fellow of the Insurance Institute of India and a Member of the Chartered Insurance Institute, UK.
6. Sean O'Neill
Company: Bain & Company
Title: Partner
Sean O’Neill is a Partner of Bain & Company. He leads the global insurance sector and he is also an active contributor to the Customer Strategy & Marketing, Mergers & Acquisitions and Results Delivery® practices. Bain & Company is a global consultancy that helps the world’s most ambitious change makers define the future. Across 65 cities in 40 countries, we work alongside our clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition, and redefine industries. We complement our tailored, integrated expertise with a vibrant ecosystem of digital innovators to deliver better, faster, and more enduring outcomes.
O'Neill has more than 20 years of consulting and financial services industry experience, helping senior leaders address their strategic challenges to achieve business results. O'Neill previously was a partner with a boutique consulting firm, focused on financial services, and prior to that was a member of the leadership team of a global consulting firm's Financial Services practice. O'Neill began his career as an economist, working at Wharton Econometrics (The WEFA Group). O'Neill earned an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business and he graduated with a BS in Economics with honors from Villanova University.
7. Andy Masters
Company: Deloitte UK
Title: Partner, Insurance Sector Leader
Andy Masters is the Partner of Insurance Sector Leader for Deloitte in the UK. He leads a sector team that serves clients right across the insurance sector (Life & Pension, General Insurance, London Market & Global Re-insurers) with the full suite of services from all of Deloitte’s service lines. In addition he leads some of Deloitte’s largest insurance relationships in the UK and is a member of Deloitte’s global insurance leadership team. Deloitte is a leading global provider of audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax, and related services. Deloitte currently has approximately 330,000 people in more than 150 countries and territories.
Masters is also strategy partner in Deloitte’s consulting service line, and has 30 years consulting experience having worked with Accenture, KPMG and now Deloitte. Most of this time has been dedicated to the insurance sector and Masters has worked in many areas across systems building, business and operating model design, efficiency programmes, outsourcing / offshoring, strategy, M&A. Masters now specializes in transformation in Life & Pensions, with a particular interest in the design of strategies and data driven business models that can help incumbents compete effectively in the digital economy. Masters graduated from Durham University.
8. Rebecca Waddell
Company: Boston Consulting Group
Title: Managing Director & Partner
Rebecca Waddell is a Managing Director and Partner of the Insurance practice area at Boston Consulting Group. Since joining BCG in 2010, Waddell has worked across the insurance value chain, including personal and commercial lines, P&C, life, annuities, and health, as well as brokerage distribution. Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963.
Waddell has experience working with clients on key topics such as strategy, customer insights/experience, distribution, and organization and operating model. Waddell also regularly works on M&A, and has experience in agile, technology and data and analytics for insurers and financial institutions. Waddell’s experience prior to BCG includes marketing, sales, and go-to-market strategy gained from her time in brand management at General Mills and in information technology at Eli Lilly and Company. Waddell graduated from the Harvard Business School with an MBA and from DePauw University with an undergraduate degree.
9. David Sherwood
Company: Deloitte Consulting
Title: Managing Director
David Sherwood is a Managing Director at Deloitte & Touche LLP, specializing in risk management, regulation, and compliance. He has broad financial services regulatory experience in both the United States and the United Kingdom. After heading up industry compliance and risk roles, he now helps clients navigate regulatory and organizational change domestically and internationally.
He is also a regular public speaker on US and international regulation, including climate risk. Sherwood first got his start in 1998 as a senior supervisor of major groups at UK FSA. From there, he went on to KPMG UK, before eventually rising to head of insurance regulatory at KPMG US, his most recent position prior to joining Deloitte Consulting. Sherwood graduated from London Metropolitan University with an undergraduate degree in financial services.
10. Toby Crosthwaite
Company: Teneo
Title: Senior Managing Director
Toby Crosthwaite is a Senior Managing Director with Teneo’s People Advisory team in London. Crosthwaite focuses on the insurance sector in the UK, Asia Pacific and Africa – with a focus on chair, board and chief executive appointments. He also covers risk management more broadly across financial services. Crosthwaite has successfully worked on a range of high-profile C-suite and board assignments in the UK, Africa and Asia Pacific for life insurance, general insurance and reinsurance clients. Prior to joining Ridgeway Partners, Crosthwaite was a managing director at Russell Reynolds Associates for eight years based in Singapore and London.
Teneo is the global CEO advisory firm. They partner with their clients globally to do great things for a better future. Drawing upon their global team and expansive network of senior advisors, they provide advisory services across their five business segments on a stand-alone or fully integrated basis to help their clients solve complex business challenges. Their clients include a significant number of the Fortune 100 and FTSE 100, as well as other corporations, financial institutions and organizations. Crosthwaite began his career as Financial Futures and Options Broker with FIMAT Futures UK Ltd (Société Générale Group). Crosthwaite holds a BA degree in Economic and Political Development from the University of Exeter.
11. Michael Flaharty
Company: FTI Consulting
Title: Managing Director
Michael Flaharty is a Managing Director in the Global Insurance Services practice at FTI Consulting, a global business advisory firm with more than 7,600 employees located in 31 countries. Based in New York, Flaharty has more than 40 years of experience in insurance, reinsurance and self-insurance. Flaharty’s expertise includes management consulting, strategic planning, merger and acquisitions, liquidation/runoff, business resilience and enterprise risk management. He has been called upon as an expert in various insurance and reinsurance disputes.
Flaharty provides design of insurance operational strategies in claims processing and leakage controls; outsourcing services; alternative markets and insurance pooling mechanisms. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Flaharty was owner and principal of a New York insurance consulting firm focusing on strategy and operational improvement to the insurance industry. He was also president, GAB Robins Capital Partners Consulting. Flaharty is a retired partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Flaharty also spent 10 years in risk management for a Fortune 24 corporation.
12. Martin Spit
Company: EY-Parthenon
Title: Principal, Americas Insurance Strategy and Transactions Leader
Martin Spit leads the insurance sector for EY-Parthenon, EY’s strategy practice. He advises clients on areas of business and market strategy, organizational restructuring, and operational transformation. His clients include U.S. and global carriers for property & casualty, life & annuity and health insurance, as well as insurance brokers, PE firms, and specialized suppliers to the insurance industry. Martin has advised clients in the financial services industry for over 20 years.
Prior to rejoining EY, Martin held leadership positions in the insurance practices of the Boston Consulting Group and Accenture Strategy. He advised insurance organizations and a broad spectrum of other clients at Mitchell Madison Group. Martin started his career in the financial services practice of EY in the U.S. and The Netherlands. Beyond his consulting experience, Martin has served as interim EVP for a large-cap PE portfolio company. Martin holds a MSc in Computer Science from the University of Twente, The Netherlands and an MBA from INSEAD with a concentration in entrepreneurship and restructuring.
13. Mathew Tierney
Company: Grant Thornton
Title: Principal, Global Leader, Insurance
Mathew Tierney is the Global Insurance Practice leader for Grant Thornton and maintains offices in both New York City and Philadelphia. Tierney also serves on the Global Business Consulting Leadership team for Grant Thornton International, a U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd, one of the world's leading independent audit, tax and advisory firms. Over Tierney’s career he has worked in the United States, London, Bermuda and Germany working with Global Insurance Companies and Monetary Authorities. He has specialized in the Insurance sector and has maintained a concentration in the P&C, Life and Health Insurance lines.
Tierney has served a select group of leading US and international insurers. Today, Tierney oversees the firm's go to market strategy for the Insurance sector, which includes the creation of industry centric solutions, related service delivery teams and quality execution for our global accounts. Tierney sits on the board for the Society of Insurance Financial Management (SIFM) which consists of global CFO’s and professional service Partners focused on finance in the insurance sector. Tierney received his Bachelors of Science in Accounting from Widener University. Tierney is also a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Executive Leadership Program.
14. Gaston Messineo
Company: EY-Parthenon
Title: Partner, Financial Services, Transaction Strategy and Execution Leader
Gaston Messineo is a leader in the EY-Parthenon Insurance practice, serving as Financial Services Transaction Strategy and Execution leader as well as EY Financial Services Strategy and Transactions co-leader for the Central region. With more than 20 years of management consulting and corporate leadership roles. Messineo works with insurance clients to navigate complexity by helping them to reimagine their ecosystems, reshape their portfolios and reinvent themselves for a better future.
As such, Messineo advises clients on organic and inorganic growth strategy, acquisition and divestiture opportunities, due-diligence, post-merger integration and operating model transformation. Messineo holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
15. Kannan Amaresh
Company: Infosys
Title: Senior Vice President & Global Head, Insurance
Kannan Amaresh is the Senior Vice President and Global Head of Insurance at Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. At the company, Amaresh has been responsible for global insurance since 2018. Besides P&L responsibilities, he oversees client relationships and new client acquisitions in the insurance vertical across all key markets. Notably, Amaresh is curious about business model disruption through technology – and this fuels his approach to helping clients stay ahead of the curve. At Infosys, he applies a unique lens of “Speed, Accuracy, Trust” (SAT) to solve customer challenges.
Amaresh has also been sharing insights from his experience at various industry and community conferences and events. Having lived and worked in Scotland, Canada, and India, he is deeply appreciative of the cultural and historical roots of these countries. Amaresh is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He is also passionate about inventing, with a patent pending in the USA for his work on ‘Predicting Financial Impact of Business Frameworks.’ Amaresh graduated from the University of Madras with an undergraduate degree in accounting and corporate laws.
16. Luca Medizza
Company: Protiviti
Title: Managing Director
Luca Medizza is the Managing Director of Protiviti at the Milan office, responsible for the Risk & Sustainability Service Line for the Financial Services industry and the Insurance sector. Protiviti is a global consulting firm that provides clients with solutions through their network of more than 85 offices in over 25 countries. Notably, Medizza also holds the role of Co-Global ESG FSI Leader at the company. Before joining Protiviti, he was a Manager at Arthur Andersen, where he initially dealt with the Audit activity for banks, insurance companies and financial intermediaries.
With 30 years of experience, Medizza also worked in Germany for the largest online banking group, holding the position of head of Foreign Legal Entities of the entire Group. Medizza was Chief Executive Officer of a stock brokerage company, the result of a joint venture between 3 listed banks; and also became a member of the board of directors of a listed credit institution in Italy. Furthermore, he held the role of Risk Manager for the largest Italian infrastructure fund and as Head of Internal Audit for an insurance company. Medizza earned an MBA from Università Bocconi.
17. Ross Baker
Company: Mercer
Title: Senior Partner, North American Insurance Vertical Leader
Ross Baker is a Senior Partner, North American Insurance Vertical Leader, and Global Client Manager for Mercer. In this role, he manages the delivery of human resources and strategy consulting services to a broad client base, including, but not limited to, those in Insurance, Consumer Products, Healthcare, Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals, Oil & Gas and Manufacturing. As the North American Insurance Vertical Leader, he is responsible for the overall growth of Mercer’s Insurance client portfolio, as well as delivering new Intellectual Capital to the Industry.
Baker has more than 25 years of experience in consulting and related fields. He spent eight years with Mercer Management Consulting, now known as Oliver Wyman, driving a number of corporate strategy assignments across several diversified industries and led their Business Development group. Within Mercer, he has played leading roles from managing the Chicago office, Central Market Sales Leader and managing the complexities of our global accounts across HR functions and business lines. Baker holds an AB from Bowdoin College and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is also a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and past Board member of the University Club of Chicago.
18. Will Davies
Company: PA Consulting
Title: Partner, Global Head of Insurance
Will Davies is a Partner and Global Head of Insurance of PA Consulting, which has over 4,000 strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers, and technologists. Davies brings over 20 years of experience across the finance services and insurance industry supporting clients to address significant challenges: from enhancing customer experience, digital, data and cloud transformation, and cost reduction, as well as delivering new risk and regulatory compliance and change programmes.
Davies joined PA Consulting from Slalom Consulting, where he led its UK financial services business, working with large, multinational insurers as well as wealth, asset management, retail, and commercial banks. Prior to this, Davies was at Accenture, Deloitte and Capgemini Consulting. He graduated from Henley Business School with an MBA and from Loughborough University with an undergraduate degree in business and leisure management.
19. Heather Gagnon
Company: Crowe
Title: Managing Director
Heather Gagnon is a Managing Director at Crowe, a public accounting, consulting and technology firm with offices around the world. Crowe uses its deep industry expertise to provide audit services to public and private entities. The firm and its subsidiaries also help clients make smart decisions that lead to lasting value with its tax, advisory and consulting services.
Notably, Gagnon has deeply specialized in the insurance industry, providing exceptional service to clients through annual audit processes and consulting services for over 15 years. Her experience includes auditing and consulting services for traditional insurers, risk retention groups, cell and “pure” captive insurance companies as well as insurance agencies and brokers on both a GAAP and statutory basis. Gagnon graduated from Champlain College with an undergraduate degree in accounting.
20. Peter Manchester
Company: EY
Title: Global Insurance Consulting Leader
Peter Manchester is currently the Global Insurance Consulting Leader and EMEIA Insurance Leader at EY. He has led and delivered major process and system transformations across both life and pensions and P&C segments. In addition Manchester led the build-out of EY Insurance Technology Enabled Transformation solution, Digital practice and established the market-leading Guidewire Centre of Excellence. With over 25 years of experience in professional services providing advice to insurers across the globe, Manchester has a special interest in transformational change, the creation of Digital enterprises and the delivery of exceptional customer service.
Prior to EY, Manchester had a number of management roles in major Insurers encompassing Distribution, Claims and Underwriting competencies – before becoming a Partner in a leading management consulting firm. CrowdStrike, a global cybersecurity leader, is redefining security for the cloud era with an endpoint and workload protection platform built from the ground up to stop breaches. The CrowdStrike Falcon® platform’s single lightweight-agent architecture leverages cloud-scale artificial intelligence (AI) and offers real-time protection and visibility across the enterprise, preventing attacks on endpoints and workloads on or off the network.
21. Mark Longworth
Company: KPMG UK
Title: Global Head of Insurance Advisory
Mark Longworth runs the insurance consulting business for KPMG in the UK, which specializes in transformational change across Life, Non Life and London markets. KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. KPMG is the brand under which the member firms of KPMG International Limited (“KPMG International”) operate and provide professional services. “KPMG” is used to refer to individual member firms within the KPMG organization or to one or more member firms collectively.
During his tenure, Longworth has had the pleasure of seeing his business grow and diversify significantly. For him, there is no better feeling in business than seeing a team grow and work effectively together to be successful in the market. Longworth was proud to become a partner in KPMG in 2009 after 16 years with the firm. His leadership then gave him the opportunity to run and grow their financial management practice in FS. This was a fantastic period when he had the pleasure of working with a diverse and talented leadership team. Longworth graduated from the University of Cambridge with an undergraduate degree.
22. Peter Popo
Company: BDO USA
Title: Assurance Partner
Peter Popo is an Atlanta-based BDO Assurance partner, with more than 20 years of domestic and international experience. Serving a diverse portfolio of public and private clients within the financial services and insurance industry, Popo brings significant technical knowledge of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) regulations to his client relationships. He is frequently sought by his clients to assist with complex accounting and financial reporting matters. Across the U.S., and in over 160 countries through their global organization, BDO professionals provide assurance, tax and advisory services for a diverse range of clients.
Popo’s experience includes: successfully leading or coordinating Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) implementations, public debt and equity offerings, streamlining financial reporting processes, and implementing various systems. Popo got his start in 1994 as a senior auditor at Ernst & Young LLP. From there, he went on to Sagicor General, before eventually rising to assurance senior manager at Ernst & Young LLP, his most recent position prior to joining BDO USA. Popo graduated from City University of New York - York College with an undergraduate degree in accounting.
23. Mark Niemeyer
Company: Alvarez & Marsal
Title: Senior Director, Insurance and Risk Advisory Services
Mark Niemeyer is a Senior Director with Alvarez & Marsal's Insurance and Risk Advisory Services in Philadelphia. With more than 30 years of insurance industry and corporate risk management experience, Niemeyer is an expert on matters of corporate risk management, insurance, alternative risk finance and surety, and has served diverse client operations in more than 120 countries worldwide – across a broad spectrum of insurance disciplines. Prior to joining A&M, Niemeyer was a Senior Vice President and Senior Client Executive at two top five global brokers. Prior to this, he was a Regional Director of Professional Liability.
Niemeyer began his career in surety underwriting and eventually moved into surety broking, where he specialized in freeing up corporate capital via manuscript commercial surety bonds. Niemeyer earned his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) in business administration, with a concentration in economics, from Seton Hall University. He also earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associates in Fidelity and Surety Bonding (AFSB) designations from the American Institute of Insurance. Niemeyer is a licensed property & casualty broker and counselor in all U.S. States.
24. Bill Budde
Company: CGI
Title: Director, Consulting Services
Bill Budde serves as Director of Consulting Services for CGI. Founded in 1976, CGI Group Inc. is the fifth largest independent information technology and business process services firm in the world. Approximately 65,000 professionals serve thousands of global clients from offices and delivery centers across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. At CGI, Budde leads the company’s insurance management consulting services and solutions portfolio strategy. He has a 25+ year track record of success in insurance. This includes overseeing global insurance teams for EDS (now HP Enterprise) and Patni (now CapGemini), as well as a private consulting practice for a large network of insurers.
Budde has a broad insurance skills base that covers actuarial, underwriting, operations, information technology, compliance, and product development in both the P&C and life insurance sectors. Budde also has significant experience in selling and supporting insurance solutions, as well as managing large-scale IT and business process outsourcing engagements for insurers. Budde graduated from Northwestern University with an undergraduate degree in political science, geography and urban studies.
25. Sarat Varanasi
Company: Cognizant
Title: P&C Insurance Business Unit Leader
Sarat Varanasi is a P&C Insurance Market leader of Cognizant’s Insurance practice. In this role, he is responsible for P&L including sales, business development, consulting, and client relationship management. Under his leadership, Cognizant’s P&C Insurance business serves approximately 70+ clients in North America. Cognizant P&C practice is the largest Insurance practice at $1.2Bn and growing significantly. The practice serves 18 of the top 20 P&C clients. Varanasi has over 27 years of experience in advising business and technology executives in the insurance, banking, and financial services segments. He has helped clients achieve significant improvements in operational effectiveness and end-to-end managed services delivery with outcome-based performance measures.
Varanasi has expertise in financial services sales and distribution, agen/broker effectiveness, customer segmentation, product development, financial management, billing and collections, claims, underwriting, and pricing. Having spent 15+ years at Cognizant, Varanasi has played various roles like COO for the practice, Client Partner and transformation partner. He currently runs the CIO forum for Insurance. Prior to Cognizant, he held several roles like Chief Delivery Officer for a niche consulting firm; and prior to that he was a Principal consultant at Oracle. Varanasi graduated from Osmania University with an undergraduate degree in commerce.
