AGCS appoints first chief data officer

Effective April 1st, Ali Shahkarami (46) will be appointed as Chief Data Officer for Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS). In this newly created position, he will be responsible for the development and the delivery of AGCS data strategy and will report directly to AGCS Chief Operating Officer (COO) Bettina Dietsche.

Data and analytics are important drivers for the future success of AGCS and form an essential part of the company’s transformation strategy. This has been recognized by the AGCS Board with the creation of the role of Chief Data Officer in order to lead the drive to data-first decision making culture at AGCS

In his new role, Shahkarami will focus on aligning various data initiatives, tools and investments with AGCS’ business and data strategy as well as Allianz Group’s data strategy. Together with the AGCS Data Solutions & Architecture team, which is reporting to him, he will empower and expand AGCS’s data governance framework to ensure privacy and fidelity of all data and applications and ensure that AGCS has the capabilities needed to deliver business-ready solutions that inform and strengthen decision-making across all activities.

Shahkarami joined AGCS in 2012 as Head of Catastrophe Risk Research where he was responsible for research and development activities to capture risks of man-made and natural catastrophes. In 2018, he moved to AGCS’s digital incubator initiative XSE to become the Global Capability Lead on Underwriting where he led activities on digital transformation of client-facing functions. A successor for his present role as Global Capability Lead for Underwriting within AGCS’s digital incubator initiative XSE will be announced shortly.

Before joining AGCS, the Canadian citizen held various positions as risk modeler and obtained a PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Bettina Dietsche, AGCS COO, commented: “Data and analytics are of vital importance for our success and for supporting our clients – not only for reporting and steering but also to boost analytic capabilities in Underwriting and Claims and discover new insights and opportunities. That’s why it is so important that we created this position with a clear mandate to drive our data initiatives forward. I wish Ali Shahkarami every success in this important role and trust that he and his team will help to further strengthen our data and analytics capabilities.”