Ushur taps insurance industry veterans for leadership team
Seasoned pros expand executive ranks and deepen insurance expertise
Ushur, the no-code platform for customer engagement, today announced that Meredith Barnes-Cook and Janeen Blanton have joined as Head of Global Insurance and Director of Customer Success, respectively. Barnes-Cook and Blanton will help Ushur meet insurers’ growing demand for intelligent automation as they modernize their architecture and customer experiences.
Barnes-Cook holds more than 30 years of insurance industry leadership experience spanning business systems, operations and customer service. As an executive at Liberty Mutual, she led countless digital and organization transformations across Claims, Policy, Underwriting, Risk Control and Contact Centers. Barnes-Cook played a key role in bringing new products, technology solutions and services to market while providing top-tier customer experience through the optimal balance of automation and people. Most recently as an industry consultant she provided strategic guidance to a diverse audience including insurance carriers, software providers, business process outsourcing firms and investors.
Blanton has spent 29 years in the tech and insurance industries, starting as a software engineer and eventually becoming IT director at Nobel Insurance. She then transitioned to consulting, where she founded the regional insurance practice for Salient Consulting Group. Blanton spent 17 years at Salient, ultimately running all of its commercial operations including the insurance, banking and law enforcement verticals along with Centers of Excellence in agile development, data analytics, cybersecurity and mobility. Most recently, she led IT service delivery for Prisma Health with a focus on implementing best practices and platforms to facilitate outstanding customer experiences.
“Nobody knows the complexity and pressure of going ‘digital-first’ quite like Meredith and Janeen,” said Simha Sadasiva, CEO of Ushur. “Their decades in the industry will be instrumental in helping our customers transition to personalized self-serve digital experiences.”
“When my colleagues asked why I was joining a startup, the answer was easy,” Blanton said. “I believe in Ushur’s leadership: their vision, drive and dedication to their team. And I believe in the product and its power to transform customer experience in the insurance industry and beyond.”
Barnes-Cook echoed that sentiment. “I could immediately see the potential for Ushur to dramatically transform the experience of customers, agents, brokers, members and claimants across their entire insurance journey. Ushur’s innovative solution and thought leadership enable insurance companies to meet their customers where they are, giving the customer control of their digital interactions.”
The executive additions come on the heels of Ushur’s $25M Series B funding, fueled by a rapidly growing list of insurance customers, including Aetna, Irish Life, Tower Insurance and Unum.
Ushur also recently partnered with FINEOS, the market leader in core systems for life, accident and health insurance carriers, to integrate Ushur’s no-code workflows and conversational AI into the FINEOS platform.
About Ushur
Ushur is the complete solution for intelligent automation. Companies such as HealthSpire, Irish Life and Unum use Ushur to automate claims and broker interactions and collect missing information for member journeys over email, apps, SMS and more using conversational AI and intuitive workflows. Ushur’s end-to-end platform accelerates time to value with features like a no-code visual builder, powerful tools for data extraction and integrations with back-end core systems. Ushur is headquartered in Santa Clara with an office in Bangalore and is backed by investors including Third Point Ventures and 8VC.