AmTrust Financial Services, Inc. (Nasdaq:AFSI) (the “Company” or
“AmTrust”) today announced it is continuing to enhance its finance
organization’s expertise and capabilities with several executive
appointments and promotions.
“With AmTrust’s strategic growth in product scope and geographic
reach, working to ensure our accounting and finance systems,
expertise and skills are aligned to support our size and scale,”
said Barry Zyskind, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AmTrust.
“We are pleased to welcome several new highly experienced senior
finance and treasury professionals to the AmTrust team and to
promote and recognize several other current executives in our
finance and accounting organization. Through these enhancements to
our senior financial leadership team, we are further strengthening
our internal controls, analysis and reporting environment, in
support of our commitment to sound and transparent financial
disclosure.”
Appointment of Chief Accounting Officer
Robert Schwarz, an accounting and finance executive with deep
insurance experience, has joined AmTrust as Chief Accounting
Officer and Senior Vice President, as of April 2017. In this
newly created role, Mr. Schwarz will have broad responsibilities
for accounting policies and financial processes, including
preparation of financial statements. Additionally, he will work
closely with the senior financial leadership team, including the
CFO, Deputy CFO, and Global Controller, on the maintenance of a
strong, global Sarbanes-Oxley internal control environment. Mr.
Schwarz brings 25 years of accounting and finance expertise to
AmTrust, including more than 20 years in property and casualty
insurance, most recently serving as Vice President and Assistant
Controller at Assurant, Inc., where he was responsible for the
quarterly close process among five reporting segments, ensured
consistent timely filing of U.S. GAAP statements with the SEC and
statutory basis financial statements with U.S. Departments of
Insurance, and developed and maintained internal control
processes.
Strengthened Senior Financial Leadership
Team
Over the past year, the Company has increased the strength of
its finance and accounting leadership with the following
appointments and promotions:
- Zachary Wolf, who previously served as Vice President of
Strategic Development, has been promoted to the newly created role
of Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, as of
February 2017. Mr. Wolf reports to AmTrust’s Chief Financial
Officer, with supporting responsibility for streamlining the
Company’s financial operations, as well as the financial reporting
and financial planning and analysis functions. Mr. Wolf joined
AmTrust in 2013, taking on progressively senior roles and
responsibilities within the finance organization. Previously, he
was with S&P, most recently as Senior Director in the
structured finance group. During his tenure at S&P, Mr. Wolf
was responsible for developing analytical platforms for a variety
of products, directing strategy and criteria development,
publication of research and analyzing transactions;
- Rohit Sood has joined AmTrust as Head of Investment Accounting,
as of February 2017. Mr. Sood is a senior finance manager
with 20 years of experience in improving the finance functions for
industry leaders in insurance and asset management, including UBS,
GE Asset Management and Swiss Re Life and Health. Most
recently, he was director of investment accounting for W.R. Berkley
Corp.;
- Evan Greenstein has been appointed Global Treasurer and Senior
Vice President, as of April 2016, with responsibility for managing
the Company’s funding and liquidity requirements, bank
relationships, credit needs, treasury risk management, and cash
management operations, among other areas. Before joining AmTrust,
Mr. Greenstein has served briefly as Deputy Treasurer at
American International Group and also held numerous Treasury
leadership roles at Morgan Stanley; and
- Janice Hamilton will be appointed Chief Financial Officer of
AmTrust International and AmTrust at Lloyd's, in which role she
will oversee the Company’s consolidated International finance
group. Prior to AmTrust’s acquisition of ANV Holdings B.V. in
November 2016, Ms. Hamilton was CFO of ANV Syndicates Limited, with
responsibility for ANV’s accounting and financial information,
regulatory reporting, and allocation and maintenance of capital and
liquidity. She began her career at Ernst & Young LLP in the
U.S., and brings more than 10 years of senior accounting experience
in the U.S. and in the U.K.
Commitment to Actuarial Excellence and Enhanced
Systems
AmTrust’s recent appointments to its financial reporting group
complement the excellence AmTrust has established in its actuarial
team over the past several years, including the additions of
Jeffrey Mayer as Global Chief Actuary, Isaac Mashitz as Chief
Pricing Actuary, and Stephen Knobloch as Chief Reserving Actuary,
who collectively bring more than 80 years of actuarial experience
to AmTrust.
- Jeffrey Mayer, Global Chief Actuary, joined AmTrust in 2015 and
oversees AmTrust’s actuarial group globally, with responsibility
for actuarial pricing and reserving. Prior to joining AmTrust, Mr.
Mayer held senior actuarial roles with larger insurers, including
AIG and Swiss Re, where he was Chief Actuary of a large division.
Previously, he was a principal at Milliman, and also served in
senior consulting roles at Peat Marwick and PricewaterhouseCoopers
(“PwC”).
- Isaac Mashitz, Chief Pricing Actuary, joined in 2015 with
responsibility for the group actuarial pricing function, including
the deployment of processes, pricing principles, standards of
practice and governance across the organization, as well as leading
the actuarial efforts in data mining and predictive modeling. He
was previously with Swiss Reinsurance in a lead actuarial role and
with Swiss Re Americas as head of actuarial pricing.
- Stephen Knobloch, Chief Reserving Actuary, joined in 2015, and
oversees the deployment of processes, reserving principles,
standards of practice, and governance across the organization. He
was previously with PwC, working on accounts such as AIG, Munich RE
America, and Navigators, specializing in all aspects of the
reserving process, including the evaluation of the effectiveness of
the actuarial function, financial reporting, and
Sarbanes-Oxley.
In addition to enhancing its accounting and financial expertise,
AmTrust has also taken steps to ensure that the sophistication of
its systems aligns with the growth of the Company. In 2016,
AmTrust engaged an external consultant to help identify and
implement best practices in accounting policy and financial
reporting, and help implement financial automation. AmTrust has an
internal team dedicated to developing and implementing the
financial automation project, which will streamline and enhance the
Company’s consolidated financial reporting process and is expected
to be completed in 2018.
About Robert Schwarz, Chief Accounting
Officer
Robert Schwarz, Chief Accounting Officer and Senior Vice
President, brings 25 years of accounting and finance expertise to
AmTrust, including more than 20 years in property and casualty
insurance. He most recently served as Vice President and Assistant
Controller at Assurant, Inc. where he was responsible for the
quarterly close process among five reporting segments, ensured
consistent timely filing of U.S. GAAP and statutory basis financial
statements, and developed and maintained internal control and
financial processes. Prior, Mr. Schwarz was Director and
Controller-Financial Reporting at Assured Guaranty Ltd., where he
established and managed the external reporting department, with
responsibility for SEC, U.S. GAAP, U.S. statutory and international
filings. Previously, he held senior accounting and financial
reporting roles at Selective Insurance Group, Inc. and Everest Re
Group, Ltd. Mr. Schwarz began his career in public accounting,
including several years at Ernst & Young, LLP, with
responsibility for concurrent audits of both property and casualty
and life insurance engagements.
About AmTrust Financial Services, Inc.
AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., a multinational insurance
holding company headquartered in New York City, offers specialty
property and casualty insurance products, including workers'
compensation, commercial automobile, general liability and extended
service and warranty coverage through its primary insurance
subsidiaries rated “A” (Excellent) by A.M. Best. For more
information about AmTrust, visit www.amtrustgroup.com, or call
AmTrust toll-free at (855) 327-2223.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains certain
forward-looking statements that are intended to be covered by the
safe harbors created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. When we use words such as “anticipate,” “intend,”
“plan,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” or similar expressions, we
do so to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of
forward-looking statements include the plans and objectives of
management for future operations, including those relating to
future growth of our business activities and availability of funds,
projections of the impact of potential errors or misstatements in
our financial statements, and estimates of the impact of material
weaknesses in the internal control over financial reporting, and
are based on current expectations that involve assumptions that are
difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many of which are
beyond our control. Actual results may differ materially from those
expressed or implied in these statements as a result of significant
risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, non-receipt
of expected payments from insureds or reinsurers, changes in
interest rates, a downgrade in the financial strength ratings of
our insurance subsidiaries, the effect of the performance of
financial markets on our investment portfolio, the amounts, timing
and prices of any share repurchases made by us under our share
repurchase program, development of claims and the effect on loss
reserves, accuracy in projecting loss reserves, the cost and
availability of reinsurance coverage, the effects of emerging claim
and coverage issues, changes in the demand for our products, our
degree of success in integrating acquired businesses, the effect of
general economic conditions, state and federal legislation,
regulations and regulatory investigations into industry practices,
the impact of known or potential errors or misstatements in our
financial statements, our ability to timely and effectively
remediate the material weaknesses in our internal control over
financial reporting and implement effective internal control over
financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures in the
future, risks associated with conducting business outside the
United States, the impact of Brexit, developments relating to
existing agreements, disruptions to our business relationships with
Maiden Holdings, Ltd. or National General Holdings Corp., breaches
in data security or other disruptions with our technology,
heightened competition, changes in pricing environments, and
changes in asset valuations. Additional information about these
risks and uncertainties, as well as others that may cause actual
results to differ materially from those projected, is contained in
our filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K
and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The projections and
statements in this news release speak only as of the date of this
release and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by
law.
CONTACT:
AmTrust Financial Services, Inc.
Chief Communications Officer & SVP Corporate Affairs
Chaya Cooperberg
chaya.cooperberg@amtrustgroup.com
(646) 458-3332
Amtrust Financial Services, Inc. (delisted) (NASDAQ:AFSI)
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