Very often it’s only when you get the chance to look back at the steps that led you to where you stand that the pattern shows. When you’re treading that path, it can be difficult to see the natural through-line of every decision, noted incoming Verisk CEO Lee Shavel (pictured) - but looking back the logic becomes clear.
Stepping into the role of CEO after five years as Verisk’s CFO and group president is a natural next step for Shavel who joined the multinational data analytics and risk assessment firm after decades of serving the financial services sector. When he joined Verisk in 2017, it was with a strong sense of the firm’s unique value proposition and how he could bolster that with his own industry experience – particularly given his successful tenure as executive VP and CFO of the technology-orientated Nasdaq Inc.
“It has been a great five years when I have tried to help the company think about things from an investor perspective,” he said. “And I was very honoured to be asked by the board to succeed an exceptionally successful CEO Scott Stephenson who has been a great mentor, a great friend and a great colleague.”
Shavel is taking on the mantle of CEO galvanised not just by his experience working alongside a great variety of business leaders, including Stephenson and NASDAQ’s Robert Greifeld, but also by his time spent on several public company boards. Having had the benefit of seeing how others have approached the job of chief executive gives him a blueprint – as well as some great advice that resonates strongly with his approach to doing business.
“Of course, all CEOs of public companies have to focus on creating value for shareholders,” he said. “But I had one CEO who said, ‘Lee, I view creating shareholder value as a derivative of two things - creating value for your clients, and creating value for your employees.’ Both of those are really important elements to me and he articulated a primary thought that I had, which [is now coming full circle with my new role at Verisk].”
Verisk, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, started as a utility for the property and casualty insurance industry, he said, and was founded on the premise of consolidating expenses in traditionally very manual reporting to all relevant state insurance commissions and regulatory bodies. Over time, those reports and that data became the data that allowed the company to provide analytical insights and reports to the insurance industry.
“As the industry is confronting the challenge of becoming more digitally orientated and understandings its data sets, the thing I’m most excited about is the ability for Verisk to act as a broader technology partner to [companies] navigating that journey,” he said. “[That’s] determining where we can use new data sets to make better decisions and where we can use artificial intelligence to automate more of the functions that the insurance industry has made.
“And where can we provide common shared cost structures that enable the industry to deal with the most commonly expressed issue that I encounter in talking with the CEOs of insurance companies, which is, how do we reduce our operating costs? How do we improve our expense ratio and our combined ratio?’ And then, most importantly, ‘how do we improve the digital experience of our customers who are migrating very rapidly into a digital format’. So that is probably the best opportunity that I see.”
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And in keeping with his ethos regarding what shareholder value truly looks like, Shavel highlighted that his focus is on making sure that the opportunity that is being created for Verisk’s clients is also translating into opportunity for its people as well. To be part of serving the industry and making it better for those working within it and for insurance purchasers is a great opportunity, he said, and if Verisk is able to do both those things, he’s confident the business will have some very happy shareholders.
It’s also great stepping into a leadership role as COVID ebbs, he said, and one of the highlights of his recent trip to London was the opportunity to visit Verisk’s new Bishopsgate-based offices and meet his colleagues face-to-face after so long operating in a virtual environment. There’s something irreplaceable about having a group of colleagues together, talking over what’s happening in the business – and he is relishing every opportunity to do just that.
That ties in closely with what Shavel is most looking forward to about being CEO as he noted that, at his core, he is a very curious person with a lifelong love of learning.
“I love talking to people and understanding their perspectives and what their journeys have been and what we can learn from them,” he said. “I’m really interested in learning much more about what we’re doing at the ground level, from an insurance standpoint… I’m also excited about what we can do for the industry and how we can create value [for our partners].
“And as a longtime client guy, I’m looking forward to talking to our clients and understanding from them, what we can do better to help them in the industry. We had one of the largest names in P&C insurance in the US recently and they brought in three of their top claims people and just said to us, ‘Look we need Verisk to help us and you can help the industry more than anyone else’. Now that’s a great responsibility but it’s one we really cherish.”
