Leadership shake-up sees new head of captives at Zurich North America

Zurich North America has restructured its leadership team, including appointing a new captives head. Dawn Hiestand, the current chief operations officer for direct markets serving auto dealers and leader of Zurich’s Women’s Innovation Network, will take on the role.

She takes over from Jason Meador, who has been appointed as head of the Rural Community Insurance Services crop insurance business.

Hiestand will be responsible for the overall strategy and operational management of Zurich North America’s group captives insurance business, including member-owned, agency and fronted captives. She will report to the head of US national accounts Paul Horgan.

She has been with Zurich for over 20 years, joining in 2000 and has held leadership positions in claims, operational transformation and underwriting. She served as chief operations officer for alternative markets before serving in the same role for direct markets. She is also head of the WIN, Zurich’s largest and oldest employee resource group, with about 1,900 members across the US.

The group’s focus under Hiestand’s leadership is on driving industry workforce sustainability and equal representation.

Other new appointments in the shake-up see Alban Laloum appointed as chief customer officer and Kelly Kinzer officially named head of construction, after doing the role on an interim basis since November 2021.

“These newly named leaders illustrate the outstanding talent and great bench strength we have here at Zurich North America,” said Zurich North America CEO Kristof Terryn. “They will continue to keep the focus on truly knowing our customers — their challenges and their goals — and ensure we deliver the differentiated solutions and excellent service they have come to expect from Zurich.”