Announcing Key Additions to the Edge Case Risk Management Team
Meet the experts on our advisory board and key members of the Edge Case Risk Management team, who are building and delivering insurance for safer autonomous vehicles
By Benjamin Lewis, Vice President of Insurance & General Manager of Edge Case Risk Management
Earlier this year, Mike and I shared that Edge Case Research has set out to establish Edge Case Risk Management (ECRM), an insuretech managing general agent (MGA) that underwrites insurance for autonomous vehicle (AV) developers and fleets. ECRM will offer insurance that is thoughtfully constructed to recognize and reward safer autonomy and meaningfully support the industry’s plans to commercialize and go to market in the coming years. We’re hard at work building this new venture and crafting insurance solutions that are powered by safety cases, engineering principles, and standards — tools that Edge Case has used for almost ten years to help AV companies build their systems safely from the ground up. To drive this exciting work forward and develop better AV insurance solutions, we have assembled experts on both the team and our new advisory board. It is my pleasure to introduce you to a few of the key leaders on our team and our stellar set of advisors. All bring exceptional experience and expertise to Edge Case.
Key Team Members:
Emily Fitts, CPCU — Autonomous Systems Underwriter
Emily leads the development and execution of underwriting strategy and tactics at ECRM. In addition to her focus on underwriting, Emily is also lending her expertise to insurance product and program development. She collaborates closely with our System Safety Engineering team to translate technical measures of AV risk into underwriting decisions and insurance product and pricing features. Before joining ECRM, Emily honed her skills as a Technology & Life Science underwriter at The Hartford and an Emerging Technology underwriter and AV specialist at Travelers Insurance. She graduated with high honors from Gustavus Adolphus College with a degree in Economic Analysis and holds a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation.
Jacob Nelson — Director of Risk Engineering
Jacob has been at the forefront of solving complex autonomous and embedded software system safety engineering challenges ever since he joined Edge Case in 2015. He led the construction of safety cases for multiple autonomous system developers and helped insurers and other stakeholders to meaningfully assess the risks of such systems. Jacob now applies this wealth of experience to integrate safety cases and safety engineering into every aspect of Edge Case Risk Management’s processes and products. An expert in UL 4600, SOTIF, and MIL-STD-882E (among other standards), Jacob holds an MS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Maximilian Schöffer — Director of Strategy & Business Development
With his entrepreneurial talents gained from roles at multiple tech and mobility startups, Max has been a key contributor to Edge Case’s growth since joining the company in 2020. As a former Mobility-as-a-Service operations practitioner, Max has a knack for understanding what matters most to autonomy and mobility companies looking to scale. He is responsible for managing and growing some of Edge Case’s most successful account relationships with autonomous system developers. Max joined the ECRM team to continue leading efforts to refine product-market fit and build fruitful relationships with AV customers seeking better insurance. Based in Edge Case’s Munich office, Max serves as ECRM’s representative in Europe. He holds a master’s degree in Global Entrepreneurial Management from the University of San Francisco.
Advisory Board Members:
Amy Wagner — Former Head of North America Insurance at Uber Technologies
Amy is a seasoned senior executive who has held leadership roles across multiple disciplines and industries throughout her career, including corporate finance, investor relations, and risk management/insurance. She started her career with a 16-year span at Ryder System, a leading transportation and logistics company with one of North America’s largest fleet of trucks. There, Amy rose through the ranks to become vice president of Risk Management & Insurance Operations, as well as vice president of Finance during a more recent stint at the company. Most recently, she joined Uber Technologies as head of North America Insurance from 2020 through Q2 2022. In this role, she oversaw Uber’s United States and Canada Mobility and Delivery insurance programs, corporate risk management and insurance procurement strategy, as well as the company’s in-house North America Insurance, Claims, and Risk Management teams.
Amy brings immense expertise in sophisticated risk management as an advisor to ECRM. Her time at Ryder and Uber gives her unique insights into the needs of risk managers at complex logistics, trucking, and Mobility-as-a-Service companies. I first started working with Amy (over Zoom) when she joined Uber two years ago. In the time since, I learned a lot about leadership and savvy risk management from her. The team and I are thrilled to have her on board to impart yet more expertise to ECRM.
Liam Jones — SVP & Head of Business Development at Mosaic Insurance
Liam is a member of the leadership team of Mosaic Insurance — a global specialty insurance hybrid carrier startup, anchored in Lloyd’s of London. Liam drives product innovation at Mosaic while also overseeing the interface between underwriting and technology, working with all product units to enhance Mosaic’s pioneering insuretech platform. Liam is also tasked with developing Mosaic’s Syndicated Capital Program, which pairs trade and risk capital partners with insurance risk through Mosaic’s agency operations. With 16 years of experience in global specialty underwriting, he has worked extensively in the Lloyd’s, US, and Bermuda marketplaces. Previously, he served as head of Underwriting Strategy for Liberty Specialty Markets Bermuda, where he also ran the financial lines, healthcare, and special risks divisions. During his time at Liberty, Liam developed complex and innovative multi-line insurance programs for some of the world’s largest companies, including household names in the technology and software industries. On top of his role at Mosaic, Liam is a mentor in the Lloyd’s Lab and holds advisory positions at a number of insuretech companies.
We are elated to work with Liam because of his invaluable experience crafting specialty lines insurance for complex and emerging risks, connections across the Lloyd’s, US, and Bermuda markets, and his ability to harmonize underwriting and technology. I first met Liam at a dinner event in 2018 that I was invited to because of my efforts to build insurance for autonomous vehicles. It turned out that he had an AV submission on his desk at that exact moment and we worked on it together in the weeks that followed. I am looking forward to collaborating with Liam on AV insurance once again.
Rob Higgins — Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Openly
Rob leads product and strategy at Openly, a technology-enabled homeowners insurance startup that is backed by top venture capital funds. Prior to Openly, he spent nine years at Liberty Mutual Insurance as a senior leader in Finance, Claims, and Product. Rob was most recently head of US Financial Planning & Analysis for Liberty’s Global Retail Markets division and a member of the executive team who oversaw the formation and management of Liberty’s Mobility Practice. Earlier in his career, Rob worked as a strategic consultant to CEOs and Private Equity firms with The Parthenon Group and as an international equity analyst at Putnam Investments. Rob is a CFA Charterholder and received a BA in Biology from Harvard and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he was an Edward Tuck Scholar.
Rob’s extensive and diverse leadership experience, including at an insuretech startup that successfully scaled and evolved from operating as an MGA to establishing a full carrier, is highly relevant to our efforts at Edge Case Risk Management to go to market as an AV insurance MGA. I have admired Rob’s thoughtful and strategic leadership style ever since we first collaborated on the formation of Liberty Mutual’s Mobility Practice, and I am glad to work with him again in this capacity.
It is an exceptional privilege to work with these and all of the Smart, Helpful, and Friendly members of the Edge Case team. Please stay tuned for more on Edge Case Risk Management’s efforts to build and deliver insurance solutions for autonomy in the real world and look out for our team at mobility, safety, and insurance events throughout the remainder of 2022. We will be the ones ready to discuss insurance for safer AVs.
About Edge Case Risk Management:
Edge Case Risk Management (ECRM) is an autonomous vehicle insuretech offering insurance and risk solutions that help companies go to market with safe, reliable, and trustworthy autonomy. Powered by pioneering work conducted by Edge Case Research in the field of autonomous system safety, ECRM combines engineering expertise and risk analytics with underwriting know-how to deliver insurance that recognizes and rewards safer autonomy. Edge Case Risk Management is a subsidiary of Edge Case Research, Inc. For more information, visit ecr.ai.
About Edge Case Research:
At Edge Case Research, we believe that every autonomous vehicle should be built safely from the ground up. We help companies go to market with autonomous mobility that is safe, reliable, and trustworthy. Founded by leaders in autonomous vehicle safety, our expert team provides system and safety engineering services, nLoop Live Safety Case software, and risk management solutions to software driver developers, automotive and trucking OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, insurance providers, and the aerospace and defense industries. For more information, visit ecr.ai.
