Meet the team
James Tait
CEO
James leads UnderwriteMe globally, having previously been Head of Protection at Pacific Life Re and a Non-Executive Director at UnderwriteMe. His focus is on continuing the success that has been achieved over previous years, building on the solid foundations that have been put in place and finding new & innovative ways to support UnderwriteMe’s clients around the world.
David Rivier
Chief Product Officer
David is responsible for product strategy for UnderwriteMe globally. David has acquired his experience in product leadership and transformation, working across the Tech industry during the last 20 years for well-known start-ups, scale-ups and corporates such as Skype, Skyscanner, Barclays , etc. His focus at UnderwriteMe is on solving customer needs with innovative products that help transform insurance markets.
Paul Hughes
Head of Asia Pacific
Paul Hughes leads the Asia-Pacific team, with over 25 years of experience in the Life and Health sector in Asia-Pacific. He has held senior roles in Underwriting, Claims, Operations, Product and Marketing with some of Asia-Pacific’s leading re/insurers such as Swiss Re, Aviva, AIA and MetLife. His focus is to create and lead the strategy in Asia-Pacific to deliver significant growth over the coming years.
Nilesh Patel
Head of Europe
Nilesh leads the Europe team with over 20 years of experience in the Life and Health sector. Prior to joining UnderwriteMe, he spent over 10 years at Pacific Life Re where his last position was leading the development of their Underwriting and Claims digital proposition. Much of his career has been focused on exploring ways in which technology can be utilised to transform the world of Underwriting and Claims.
Will Miller
VP, Head of Legal
Will joined UnderwriteMe in March 2019 and heads up our legal and compliance function. He has extensive experience in the insurance industry having qualified into insurance litigation in private practice, with a number of secondments in financial services.
Mapara Fernandez
AVP, People
Mapara joined UnderwriteMe in March 2024 to lead the Human Resources team.
Fabienne Fernandez
Chief Finance Officer, VP Finance
Fabienne is responsible for finance for UnderwriteMe globally. She has over 15 years of experience having worked in a number of finance roles including European Finance Director, finance transformation lead and financial controller, and having started her career with Deloitte. She has worked for leading General Insurance and Life and Pensions insurers. Her focus at UnderwriteMe is in developing an efficient finance function that both supports and informs the company strategy.
Brett Laker
Head of North America
Brett leads the North America team for UnderwriteMe and joined from Pacific Life Re where he was responsible for the management of client accounts, marketing/communications, underwriting and claims for the retrocession business. Brett has over 25 years industry experience through roles at leading insurers and retrocessionaires in both the US and Canada.
James Tait
CEO
James leads UnderwriteMe globally, having previously been Head of Protection at Pacific Life Re and a Non-Executive Director at UnderwriteMe. His focus is on continuing the success that has been achieved over previous years, building on the solid foundations that have been put in place and finding new & innovative ways to support UnderwriteMe’s clients around the world.
Carina Rogers
Head of Business Operations UK & Global Service Management
Carina joined in November 2018 and is responsible for UK business operations, UK professional services, risk & control management and the build-out of our global service management capability.
Nilesh Patel
Head of Sales, Marketing and Underwriting
Nilesh is responsible for UnderwriteMe’s technology sales in Europe, underwriting and commercial relationships. He leads the global marketing team. Prior to joining UnderwriteMe, he spent over 10 years at Pacific Life Re where his last position was leading the development of their underwriting and claims digital proposition. Much of his career has been focused on exploring ways in which technology can be utilised to transform the Protection market.
Phil Nash
Director of Sales
Phil has 20 years of insurance experience ranging from self-employment as an IFA, through to setting up a general insurance offering from scratch and launching products on the UK’s major aggregator sites.
Since the early 2000s, Phil has primarily been involved in start-up Protection propositions for major insurers including Royal Liver and Fortis who went on to re-brand as Ageas Protect and then AIG Life.
He joined UnderwriteMe in April last year and is now Director of Sales, carrying responsibility for the targeted growth in the number of intermediary policies submitted via the Protection Platform.
Steve Baldry
Director, Underwriting
Steve has a 20 year career in both insurance and reinsurance. He was involved in the design and implementation of the award winning systems and processes at Ageas Protect (now AIG Life) and latterly at Swiss Re with Magnum.
Will Miller
Director, Legal Counsel
Will joined UnderwriteMe in March 2019 and heads up our legal and compliance function. He has extensive experience in the insurance industry having qualified into insurance litigation in private practice, with a number of secondments in financial services.
James Tait
CEO
James leads UnderwriteMe globally, having previously been Head of Protection at Pacific Life Re and a Non-Executive Director at UnderwriteMe. His focus is on continuing the success that has been achieved over previous years, building on the solid foundations that have been put in place and finding new & innovative ways to support UnderwriteMe’s clients around the world.
e James.Tait@underwriteme.co.uk
LinkedIn >
Paul Hughes
Head of Asia Pacific
Paul Hughes leads the Asia-Pacific team, with over 25 years of experience in the Life and Health sector in Asia-Pacific. He has held senior roles in Underwriting, Claims, Operations, Product and Marketing with some of Asia-Pacific’s leading re/insurers such as Swiss Re, Aviva, AIA and MetLife. His focus is to create and lead the strategy in Asia-Pacific to deliver significant growth over the coming years.
Kenneth Pah
Director, Client Success – Propositions
Kenneth’s career in the life and health insurance industry in the Asia Pacific spans more than 19 years overseeing underwriting automation, innovation and strategy development. He has also been credited for successfully leading several digital transformation projects to achieve better operational efficiencies and seamless customer experience. At UnderwriteMe, Kenneth leads proposition development strategy in Asia Pacific. In this role, he aims to create value for clients through new business and underwriting digital transformation, as well as provide meaningful data insights.
Pratap Chawla
Director, Business Development, APAC
Pratap is the Director, Business Development for Asia Pacific at UnderwriteMe, Pacific Life Re’s wholly owned subsidiary. He brings with him a wealth of experience in the insurance/reinsurance industry with a career that spanned 19 years, focused on driving digital sales strategy and market development. Pratap has been instrumental in developing and driving digital solutions strategy and development of online products across Asia especially with his role’s with Swiss Re, Aviva & Prudential. Pratap’s experience includes of origination, structuring and negotiation of the Life & Health reinsurance business.
Andrew Gill
Managing Director, Australia & Asia, Pacific Life Re
Andrew established the Pacific Life Re Australian office, which has grown from strength to strength since it launched in 2015. Under his leadership, the office has grown rapidly to become a leading reinsurer in that market with premium revenue in excess of US$400m. Andrew was appointed to serve as the Managing Director of both Pacific Life Re Asia and Australia business units in 2019. Andrew supports the business development of the UnderwriteMe team across both regions.
e andrew.gill@pacificlifere.com
LinkedIn >
Vasan Errakiah
Head of SEA and Product Development, Pacific Life Re
Vasan is responsible for leading Pacific Life Re’s Southeast Asia Marketing team and he supports in expanding the footprint of the UnderwriteMe digital protection new business platform. In addition, he oversees the growth of Pacific Life Re through the introduction of new product ideas to the Asia region and the marketing communications function. He was most recently Head of Pricing for SEA, Japan and Korea for Pacific Life Re. Vasan is a Fellow with the Society of Actuaries and the Institute of Actuaries.
Gill Townsend
Director, Client Success Asia-Pacific
Gill has honed her project and program management skills in technology services through 25 years of experience working for several global organisations in the financial services and insurance industries in Australia, Ireland and UK.
At UnderwriteMe, Gill leads the Client Success Asia-Pacific team of Project Managers, Business Analysts and Solution Architect across the region and is focused on operational efficiency, process consistency and the successful delivery of projects that achieve our clients’ outcomes. She also works with new and existing clients in Australasia to implement the Underwriting & Claims Engines and our latest product, Augmented Decisioning Module.
James Tait
CEO
James leads UnderwriteMe globally, having previously been Head of Protection at Pacific Life Re and a Non-Executive Director at UnderwriteMe. His focus is on continuing the success that has been achieved over previous years, building on the solid foundations that have been put in place and finding new & innovative ways to support UnderwriteMe’s clients around the world.
Paul Hughes
Head of Asia Pacific
Paul Hughes leads the Asia-Pacific team, with over 25 years of experience in the Life and Health sector in Asia-Pacific. He has held senior roles in Underwriting, Claims, Operations, Product and Marketing with some of Asia-Pacific’s leading re/insurers such as Swiss Re, Aviva, AIA and MetLife. His focus is to create and lead the strategy in Asia-Pacific to deliver significant growth over the coming years.
Kenneth Pah
Director, Client Success – Propositions
Kenneth’s career in the life and health insurance industry in the Asia Pacific spans more than 19 years overseeing underwriting automation, innovation and strategy development. He has also been credited for successfully leading several digital transformation projects to achieve better operational efficiencies and seamless customer experience. At UnderwriteMe, Kenneth leads proposition development strategy in Asia Pacific. In this role, he aims to create value for clients through new business and underwriting digital transformation, as well as provide meaningful data insights.
Tyson Johnston
General Manager, Pacific Life Re
Tyson is responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction to the Pacific Life Re Australian office. Tyson is a member of the Divisional Senior Leadership Team and is an Executive Director for Pacific Life Re. Tyson supports the UnderwriteMe Australian team in business development.
Gill Townsend
Director, Client Success Asia-Pacific
Gill has honed her project and program management skills in technology services through 25 years of experience working for several global organisations in the financial services and insurance industries in Australia, Ireland and UK.
At UnderwriteMe, Gill leads the Client Success Asia-Pacific team of Project Managers, Business Analysts and Solution Architect across the region and is focused on operational efficiency, process consistency and the successful delivery of projects that achieve our clients’ outcomes. She also works with new and existing clients in Australasia to implement the Underwriting & Claims Engines and our latest product, Augmented Decisioning Module.
Stephen Connolly
Director, Business Development Asia-Pacific
Driven by a passion for digital innovation and transformation, he is responsible for driving sales strategy and market development in Australia and New Zealand.
In this role, he aims to create value for clients through enhancing their underwriting and claims automation proposition. With over 15 years of experience working in the life insurance industry in Australia, he has built his expertise in underwriting, team leadership, project management, digital innovation, and relationship management.