Mary Merkel

Mary Merkel retired in 2016 from Zurich Insurance Company where she served as Chief Underwriting Officer for Zurich North America. In this role she led the development of the underwriting strategy for the United States and Canada, including line of business strategies, actuarial pricing, predictive analytics, and underwriting governance .

In her thirty plus year career with Zurich, Mary held other roles including Chief Underwriting Officer for Casualty on a worldwide basis, and Chief Underwriting Officer for Zurich’s Global Corporate business in the United States. She has extensive underwriting experience across multiple lines of business and geographies.

Before joining Zurich, she began her career at Royal Insurance Company.

Mary is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and holds a bachelor’s degree in Risk Management/Insurance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA).