Joel A. Appelbaum, CPCU, ARM, AIS
Chief Analytics Officer
Zurich Direct Underwriters
Joel A. Appelbaum is chief analytics officer of Zurich North America Commercial's Programs and Direct Markets business unit. Mr. Appelbaum specializes in providing predictive modeling solutions for the business unit and Underwriting transformation initiatives for Zurich.
Mr. Appelbaum has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience. Before joining Zurich, he was a construction risk officer for CNA Insurance. His accomplishments included developing strategies that increased profits in under-performing business sectors. Prior to CNA, he served as a senior officer of Argonaut Great Central Insurance from 1989 to 1998, where he held various positions of increasing responsibility to insure and underwrite large national operations.
Mr. Appelbaum has published many articles in various industry-oriented magazines and has presented at several national risk management conferences and trade associations meetings. He currently serves on the CPCU Society board of Governors’, and was an instructor for the Insurance School of Chicago for more than 15 years.
Mr. Appelbaum holds a Bachelor of Science degree from DePaul University and a Master of Business Administration with honors in international business from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. He is a designated Charter Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), holds an Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designation, attained an Associates in Insurance Services designation (AIS), and certificates in international business from University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and Business School São Paulo in Brazil.