Erie Insurance announces senior leadership appointments and promotions

Leaders named for key Personal Products and Experience roles; promotions announced within Law and Internal Audit

ERIE, Pa., May 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Erie Insurance (NASDAQ: ERIE) today announced a series of new senior leadership appointments and promotions within the company's Personal Products, Experience, Law and Internal Audit areas.

Jon Bloom has been named senior vice president, Personal Products, effective May 16. Bloom succeeds Ruben Fechner, who retired in December. Bloom is currently ERIE's vice president of personal auto. In his 19 years at the company, Bloom has held several other positions, including working as an actuary, finance business partner for Personal Lines and director of the Enterprise Program Management Office.

Bloom holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Penn State University and a master's degree in applied statistics from Bowling Green State University. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS), a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), a Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC), a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder (CFA).

Sapan Patel will return to ERIE to become senior vice president, Experience, effective May 16. Prior to departing the company for another industry leadership role in 2019, Patel served as ERIE's vice president of Customer Care Operations & Strategy. Patel's previous roles outside of ERIE have included director of operations at Firstcomp Insurance Company, consultant at Xpress Capital, director of operations/consultant at CostFirst Corp. and vice president, insurance products at Cowbell Cyber.

Patel earned a bachelor's degree in actuary science and minor in mathematics from Bradley University and an MBA in operations from the University of Scranton. He also received his CPCU designation and Six Sigma Green Belt.

Jim Nealon has been promoted to senior vice president, Law, effective May 5. Nealon's promotion follows the appointment of Brian Bolash to executive vice president at the end of 2021. As SVP, Nealon will manage the legal staff and operational needs of the Law Division.

Nealon joined ERIE in 2010 as a senior claims attorney. In 2020, he was promoted to vice president and Corporate Law Officer. Nealon graduated from the University of Scranton with a bachelor's in political science and earned his juris doctorate at The Dickinson School of Law. Prior to joining ERIE, Nealon was in private practice, where he gained extensive civil litigation experience with an emphasis on insurance litigation.

Pam Pesta, vice president and Chief Internal Audit Officer, has been promoted to a corporate officer, effective May 5.

Pesta joined the company as the Internal Audit leader in 2018. For 15 years prior to joining ERIE, she held various leadership positions at Nationwide Insurance. Prior to Nationwide, Pesta spent seven years providing finance and accounting consulting services with Navigant Consulting and Arthur Andersen. Pesta holds a bachelor's degree in finance from Youngstown State University and an MBA from The Ohio State University. She is a Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Fraud Examiner and holds a certification in Risk Management Assurance.

According to A.M. Best Company, Erie Insurance Group, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, is the 12th largest homeowners insurer, 13th largest automobile insurer and 13th largest commercial lines insurer in the United States based on direct premiums written. Founded in 1925, Erie Insurance is a Fortune 500 company and the 16th largest property/casualty insurer in the United States based on total lines net premium written. Rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best, ERIE has more than 6 million policies in force and operates in 12 states and the District of Columbia. News releases and more information are available on ERIE's website at www.erieinsurance.com.

SOURCE Erie Indemnity Company