Newfront taps Alliant's Natalie Parker to Run Carrier Partnerships
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Newfront Insurance, a tech-enabled, full-service brokerage based in San Francisco, CA, has brought Natalie Parker aboard as Head of Carrier Partnerships. Parker joins Newfront from Alliant Insurance Services where she spent 21 years, running the marketing organization and serving on the firm's executive leadership team. Ms. Parker will oversee carrier relationships for the fast-growing Newfront, and joins its executive team.
Newfront has grown dramatically this year, more than doubling revenue and adding over 55 team members to date this year. Spike Lipkin, the firm's CEO, expects 2021 to involve deepening involvement with carriers. "We spent the past few years incorporating innovation into our internal operations and our customers' experience. As we move into 2021, we will turn towards our carrier relationships to identify opportunities to deploy operational and technological innovation that increase value. I am convinced that there are countless ways to jointly cut costs, improve revenue, and reduce the complexity that plagues our industry. We are beyond delighted that Natalie has joined us at this critical time and will be driving those initiatives forward."
Ms. Parker joined Alliant at a time that Alliant was roughly the size of Newfront today, and she served in leadership as Alliant grew to its current $1.6 billion in annual revenues. She sees much of the same entrepreneurial spirit in the Newfront team. "The talent level at Newfront is unlike anything I've ever seen in this industry," she said. "Spike has assembled a team of operators and innovators from both inside and outside of the insurance sector that makes for a wealth of ideas, competencies, and ambition that is incredibly exciting."
Innovation in the insurance industry has been slow and spotty over the prior decade with much of the effort focused on carving carriers and brokerages out of the sales process through direct-to-consumer sales channels. While this approach has seen some success with low-cost personal insurance, Ms. Parker pointed out that it was fundamentally unsuited to the highly complex field of commercial insurance.
"For ten years tech companies have been telling us that there is no future for brokerages and that carriers have to build open APIs if they want to survive. These companies brought an arrogance and a naivete that I think alienated those of us who understood the complexities of this industry and the importance of relationships. Newfront was very different. The leadership team understands the importance of relationships, and that technology should make our work more valuable, not replace it."
The addition of Ms. Parker adds to a string of recent hires for three-year old Newfront, with most hires coming on the production and service sides of the business. Newfront was recently named to the 2020 CB Insights list of the most innovative financial services businesses in the United States.
For further information, please contact Jackie Faust at (510) 256-3222 or [email protected].
SOURCE Newfront Insurance
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