Ruiqi is an insurance leader driving analytical decision-making, innovative product development, and customer-centered design at Ledgebrook. She brings technical industry knowledge as a credentialed actuary (FCAS), entrepreneurial experience from a fintech startup, and strategic perspective as a former management consultant. She developed a deep understanding of commercial and specialty P&C insurance from her roles at Liberty Mutual and Ironshore and has led a variety of strategic and operational engagements for financial services clients at Deloitte. Ruiqi holds an MBA from University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and a BA from Bowdoin College. Ruiqi resides in New York City with her husband.
I started my career as an actuary at Liberty Mutual, taking a series of 11 exams for my FCAS accreditation while working in a variety of product pricing and reserving roles. While at Liberty, I supported 4 products in the specialty insurance market during a post-merger integration and saw a variety of disconnected tech platforms and data infrastructures. Each platform and database lacked adequate documentation and facilitated inconsistent ways of working, making it difficult to quickly generate reports and analytical insights. It took us more than 3 months to conduct profitability reviews.
It became painfully obvious to me that there had to be a better way — it’s difficult to steer any business using information from 3 months prior. I took the opportunity to pivot to a seed-stage FinTech startup before embarking on my MBA at Wharton. My career has taken some twists and turns within the financial services industry, but I've circled back to FinTech because of the fun fast-paced learning and opportunities to affect change in the industry.
Ledgebrook is an InsurTech MGA (managing general agent) providing insurance in the E&S market, a specialty market for high-risk businesses that cannot obtain coverage from the standard market. With the rapid growth of this insurance segment and significant improvements in technology and data analytics in the last 5 years, we're bringing together our insurance expertise and tech-enabled insights for a best-of-both-worlds approach.
For any insurance product, data about risks provides insight into what coverages and services our customers need and what pricing is appropriate. If an organization can leverage technology to consistently synthesize this information quickly and act upon it, that creates a lasting competitive advantage.
Most legacy insurance companies don't have the infrastructure to enable this agility, and many E&S insurers solely rely on subject matter expertise to refine product offerings. My role is to build a team and processes that efficiently generate insights from available data and drive a culture of data-informed decision-making.
"With AI, we are working to speed up the insured information gathering process and more quickly provide guidance on our coverage options. Both of these applications of AI improve the underwriting and broker experience — we're already receiving positive feedback from these stakeholders!"
Ledgebrook is using AI to drive efficiencies in our operations. Historically, insurance companies have relied on manual processes to capture basic submission information and tribal knowledge to share underwriting expertise and guides internally. With AI, we are working to speed up the insured information gathering process and more quickly provide guidance on our coverage options. Both of these applications of AI improve the underwriting and broker experience — we're already receiving positive feedback from these stakeholders! My team’s role is to support the tech team in identifying and prioritizing opportunities to leverage AI, defining high-impact data fields, and testing results from our improved AI-enabled processes.
At Ledgebrook, ‘We care, We strive, We thrive together.’ Our leadership team cares deeply about culture and we work together to shape culture by building connection, championing excellence, and facilitating collaboration across the entire organization. Within our Product & Data team, our connection comes through in our day-to-day engagement with brokers who value our service and team off-sites where we gather and make memories together. Our excellence shows up in our ability to quickly execute high-priority tasks as we launch new products. Our collaborative spirit is what drives the team to always look for ways to support our underwriters, brokers, and business partners with analytical insights.
Early in my career, I was frequently asked some form of ‘why would you leave this to do that?’ I was stunned at how many people thought I took unnecessary risks by leaving headquarters for a smaller office, leaving a Fortune 100 company to join an early-stage startup, or leaving a great role to go back to school. Faced with so much doubt from others, I questioned my own career goals.
At each career pivot, I have been lucky to have an incredible ‘personal board of directors’ who invested their time to dig deep in conversation with me and cheer me on. These people have challenged me to carve my own path, and I wouldn't be where I am today without them. Navigating each new challenge successfully helped me build my confidence and growth mindset — there is something very empowering about learning something new and mastering it whether it is by taking 11 exams to become a credentialed actuary or getting promoted for a job well done. The range of my experiences has made me not only a better leader but also a better person.
"Hire women and create work environments that enable women to be at their best... [and build] cultures in which all employees can meet their family wellness goals through paid parental leave, flexible work-from-home, etc."
Hire women and create work environments that enable women to be at their best. This means (1) sparking interest in the industry by providing opportunities for women to learn, connect, and participate as well as showcasing female representation and (2) building cultures in which all employees can meet their family and wellness goals through paid parental leave, flexible work-from-home, etc.
Start with curiosity – find inspiring organizations and people in the industry and reach out to learn more. Use this to build a network and set yourself apart while also fine-tuning your career aspirations.
Then bet on yourself – innovation requires risk-taking and rewarding career journeys are no different. Chase an interesting role even when you might not feel qualified. Life takes us on incredible adventures when we embrace calculated risks.
Get to the next level by building your own ‘personal board of directors’ – a select group of friends, family, mentors, and colleagues that you turn to for actionable feedback, real talk, and positive energy and vibes. These are the people who will support you at every step along the way.
