The Future of Insurance Podcast – Joshua Hollander

CEO, Horton North America; Co-Founder, InsurTech Association

Season 4, Episode 21, June 27, 2023

Guest Bio

Joshua Hollander is an experienced CEO and entrepreneur with a successful track record in executive search, executive leadership, fintech, and insurtech. He currently serves as North America CEO, Regional Director Americas and Board Member at Horton International, a boutique global retained executive search firm, where specializes in leadership roles and sales team build-outs for high-growth organizations in the fintech, insurtech, enterprise software and financial services sectors.

Throughout his career, Josh has been a strong advocate for innovation, leadership, digitization, corporate resiliency, and digital transformation. He is committed to developing customized business models and implementing creative solutions to drive top-line growth, increase profitability, and improve the client experience.

In addition to his role at Horton International, Josh is co-founder, Vice President, and Treasurer of the non-profit InsurTech Association, dedicated to strengthening and building the resiliency of the InsurTech industry through networking, education, mentorship, and shared resources. He is also a founding board member, Nominating Committee Chair, and Compensation Committee member of InnSure, a non-profit association that supports the development of innovative ways the insurance industry can contribute to the battle against climate risk.

Highlights from the Show

Josh’s work at Hollander focuses on helping solve talent needs at a senior level, and he specifically has a strong focus on Financial Services, including Insurance and InsurTech
He spent 20 years in the FS industry himself, which informs his work on the talent front today
Talent-wise, he sees there continuing to be a demand for people who can drive innovation and change
Many in the industry are approaching the end of their careers, which means having the programs to develop talent internally and to find outside talent, too
- Some VCs talk about how the lack of skilled CFO/Financial hands at many startups, more money was burned than perhaps would have been with more financial acumen in place
COVID caused people to relook at their priorities and make different choices about where and how they work
- For employers, that means if you want everyone in the office or not, both are fine (and so is a mix), but every option has challenges and other considerations to be mindful of – there are no easy choices with no follow-on decisions
- There has also been a shift on risk aversion about working with startups, but there are people who are more risk averse, and others who lost their jobs and now have severance packages that allow them to take some career risk where they might not have before
The InsurTech Association, which Josh co-founded with Bob Sargent of eSpecialty, to address a need for help in the startup space
- It’s a non-profit to help early-stage founders get the support and guidance they need to bring their idea to a successful place
- The Insurance industry is hard to navigate and it takes a lot of handshakes to get to a successful relationship with buyers, so having help in going through that can be the different between success and running out of runway for a startup
There are several ways to get involved with the ITA, whether you’re a carrier, solution provider, investor, startup and more – just visit insurtechassociation.com