James Watts Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Illinois, United States

• Provide strategic leadership, oversight, and support to multiple Line of Business partners to assist in executing strategic priorities, including process development, resource coordination, vendor management, and operational planning. • Ensure involvement of all stakeholders, establish and maintain communication expectations, and provide end-to-end project management. • Collaborate with all LOBs to identify deficiencies; then employ new technology/ innovations and critical problem-solving to develop and implement strategy and process changes to optimize workflows and enhance the customer experience. • Business Lead for critical vendors LexisNexis & Verisk (ISO), optimizing available resources while reviewing proof of concept, and assisting with the search for new tools to continually improve efficiencies. • Business Lead for Robotic Process Automation (RPA), working with business partners to automate repetitive tasks. • Lead, validate and recommend vendor partnerships based on POC outcomes. • Reduce expenses by onboarding vendors as a direct provider of resources, thus eliminating costs through reseller channels and duplicative vendors.

• Provide leadership, direction, and guidance of a team of advanced general investigators crossing multiple Lines of Business- including Homeowner’s Property, Auto, and Workers Compensation. • Specialized Property investigations involving Water Mitigation, among other Property indicators. • Oversee building of major operation cases to present to NICB, State Departments of Insurance, & District Attorney’s Office. • Regularly calibrate with business partners to review industry fraud trends and best practices to mitigate exposure. • Collaborate with our analyst team on reporting capabilities to identify characteristics and connections of claims with potential bad actors and fraud. • As appropriate, communicate outcomes to stakeholders & claims organization to highlight the value of fraud identification

Dallas/Fort Worth Area

• Management of Catastrophe staff and Reserves to meet the business needs of the organization throughout the US • Plan and Lead Catastrophe Tactical calls to inform stakeholders of storm status, areas impacted, types of damage, current and potential volume, and our plan of response for the event(s). Event volume management at approximately 20,000. • Collaborate with Logistics on staff availability, staffing needs, drive-in/VIC locations, and home base • Participate in just in time (JIT) meetings to ensure our adjusters are informed of any state and local regulations to follow, location specific claim handling procedures, call-tree review to ensure our employees know how to reach peers and leadership in the area • Consistent communication with stakeholders on the catastrophe response detailing; volume, first contact %, closed %, cycle time, severity, storm specific trends, and any local information that our staff is working thru • Monthly communication to the organization on our CAT response for period, and where our staff is currently deployed (on-site and virtual) • Created a back-up process for adjuster’s inventory while they were away for PTO or Cat Days Off (CDO) to ensure a seamless customer experience • Created CAT VIC to streamline potential or obvious total losses to Salvage yards reducing cycle time, storage costs, and rental exposure • Homeowner’s Property Catastrophe o Enhanced the triage process and tracking to better capture storm trends o Lead and Managed wildfire and wind Catastrophe’s in California o Field assist/ triage in Pigeon Forge, TN identifying potential impact to policy holders • Managed IA firms when staff and reserves resources were exhausted • Completed After Act Reviews (AAR) to evaluate storm response vs. expected outcomes and identify and learn from opportunities identified

• Managed a team of 6 supervisors and their teams of 7 adjusters • Responsible for executing on the zone strategy and KPI’s that drive ideal outcomes • Develop Supervisor’s to be inclusive and collaborative leaders • Collaborate with direct repair leadership to ensure proper channeling of claims • Timely communication of changes in policies and procedures • Oversee daily capacity to ensure proper utilization of staff and resources • Collaborate with peers across the state to brainstorm on current trends and plan for potential industry changes

• Manage a team of catastrophe adjusters that covered the Mountain West Zone (Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) • Manage small to medium sized (500-1200) claims events not declared as a CAT • Communicate with local leadership on our plan for the event and resources incoming • Deploy staff to impacted areas and identify and setup Drive-In locations to handle a high amount of claims/day • Agency visits in damaged area to advise of our presence and how best to help customers get claims handled timely • Collaboration with local salvage yards to ensure timely pickup and storage of salvage • Devise and convey exit strategy to necessary stakeholders • Create schedules for weekly deployment assignments when not working a catastrophe • Management of the Zone reserve list to support our National Catastrophe Team