XL Catlin has appointed Henna Karna as chief data officer. She has previously advised Fortune 500 companies on digital innovation and disruption.

Dr Karna has more than 20 years of experience in leading data-driven, digital innovation and positive disruption within the insurance industry.

In a statement the company said Dr Karna’s “unique background in genetic algorithms, cognitive learning, behaviour modelling, deep neural networks, and digital strategy will be a valuable asset to XL Catlin”.

Mike McGavick, XL Group Ltd’s chief executive officer said: “We are fortunate to have Henna join us as our chief data officer.

“Her vision and experience in designing digital innovations while motivating multi-discipline teams to deliver solutions fully aligns with XL Catlin’s focus on being a market leader in providing superior products and services to our colleagues and clients.

“She will work closely with XL Innovate, Accelerate — our internal innovation team and other businesses and functions throughout XL Catlin to further enhance data, analytics and innovation which in turn will allow us to expand our offerings.”

Dr Karna has degrees in mathematical sciences from the University of Massachusetts and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She has worked as an adjunct professor of statistics and mathematics for the graduate entrepreneurship programme at Babson College in Massachusetts.

Her past positions include president at Verisk Digital Services, a unit of Verisk Analytics and actuarial chief information officer and managing director at AIG.

Dr Karna has designed and developed patent-pending technology and applications in the field of digital-data technologies in insurance.

She is a frequent speaker at key industry events such as InsurTech, Insurance Analytics Symposium, and IASA as well as the author of several articles in national publications on the topic of data and digital.

In 2015, Dr Karna was listed fifth in the top 15 people in insurance technology by the Insurance Networking News and she was one of four keynote speakers on Women in Leadership at ACORD.

She will start with the company later this month and report to Myron Hendry, XL’s chief platform officer.