Pailin Group Executive Search

Position: Vice President, Entertainment Product Head

Reporting to: Deputy CUO

Location: Los Angeles, New York

Travel: 15-20%

Our consultants are recruiting for a dynamic Product Head to drive the profitable growth of an entertainment practice. Preferred focus and expertise in movie and television production including the rental house market.

Overall purpose and context of the job

The Product Head is a key and highly influential role within our underwriting management structure, empowered with broad responsibility for driving the profitable growth of a fast growing portfolio, specializing in the unique needs of a wide range of businesses.

Working and collaborating with top-notch talent throughout the organization, you will be charged with leading the design and adoption of sustainable underwriting strategies that inspire our teams and honor our commitment to being a superior business partner to our customers and brokers.

Essential duties and responsibilities

Subject Matter Expert

S/he will apply subject-matter expertise to develop profitable underwriting strategies.
S/he will demonstrate a hunger for knowledge in all aspects of the entertainment marketplace and our customers in order to create and evolve nimble, innovative and best-in-class risk solutions in a clear and simple manner.
S/he will develop and evolve an effective technical underwriting guide (TUG) inclusive of smart and profit-minded risk appetite and parameters.
S/he will develop and evolve smart and profitable pricing model strategies.
S/he will develop, evolve and implant effective training collateral and skills assessment capabilities for your line of business.

Strategist / Steward of Profitable Growth

S/he will be responsible for collaborating with others to deliver the agreed top-and-bottom-line annual business plan -- a mutually shared objective with our field distribution leadership team as well as our direct-to-consumer distribution leadership team.
S/he will proactively monitor a suite of profitability performance metrics, and adjust our underwriting strategies in a timely manner as new, material opportunities and risks emerge.
S/he will proactively engage with multiple internal and external contacts to issue spot and stay on top of the latest trends, threats and opportunities in the entertainment marketplace, including with our highly experienced claims attorneys and analysts, and adjust underwriting strategies and tactics accordingly to address this new and material information or event.
S/he will develop and implement best practices to ensure underwriting rigor, technical compliance, quality controls and regulatory compliance within our underwriting files.
S/he conduct peer reviews and apply quality control measures on underwriting files.
S/he will be the primary referral point for the field and design, manage and deploy an intelligent strategy for the deployment of underwriting authority grants.

Inspirational Leader

S/he will embrace the inspirational role you play; inspire and support the success of our underwriters by giving them a clear sense of purpose, and empower them to make smart underwriting decisions through best-in-class training, responsive coaching and guidance on complex accounts.
S/he will drive the implementation of our underwriting strategy through a high-performance staff in New York and Los Angeles
S/he will build excitement around the product and transfer knowledge through underwriter engagement.

Marketing and Brand Builder

S/he will assist in building our brand as a specialist insurer that is passionate and dedicated to the marketplace by providing thought leadership as the “face” of the business at industry events and in industry publications, and providing compelling insights to our underwriters in order to help them win in their regional marketplaces.

Collaborator & Trusted Peer

S/he will have a duty to proactively drive results through the development of positive, productive and collaborative working relationships and partnerships across related business functions and departmental heads, including Distribution (Broker & Direct-to-Consumer channels), Claims, Marketing, Finance, Operations, Legal/Regulatory and HR.
S/he will build personal relationships with London Market and bring them along on our journey in the US.
S/he will establish a high degree of trust and credibility with others.
S/he will remain agile through change and is open to shifting roles or a different reporting structure as the business evolves.

Ambassador of Values

S/he will be responsible for role modeling and bringing to life the values, which are core to how engages internally and externally. The Values are based on a company spirit of 'Challenging Convention' and include Courage, Quality, Integrity, Excellence in Execution and being Human.

Person Specification

Skill requirements

Dynamic leader with the ability to inspire and influence underwriters and the wider business. Leads from the front and defines the journey for others. Takes ownership of issues; relishes accountability and responsibility.

Proven record of understanding/delivering meaningful underwriting profit.
Entrepreneurial and creative spirit that is capable of translating emerging trends and customer insight into profitable strategies and business plans. A self-starter and action-oriented; able to work autonomously with minimal amounts of managerial guidance. Expect setbacks, not dwell on them, and rebound effectively. A persistence to keep digging in, pushing ahead, and making do with the resources at hand. An ability to thrive in a high growth, high stress and ambiguous environment without a playbook.

Media-savvy and comfortable driving our brand through thought-leadership initiatives via traditional media, industry events and social media.
Proficient at applying data analytics to drive underwriting strategy and actions. An analytical thinker who gets the essence out of data without getting lost, and can answer the “so what?” question in a structured and pragmatic manner.

Customer-centric mindset and passionate about the power of superior customer service and offerings.
Team-oriented, ability to collaborate and desire to share information across divisions and teams to further the overall goals of the company. A relationship builder, who can align the organizational matrix behind your strategy with a willingness to put the business and company before oneself. An ability to recognize small wins and small steps forward, and understand the limits of their own ambitions. A strong desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Uses variety of approaches to win support for ideas and achieve win/win outcomes. Displays empathy and is able to stand in other people’s shoes.

Courageous with a willingness to constructively challenge ideas in a solution-oriented manner and an equal ability to let go of positions and ideas that are not working and embrace new concepts that have a greater chance of success. Confident and timely in decision making and finds a balance between caution and courage. Balances being brave and bold with an awareness of what they don’t know.
Clear, effective and engaging communicator and presenter (verbal, written, online & IRL) with a varied set of interpersonal skills.
Continuous improvement mindset, both curious and coachable with an openness to new ideas and approaches as the business evolves. Seeks, listens to and acts on feedback and remains agile through change. Solution focused; turns ideas into action.

Good value system and intuition, and doing the right thing when nobody is looking. The need for personal integrity and the commitment to excellence, even if that means spending more time to get it right.

Knowledge and Experience Requirements

Minimum 10 years of experience in the US entertainment marketplace as an underwriter or broker including evidence of role and responsibility progression; 3-5 recent years of entertainment production driven underwriting or management experience preferred.
Strong technical command of a broad range of entertainment industry exposures and insurance solutions
Proven track record of delivering sustainable underwriting profit.

Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.

In order to be considered, applicants are required to include a cover letter, which clearly summarizes the applicant’s qualifications and interest in this role. Along with resume or CV and must include compensation requirements. Send to:

Pailin Group Professional Search Consultants

Debra Hartmann – Division Group Manager dhartmann@pailingrop.com

www.pailingroup.com