Prudential Hires Industry Veteran

By Cyril Tuohy

InsuranceNewsNet

Lori Dickerson Fouché, a former executive with Chubb and Fireman’s Fund Insurance, has joined Prudential Financial as president and chief operating officer of Prudential’s group insurance business, Prudential has announced.

Fouché will have overall responsibility for Prudential’s life, disability and voluntary product offerings, sales and account management, as well as service delivery and marketing, the company said. She will report to Stephen Pelletier, who will become chief executive officer of Prudential Insurance Group.

“Her experience will be invaluable as we work toward achieving our goal of sustainable profitable growth,” Pelletier said in a statement.

Fouché, who has been with Fireman’s Fund since 2006, is credited with returning the company to its strengths after a period of high turnover. When she was hired in July 2011, she was Fireman’s fourth CEO since 2007.

Charles Lowrey, chief operating officer of U.S. businesses for Prudential, said Fouché’s experience will be a “tremendous asset” to Prudential’s group insurance business and to the company overall.

“Her addition reflects our commitment to strengthening the deep bench of talent we have in the firm,” he said in a statement.

As part of her strategy to get Fireman’s Fund back to basics, Fouché scrapped an incentive program that rewarded employees for suggesting the month’s most innovative ideas, even if the ideas had little to do with boosting sales or increasing profits.

She also refocused the company on its traditional strengths of underwriting personal insurance for high-net-worth clients and underwriting risks in niche industries such as Hollywood studios. Her predecessors tried to grow Fireman’s Fund by selling policies to a broader market but quickly found it difficult to compete against companies like Progressive and Geico.

Fouché also recommitted the company to underwriting risks profitably and to selling products through the agents and broker channel with a “high touch” approach, according to an interview published last year.

Fouché left to pursue "other opportunities to be closer to her family on the East Coast," according to a Fireman's Fund release.

She started at Fireman’s Fund as senior vice president and marketing executive for the carrier’s Specialty Insurance division in New York after several years at Chubb Specialty Insurance and earning her master’s in business administration degree from Harvard Business School.

Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at [email protected].

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Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at [email protected].