2018 Innovation and Leadership Award Winner - Karen Clark

Karen Clark is Co-founder and CEO of Karen Clark & Company (KCC) and a leading global authority on catastrophe risk assessment and management. Ms. Clark developed the first catastrophe model and founded the first catastrophe modeling company, Applied Insurance Research, which subsequently became AIR Worldwide after acquisition by Insurance Services Office.

The probabilistic catastrophe modeling techniques and innovative technologies that Ms. Clark pioneered revolutionized the way insurers, reinsurers, and other financial institutions assess and manage their catastrophe risk. She continues to innovate and under her leadership, KCC is taking the powerful invention of the catastrophe model to the next level of sophistication by introducing the first open loss modeling platform.

Ms. Clark has been recognized for her contributions to the insurance industry, including being honored as Woman of the Year by the Association of Professional Insurance Women (APIW) in 2001. In 2007, she was honored with the Review Worldwide Reinsurance Award’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Ms. Clark has been honored with an award certificate for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize bestowed on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for her support of the work of the IPCC since its inception. In September 2008 she was named the Most Influential Woman in the reinsurance industry by Global Reinsurance and a Risk Innovator by Risk & Insurance Magazine. In May 2011, Reactions Magazine ranked Ms. Clark the 14th most influential person in the insurance industry over the last 30 years, and in 2012, National Underwriter named her the 6th most influential Living Legend.