Bestow, the digital life insurance company which uses artificial intelligence and its full stack platform to instantly underwrite, today announced its executive hires, bringing together decades of experience across the insurance, technology, and financial services industries to fulfill its mission to modernize life insurance and make it accessible to digital consumers.
“We are thrilled to introduce a talented and dynamic group of executives who will help drive our company forward to transform life insurance,” said Melbourne O’Banion, Co-Founder and CEO, Bestow. “We are proud of the deep experience and passion represented on this team whose collective expertise will enable us to grow our customer base, scale further and introduce a broader set of unique and attractive products to market.”
Led by co-founders Melbourne O’Banion and Jonathan Abelmann, the Bestow executive team includes:
- Jackie Morales, Chief Insurance Officer, who joined Bestow after serving as Chief Operating Officer of Legal & General America, a top 10 life insurer. Jackie brings more than 20 years of experience as a life insurance executive, focusing on advancements in digital innovation, systems hardware, and software design, with an emphasis on data analytics and customer experience.
- Tannen Campbell, Chief Marketing Officer, a 20-year veteran of the advertising and marketing industry. Prior to joining Bestow, Tannen held senior brand marketing roles at Expedia, one of the world’s leading travel companies, and Magic Leap, an augmented reality company.
- Chris Laia, General Counsel, who has served in executive capacities within the financial services industry for over 25 years. Prior to joining Bestow, Chris served as the Deputy General Counsel and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for USAA, a family of companies that provides insurance, banking, investments, retirement products and advice to current and former members of the U.S. military and their families.
- Brian Romanko, Vice President, Engineering, who previously led engineering teams for Cisco’s Duo Security, a cybersecurity company. Additionally, Brian served as Chief Technology Officer for Earnest, a leading financial technology company, where he led the creation of the company’s product platform that supports billions of dollars of loans.
“Our diverse team has been a primary contributor toward the success and creation of Bestow’s full stack platform. The combination of functional expertise and creativity has led to a series of firsts over the last year,” said Jonathan Abelmann, Co-Founder and President, Bestow. “We see Bestow customers purchase policies in five minutes, mostly on smartphones, and referring friends and family. We’re enabling life insurance as a service through world-class consumer tech and financial partners. 2020 will be a very exciting year.”
Bestow now has 70 employees across its Dallas and Austin headquarters and has raised over $40MM from venture firms such as Valar Ventures, NEA, 8VC, Core and Morpheus. For more information on Bestow, visit: Bestow.com.
