Laura-Ann is originally from Houston, Texas, United States. She has a BA in Business and an MA in Criminal Justice and Criminology, with an emphasis on white-collar crime. She worked as a consultant in Austin, Texas, for six years, the last two of which were at PwC US. She transferred to PwC’s Advisory Insurance practice in the UK in 2014 on secondment.

An experienced Technology Consultant in PwC’s Advisory Insurance practice, Laura-Ann brings a global perspective from successfully working with insurers in the US and the UK with large-scale software transformation projects.

She has experience working across the software lifecycle, from client IT and business capabilities assessment through to delivery execution.

Why did you choose a career in insurance technology?

I’m a natural born problem solver. I love helping people and organisations identify their pain points and figuring out how to resolve them. I work with different insurers to implement new software solutions. My projects focus on the intersection of technology and business – each company has slightly different technology solutions and business processes, which means that each of my projects, whilst similar on the surface, take on completely different characteristics and challenges.

What is a typical day like for you?

I work with different types of insurance companies and typically travel to their offices, where I meet with client team members. My favourite days involve workshops, when we gather representatives from different teams into a room with a specific agenda, usually around identifying opportunities or issues. We encourage brainstorming, open dialogue, and challenges to our assumptions and preconceptions.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I very much enjoy working with the different clients and adding value to their organisation. While my job requires me to understand different areas of the business and technology within the insurance sector, at the end of the day, consulting is about people. I love meeting new people, understanding their motivators and drivers, and working with them to get to the heart of the matter or needs. One of the reasons I wanted to work in the UK was to experience a different culture, and I like how multi-cultural the London office is. In my current project, we have team members from the UK, France, India, Iran, and Turkey.

Relevant experience

I assisted with the vendor selection process to identify and conduct a rigorous evaluation to identify qualified Policy Administration System (PAS) vendors capable of meeting the current and future business and technology needs of the organisation.

I provided a link between business, pricing and underwriting teams and the vendor product team, coordinating and translating client business requirements into a product design framework that captured all relevant components (e.g. major rating factors, document structure) for the minimum viable product (early release of insurance product).

I supported the definition of the product roadmap for future product releases, building upon each prior release to shape further components and coverages.

During implementation, I focused on business value driven requirements, definition and elicitation and programme quality assurance to manage delivery and business risks, in order to ensure successful solution deployment.