Christine LaSala

Christine LaSala is an independent director of Sedgwick and James River Group Holdings. She recently stepped down from the board of Beazley plc, having served eight years in board leadership roles including senior independent director, chair of the remuneration committee and interim chair.  During her time at Beazley, Chris also served on the audit and risk and nomination committees and on the boards of two subsidiaries, the US insurance company and on Beazley Furlong Ltd., the Lloyds’ Managing Agency.

Chris was, for 10 years, president and CEO of the WTC Captive, a US government-funded, not-for-profit insurance company.  The WTC Captive managed a $1 billion portfolio and led the negotiations for the landmark settlement of over 10,000 environmental tort cases against the City of New York and the private contractors that undertook rescue, recovery, and debris removal work after the 9/11 terrorist attack.

Chris also held executive positions at Willis Towers Watson, Marsh and Johnson & Higgins, where she had a long and successful career as the only woman partner of Johnson & Higgins.  She was president of Johnson & Higgins New York and the firm’s tri-state operations while serving on its board of directors.  She managed Johnson & Higgins’ largest operation and provided advice to many of the firm’s largest clients.

Chris has over 45 years of management, client leadership and financial experience in the insurance industry as an underwriter, an insurance broker working with large corporate clients, as the president of the WTC Captive Insurance Company, and as a non-executive director.  Chris can contribute to board discussions on strategy, mergers and acquisitions, leadership, inclusion and diversity, people development, executive recruitment, financial performance, audit, regulatory and compliance issues, risk assessment, client performance, and all aspects of board development, governance and performance.

Chris was named to the YWCA Academy of Women Achievers in 1980, Woman of the Year by the Association of Professional Insurance Women in 1997 and was a David Rockefeller Fellow in 1994-1995.  She was the 2016 Spencer Education Foundation honoree and named to the Insurance Business America Hall of Fame in 2021. She is a graduate of the College of New Rochelle.

A New York City resident for five decades, she lives there with her partner and their 25-year-old daughter.