Both American International Group and Farmers hired new chief information officers. AXIS Capital Holdings Limited appointed a veteran executive to the newly created position of chief strategy officer. Marsh named an executive to a key data science leadership role.
***
American International Group Inc. named John Repko as its new chief information officer.
Repko, who will also have the title of executive vice president, takes on the job as of Sept. 4. He succeeds Martha Gallo, who is leaving AIG to pursue other interests.
Repko will report to Brian Duperreault, AIG president and chief executive officer, and serve as a member of AIG’s executive leadership team. He will oversee AIG’s global technology strategy, covering areas such as core shared infrastructure, technology partnerships and process engineering efforts. As well, he will work closely with AIG’s leaders to support technology-enabled cross-business collaboration to meet the changing needs of the company’s global clients.
Repko is joining AIG from Johnson Controls (JCI), where he served as the global chief information officer since 2016, taking up this position with the merger of JCI and Tyco. He previously served as senior vice president, chief information officer and enterprise transformation leader at Tyco from 2012, a role that included responsibility for IT, process, shared services and transformation. He also held chief information officer roles at Covance Inc., SES Global and General Electric’s GE Americom division. He began his career as senior accountant, CPA, with Ernst & Young.
***
Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Farmers Insurance hired Paul Wilson as its new chief information officer.
Wilson will serve as a member of the insurer group’s senior leadership team and oversee the development and application of all strategic IT initiatives.
Wilson joins Farmers from Westfield Insurance, where he was group IT leader and chief information officer. Prior to Westfield, Wilson was with Progressive Casualty Insurance for nearly 28 years, serving in a variety of technology and business-related roles.
***
AXIS Capital Holdings Limited appointed Linda Ventresca to the newly created position of chief strategy officer.
Reporting directly to President and CEO Albert Benchimol, Ventresca will guide the development of the company’s strategic 
priorities and drive the delivery of those priorities across the organization. She will continue to serve on the company’s executive committee.
Ventresca, who was previously chief transformation officer, will continue to lead the company’s enterprisewide transformation program, positioning AXIS to capitalize on the changes reshaping the insurance marketplace. Additionally, AXIS’ corporate development and corporate communications teams will continue to report to her.
During her more than 15 years at AXIS, Ventresca has held numerous leadership roles within the organization, including head of corporate development and head of investor relations. Before joining AXIS, Ventresca was an investment associate at MMC Capital Inc., where she worked extensively with AXIS as a portfolio company of the Trident II fund. Previously, she had been a member of the financial institutions investment banking groups at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and UBS Securities LLC.
***
Marsh appointed Andrew Hickman as global head of data science within its broader Digital, Data, and Analytics Practice.
In this newly created role, Hickman is responsible for advancing Marsh’s risk modeling and actuarial capabilities to drive new client products. He will build new external data and analytics partnerships with Marsh Digital Labs focused on using the latest data science and machine learning techniques.
Hickman brings more than 20 years of data science, risk modeling and software development experience to the role. He joins Marsh from Experian DataLabs, where he most recently served as vice president of applied research. Before that, Hickman held various risk management, analytics, and research and development roles at QVT Financial, Risk Management Solutions and Oliver Wyman.
He is based in New York and reports to Sastry Durvasula, Marsh’s chief digital officer and chief data & analytics officer.
Sources: AIG, Farmers, AXIS Capital Holdings and Marsh