We are Sequel

Scott G. Stephenson is chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Verisk, bringing more than 30 years of executive experience and a successful record of strategic leadership and innovation to the company.

Scott is a values-based leader who launched The Verisk Way—the company’s principles to be remarkable, add value, and innovate that guide how Verisk engages with customers, employees, shareholders, and communities. Under his leadership, Verisk has been named one of the World’s Best Employers, one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, and one of America’s Best Employers for Women.

In 2008, Scott was appointed chief operating officer. He was named company president in 2011, CEO in 2013, and chairman of the board in 2016.

Before joining Verisk, Scott was a senior partner with Boston Consulting Group. He also served as a senior advisor to Silver Lake Partners, a technology-oriented private equity firm.

Top media outlets identify Scott as a leading global executive with a commitment to innovation. Forbes recognized him as one of America’s Most Innovative Leaders and as one of the Top 25 Most Innovative Leaders worldwide. Institutional Investor also named him the top CEO in the company’s industry category.

Scott holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia.

As part of his commitment to social responsibility and serving others, Scott is on several civic and charitable boards. He’s a member of the Board of Advisors at the University of Virginia School of Data Science, where he and his wife established the Stephenson Chair in Data Science. In New York City, Scott is board chair at The Bowery Mission and an elder at Central Presbyterian Church. 

Scott also serves on the board of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG).

Committees: Executive

Ian Summers is the chief executive officer of Sequel, where he leads the insurance software innovation firm’s global strategic growth. His mission is to provide a unique and unparalleled client experience by delivering transformational solutions that fuse data and software. With more than 30 years of experience driving innovation and change, Ian champions the use of technology for competitive advantage.

Prior to joining Sequel in 2014 as business development director, Ian was chief information officer at Aon Group Limited.

In 2020, ACORD, the global standards-setting body for the insurance industry, named Ian a Top Ten InsurTech Leader in the category of global ecosystem-building.

Ian studied managerial studies at Ashridge Business School and breakthrough strategic thinking from the Cranfield University School of Management.

As an industry voice, Ian has chaired many international market modernization initiatives. He’s been active on the Global Ruschlikon Steering Committee, the ACORD Global Reinsurance and Large Commercial Steering Committee, and the Market Reform Strategy Group (MRSG) of the London & International Insurance Brokers’ Association (LIIBA).

Rob Stavrou is responsible for Sequel’s growth and expansion across North America, Bermuda, Canada, and into the Asia/Pacific (APAC) region. He runs Sequel’s USA team, which includes business development, operations, support and strategy, and works closely with the Verisk USA and the Sequel UK teams to ensure Sequel grows effectively in the USA. 

After joining Sequel in 2014, Rob helped to grow the UK business substantially, more than tripling the client base in three years, before moving to the US in 2019 to establish Sequel USA. Before joining Sequel, he had more than 20 years’ experience in the London market, playing a key role in promoting the use of technology to the underwriting and broker communities. 

Rob has worked across all areas of the IT business, including programming, project management, account management, and business development. This extensive cross-department experience has allowed him to communicate effectively with Sequel’s clients to build trusted relationships lasting many years. 

Rob has been involved in several projects that have won awards, including the IT Europa Vertical Solution of the Year (2017) and Insurance Times Claims Excellence Awards (2016). 

He holds a BA with honors in modern history degree from the University of East Anglia. He’s has been a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing during his time in the UK. 

As Sequel’s chief operating officer, Helen Banton is responsible for the company’s day-to-day business operations, including global client support and hosting, as well as driving employee engagement and satisfaction.  

Helen leads operational excellence initiatives for Sequel by driving cost and productivity benefits through automation, process improvement, efficient controls, and removal of waste and inefficiency. Her mission is to achieve high employee and client satisfaction along with strong business performance. 

She’s significantly matured the security posture of Sequel, having achieved ISO27001 accreditation in 2018, and continues to lead vulnerability management and deployment of Verisk Security tools, controls, and policies across the business.  

Helen joined Sequel in 2016 and has been instrumental in scaling and industrializing operations, production support and AWS hosting services. She operationally prepared the business for sale to Verisk in 2017 and successfully integrated Moore Stephens Rulebook into Sequel in 2018. 

She has over 30 years of operational and delivery management experience working in senior leadership positions for global software vendors across multiple industry sectors, including insurance, retail banking, and capital markets. 

Helen has a wealth of experience in change management and was named Change Leader of the Year in 2008, from a field of 250 executives and senior managers, at Tieto Corporation. 

She’s attended executive education programs through the Stockholm School of Economics. 

Helen supports cancer research charities through fundraising walks and other events and enjoys house renovation projects. 

As chief financial officer (CFO) for Sequel, Andy Galli is responsible for the business’s financial operations, financial planning and long-term strategy, and business integration/mergers and acquisitions. 

He’s known for introducing of some of the first comprehensive data analytics and business intelligence offerings to the insurance market in the early 2000s and more recently the launch of the market-leading Rulebook software to the commercial pricing and rating space. 

Before joining Sequel, Andy worked for 26 years in the Insurance division of Moore Stephens LLP, training as a Chartered Accountant and becoming Audit Partner for a range of large insurance clients in London. In addition to his audit responsibilities, he established the firm’s IT consulting division. 

Andy went on to co-found Moore Stephens Consulting Ltd, which became one of the leading technology providers to the London insurance market. He served as the company’s CEO for 17 years until Verisk’s 2018 acquisition of Moore Stephens. 

Once at Verisk, Andy led the integration of Moore Stephens’ award-winning Rulebook suite of products into the wider Sequel portfolio before moving into the role of CFO at the start of 2020. 

Andy holds a BS in economics from Southampton University and has completed the Harvard Executive Leadership Program through Moore Stephens. He has held the ACA Chartered Accountant qualification for more than 20 years. 

As chief strategy officer, Lauren Ares is responsible for developing Sequel’s strategy and leading key initiatives, including commercial partnerships and corporate development; innovating with other Verisk businesses; supporting Verisk Insurance Solutions’ broader global strategy; and facilitating Sequel’s expansion into new markets. 

While at Sequel, he’s led the acquisitions and integrations of Rulebook, a platform for insurance ratings, quotes, and buying, and Whitespace, a digital negotiation and placement platform for London brokers and carriers. 

Lauren joined Sequel in 2017 from Verisk, where he was vice president of corporate development and strategy, responsible for identifying potential acquisitions across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Before joining Verisk, he worked at Deutsche Bank in technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) mergers and acquisitions for over a decade, after starting his career at Deloitte.  

He holds an MBA from the London Business School and a BS in commerce with distinction from McGill University. He’s completed the years of graduate education to become a Chartered Accountant in Canada, a CPA in the U.S., and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He’s also completed Verisk’s Leadership Excellence Program. 

Lauren has taught graduate-level accounting courses at McGill University, one of his alma maters. He’s a member of the international CFA Institute, the American Institute of Chartered Public Accountants, and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. 

As Sequel’s chief commercial officer for Europe/Middle East/Africa, Paul Latarche is responsible for the oversight of all sales and marketing activities in the region. He also manages Sequel’s pre-sales team, which handles proposals and client engagements, and business engagement team, which consults on how Sequel products work with clients. 

Having spent more than 20 years in insurance IT, Paul has in-depth industry knowledge and experience working with management information, sales, and marketing. He joined Sequel in 2018, when the company acquired Rulebook, a groundbreaking pricing, underwriting, and distribution platform now known as Sequel Rulebook® and used by more than a quarter of the Lloyd's Market. 

Prior to joining Sequel, Paul was partner and head of insurance at accountancy firm Moore Stephens UK, where he was instrumental in the development of Rulebook. He filled many roles during his 16 years at Moore Stephens, from audit and tax to consultancy, where he managed a team of 150 and founded the company’s IT consultancy arm. 

Paul has spoken at more than 100 conferences on data analytics, business intelligence, and insurance pricing and distribution. During his last year at Moore Stephens, the company won Accountancy Firm of the Year. Rulebook has won many awards, including Microsoft Clarity Partner of the Year – twice, Technology Provider of the Year in the Reactions London Market Awards, and the Lloyd’s Innovation Award.  

He’s completed Verisk’s executive education Leadership Excellence Program at Harvard Business School.  

A keen sportsman, Paul has represented his county at golf, tennis, and cricket competitions. 

As Sequel’s chief experience officer, Tim Rayner drives deliberate, disciplined design and delivery of experiences to clients and team members. He works to increase understanding and create connections between these two groups while advocating for the integration they require, technical or otherwise. 

Tim champions clients’ and team members’ perspectives in the company’s strategic decision-making and measures the impact of these groups’ experiences on the company’s performance. 

He has board-level responsibility for Sequel’s relationships with Lloyd’s, the Future @ Lloyd’s, and large strategic accounts; Tim is also playing an instrumental part in Sequel’s global expansion.  

Tim became Sequel’s chief experience officer in February 2021, having joined the company in 2018 as business development director. Before that, he spent 18 years in technology and operations on the broker side of the London Market at Miller Insurance Services, specializing in the coverholder space and architecting London’s first real-time bordereau data exchange in 2007. He began as a software developer at Miller, before moving on to head up IT, Business Change, Business Transformation & Technology, and Group Operations. 

Tim’s articles on how technology can drive efficiencies through distribution chains have been published in London-based insurance publications. His team at Miller won an Insurance Day award in 2008 for real-time delegated authority management.  

Tim has completed the Lloyd’s Leadership Programme at the London Business School and is certified as a Forrester CX Champ. 

He’s been chairman of the Halstead Swimming Club since 2016. 

As Sequel’s chief product officer, Paul Kent is responsible for the development of products and the delivery of client projects. He leads the company’s product management function, which is a sizeable undertaking; about two-thirds of all Sequel employees are on Paul’s team. 

Paul works with the leadership teams for all nine Sequel products, guiding each through a cycle of client feedback, prioritization, experimentation, development, and adoption that ensures constant improvement in product functions and client outcomes.  

Throughout his career, Paul has specialized in building high-performing teams and actively developing talent. He joined Sequel in 2018 with 20 years’ experience in technology-enabled change, bringing a unique combination of knowing insurance technology and understanding client perspective. Since then, he’s built out his team to meet client demands and increased team performance to exceed targets, achieving a balance between investment and direct revenue-generating work. 

Paul’s background in consulting and insurance includes experiencing the insurance industry from both broking and underwriting perspectives. He’s successfully led teams in London, North America, and internationally, at one point managing a group with 120 offices in many different nations and cultures. 

He holds a Higher National Diploma in engineering from the Royal Air Force and has completed the Verisk Leadership Excellence Program. 

As Director of Verisk’s Center of Excellence in Malaga, Javier García Magna leads a team of more than 170 professionals, including software architects and developers, project managers and business analysts, and cloud engineers. 

He leads the way for the Malaga office to drive business growth by working in conjunction with product and department heads, aligning with Verisk’s overall vision, strategy, and objectives. As Javier’s team performs most technical duties for the business, he stresses the importance of best practices, knowledge sharing, and cross-team synergy. 

Javier started at Verisk as a developer before moving to software architecture and then managing Sequel’s Development team. In 2010, he was chosen to open the office in Malaga with 10 developers, a team that has since grown to more than 170 people. Prior to joining Verisk, Javier worked as a senior software developer, engineer, and designer at companies of increasing size in Spain. 

Javier has spoken at developer conferences, bringing his passion for software development to topics such as best practices for microservices. 

Javier holds an MS and BS in software engineering, both from the University of Malaga and an MBA in international business from Cámara Málaga. He is PMP certified and holds several certifications in Microsoft technologies. 

He volunteers with regional and national organisations that promote software use among older populations and children, and mentors at bootcamps for women developers. He founded and runs dotnetMalaga, a local software development community. 

As Sequel’s director of architecture and engineering, Danny Flavelle concentrates on ensuring the software and technology direction aligns with the overall vision, strategy, and objectives of Sequel and Verisk. He  oversees the architecture of Sequel products and solutions and provides software engineering services for all central and supporting applications. 

Danny leads a focused engineering team, driving the core re-usable components that make the heart of Sequel’s systems. He owns the technology roadmap for Sequel’s product suite, determining what technologies the company uses and governing future technology decisions, including cloud strategy. 

Prior to joining Sequel, Danny was a partner at Moore Stephens (now BDO), one of the top 10 accounting firms in Europe. He devised the award-winning Rulebook solution, a ratings platform with a dynamic rules engine that can embrace pricing models across all major classes of business, which was acquired by Sequel in 2018.  

Danny has a 20-year history of building rating and pricing solutions within the global specialty market of insurance. He began his career as a claims adjuster at Lloyd’s of London before joining a startup software firm as its first employee in 2000 and helping develop the company until its sale in 2006.