The Evolution of the CDO Role in Insurance & Navigating the AI hype with Chris Pearce, CDO at esure

In this episode of Beyond the Desk, Mark Thomas is joined by Chris Pearce, Chief Data Officer at esure.

Chris shares his fascinating journey from a childhood love of video games to leading one of the UK’s most advanced data and AI transformations in the insurance industry.

We explore Chris’s academic path from mathematics to a PhD in epidemiology, his early career spanning banking, automotive, and aggregators, and his progression into insurance leadership. Along the way, Chris gives a brutally honest view on the evolution of the CDO role, the hype and reality of AI in production, and how esure has embedded over a dozen generative AI use cases into the frontline of its business.

Key topics discussed:

• Why video games sparked Chris’s interest in problem-solving and led to a career in data
• What a PhD in epidemiology taught him about resilience, research, and learning how little you know
• His early career in banking, Mercedes-Benz, and MoneySuperMarket and how each built his leadership toolkit
• Entering insurance with Hastings Direct and building data science teams across pricing, fraud, and claims
• Becoming CDO at esure and building an enterprise-wide data and AI capability
• The differences between 1st-gen and 2nd-gen Chief Data Officer roles
• What most people misunderstand about driving value from data science
• How to thrive as a leader without losing your technical edge
• What 16 GenAI use cases in production actually looks like in practice
• Where the CDO role is heading, and why agentic AI is next

This is a brilliant insight into the mindset and career history of a modern, new CDO and what's next for data leaders in the insurance sector.

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• Chris on LinkedIn: Connect Here

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New episodes drop every Tuesday. Stay tuned for more conversations with leaders shaping the future of insurance and InsureTech. Thanks for tuning in - see you next time on Beyond the Desk! 🎧

Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you by Invecta Search, the brand new leadership search product from Invecta Group, which leads the insurance industry in building best-in-class technology and transformation leadership teams.