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Erwann Michel-Kerjan

Works with insurance companies and governments to develop novel ways to measurably increase resilience and thrive in an uncertain environment

Erwann is a leader of McKinsey's insurance and risk work in North America. He brings 20 years of experience defining and executing value creation strategies and at-scale impact to clients on topics of transformation, resilience, risk management, organizational effectiveness, risk culture, behavioral economics, and decision making. He is passionate about developing and applying digital innovations to improve business competitiveness and public sector service.

Examples of Erwann’s client work include the following:

  • helping a federal agency elaborate its new strategy to measurably increase resilience and adoption of risk protection across the United States, leveraging state and private sector collaboration at scale
  • redesigning a global insurer operating in more than 40 countries to align with the new strategic direction of the group
  • conducting risk culture diagnostics at several leading insurers to measurably assess and improve risk-taking at all levels of the organization, and execute new initiatives to strengthen risk culture and mindset
  • helping CROs of leading insurers on topics of organizational design, climate risk, and opportunities and non-financial risks
  • supporting companies on their M&A strategy approach and execution—pre and post-merger
  • conducting a holistic and structured transformation of a multiline insurer to double profitability and improve customer experience, using both efficiency and new growth levers
  • helping a leading global professional association redefine how the profession might look in 2030 given global trends, and prepare for a successful transition

Before joining McKinsey in 2017, Erwann held senior positions at leading corporations, not-for-profits, international organizations, and academic institutions in the Americas and Europe.

He was recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of the world’s most remarkable leaders under the age of 40, is a founding member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Initiative, and has been a regular speaker in Davos. He has also served as an advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations, and the World Bank.

Erwann also has published extensively in leading media outlets, including Bloomberg, Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Le Monde, and Le Figaro.

Published work

Navigating shifting risks in the insurance industry,” McKinsey & Company, July 2024

The CEO’s risk agenda: An insurance perspective,” McKinsey & Company, April 2022

Unlocking the potential of deeper customer-agent-insurer relationships,” McKinsey & Company, November 2021

Insurance: Transforming risk and compliance,” McKinsey & Company, October 2021

A unique time for chief risk officers in insurance,” McKinsey & Company, December 2020

Reimagining actuaries: A Q&A with Society of Actuaries’ Greg Heidrich,” McKinsey & Company, August 2020

State of property and casualty insurance 2020,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020

Coronavirus response: Short- and long-term actions for P&C insurers,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020

The value for insurers in better management of nonfinancial risk,” McKinsey & Company, November 2019

Insuring hurricanes: Perspectives, gaps, and opportunities after 2017,” McKinsey & Company, December 2017

Global reinsurance: Fit for the future?,” McKinsey & Company, September 2017

Leadership dispatches: Chile’s extraordinary comeback from disaster,” Stanford University Press, March 2015

The irrational economist: Making decisions in a dangerous world,” Public Affairs, January 2010

At war with the weather: Managing large-scale risks in a new era of catastrophes,” MIT Press, June 2009

Past experience

AXA
Member, Stakeholder Advisory Board to the CEO and Chairman

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Chairman, Secretary-General’s Board on financial management of catastrophes

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Executive director, Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center

The World Bank Group
Advisor

Education

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Postdoctoral fellowship, decision making and risk management

GREQAM and École Polytechnique
PhD, economics