Board of Directors
services, retail, accounting and audit industries.
Most recently, Laura retired from USAA in December 2020 after a nearly 20-year career with the Fortune 100 financial services company, including spending more than six years as its executive vice president and chief financial officer. Laura was also a member of USAA’s executive council where she was responsible for developing and executing strategy while directing activities across enterprise-wide financial management and reporting, including treasury, controller, tax, planning and forecasting, and strategic cost management. Her team also provided governance and oversight for investment strategy and management of all institutional and benefit plan portfolios with assets totaling over $100 billion.
In addition to serving on Pie’s board of directors, Laura also serves on the audit committee and the cCompensation and personnel committee for Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY). Previously, she served as chair of the board for USAA Property Holdings, Inc., and was a member of the boards of USAA’s property & casualty insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries, USAA Life Insurance Company, USAA Real Estate Company, the USAA Educational Foundation and the USAA Foundation.
Laura is a graduate of The University of Texas in Austin where she received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting with Highest Honors. Laura is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Texas.
Previously, Nazim served as head of business development digital marketing for arvato and vice president corporate development and new businesses for Bertelsmann Group. Prior to joining Bertelsmann, Nazim founded agora42 Verlagsgesellschaft, a periodical for economics and philosophy. Before that, he served as vice president commercial finance for Maple Bank and was an advisor to several internationally operating venture vapital funds. Nazim began his career in investment banking at LBBW.
Nazim's academic qualifications include a diploma in quantitative economics from the Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen, an M.Sc. in economics from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and a Ph.D. from the University of Witten-Herdecke.
Prior to co-founding Pie, Dax was the founder and CEO of Valen Analytics, an advanced data and analytics provider for property and casualty insurance companies. At Valen, he oversaw the company's growth and eventual sale to Insurity in 2017. During his time as a graduate student, he also founded Xertex Technologies, ultimately selling it to Centurion Wireless.
Dax holds an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado Boulder and a B.S. from the University of Tulsa Collins’ College of Business, where he serves as a member on the Advisory Board. In addition, Dax is a proud and long-term member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, and also serves on the Board of Directors of IMIDEX, an Israeli-based computer vision company that enables reinsurers to predict and price cyber risk transparently, utilizing advanced artificial intelligence and data.
In 2020, Dax became a founding member of the Colorado Inclusive Economy, a statewide movement of design, intent, and action to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.
Prashanth joined SiriusPoint at the company’s inception in February 2021. He joined from Oliver Wyman, where he was partner and a member of the firm’s insurance and digital practices.
He advised P&C and life insurers on a range of topics including business strategy, new venture set-up, organizational effectiveness, technology modernization and operational transformation.
Prashanth was active in the insurance M&A space, advising private equity investors on transactions covering carriers, brokers, MGAs, TPAs, networks, services and software providers.
He co-led the firm’s insurtech platform, was a keynote speaker at InsureTech Connect, the world’s largest gathering of insurance leaders and innovators, and was involved with the World Economic Forum.
Prashanth published the article “We Need to Approach AI Risks Like We Do Natural Disasters” in HBR, and has co-authored various Oliver Wyman reports. Prior to Oliver Wyman, Prashanth worked at the Mitchell Madison Group.
Prashanth received a post-graduate Eegineering degree from Caltech, a master’s in aeronautics from Caltech, and a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering from IIT Bombay.
Kristina is the Chief People and Places Officer for Okta, Inc. (Nasdaq: OKTA) $33B market cap, a leading provider of identity for the enterprise where she leads the global human resources function across 14 global offices and 4,000 + employees throughout the Americas, EMEA and APAC. Kristina brings a deep understanding of the entire M&A lifecycle. At Okta, Inc., she has overseen eight full-scale HR acquisition integrations, including due diligence of all benefit packages, culture integration, physical location, and change management. As director, international human resources for EnerNoc, the largest provider of demand response and cloud-based energy intelligence software, Kristina led human resources integrations of three major international acquisitions, (India and Brazil) in 12 months. She oversaw all M&A due diligence and integration for human resources internationally including location, change management, benefits packages, and more. For nCircle Network (now Tripwire), Kristina was part of a team that led acquisition integration, merging culture and people processes.
Kristina earned an MBA, human resource management from California State University. She received a professional human resources certification. In her free time, she is an avid golfer and resides in California along with her husband and four children.
Since 2018, Joel has served as an adjunct professor at Stanford University. He earned a bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Princeton University and a doctorate in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a member of the Pie Insurance Board, Joel brings broad financial, leadership, and investing experience in a wide range of industries as well as experience as a director of several companies.
Ian’s active investments include Branch Insurance, Ergatta, Fetch Rewards, Flutterwave, HealthVerity, Knock, Landing, Medly, Pie Insurance, and Public.com. His notable exits include Braintree (acquired by eBay), Bright Health Group (IPO), Buddy Media (acquired by Salesforce), Shipt (acquired by Target), and Venmo (acquired by Braintree).
Prior to Greycroft, Ian founded StrongData, a pioneer in payment encryption, and spent several years as a venture capitalist with Boston Millennia Partners.
Ian holds a bachelor of science in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a masters in business adminitration from Columbia University Graduate School of Business, where he is a frequent guest lecturer.
Prior to founding Pie, John was the chief marketing officer at RapidAdvance, a small business fintech that’s part of a family of companies including Quicken Loans, Fathead, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In addition, he spent 13 years as an executive team member at Esurance, where he initially led all of the financial functions from 2000-03 as the company’s chief financial officer, and then grew the company from $30M to $1.3Bn in written premium as chief marketing officer. Under his leadership, the company was sold to Allstate in 2011 for $1 billion.
John holds a B.A. in economics from Haverford College. He is an active board member for Hope Unlimited for Children, an organization based in Brazil with a mission to transform the lives of high-risk orphans and vulnerable children and break the cycle of poverty.
Prior to M Financial, Wes served as president of Sun Life Financial U.S. from 2008 to 2014. As president of Sun Life U.S., he championed key initiatives such as expanding the business and positioning it for further success through the sale of the U.S. domestic annuity business and transformation of the group benefits business into a customer-focused operating model. He was also responsible for advancing the company’s brand in the U.S., including securing naming rights for Sun Life Stadium in Miami. After compiling an impressive list of accomplishments, Wes retired from Sun Life in April 2014 to pursue a variety of entrepreneurial and personal interests.
Wes has served on the Board of Goldman Sachs Trust II, Phoenix Life Insurance and Majesco. He currently serves on the board of trustees of The American College of Financial Services and is a member of the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU). He lives in Portland with his wife, Rosemarie. They have two sons, ages 29 and 27.
Kirsten is committed to organizations that help underserved groups find jobs. She is a board member of Year-Up Bay Area, an organization with a mission to close the opportunity divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support to empower them to reach their potential. Additionally, Kirsten is vice president of Jewish Vocational Services (JVS) executive board. JVS is an organization that transforms lives by helping people build skills and find jobs to achieve self-sufficiency.
Kirsten holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Southern California and a masters of business administration degree from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern. She is also a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Directors Consortium program.