Board of Directors

Laura is a strategic executive leader with almost 40 years of experience in publicly traded and privately held organizations spanning financial services, organizational consulting, food 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.

Justin Brenden is the chief actuary of SiriusPoint Ltd., and joined the Pie Insurance board in August 2022. Prior to his position at SiriusPoint Ltd., Justin served as executive vice president and chief reserving actuary at Third Point Re, joining the company during its first year of operations in 2012. In 2021, Third Point Re completed a merger with Sirius Group to become SiriusPoint. SiriusPoint is a founding investor in Pie. Prior to Third Point Re, Justin served as an actuarial manager for Ernst & Young LLP in their New York, NY office from 2005 to 2012. During his time at Ernst & Young, he provided actuarial consulting services to reinsurance and insurance companies around the world.

Dr. Nazim Cetin has been CEO of Allianz X since 2017. Under his leadership, the Allianz X portfolio has grown to more than 25 companies with AuM of over EUR 2 billion. 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.

Alex De Kegel is the Chief Investment Officer and a Managing Director of Allianz X North America. He leads Allianz X’s day-to-day activities in North America, including deal sourcing and execution, as well as the management of its North American portfolio of high conviction investments.    Alex joined Allianz X in October 2019, working in the CEO Office where he executed key investments and led strategic initiatives. Prior to Allianz X, Alex worked for global asset manager Fidelity International, having completed his master’s at Imperial College London.

Kristina Johnson is a C-level, global human resources executive with cross-industry experience from start-up to large, multi-national and publicly traded businesses. She brings the functional expertise of a Chief HR Officer with deep understanding of the unique operational and financial challenges of technology and SaaS companies. Kristina is a trusted Human Capital Business Partner to the executive team with a success record in leading businesses through successful M&As, IPO, and hyper-growth phases, including ESPP and equity development, executive compensation and succession planning. She extensively partners with the Board, Compensation, and Nomination & Governance Committees, helping create scale and growth strategies, execute M&As, lead through global change management, while keeping a keen eye on human capital. Kristina is the Chief Human Resources Officer for Amplitude (NYSE: AMPL), a leading digital analytics platform. At Amplitude, she leads the global HR workforce across 7 offices worldwide including Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, People Operations, DE&I, Employee Experience, Workplace and more. Previously, Kristina was the Chief People and Places Officer for Okta, Inc. (NYSE: OKTA) where she scaled and led the global human resources function across 18 global offices while revenue grew from ~85M to ~1.85B. Headcount grew from 500 to 6,000+ employees throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC in her 7+ year tenure. Her remit included Talent Acquisition, People Operations, People Analytics, Total Rewards, People Business Partners, Workplace, Internal Communications, D&I, and Social Impact and Sustainability. Kristina brings a deep understanding of the entire M&A lifecycle. At Okta, Inc., she oversaw eight full-scale HR acquisition integrations, including due diligence of all benefit packages, culture integration, physical location, and change management. Additionally, Kristina led Okta’s global HR function through its successful IPO process. In partnership with the Compensation Committee, Kristina led the design and execution of the executive compensation and equity strategy transition following the IPO. Along with the Legal and Finance teams, she developed a global ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Program) with evergreen provisions to grow with the company. Kristina also leads annual executive succession planning and provides thought leadership to the Nominating and Governance Committee. She hired Okta’s first Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging and laid the groundwork for a comprehensive D&I Strategy that resulted in the organization’s first publicly disclosed State of Inclusion report. Kristina also serves on the board of the Mission Dolores Academy. Mission Dolores Academy is a Catholic K-8 school in San Francisco’s historic Mission District with a mission to serve underprivileged students. Kristina earned an MBA, Human Resource Management from California State University. She received a Professional Human Resources (PHR) Certification. In her free time, she is an avid golfer and resides in California along with her husband and four children.

Sam joined Centerbridge in 2017 and focuses on non-control investments in the financial services sector. Prior to joining Centerbridge, Sam was an analyst at PJT Partners and The Blackstone Group L.P. Sam also serves on the Board of Directors of TypTap Insurance Group. Sam graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, B.S., summa cum laude.

Ian Sigalow is a co-founder and managing partner at Greycroft. As a member of Greycroft’s management committee, he is responsible for the firm’s operations, investment strategy, and vision. Ian is on the investment committee for all Greycroft funds and has been involved in all phases of Greycroft’s growth. 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 administration from Columbia University Graduate School of Business, where he is a frequent guest lecturer.

As CEO and co-founder of Pie Insurance, John Swigart is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the company. Since Pie was founded in 2017, John has led Pie to become one of the fastest growing insurtechs in the United States.  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 2000-2003 as the company’s chief financial officer, and then grew the company from $30M to $1.3B 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. 

Wes Thompson brings more than 30 years of experience to Pie’s board, including a unique blend of startup founder experience along with serving in senior leadership roles at insurance and financial organizations such as Sun Life Financial U.S. and Lincoln Financial Group. Most recently, Mr. Thompson served as the president and CEO of M Financial Group, a leader in life insurance and financial services for high-net-worth clients, where he oversaw all strategic and operational aspects, including the development of resources and services designed to enhance member firm success and drive overall growth. 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.

Ms. Wolberg is a seasoned leader at the cross section of technology, cyber security, digital transformation and talent management. She has a distinguished track record leading technology and talent at global companies including; DocuSign, PayPal, Salesforce and Charles Schwab. Kirsten is a current board director of Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM) where she serves on the compliance and compensation committees, Dynatrace (NYSE: DT) serving on the cyber and compensation committees, and CalAmp (NASDAQ: CAMP) where she chairs the cyber committee and serves on the nominating and governance committee. She is also an independent director for Pie Insurance where she chairs the nominating and governance committee and a non executive director at Epidemic Sound where she serves on the audit committee. Kirsten is an National Association of Corporate Directors certified board director. 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.