When Matt O’Malley and Steve Stabilito, underwriting leaders from AXA XL, described a ground-up process for transforming their teams into data-driven businesses recently, Carrier Management had questions about activities in the C-suite.

“Was there any top-down messaging?” asked CM Guest Editor Michael (Fitz) Fitzgerald, after hearing Stabilito describe the growth of a cross-functional data networking group that started at the grassroots level, and after O’Malley described the development of machine learning models to improve underwriting and distribution processes. “Is there anything from leadership that’s either helpful or not helpful?” Fitzgerald asked. (Related article: How Underwriters Win Business with Data and ML at AXA XL)