How Legal Can Take a Leading Role in your Innovation Efforts (w/Michael Lanza, EVP General Counsel, Selective Insurance Group)

Michael H. Lanza is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Selective Insurance Group, Inc. 

In today's episode, he traces his path from being a lawyer in Hartford at Cigna to being 17 years at Selective, a well-known super-regional commercial insurer. 

Michael shares lessons about how legal can support the key aspects of technology and innovation for insurers. He led in the Insurtech multi-disciplinary task force at Selective that prepared analyses of the market, finding competitive advantage and reviewing opportunities in agency and distribution empowerment and customer experience.

He also recalls bringing together a strategy from the initial ideas from the Board, reviewing trends in Silicon Valley, including Selective's award-winning innovation in the automotive industry and commercial lines. 

In 2019 Selective added an innovation lab, and has also made investments via its strategic investment committee. He describes how closely the lab ideas are tied to senior business people to ensure the success from new idea into business production, which involves cultural change as much as technological change.

Michael talks about how during the pandemic, innovation accelerated, in particular to managing customer safety management (loss control), adding virtual inspections using video. 

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Mr. Lanza joined Selective in 2004. Before that, he was a corporate advisor and consultant and served as Executive Vice President and Corporate Secretary of QuadraMed Corporation, a publicly-traded healthcare IT company. Previously, Mr. Lanza was Assistant General Counsel at CIGNA Corporation, where his responsibilities included state government affairs, health care compliance, and international matters. He began his career in private legal practice in Connecticut.