Congrats to the Q4 2022 Assurant Way CEO Award Winners!

Our culture is the secret to our success, and we call it The Assurant Way. The four dimensions of The Assurant Way describe the things that make our company culture unique: Our purpose. Our values. Our commitments. And our vision.

To further recognize the contributions made by our employees, we recently introduced The Assurant Way CEO Award. This recognition takes into account all the components of The Assurant Way and also highlights commitments to community engagement. When employees embody our values to deliver on our commitments and care for our customers and communities, it helps to carry out our purpose and drive our vision.

The winners are chosen quarterly and are nominated by their fellow coworkers. Employees selected will:

• Receive a $1,500 bonus 
• Be able to make a donation grant of $1,500 from the Assurant Foundation for a charity/charities of their choice.

 

We are excited to share the Q4 2022 winners of The Assurant Way CEO Award

 

Lauren White 

Lauren is the Lead Business Processing Specialist in Global Automotive and has been with Assurant for almost three years. As the team lead for Global Automotive’s business processing department, she assists the team with training and organization to process contracts monthly and help keep workflow smooth. 

She received The Assurant Way CEO Award for demonstrating the commitment, spend time on what adds the most value. Lauren reworked the entire contract transfer process to allow for some procedures—previously only able to be supported by in-office personnel—to be handled by virtual employees. She designed the workflow, documented procedures, tested for accuracy/viability, and trained members of the team while serving as a resource to ensure continuity. 

“I am very honored that adding value was the reason for being nominated,” Lauren shares. “I want to thank Brittany Klein, Eric Raines, and Berch Sylvester for the honor of being part of such a great group.” With her team always in mind, Lauren does her best every day to think from their perspective of processing and ways to improve and simplify the process. 

Outside of Assurant, Lauren enjoys spending time with her husband and their two dogs. To relax, she likes to watch movies and shows or play board games and video games. Lauren would also love to do more traveling and see new places in the coming year. 

 

Zenia Castro 

Zenia is a Technical Product Owner for Global Technology in Financial Services supporting U.S. Card Benefit clients. Having been with Assurant for 20 years, she currently helps bridge the gap between the product and the technical development of it to get it to the user or end customer. 

She received The Assurant Way CEO Award for demonstrating the commitment, serve clients & customers with passion & purpose. When a major financial institution partner was migrating from their current credit card benefits provider to Assurant, Zenia knew that our digital capacities were a key aspect of why this partner chose us over their existing partner of over 30 years. While there were significant challenges, Zenia was able to confirm the right resources, ensure that the implementation timeline was not impacted, gained the confidence of the partner, help launch the website functionalities, and positively influence the customer experience. 

“I truly love my job, and I’m so glad that it translates into passion and purpose,” Zenia comments. The commitment she demonstrated is at the heart of what she believes, and she tries to convey it through everything that she does. “I believe that we can always do right by the people that we serve if we do it from a place of joy and with pure and good intentions. I believe in honesty and speaking from the heart,” she says. By focusing on the positive side, Zenia aims to provide solutions to what can be done, instead of what can’t be done. 

Outside of Assurant, Zenia is passionate about volunteering and helping charitable organizations such as Autism Speaks and Habitat for Humanity. She enjoys sports and being outside with her family (including her three kids) and their dogs. Believing that “being of service to yourself is equally as important as being of service to others,” she also spends her time doing yoga, reading, dancing, and working out. 

 

Stephanie Salinas 

Stephanie is an Actuarial Information Management Associate in Global Finance and has been with Assurant for a little over three years. She handles premium reporting for domestic states and state filings. As the finance point of contact, she also performs several other essential tasks such as explaining expense figures to the Finance team, creating the annual budget for Assurant’s cost centers and presenting it to business units (BUs), submitting planning figures through the IBM Enterprise Planning tool and balancing accounts after posting month-end journal entries. 

She received The Assurant Way CEO Award for demonstrating the commitment, bring grit & determination to get things done, by producing a savings of $735k to the company related to assessment expenses from Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA). After reviewing Assurant’s products, it was determined that $34.3M in premium was written on lines of business that were potentially out of scope. Stephanie persevered, with remarkable patience, in working through LIGA for more than seven months before finally getting these exemptions granted, saving Assurant $735k. 

“My request was something that the State of Louisiana hadn’t been aware of, but it was still the right and legal thing to do,” says Stephanie. Once the DOI got involved, it was confirmed that her exemption request was valid and, therefore, granted. Stephanie attributes this accomplishment to great teamwork as it required open communication and assistance from the out-of-scope product owners and the Government Relations & Regulatory Affairs team. She commends her department for always encouraging her to explore her ideas on improving certain processes. 

Outside of Assurant, Stephanie loves working out, volunteering and exploring the outdoors. “I definitely notice an improvement in my mental health when I do these three things continuously, which allows me to work to the best of my abilities,” Stephanie adds. 

 

Emily Deconcini 

Emily is a Technical Product Owner for Global Technology. She has been with Assurant for close to eight years and supports the business by understanding and prioritizing work for the POMCAS group to complete. Along with her team, she supports the IT needs for the People Organization, Marketing, Communications, Global Sourcing and Facilities. 

She received The Assurant Way CEO Award for exemplifying not only the commitment, be curious to inspire new ideas & solutions, but also the Assurant value of uncommon thinking. Emily created a tool in SharePoint, including design, layout and branding, to provide employees with a simple way to determine if their doctors participate in our new health plan’s network. The tool soon replaced a vendor solution that was complicated to use and confusing to navigate. Emily managed to deliver the new tool in record time, enabling Assurant employees to use the tool during Open Enrollment. 

Outside of Assurant, Emily loves spending time with her family. She has a husband and two young children, and they enjoy watching football. Every Sunday around this time of year, Emily and her siblings’ families all gather at their parents' house for brunch and football all day. 

 

Evin Hunter 

Evin is an Associate Customer Contact & Operations Specialist in Global Automotive. He has been with Assurant for a little over a year and is now in the Payments Department of our Automotive side. Evin assists repair facilities as well as the selling dealers on getting their claims paid for the repairs completed. 

He received The Assurant Way CEO Award for his extraordinary commitment to community engagement. He supported the groundbreaking work of the B.R.I.D.G.E. People organization in the greater Pittsburg area, directly helping to reduce multigenerational poverty. Evin is also involved in several refugee programs offered by B.R.I.D.G.E. People, teaching valuable life skills, English, American customs, and U.S. citizenship classes. 70% of the families who have completed the program that Evin oversees have achieved full financial independence. 

“Being able to empower others and share my story is what makes me proud every day. We all have something to give, and mine is change,” Evin shares. Reflecting on his accomplishments, he notes that “speaking for others and helping them achieve what they would call impossible is just half the battle. It’s about maintaining and evolving as you do those things.” While there exists a number of resources, outreach help, roll models and positive environments out there, it’s often difficult for people to know where to go and who to reach out to. “My job, I believe, is to connect those bridges,” says Evin. 

Outside of Assurant, Evin loves music and live performances and even has a 70-piece vinyl collection. The second oldest of eight children, Evin enjoys his siblings’ presence and cherishes laughing and doing silly things with them. He also enjoys meeting new people through B.R.I.D.G.E. and learning about their stories, always willing to be an anchor to those making the choice to change. 

 

Amanda Becerra

Amanda is the Lead Counsel in Business Legal, and she has been with Assurant for over 9 years. As part of the IP & Procurement Legal Team, she supports the business with legal advice, agreement drafting, and negotiation when there is a need to engage a third-party supplier. She primarily supports Global Auto and Financial Services with their supplier relationships.

She received The Assurant Way CEO Award for her commitment to serve clients & customers with passion & purpose. In several situations, the Auto business worked on initiatives primarily designed to offer products to Assurant customers, which included the purchase of goods. Amanda went above and beyond by taking the time to educate the business lawyers about the vendor-specific terms typically included in these types of agreements and worked with the business legal team to develop a template to address these relationships. These efforts were essential to Assurant’s Vehicle Care product suite.

Amanda’s actions helped drive efficiencies and free up more time for others to spend on what adds the most value. “It is a privilege to work with such talented teams and help to bring innovation to our clients,” she says. Driven by her passion for her clients, she adds that “At the end of the day, I am happy to help where needed to ensure that our internal and external clients are successful.”

Outside of work, Amanda enjoys spending time with her husband and three daughters. She volunteers with her daughters’ school’s Parent Teacher Organization and as an assistant troop leader for her daughter’s Brownie troop. After her middle child was diagnosed with several food allergies, Amanda also started baking birthday cakes for her daughter and has since developed a fun hobby of experimenting with baking and decorating cakes.

 

Ruthvik Thulasiram

Ruthvik is a Senior Data Scientist with Global Data Analytics and has been with Assurant for over five years. He solves business problems and enhances business operations by developing machine learning solutions. Ruthvik has mainly supported claims operations by delivering multiple Dynamic Claim Management (DCM) solutions to automate claims adjudication for cost savings and reduction in turnaround time, resulting in better customer experience.

He received The Assurant Way CEO Award for demonstrating the commitment, be curious to inspire new ideas & solutions. Ruthvik helped guide data-driven insightful solutions by leading a team to integrate a Machine Learning (ML) driven DCM solution into Brazil’s Claim Operations Process. This solution resulted in business rule reduction from 16K+ to 300 with half a million of cost avoidance and raised auto-adjudication rate 60% for the Brazil Connected Living Claim team.

Ruthvik embodies The Assurant Way, showcasing his commitment by consistently delivering data science solutions. He has also solved multiple challenging business problems by utilizing Machine Learning and channeling the Assurant value of uncommon thinking to bring about uncommon results. Regarding his accomplishment, Ruthvik commends his team for their open thinking. “The credit should go to the entire team, especially the business, for being so responsive and eager to collaborate and implement the ML solution,” says Ruthvik. 

Outside of Assurant, Ruthvik enjoys traveling and going on road trips. He also likes to build Legos in his free time.

 

Congratulations to all! We are so proud of our Q4 winners and are honored to call them part of the Assurant team. Make sure to check back each quarter as we continue recognizing some of our employees' hard work!