AmTrust builds up its cyber team with two hires

AmTrust Financial Services has hired Jeffrey Batt and Michelle Ingrassia to its cyber insurance team.

Batt becomes vice president and AMTrust’s head of cyber strategy and innovation, responsible for its engagement with customers and business partners and creating risk solutions. He joins from M&T Bank where he was the cyber insurance practice leader. He was previously vice president in Marsh’s cyber practice and from 2010-2016 was an associate deputy general counsel at the US Department of Defense.

Ingrassia is named vice president of cyber product and underwriting management at AmTrust and oversees AmTrust’s cyber insurance offerings. She joins after seven years with Beazley where she was most recently an attorney for its cyber and tech division. Before that she was with The Falcigno Group (now TFG Insurance Specialties) in Connecticut.

Both new starters report to Aaron Basilius, senior vice president for cyber, who joined AmTrust in July 2020 from Munich Re where he was head of cyber for North America for its large risk corporate division.

AmTrust said the build up is part of its push to develop cyber risk solutions for a wide range of small businesses that will be launched later this year, in expectation that cyber products will be increasingly in demand among its clients.

Basilius noted that the growing AmTrust cyber team draws on many years of broad practical experience in the dynamic global cyber insurance market.

“In the last year, with cyberattacks and data breaches on the rise, we have seen the demand for cyber insurance grow dramatically, especially in AmTrust’s core small business market,” he said.