THE JUDGES

 

Special thanks to our 2026 Judging Panel for taking the time to assess entries to this year’s Awards. 


The Judges organisations manage over $1trn in insurance AuM, making the Insurance Investor | North American Awards the most credible awards in the North American insurance asset management sector and the Finalists and ultimate Winner the stand-out organisations in their Awards category. To ensure the Judging process is fair to all nominees, our awards process is as follows:

  • All Judges are invited by Clear Path Analysis to take part and none have paid for the right to be included as a Judge
  • Judges assess entries independently of each other using an industry leading awards assessment platform to score each entry
  • All entries are carefully anonymised without any substance in answers being deleted, so Judges evaluate entrants on their submissions alone and not based on prior knowledge or perception of an individual entrant.
  • Judges are not informed which organisations have entered the Awards until the Finalists are announced. No Judge is informed of the winner until the announcement at the awards ceremony.
  • Judges will not be informed which organisations didn’t make the Finalists shortlist
  • Entries are assessed on a scale of 0 – 100, with 100 being the highest mark achievable
  • Scoring guidelines are: 1 – 25 (poor), 26 – 50 (interesting), 51 – 75 (excellent), 76 – 100 (market leading)
  • Judges are prohibited from, and have agreed to the requirement to, not discuss their scores, either with other Judges or external persons   

All requests for feedback must be directed to awards@clearpathanalysis.com and not to individual Judges.

Judges of Insurers and Consultants

Kerry O’Brien
Head of Multi-Asset Solutions
MetLife Investment Management

Judges of Third Party Managers, Operations, and Consultants

Benjamin Pittsley
Director of Alternatives
Amica Mutual Insurance
Cameron Allan
Senior Manager- ALM and Investment Solutions
Lloyd's

Judges of Fund Operations and Services

Sean Hughes
Managing Director
Conning

Sean M. Hughes, CFA, FLMI, is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager, responsible for managing insurance company portfolios. Mr. Hughes is also a member of the Conning Corporate Strategy Team. Prior to joining Conning in 2001, he was an ALM analyst at Swiss Re, and previously was an account manager with Corporate Healthcare Financing and worked in underwriting with Fortis. Mr. Hughes earned a degree in psychology from Franciscan University and an MBA from Johns Hopkins University.