By Doug Blair, Managing Partner — The Blair Kenner Group
Confession: the best executive candidates in the P&C claims world rarely “wow” anyone in the first 30 seconds. They win in the quiet, consistent details — the kind that only surface once the small talk ends and the real work begins. After 30 years inside this industry, I’ve sat across from hundreds of claims leaders, and the pattern never changes. The ones who get hired aren’t the loudest in the room. They’re the ones who own their results, know their numbers, and can explain what they actually did — not just what happened on their watch.
Here’s what I’ve learned.
VP-Level and Above: Outcomes, Not Org Charts
In C-suite and VP searches — think VP of Claims, Chief Claims Officer, SVP of TPA Operations — the strongest candidates do something deceptively simple: they talk about outcomes, not activities.
They don’t just say they “led a claims transformation.” They can tell you how severity trends shifted, how reserve accuracy improved quarter-over-quarter, and how they brought skeptical adjusters along for the ride when a new platform rolled out. They know their combined ratios. They know their loss adjustment expense trends. And they can walk you from the problem to the decision to the result without a PowerPoint in sight.
The ones who don’t advance? They stay stuck at the “managed a team of 40” level — as if headcount were an accomplishment rather than a starting point. In the claims ecosystem, that level of answer gets you screened out fast. Hiring executives in this space have seen too much to be impressed by titles alone.
Claims Operations and TPA Leadership: Process Is Half the Story
In claims operations roles — Directors of Operations at TPAs, VP of Field Claims, Regional Claims Managers — the candidates who stand out understand that building a process and making it stick are two different jobs.
The ones who get offers talk about behavior change. They describe how they worked alongside adjusters, IME coordinators, or nurse case managers to adopt new workflows — not just how they “implemented” them. They can name the resistance they ran into and what they did about it. They know that a new claims platform nobody uses is just expensive shelfware.
The candidates who stumble? They either blame “the field” for everything or can’t describe a single moment where they adapted their approach to real-world pushback. In a business where the margin lives in execution, that’s a red flag.
Medical Management and Cost Containment: The Numbers Have to Be Real
In medical case management, IME operations, and bill review leadership, the best candidates come in with specific numbers — and they can defend them.
They know their review acceptance rates. They know what utilization review saved per claim cycle. They can describe the difference between a well-run Independent Medical Examination program and a rubber-stamp operation, and they’ve been on both sides. When I ask about a process improvement they led, they don’t give me a paragraph of soft language — they give me a before-and-after.
The candidates who lose the room are the ones who rely on credential titles and tenure without connecting either to actual outcomes. Longevity in this industry is respected, but it’s not a substitute for results.
Claims Technology: Complexity Has to Sound Simple
For technology leadership roles inside claims organizations — VP of Claims Systems, Director of Claims Technology at a carrier or MGA, or a similar role at a claims SaaS company — the standard is different but the principle is the same.
Top candidates can explain a legacy claims platform migration, an AI triage integration, or a document automation rollout in plain English. They translate complexity without dumbing it down. When you ask how they handled user adoption, they have a story with texture — not a slide deck summary.
The ones who don’t make it weaponize jargon. Every sentence becomes a buzzword salad, and the technical depth never comes. In my experience, that usually means the real work happened somewhere else.
The Real Confession
After 30 years in this industry and more executive searches than I can count, the secret to finding the right claims leader isn’t a magic questionnaire or a clever assessment tool. It’s a disciplined ear for three things: who owns their results, who can tell a clear story under pressure, and who respects the complexity of this business enough to make it understandable.
The P&C claims ecosystem is not a forgiving place to fake it. The best candidates know that — and it shows in every conversation.
At The Blair Kenner Group, that’s the bar we hold. It’s also the bar your next hire should clear.
BKG places executive talent exclusively in the P&C claims ecosystem — TPAs, IME firms, medical case management, bill review, and claims technology organizations. If you’re building a leadership team or looking for your next move, let’s talk.
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