Eighteen-year carrier and insurance-services leader joins the AI-enabled operations partner as
carriers and MGAs reset how underwriting, service, and claims are managed
SUNRISE, Fla., September 15, 2026 FOCUS, the AI-enabled operations partner that has built
and run the operations behind property and casualty carriers and MGAs for more than 25 years,
today announced that Mark Phillips has joined the company as Senior Vice President of
Business Development. Phillips will lead the FOCUS sales organization as the company
expands its Launch, Grow, and Scale services and its new strategic partnerships, including its
new listing in the Accelerant Marketplace.
Phillips brings 18 years in insurance, split between the carrier side and the services side. He sold personal lines at Liberty Mutual, underwrote at Grange, and led agency territories for Grange, Frankenmuth, and Nationwide across Ohio. He then spent five years at Patra and Genpact working with carrier, broker, and MGA executive teams to rebuild underwriting, claims, and finance operations, with automation and AI built into nearly every program.
Carrier and MGA leaders are being asked to adopt AI across the operation and hold the line on licensing, audit trails, and the experience a policyholder gets on the phone. Capacity partners have to be able to follow the operating model. Reinsurers have to stand behind the data. State regulators have to accept the licensing and the audit trail. Very few operations partners can satisfy all three, and even fewer have leaders who have sat on the carrier side of that table.
Phillips spent his first decade inside carriers learning what an underwriter needs before saying yes, how a territory grows when service keeps pace with distribution, and what happens to retention when the operation behind the policy falls behind. He spent the next five years building the business cases that fix those problems, leading programs across FNOL intake, underwriting operations, policy servicing, and finance and accounting.
"Mark has run the numbers from both sides," said Pete Crowe, President of FOCUS. "He knows what a carrier or MGA operations leader is actually accountable for, and he knows what it takes to deliver against it with licensed people, real governance, and technology that earns its place in the workflow."
Phillips joins a company with a 25-year record in exactly that work. FOCUS has built and run the operations behind profitable carriers, MGAs, and programs through hard markets, soft markets, and the CAT seasons in between. Over that time the company has kept adding what the work demanded, from a licensed, U.S.-based service center to its proprietary InFOCUS platform to automation and AI inside the workflow, and it has found a way to lead through each of those shifts. Today FOCUS runs the operation behind a carrier's or MGA's program under the client's own brand, covering:
- Licensed underwriting services, including submission intake, clearance, and referral handling
- Customer service and agency services staffed with licensed agents
- Claims FNOL intake, servicing, and claims process management
- Policy administration, print, and imaging
- Accounting and billing, including E&S taxes and filings
- Exposure management and reporting built for capacity partners and reinsurers
The company's 300+ U.S.-based team includes 100+ licensed insurance professionals. FOCUS has added 65 team members in 2026 to date, 15 of them licensed insurance professionals and 50 in operations and service roles, as client programs launch and expand.
Phillips will take the lead on the FOCUS listing in the Accelerant Marketplace, which gives Accelerant Members preferred terms to stand up or expand the operation behind their programs.
"I have watched carriers lose months waiting on a back office that was still being staffed, and I have watched MGAs give back capacity because the reporting could not keep up with the book," said Phillips. "What sets FOCUS apart is the way licensed insurance expertise, technology, and AI work together as one operation. FOCUS is where I have seen that combination delivered successfully, and I wanted to be part of it."
AI-enabled, with licensed people on the decision
FOCUS builds automation into intake, document handling, servicing workflows, and reporting wherever it makes the work faster and more accurate. Licensed insurance professionals stay on every decision that touches a policyholder, a regulator, or a capacity partner. That combination is why FOCUS sustains an 80+ Net Promoter Score, more than double the industry average of 37, and a 95%+ quality assurance score across 30+ carrier, MGA, and service center launches and more than $3 billion in premium under management.
Phillips' experience leading AI and automation programs inside large services organizations gives FOCUS a sales leader who can speak to where those tools belong in an insurance operation and where a licensed person still has to own the outcome.
Meet Mark Phillips at ITC Vegas
Phillips joins FOCUS ahead of ITC Vegas, September 29 through October 1, where the FOCUS team will host carrier and MGA leaders at Booth 1312 and record interviews for the 2026 Policy Makers series on the exhibit floor. He will also attend the Target Markets Annual Summit in October.
Carrier and MGA leaders can book time with the FOCUS team at ITC at teamfocusins.com/findfocus.
About FOCUS
FOCUS Insurance Services is an AI-enabled operations partner for property and casualty carriers and MGAs. For more than 25 years, FOCUS has built and run the operations behind profitable insurers and programs, covering licensed underwriting, customer service, claims FNOL intake and servicing, policy administration, accounting and billing, agency services, and exposure management, all delivered under the client's brand by a U.S.-based team of 300+ insurance professionals. FOCUS has completed 30+ carrier, MGA, and service center launches, manages more than $3 billion in premium, and sustains an 80+ NPS, more than double the industry average. Operational excellence, without compromise. Learn more at teamfocusins.com.
Media contact
Kim Tambo Sr. Manager,
Product Marketing, FOCUS
kim.tambo@teamfocusins.com