Basil Morris is Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at The Hanover Insurance Group, a diversified domestic property and casualty insurer with approximately $6 billion in premium. At The Hanover, Basil leads the strategy team and the company’s strategic planning process, reporting to the CEO and preparing strategy presentations for the Board of Directors. His work includes long-term strategy assessment, market and competitor analysis, trend evaluation, and scenario planning to help position the organization for profitable growth. Basil spoke at our 2024 InsurTech Spring Conference on “Innovating during Core System Upgrades”, alongside James Benham, Roseanne Laudisio, and Kaenan Hertz, moderated by Jason Gross.
Much of Basil’s work focuses on translating corporate strategy into practical growth initiatives. At The Hanover, Basil Morris has led strategic sprints focused on small commercial, specialty insurance, excess and surplus lines, and wholesale distribution. He also integrated the company’s customer strategy and launched the Executive Customer Council, which he chairs. In addition, Basil is a former chair and current member of The Hanover’s Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Executive Council.
Before returning to The Hanover in his current role, Basil spent more than eleven years at Nationwide Insurance. As Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Basil led the strategic planning process and developed board presentations for an $18 billion property and casualty business. He partnered with the P&C president as the organization evolved from a primarily exclusive-agent personal lines carrier with regional operations into a national P&C carrier with half of its premium in commercial lines. Earlier at Nationwide, he served as AVP of Corporate Strategy, leading projects across regional strategy, digital marketing, agency and distribution strategy, brokerage strategy, and commercial lines strategy.
Basil Morris previously served at The Hanover as AVP, State Manager, Marketing, with responsibility for product management, rate filings, strategic planning, and profitability for personal lines in New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. His earlier financial services experience includes senior business credit card and installment lending leadership roles at Fleet Bank and First USA.
Basil holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Columbia University and an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. For an insurtech audience, Basil Morris brings a senior carrier strategist’s perspective on P&C growth, specialty insurance, distribution, customer strategy, digital transformation, and how established insurers adapt in a changing market.
