Jean Vernor

Jean Vernor is a business leader, intrapreneur, and corporate innovation expert who guides companies through significant transformation and growth. She brings particular expertise in ROI optimization through sound P&L management and driving both profitability and topline revenue via operational efficiencies, new distribution channels, and product innovation. She has led multi-hundred-million-dollar divisions of Fortune 50 companies, scaled start-ups to profitable ventures, and turned around underperforming, complex businesses across diverse industries.

Vernor led the refreshed strategy/operating model for Munich Re’s US Incubator by optimizing the team, engaging executive leadership, and applying start-up and VC best practices to drive enterprise value and creating multiple ventures approaching commercialization in the emerging risks arena. She led the incubation, scaling, and exit of an innovation UW unit and product suite of services that leverages machine learning to reduce accidents in commercial fleets.

At MetLife, Vernor united two internal start-ups representing $350M in premiums and $134M in sales, developed & executed a cohesive strategic and financial plan that realigned marketing efforts on profitable products and distribution channels, and reorganized talent to optimize innovation and productivity. She led a 67% increase in division earnings through efficiency improvements and transformed an antiquated, low-value DTC business into a market-leading, consumer-insights-driven Insurtech startup within MetLife by launching an industry-first, fully digital term insurance product with an innovative, instant issue underwriting engine. Within 3 years, she achieved 142% of the sales plan and improved underwriting costs by 40%.

At HCI Direct, Vernor transformed a sleepy, underperforming consumer products company by building and launching a brand of contemporary products in new channels while preserving the cash-rich legacy business. In less than 3 years, she built an e-commerce platform, expanded distribution to 4 countries, converted manufacturing to six sigma production, recruited Fortune 500 talent, and created over $6M in operational savings via disciplined P&L management.

Vernor led the turnaround of Embassy English, a $130M division of privately held Study Group, the largest for-profit global education company. She restructured the entire business model to drive profitable growth by deploying digital sales and marketing tools, upgrading product/curriculum offerings, enhancing customer engagement, renegotiating commission structures, and adding business rigor to operational and financial processes. Within 2 years, she reversed a multiyear downward trend by achieving a 16% increase in revenue, 150% increase in annual profit, and 300% increase in EBITDA, enabling the company to realize a successful sale.

Vernor has served on several boards, including at Professional Examination Service, where the hands-on board triaged options with management who transformed the business from a paper-based credentialing service to a provider of digital badge technology and a proprietary data analytics engine and successfully sold the company to ACT.

A longtime champion of diversity, Jean was the US Chair for MetLife’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Council, a Cabinet Member for the AARP Women’s Leadership Circle, and a mentor with a national Female Executive Development Program. Jean has been a featured speaker at industry events and has experience with press interviews and live TV. Vernor holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Oakland University, is a Scaled Agile Leading SAFe 4 Agilist, completed GE’s Top Talent Executive Development Program, and MetLife’s Executive Leadership Program at Harvard Business School. She and her husband are from the Detroit area and have enjoyed traveling the world and family vacations with their son.