Board of Directors

Mr. Newgarden is an analytics-driven insurance executive with over 30 years of experience, leading efforts to profitably grow carriers across the property and casualty spectrum, with a primary focus on personal lines. His areas of expertise include predictive modeling/data science, product management/development segmentation, Insurtech/business development, underwriting, and actuarial disciplines. Mr. Newgarden played an instrumental role in the successful acquisition and rehabilitation of National General Insurance (formerly GMAC insurance), including Executive Vice President and Chief Underwriting Officer, Chief Analytics Officer, and President of National General Preferred, culminating in the successful sale to Allstate Insurance. Prior to National General, Mr. Newgarden enjoyed similar achievements in profitable growth as Senior Vice President and Chief Underwriting Officer at AIG Private Client Group, Senior Vice President of Personal Lines at Safeco Insurance, and Vice President of Underwriting at Plymouth Rock Assurance. Since leaving Allstate in 2022, Mr. Newgarden has primarily worked as a consultant and advisor to carriers and other insurance entities including Jerry Insurance and Aspire General Insurance. Previously, his Board experience included the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, among others. Mr. Newgarden graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics/mathematics from Binghamton University.

Meryl Golden brings to the Board a strong operational background and a successful track-record of creating and implementing strategic initiatives to drive business transformations, including architecting Kingstone’s “2.0” plan to help modernize the company. Ms. Golden has served as President of Kingstone and Kingstone Insurance Company, our wholly-owned New York property and casualty insurer, since 2021 and is responsible for all day-to-day operations. She formerly held the role of Chief Operating Officer at both companies. Previously, Ms. Golden held various product and general management roles for more than two decades at Progressive and Liberty Mutual, and she also worked at Bridgewater, a hedge fund, Earnix, a technology and analytics company, and Arity, a subsidiary of Allstate. Ms. Golden received her M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and her B.S. in Accounting from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Pasricha is an entrepreneurial leader with a track record in building insurance and technology companies. He has served in global executive roles at major reinsurance, insurance and insuretech companies. Mr. Pasricha has served since October 2023 as Chief Executive Officer of BluePond.Ai, a GenAibased property and casualty insuretech company. Since August 2022, he has also served as Managing Partner of BluePond Capital, a family office incubating insuretech startups. From January to June 2023, Mr. Pasricha was Entrepreneur in Residence for Point 72 Hyperscale, a hedge fund and private equity investor. From August 2020 to December 2022, he served as Global Head, P&C Solutions for Swiss Re, a global reinsurance and insurance carrier. Mr. Pasricha served as Chief Executive Officer of IntellectSEEC, an insurance software company, from June 2014 to July 2020. He received his B.E. degree in Electronics and Communications from M.D. University, India and his M.B.A. from University of Otago, New Zealand. Mr. Pasricha also completed the Executive Program in Strategic IT from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.

Mr. Singh is the Group Chief Financial Officer and Head of Corporate Development for Angel Oak Companies, overseeing financial operations, including accounting and treasury, for all of Angel Oak’s subsidiaries. He is also a member of the Angel Oak Enterprise Risk Management Committee. Previously, he was a Director in the Insurance Investment Banking team at New York-based Sandler O’Neill & Partners, which was an investment bank specializing in financial institutions that merged with Piper Jaffray Companies to form Piper Sandler Companies. During his 12 years with Sandler O’Neill, Mr. Singh worked extensively in the insurance sector, advising them on capital raising and M&A related matters. Manu has been involved with several key M&A transactions, including those involving private equity buyers and alternative asset managers making forays into the life and annuity sector. Mr. Singh holds a Master of Business Administration from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, a Master of Science in Finance from the Department of Financial Studies at the University of Delhi, and a Bachelor of Engineering from Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology in India.

Floyd Tupper brings to the Board deep financial acumen and accounting knowledge, along with a track record of building and implementing business optimization strategies. Mr. Tupper is a Certified Public Accountant in New York City and serves as trustee for various trusts established by his clients. He previously served as a board member of Kingstone Insurance Company, our wholly-owned New York property and casualty insurer, a trustee of The Acorn School, and was also an accountant with Ernst & Young LLP. Mr. Tupper is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, and he has created tax planning and business plans to help both high-net worth individuals and small businesses achieve their goals for more than 40 years. Mr. Tupper holds an M.B.A. from The New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a B.S. from New York University.

William Yankus brings to the Board an extensive background in risk management and business development, as well as deep experience within the insurance and technology industries. Mr. Yankus is Principal and Founder of Pheasant Hill Advisors, LLC, where he provides insurance industry consulting services.He serves as a board member of Jet.AI Inc, which operates in private aviation through fractional and whole jet sales, prepaid jet cards, chartering, brokerage and service. Before that, Mr. Yankus was a managing director on Sterne Agee's investment banking team with the mandate of building its insurance investment banking practice. He previously was managing director of Fox-Pitt, Kelton's insurance research effort, for nearly two decades and began his insurance analytical career with Conning and Company, where he focused solely on analysis P&C insurance stocks. He also earned his CPA designation in 1984 and completed the Chartered Financial Analyst program in 1989. Mr. Yankus received his B.A. from The College of the Holy Cross in 1981.