Kai Talarek is Chief Growth & Optimization Officer. Previously, he served as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Fortitude Re, Kai spent more than 20 years in the financial services sector in the United States. He most recently was a partner in the insurance practice of management consultant Oliver Wyman in New York where he spent 14 years focusing on complex risk, finance and strategy issues for insurers. Before joining Oliver Wyman, Kai was a Vice President in the Treasury department of American Express, Vice President of Strategy at Zurich Re, and an engagement manager at Mitchell Madison Group in New York and San Francisco, CA.

Kai holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from RWTH Aachen, Germany, and an MBA from UC Berkeley in California.

Kai is an avid pilot, and in his spare time he enjoys taking flight with and without engines on airplanes and gliders – as do both his daughter and son.