Samer Haj-Yehia: from Leumi to Lemonade

Dr. Samer Haj-Yehia, until recently chairperson of Bank Leumi, is joining the board of directors of Israeli-US AI-based digital insurance company Lemonade (NYSE: LMND). Lemonade notified the New York Stock Exchange of the appointment yesterday. Finance specialist Deb Schwartz will also join the Lemonade board. The two will replace Irina Novoselsky and Silvija Martincevic, who have both taken up CEO positions at other companies.

Haj-Yehia completed a four-year term as chairperson of Bank Leumi, and a nine-year period on the bank’s board, at the end of last month. Leumi is Israel’s largest bank in market cap terms. Haj-Yehia is no stranger to the US capital market, having worked in the US in investment management, trading, and fintech innovation, among other places at financial giant Fidelity.

“I’ve long shared Daniel and Shai’s belief that the power of technology and artificial intelligence have the ability to transform industries, especially centuries-old industries like insurance,” Haj-Yehia said, referring to Lemonade co-founders and co-CEOs Daniel Schreiber and Shai Wininger.

Deb Schwartz is currently CFO of healthcare data technology company H1. She previously served as CFO at Cameo and at Bustle Digital Group, and spent more than a decade as an equity analyst with Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. “I’ve focused much of my career on developing business and financial strategies that drive growth and innovation,” Schwartz said.

The other members of the Lemonade board are Schreiber and Wininger, Michael Eisenberg, a partner at early-stage venture capital fund Aleph, and Mwashuma (Shu) Nyatta, founder of growth equity investment form Bicycle Capital.

Lemonade is active in the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and France. The release of its third quarter financials on November 1 led to a 47% leap in its share price in the following days. It narrowed its net loss from $91.4 million in the third quarter of 2022 to $61 million, and grew its quarterly revenue by 55% to $114 million, 10% more than analysts had estimated.

The following week, Lemonade filed a shelf registration statement enabling it and its largest shareholder, Softbank (17.1%), to sell shares, following which the company’s share price weakened by 11%. Lemonade said that it had no immediate intention of selling shares or other securities, but that it had filed the statement in order to be able “to respond to future financing and business opportunities.”

Since then, the share price has recovered, closing at $16.02 yesterday, which gives the company a market cap of $1.12 billion.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on November 22, 2023.

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