Team

Neeraja Rasmussen, Founder and CEO

Neeraja is the founder of Spyglaz, a Silicon Valley-based AI and enterprise software company. Prior to Spyglaz, she has 25+ years of experience managing customer growth programs for financial services and technology companies such as Franklin Templeton Investments, Intuit, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and JP Morgan Chase. She has extensive experience building global teams from the ground up, and implementing multi-channel growth and sales support programs for both Fortune 500 and SMB companies. Neeraja is an advocate/speaker on the value of building ecosystems in Fintech, Insurtech and enterprise software with a conscious mission to support gender, racial and socio-economic diversity. She serves on the Advisory board of The American College of Financial Services Women’s Center, and supports their mission to bring more women into financial services through research, awareness and education.

Dr. Chris Clarke, Chief Data Scientist

Chris brings 15 years of experience in machine learning and AI products to Spyglaz, and drives product innovation and capability growth. He owns strategic AI direction and future product roadmap. Chris is a data scientist and independent researcher with a strong background in numerical analysis, algorithms, advanced computational software, applied mathematics and topics in data science and statistics including: predictive analytics, machine learning, pattern recognition, clustering/segmentation, NLP, neural networks, Large Language Models, and Generative AI. He holds multiple patents, including patents in the big-data customer experience (CX) analytics space. Chris has a breadth of experience innovating in the FinTech, Defense, Renewables, CX, and Cybersecurity industries. He holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from New York University.

Rohan Kurane, Chief Technology Officer

Rohan brings more than 10+ years of software engineering experience to Spyglaz, with former roles at IBM and multiple Silicon Valley startups, most recently at CryptoMove. As a Founding Engineer, he saw CryptoMove through two rounds of funding from Seed through Series A. He has led solution architecture and delivery for high profile Federal government customers, solutions that ranged from securing data on flying drones to integrating CryptoMove software into a Kubernetes environment.

Advisors

Thomas M. Buckingham, MAAA, FSA, Chief Growth Officer, Nassau Financial Group

Tom is responsible for developing and executing Nassau’s sales strategy for its insurance business, including all product development, distribution channels, marketing, branding, and leveraging digital tools to enable quick, easy and simple sales. He joined the company as an actuarial assistant in 1999 and served in increasingly senior corporate, product development and operational positions. He also has worked in strategic development, as chief of staff to the CEO and as chief operating officer. Tom was named to his current role in 2021. Tom is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA). He serves on the boards of Connecticut Foodshare and Saint John’s High School and on the advisory board of the Janet & Mark L. Goldenson Research Center in Actuarial Science at the University of Connecticut.

 

Fred Jonske, Managing Partner, Insurex

Fred Jonske is the Managing Partner for Insurex and the founder of FHJ Capital Partners. Fred was formerly President and CEO of M Financial Group, the nation’s premier financial services design and distribution company, serving the ultra-affluent and corporate markets through an exclusive network of 140 of the nation’s most successful and innovative financial services firms. Previously, Fred was President, Chief Operating Officer and a Board Member of Lincoln Benefit Life Insurance Co. of Lincoln, Nebraska and Surety Life Insurance Co. of Salt Lake City, Utah. Both companies were subsidiaries of Allstate Insurance Co., where he was also was Vice President and a Board Member. Fred spearheaded the transformation of Lincoln Benefit Life into one the country’s leading life insurance brokerage companies. Fred is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and a Member of the Academy of Actuaries (MAAA). He is a Life Trustee of the American College Board and serves on the University of Portland Board of Regents, and the Catlin Gabel School Endowment Fund Committee. Jonske previously served on the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) Board of Directors.

Sanjay Baskaran, FinTech Executive & Technology Investor

Sanjay Baskaran currently serves as an advisor to PE firms in fintech & data services. He has 20+ years’ experience scaling, growing & digitally transforming companies using cloud, AI, ML and other digital tools. His prior FinTech leadership roles include CEO of One Technologies, President of TaxAct, and General Manager of Amazon Cards. Early in his career he served as Visa’s head of analytics for North America and spent a decade at HSBC in various product, marketing & risk management roles. He is an avid technology investor and sits on the advisory board of The Broad College of Business Michigan State University.

Dr. Jay Vadiveloo, Director, Goldenson Center for Actuarial Research

Dr. Jay currently heads up the Goldenson Center, a leading think tank at the University of Connecticut. He has over 25 years in leadership roles at Connecticut Mutual, Mass Mutual, Aetna Financial Services, ING, Deloitte Consulting and Towers Watson. He is a respected academic and thought leader in the insurance industry, with published papers on effective applications of artificial intelligence in actuarial science.

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