Jen Smith
Jennifer Smith is a Senior Analyst in Celent's North American insurance practice, focused on the life, health, and annuity market. With more than 25 years of experience in insurance technology, product strategy, and consulting, she brings a unique perspective gained from operations and leadership roles across both insurance carriers and technology providers. This dual background enables her to offer deep insight into the business and technology challenges shaping the life and annuity industry. Throughout her career, she has helped carriers, distributors, software providers, and InsurTech firms develop technology strategies, drive business transformation, and improve market competitiveness. Most recently, Jennifer served as Vice President, Life & Annuity Product Strategy, Americas at Sapiens International, where she led North American product strategy and roadmap development, go-to-market positioning, and industry engagement initiatives. She worked closely with C-suite executives to address innovation, technology investment, and operational transformation priorities, while representing Sapiens at major industry events and forums. An experienced speaker and facilitator, Jennifer regularly engages audiences at conferences, webinars, and client events, connecting technical and business stakeholders around emerging trends and strategic opportunities. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Western Ontario.
Karun Arathil
Karun is a Senior Analyst within Celent’s insurance practice based in London. His research efforts have centred around identifying and analysing insurance technology trends and software platforms in the insurance industry, encompassing property and casualty (P&C) and life and health (L&H) lines of business. Karun is a highly accomplished and technology-focused professional with a wealth of experience in the global IT industry, specifically within the insurance, pensions, and investment management sectors. Before joining Celent, Karun spent 22 years at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), where he played a pivotal role in expanding the company's insurance portfolio. During his tenure, Karun excelled in securing and executing large-scale, multi-million-dollar global IT contracts. He assumed complete solution and cost ownership, providing strategic guidance to clients on transformative initiatives. In addition to his extensive insurance industry experience, Karun has a background in manufacturing and supply chain management. He has led consulting engagements focused on IT strategy and Enterprise Architecture, further enhancing his expertise. Karun's recent reports have covered a wide range of subjects, including core systems analysis, digital twins in insurance, emerging technologies in insurance, Agentic AI, best practices in cloud adoption, quantum computing, parametric insurance, ESG, and climate change. Since joining Celent, Karun has been a featured speaker at industry events , covering topics such as NetZero Transition, Climate Change, Cloud, Customer Experience, Underwriting Automation, Parametric Insurance, and Legacy Modernization. Karun holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Calicut University. He has also earned a Certification in Fintech from the prestigious Said Business School at Oxford University.