Balavant Insurance Group has expanded its leadership team with the appointment of Michael Sothen as chief financial officer and Omeed Kazemi as chief operating officer, the company announced Friday.
Sothen is a financial executive with more than 25 years of experience. In his new role, he will oversee Balavant’s financial reporting, internal controls, acquisitions, and operational finance functions. He previously held leadership roles at Brown & Brown and its managing general agent subsidiary, Arrowhead, where he served as divisional CFO for services and national programs.
Kazemi, who joins as COO, brings a background spanning insurance, technology, and financial services. At Hippo Insurance, he managed business operations, revenue strategy, retention initiatives, and cross-functional projects. In his new role, he will lead Balavant’s strategic growth initiatives, mergers and acquisitions integrations, and operational improvement efforts.
“Michael and Omeed bring exceptional expertise and proven success in building scalable platforms,” said Rekha Skantharaja, president and CEO of Tangram and Balavant. “Their arrival marks another exciting step forward in our vision to build a $1 billion, people-first MGA platform where entrepreneurial teams can thrive.”
Balavant formed earlier this year, when Tangram Insurance Services was spun off from the Heffernan Group to become the foundational portfolio entity within the newly created MGA platform. The spin-off positioned Balavant to leverage dedicated capital, ownership alignment, and a more agile structure for scaling underwriting programs.
Earlier in the year, CEO Skantharaja emphasized Balavant’s differentiation strategy in a competitive marketplace, citing “a few levers” that the company can pull to stand out among MGA platforms.
The company said the new leaders will bolster its mission to provide shared services, tech-enabled infrastructure, and scalable operations – allowing its underwriting teams to focus on client programs while Balavant manages capital, capacity, and support services.
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