Barry Zyskind is an American businessman in the insurance industry, and head of AmTrust Financial Services Inc. In the September 2016 edition of Best's Review, an A.M. Best publication, AmTrust was ranked the 11th largest commercial insurer in the US, up from 128th position in 2005. In the interview, CEO Zyskind attributed AmTrust's growth to its 'focus on small commercial customers, its proprietary technology platform, and its extensive database of loss history to help appropriately price and structure policies.'

Early life

Zyskind has an MBA from

New York University Stern School of Business The Leonard N. Stern School of Business (also NYU Stern, Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business school of New York University, a private research university based in New York City. Founded as the School of Commerce, Accounts ...

. After university, he worked as an investment banker at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC.

AmTrust

In 1998, Zyskind was named a director of AmTrust Financial Services, which was founded in the same year by his father-in-law, Michael Karfunkel and his brother, George Karfunkel. As of 2016, he is chairman, CEO and president, relinquishing the latter role to Adam Karkowsky in 2019. He also holds key executive positions at the firm's many wholly owned subsidiaries such as AMT Warranty Corporation.

Other roles

Zyskind has been non-executive chairman at National General Holdings Corp since 2016. He holds the same position at Maiden Holdings Ltd and sits on the board of American Stock Transfer & Trust Co. Zyskind sits on the management board of First Non-Profit Foundation – a private grant-making organization in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

that seeks to strengthen the nonprofit sector in America. He co-founded Pine Technology Acquisition Corp, a

Special-purpose acquisition company A special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a blank check company or a blind-pool stock offering, is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring (or merging with) a private company, thus taking ...

(SPAC), in 2021. In March 2021, the

SPAC SPAC primarily refers to a special-purpose acquisition company, a method of taking a company public by merging it with an already public investment company. SPAC may also refer to: * Henry Crown Sports and Aquatics Center, a sports facility at No ...

raised $345 million in an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

Recognition

Zyskind has twice appeared on ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' lists of successful businessmen. In 2012 he was listed as the 11th most powerful CEO under the age of 40. Then in 2014, under his leadership, AmTrust was listed as America's best managed insurance company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zyskind, Barry Living people 20th-century American businesspeople New York University Stern School of Business alumni American chief executives of financial services companies Businesspeople in insurance 1971 births 21st-century American businesspeople