News

08 Jan, 2026

The North American CRO Council is pleased to announce our newly elected Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson for 2026.

 

Sarah Williams was elected as the 2026 Chairperson of the CRO Council.

Sarah Williams

 

 

 

Sarah Williams is Chief Risk Officer at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), responsible for enterprise-wide risk governance and oversight. She leads the company’s enterprise risk management function, encompassing investment and market risk, cybersecurity risk, derivatives use and governance, and operational risk. Sarah chairs the Corporate Risk Management Committee and ensures Guardian’s risk appetite aligns with the company’s purpose and values.

Sarah brings more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry. Before joining Guardian in 2022, she served as Deputy Chief Risk Officer at Global Atlantic Financial Group and as Vice President of Global Capital Risk at MassMutual, where she led the company’s assessment of international capital standards. Earlier in her career, Sarah spent a decade at The Hartford in various finance, actuarial, and risk roles, most recently as Vice President of Risk Analytics and Governance. She began her professional career as an auditor at Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.

Sarah is active in industry forums, including serving on the Insurance Policy Advisory Committee (IPAC) of the Federal Reserve Board since 2021. She also currently serves as Chair of the ACLI Federal Regulation and Investments Committee and Chair of the North American CRO Council. A graduate summa cum laude, she holds a BA in Accounting from American International College and an MS in Accounting from Western New England College. Sarah became a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter in 2004.

 

Meyrick Douglas was elected as the 2026  Vice-Chairperson of the CRO Council.

Meyrick Douglas

 

Meyrick Douglas is Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of Prudential Financial, Inc., responsible for the company’s global risk management program. Meyrick recently led Prudential’s Financial Management Transformation program, driving transformative outcomes for the company’s stakeholders through a holistic and integrated approach to financial modeling and data.

 Meyrick’s experience at Prudential includes serving as Chief Auditor and, prior to that, as Deputy Chief Risk Officer and Global Head of Operational Risk Management, overseeing the company’s insurance and model risk management programs. Since joining Prudential in 2013 as Chief Market Risk Officer, Meyrick has led the development of the company’s model risk management infrastructure, risk appetite framework, and enterprise stress testing.

Before joining Prudential, Meyrick held various positions at Morgan Stanley, including Chief Risk Officer for the Fixed Income Division. Earlier in his career, Meyrick was head of Market Risk for Corporate and Structured Credit at BNP Paribas in London and held senior market risk management roles at Credit Suisse. He began his career in actuarial finance with the Old Mutual group in South Africa.

Meyrick earned a Bachelor of Business Science degree in actuarial science from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and an MBA from INSEAD (France).