Pinkes’ appointment marks the second Connecticut insurance executive to land a top role at the San Antonio-based financial services firm in recent months.
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Andrew J. Pinkes, a veteran insurance executive in Connecticut, has been appointed to the board of directors of USAA, one of the country’s largest providers of insurance, banking and retirement products for military families.
Pinkes’ appointment, effective May 29, brings more than three decades of experience across property and casualty insurance, claims operations and enterprise leadership to the San Antonio-based financial services giant. USAA serves more than 14.5 million members of the U.S. military, veterans and their families.
Pinkes, a West Hartford resident, began his career at Travelers, where he worked for more than 11 years, rising to senior vice president and general counsel of the company’s special liability group. He then joined The Hartford Financial Services Group, where he spent roughly a decade in executive vice president roles overseeing claims and running the company’s Heritage Holdings subsidiary.
Hartford Business Journal reported in 2010 that Pinkes served as acting head of The Hartford’s commercial markets business, stepping in on an interim basis following the departure of Juan Andrade.
After The Hartford, Pinkes moved to XL Group as global head of claims, then to CNA Insurance as executive vice president for worldwide property and casualty claims.
More recently, he served as global chief executive of Randall & Quilter’s legacy insurance division and as interim chief executive of CLARA Analytics, an AI-driven claims technology company. He has also served as a senior advisor to McKinsey & Co.’s insurance practice since 2024.
He currently sits on several corporate boards in the insurance and technology sectors and on the board of advisers of the RAND Institute for Civil Justice.
Pinkes earned a bachelor’s degree in history and sociology from Connecticut College in New London and a law degree from Western New England University School of Law in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Pinkes is the second Connecticut insurance veteran to take a leadership role at USAA in recent months. In January, Rob Arena — a UConn MBA graduate who previously held senior roles at The Hartford and Prudential, and most recently served as co-president of Global Atlantic Financial Group — took over as president of USAA Life Insurance Co.
