Leadership – Crown Jewel® Insurance

Mary Guzman

Founder and CEO

Mary Guzman is a highly experienced veteran of the insurance industry, with three decades in a variety of roles. Known in the market as a “disruptor,” she has worked on both the broker and underwriting sides of the business, advising clients on the risks affecting their companies with a specialty in technology, media, and intellectual property. Her track record of creating innovative products and capacity within large brokerage firms contributed to the growth and success of multiple organizations, including McGriff, Seibels & Williams (Truist), WTW, and Marsh.

A passionate advocate for risk management at the convergence of intangible and tangible assets, Mary focuses on protecting critical infrastructure and trade secrets. She played a significant role in the creation of cyber insurance nearly 25 years ago, and in 2023 became the first person to develop insurance policy wording and meaningful capacity to insure the risk of trade secret misappropriation — a game-changer that creates the foundation for a new industry vertical addressing a $15 trillion gap in the market. She is a sought-after speaker, consultant, and author.

2023 Innovation Award — Business Insurance
2021 Women to Watch — Business Insurance
IAM Strategy 300 — World’s Leading IP Strategists, 2024–2026
Chair, USIPA Trade Secret Committee
Member, AIPLA Trade Secret Committee
25+ years as a commercial insurance broker (Marsh, Willis, McGriff)
Brought new products to market: cyber and trade secret
First trade secret policy supported by five A+ markets
Author, Trade Secret chapter, IAM Guide to IP Monetization (2024)

Read Mary’s full profile · A letter from the Founder

Karl Pedersen

Managing Director

Karl Pedersen specializes in helping businesses understand, protect, and maximize the value of their intangible assets — from patents and trade secrets to broader intellectual property portfolios and proprietary technologies.

Working at the intersection of IP, finance, and risk management, Karl partners with insurance brokers and carriers, companies, investors, and financial institutions to assess and insure intellectual property, conduct due diligence, and structure IP-backed financing. His goal is to help organizations see their innovation not just as R&D output but as a strategic, insurable asset class.

Karl has developed expertise in patent and trade secret due diligence, valuation-driven risk assessment, and the design of custom insurance solutions that support innovation financing and growth. At the core, he is passionate about translating intangible ideas into tangible financial value — building the bridge between creativity, capital, and protection. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.

Merritt Baer

Chief Technology Advisor

Merritt Baer is a security executive based in Miami. She serves as CISO to Enkrypt AI and advises a small handful of young technology companies, including Andesite and AppOmni.

Merritt served in the Office of the CISO at Amazon Web Services for more than five years as a Deputy CISO, helping to secure AWS infrastructure at vast scale. She has worked in security in all three branches of the U.S. government and in the private sector, and her insights on business strategy and technology have been published in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, SC Media, The Baltimore Sun, The Daily Beast, Lawfare, and Talking Points Memo. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard College.

Lily Tapia

Chief Financial Advisor

Lily Tapia is a seasoned corporate finance executive with 29 years’ experience in private equity and commercial and private debt. She is the founder and Managing Partner of Exelvest Partners, serves on the boards of several businesses, and has deep experience with strategic growth, commercial lending, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, and the optimization of enterprise value ahead of an exit.

Lily started her career at Bank of America in 1991 and joined Merrill Lynch Business Financial Services in 1998, spending 24 years with the combined Bank of America Merrill Lynch organization in a variety of capacities and several leadership roles. She has been Chief Executive Officer of a trade finance company and Chief Development Officer managing acquisitions for a large health care company. In 2017 she joined Trivest Partners, specializing in private equity for middle-market companies, and in 2019 she founded Exelvest Partners.

Jeremy Hitzig

Advisor

Jeremy Hitzig began his insurance career in 1995 as a principal at Capital Risk Strategies, focused on emerging risk-transfer tools including catastrophe bonds and other blended capital-markets and insurance products. In 1997 he joined Distinguished LLC, held several executive positions, and was named Chief Executive Officer in 2006, serving until the end of 2018.

During his time at Distinguished, the company grew from a single office with fewer than 10 people and $2 million in revenue to more than 3,000 people on three continents generating nearly $150 million in revenue. Under his tenure as CEO, Distinguished was recognized four times on Inc. Magazine’s list of America’s 5,000 fastest-growing companies, and the IAOP and Fortune Magazine recognized ReSource Pro as a “rising star” and one of the Top 100 Global Outsourcing Companies.

In early 2019, Jeremy launched Duero River Ventures, an investment vehicle and consultancy focused on the insurance and specialty finance industries. Its current interests include ReSource Pro, Accord Financial, and BondIt Media Finance.

Who leads the world's first trade secret insurer?

Mary Guzman

Karl Pedersen

Merritt Baer

Lily Tapia

Jeremy Hitzig

Talk to the people who built the market.