Sylvia Berg serves as the vice president of new initiatives for Assurant’s Connected Living business. In this role, Sylvia leads global research and product development teams that have helped to revolutionize mobile device protection products and related-services and drive business growth. As a result, she has helped the Connected Living business grow to protect 30 million mobile devices, 25 million appliances and 21 million consumer electronics worldwide—and that generates $2.5 billion in annual revenue.

Forging a Path Forward
While many women in consumer research and product development have struggled to achieve senior positions at other organizations, Sylvia’s talent and dedication have been widely recognized at Assurant. Since joining the company in 1996, Sylvia has held roles of increasing responsibility in sales and marketing. She was named to her current role in 2013 and assumed additional responsibility for international research and product development as Assurant’s global footprint for its Connected Living business expanded to 16 countries.

Pioneering New Territory
During her tenure at Assurant, she has played a critical role in increasing the company’s focus on the end-consumer, was instrumental in securing its first major client win—one of the world’s largest mobile phone carriers, and helped establish the company in the Connected Living marketplace. In recognition of her achievements, she has won six Assurant Top Notch awards, which is an internal, global awards program that recognizes those who have contributed significantly to the material growth of the company.

Connecting Global Teams
Committed to her research and product development teams and colleagues across the globe, Sylvia works to empower employees, encourage their creativity, foster individual achievement and help them achieve their career aspirations. She built the international product development and research teams with employees from across the globe who speak seven languages and coordinate activities in five different time zones. Sylvia led these teams in their development of new protection plan enhancements, which led to the development of the T-Mobile Jump! Program and Sprint tablet embedded insurance offering.

Prior to joining Assurant, Sylvia worked in marketing at Citicorp and Fiserv. A native of New York City, Sylvia graduated from Bernard M. Baruch College of the City University of New York with a bachelor’s degree in communications. She has lived in Miami since 1996 and is active in the Multiple Sclerosis and Huntington Disease support groups in South Florida.