Jim Lewis

Jim Lewis is a veteran insurtech founder, corporate relationship strategist, and academic executive, specializing in artificial intelligence integration, ecosystem architecture, and the collaborative innovation required to build the next generation of risk management leaders.

As the Executive Director of the Emmett J. Vaughan Institute of Risk Management and Insurance at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business, Jim is redefining the narrative of a legacy industry. An entrepreneur at his core, he has a 35-year private-sector career anchored in massive operational scaling and venture exits. He previously founded Relationship Marketing Inc., driving client profitability for Fortune 100 companies, and later co-founded Splashlight, an advanced claims analytics firm. In 2017, Jim launched Benjamin®, a groundbreaking, permission-based AI health insurance advisor that won Iowa JPEC’s Venture School Business of the Year before being acquired by Clever Health.

Before returning to his alma mater to lead the Vaughan Institute, Jim served as the Alumni Director for the Global Insurance Accelerator (GIA), managing an international portfolio of active insurtech startups. Now operating at the intersection of private tech and institutional education, Jim treats academic recruitment and workforce design with a high-velocity startup mentality. By embedding practical AI frameworks, data science, and heavy experiential learning into the curriculum, he has scaled Tippie’s risk management program to unprecedented heights, bridging the gap between campus research and real-world commercial execution.

Jim’s collaborative innovation framework gives business leaders a clear, forward-looking roadmap for navigating talent shortages and recruiting high-impact, tech-ready professionals.