About a year after working with Root Inc. and a week after helping the company report fourth-quarter earnings, Chief Financial Officer Robert Bateman was fired for violating company policy.
According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Bateman was “terminated for cause” on March 1 from his position as chief financial officer and treasurer. The move is “not related to the company’s financial or operating results or any disagreements or concerns about the company’s financial or reporting practices,” Root said. Root said Bateman, hired by Root on April 11, 2022, will not receive any severance pay. The former CFO was hired from Ategrity Specialty Insurance, where he held the same position.
23, Bateman was on a conference call with analysts to discuss the insurtech company’s $58.3 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Megan Binkley, formerly Root’s deputy chief financial officer, was appointed interim chief financial officer and treasurer. She has been with the company since 2019.
The latest executive-level change at Root Inc., the parent company of Original Insurance, comes about a month after the company filed a lawsuit against Brinson Caleb “BC” Silver, the company’s former chief marketing officer. Root accused Silver of a “blatant and sophisticated scheme” to steal nearly $10 million from the company. Root accused Silver of paying an advertising agency millions of dollars for services that were never provided and asked the company to transfer the money to a company owned by Silver, who subsequently purchased the property. luxury properties in Florida and California.
