The Travelers Companies has announced that Joan Kois Woodward is joining the company as executive vice president of public policy, effective immediately.

Ms Woodward reports to vice chairman and chief legal officer Alan Schnitzer and will serve on the company’s management committee. She is based in Washington. She joins the company from Goldman, Sachs & Co, where she is the founding executive director of the company’s Global Markets Institute.

During her nine years at Goldman Sachs, Woodward also served as vice president and director of Washington Research for Goldman Sachs’ Global Investment Research. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Woodward served as deputy chief of staff for the US Senate Committee on Finance. She also served as senior economist for the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the US House of Representatives Committee on the Budget.

Mr Schnitzer said: Joan has successfully built a world class public policy program at Goldman Sachs, and we are delighted that she will now be applying her experience and talent in support of Travelers’ public policy initiative.