Derek D’Onofrio is an Account Executive in the National Sales Division of Gallagher-Bassett. In this role, he develops customized claim management solutions for specialty programs, captives, risk retention groups, primary insurance companies and risk management clients. Prior to joining Gallagher-Bassett, he was a producer for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Inc. and a direct commercial insurance agent of Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Derek holds an MBA in Strategic Management from Fordham University, an MS in Risk Management and Insurance from Georgia State University and a BS in Finance from Fordham University. He has earned the Associate in Risk Management designation and is a candidate for Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter designation. He is a frequent attendee, exhibitor and speaker at AAMGA, Target Markets, AzCIA, CIC-DC, SCCIA, RIMS and related events.

Edward Gray is the Director of Customer Solutions for FirstBest Systems in Lexington, MA, where he works with customers to develop a shared vision for how an underwriting management system can bring real-world productivity and quality benefits to the carrier's internal and agency operations.

 

Eli Lehrer is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute where he directs CEI's Center for Risk, Regulation, and Markets. RRM, which operates in both Washington, D.C. and Florida, deals with issues relating to insurance, risk, and credit markets.  Prior to joining CEI, Lehrer worked as speechwriter to United States Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.).

 

He has previously worked as a manager in the Unisys Corporation's Homeland Security Practice, Senior Editor of The American Enterprise magazine, and as a fellow for the Heritage Foundation. He has spoken at Yale and George Washington Universities. He holds a B.A. (Cum Laude) from Cornell University and a M.A. (with honors) from The Johns Hopkins University where his Master’s thesis focused on the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Flood Insurance.

His work has appeared in the New York Times,Washington Post, USA Today, Washington Times,Weekly Standard, National Review, The Public Interest, Salon.com, and dozens of other publications. Lehrer lives in Oak Hill, Virginia with his wife Kari and son Andrew.

Jim Cerone is an independent consultant to the insurance industry, former Executive Vice President of the Travelers Property Casualty Corporation and former President of the technical services division of their claim organization. Prior to joining Travelers, Mr. Cerone served as Senior Consultant and Equity Principal of Milliman & Robertson, Inc. (M&R). At M&R, he founded and directed the claims management consulting practice, specializing in consulting with management on a wide range of strategic and organizational issues. His background also includes service as Vice Presidents and Consultants with Tillinghast, Nelson & Warren, Inc.; Kramer Capital Consultants; and senior executive positions with three other U.S. insurers; Commercial Union, John Hancock, and American Reserve. In these positions, he was responsible for organizational design, acquisitions, automation, training and education, and the general management of large scale claim operations.

Mr. Cerone holds a BS in Business Administration from Villanova University and a MBA. from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.

Josh Struve is Perr&Knight’s Marketing Manager, as well as the Managing Editor & Art Director for the Journal of Insurance Operations. Josh drafts, designs and produces the totality of Perr&Knight's branding and marketing efforts, including brochures, print and online advertisements, e-mail blasts, and websites, in addition to developing and managing various CRM systems.

 

His experience at Perr&Knight also includes business process management and web services management, during which time he designed and developed the majority of Perr&Knight’s current slate of CRM systems, web sites and web applications.

Karen Furtado is a partner at SMA, a new breed of strategic advisory and research firm in the insurance industry.  She has broad and deep experience within the insurance industry vendor community gained from over 25 years in leadership roles at CGI and Collaborative Consulting. Her specific areas of expertise include business and IT alignment strategies, product development and IT roadmaps, project management, as well as business and IT outsourcing services.

 

Kimberly Morton brings over a decade of insurance expertise in her role as Global Product Marketing Director at Guidewire.  She was successful in bringing PitneyBowes Insight (formerly MapInfo Corporation) into the Property & Casualty market and then spent a few years with the financial services analyst firm, TowerGroup before joining Guidewire. She has been published in top insurance magazines and enjoys working closely with carriers and industry analysts to discuss industry trends and thought leadership topics.

Marcus Ryu is co-founder and Vice President of Strategy and New Products for Guidewire Software, Inc. Guidewire is an enterprise software company focused entirely on the development and delivery of superior web-based core systems to the property and casualty insurance industry. Marcus’ responsibilities for Guidewire include product strategy, corporate development, and product marketing; he also serves on Guidewire’s board of directors. Before co-founding Guidewire in 2001, he was Vice President of Strategy for Ariba, Inc., an enterprise software and consulting firm providing procurement and spend management solutions. Prior to Ariba, he was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey and Company. Marcus has an A.B. from Princeton University, and a B. Phil from New College, Oxford University.

Mark Jones is the Director of Research & Development and a Consulting Actuary with Perr&Knight. His primary responsibility is the development of new products and services for all areas of the firm. Mark has a broad background including experience with ratemaking, regulatory compliance, competitive analysis, catastrophe modeling and reserving for most personal and commercial lines of business. He also has experience in the development and implementation of predictive models, dynamic financial analysis tools for reinsurance applications, financial forecasting applications for budgeting and retention analysis, rate monitoring tools for most lines of business and ad hoc statistical studies for claims investigation, premium audit and loss control. Mark’s skill set includes an extensive knowledge of insurance data systems and company operations, as well as Visual Basic, SQL, R and other software.

Mark’s prior role was as Chief Actuary/AVP of Union Standard Insurance Company, a WR Berkley company. Prior to Union Standard, he worked in a variety of roles at TIG Insurance, Guy Carpenter and Watson Wyatt. He also spent time working on his Ph.d and teaching undergraduate level mathematics courses in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

Mark graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Math/Physics and a Master of Arts in Math in 1995. He has completed 54 post-masters doctoral hours of mathematics with a research emphasis on applications of partial differential equations to physics and numerical analysis. He has since become an associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Mark O’Brien is the Principal of O’Brien Communications Group. Having spent some 25 years in marketing – including stints at The Hartford, Aetna, and The Travelers and numerous public relations and advertising agencies – he has written everything from press releases to award-winning video scripts, print ads to CD reviews, political-campaign collateral to POS materials for alcoholic beverages, as well as websites, speeches, bylined and feature articles, supermarket coupon/recipe booklets, direct-mail copy, and a winning Bad Faulkner entry.

Richard Barrett is Director of Operations in Business Objects’ Center of Excellence. He started his career in pharmaceuticals, received an MBA in 1981 and became a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing in 1990. He has worked in consultancy, national and international positions in consumer marketing, insurance, and business-to-business marketing. He first became involved in planning and budgeting as Planning Manager for DHL Worldwide Express in Europe in the late '80s and has continued his interest in the topic ever since. In 2000, he joined ALG Software, a leading provider of software for activity-based costing, which became part of Business Objects in 2006. He regularly speaks at performance management events and presents courses on customer profitability and driver-based budgeting for the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK).

Robert Allen is the Vice President of Allied World Assurance Company U.S. Healthcare Underwriting. In his current role, he is responsible for all underwriting and servicing of healthcare professional liability underwritten in the company’s U.S. platform. Prior to joining Allied World, he was a Vice President with Zurich's healthcare group and an underwriting manager of long-term care liability at US Re. He also held an underwriting manager role with AIG, and brokerage roles with Johnson & Higgins and Marsh & McLennan. He is an insurance professional with seventeen years experience in marketing, operations, risk analysis/pricing, product development and client service. Mr. Allen is a graduate of the University of Virginia and member of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society and American Society for Healthcare Risk Management.

Bob Lasher is president and CEO of iPartners. Bob possesses more than 25 years of software industry experience and is responsible for the overall strategy and vision for the company. iPartners is a successful spin-off of Application Partners, a leading consultancy in Enterprise Performance Management founded in 1994. Bob has developed a team with vast experience in helping organizations improve their operating performance. iPartners’ flagship offering, the Insurance Scorecard, provides insurers with a turnkey performance management solution. The Scorecard is focused on serving the business needs of mid-sized P&C insurers and is currently deployed among some 600 insurance professionals at 19 individual client companies. Bob is a graduate of Clemson University, and holds a B.S. in Administrative Management.

Steve Franklin is the Vice President of U.S. Operations for Wyde Corporation and has more than fifteen years of insurance systems experience. Steve’s previous experience includes the management of several custom builds and implementations across the Life and Property and Casualty sectors. Steve’s most recent experience was with CGI for seven years and also has prior independent consulting experience. Steve joined Wyde over two years ago and has been instrumental in growing Wyde’s business in the United States.

 

Wyde Corporation, a leader in providing modern insurance solutions, has been incorporated in the United States since 2000. Wyde is focused on its flagship product, Wynsure, and its customers. Wynsure is an advanced solution which administers individual and group products for Life and for Property and Casualty lines of business, as well as complete functionality for Reinsurance. The solution is used by insurance carriers, brokers, and third party administrators. By means of providing complete end-to-end functionality, many insurers have been able to simplify their systems, reduce expenses, and improve time to market. With Wynsure, insurers have experienced an ease of business using Wynsure to handle all aspects of the policy life cycle without the problems that come with managing multiple systems. Customer service has improved by enabling agents to quote and view commission statements, and by providing access for policyholders to view their personal information, bills, payments, and claim statuses online.

Steve McElhiney is the President of EWI Risk Services, Inc., a reinsurance intermediary based in Dallas, and a subsidiary of NL Industries a diversified industrial company. He also serves as President of Tall Pines Insurance Company of Vermont, an affiliated captive insurance company.  

 

His insurance industry experience has spanned over two decades with groups including Fireman’s Fund, TIG, and Overseas Partners US Reinsurance Company.   He has served in the roles of CFO, Corporate Treasurer, and Ceded Reinsurance executive.

 

He was elected to the CPCU Society’s Board of Governors in 2007 and was elected as the Society’s Vice President at the Denver meeting and will be serving in the Society Chairs over the next three years.

 

Steve has an MBA and a Bachelors of Science from the University of Southern California. He also holds the ARe and AIAF designations. He also serves on the Board of the Vermont Captive Insurance Association and is a panelist at various industry events.

Tom Trezise is president of Convergent Insurance Services. Tom possesses an extraordinary depth of experience in the property casualty business, including operational areas, technology, financial concerns, and contractual issues facing insurers, reinsurers, third party administrators, and intermediaries. From start-up insurers to large international insurers, Tom has served the insurance industry for over 28 years as an insurance executive, general counsel, and trial attorney. He has led organizations with more than 1,000 employees and managed multimillion dollar budgets. His roles have included VP Liability Claims with USF&G and VP Commercial Claims St. Paul Companies/USF&G. With XL Vianet, Tom was a member of the senior management team that launched an Internet-based commercial insurance business start-up, from business plan development through business process design, technology platform decisions, Web-tool design, and business operations.

 

Tom received his bachelor of arts degree from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) and his law degree from Washington & Lee University. He is licensed to practice law in Maryland and is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, American Bar Association, Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, and Defense Research Institute.

Ugur Kadakal is Chief Executive Officer of Pagos, Inc., a software and IT consulting firm specializing in helping its clients to integrate spreadsheet-intensive functions with enterprise applications. Insurance companies commonly use Pagos products to build web-based rating systems based on existing spreadsheet rating tools. Other applications include pricing, underwriting and reserving where sophisticated spreadsheets models are used. Prior to co-founding Pagos in 2002, Ugur held positions at Air Worldwide, Inc. a leading catastrophe modeling company. Ugur holds a Ph.D. from Northeastern University.

Vivek is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at OneShield, Inc., a process automation software company with an insurance industry focus. Prior to OneShield, Vivek worked in a variety of technology, marketing and consulting positions in the financial services industry. His industry experience spans some twenty years. Vivek was educated at Swarthmore College and INSEAD.

Wayne Snell is Senior Director, Marketing for Lombardi Software, developers of the Teamworks Business Process Management Suite. Wayne manages all aspects of Lombardi’s public and customer communications. His more than twenty years of experience include senior-level marketing, product management and technical implementation positions with BEA Systems (now part of Oracle), start-up services provider Symphion, Viasoft (now owned by Allen Systems Group), and Computer Associates.

 

Bill Taylor is a twenty-five year insurance industry veteran. His executive-level experience has provided him with considerable knowledge in insurance operations and technology management for underwriting, business development, product development, marketing, finance and strategic planning processes. Bill was previously VP of Operations at Axa Re America and Munich Re America, responsible for new business integration, strategic planning, operations management, IT management, budgeting, and management reporting. As a key senior executive, he oversaw operations where premium volume had doubled in excess of $900 million. He has planned, managed and implemented many insurance-specific solutions for a broad range of leading insurance and insurance consulting practices including Specialty Markets/Munich Re America, Axa Re Property & Casualty Insurance Co, Axa Re America, Community Association Underwriters and Cigna Corporation. At Capgemini America, Bill led the International Insurance Practice, where he was involved with large scale systems designs and implementations on behalf of Capgemini’s extensive roster of insurance clients. He holds an MBA in Finance, cum laude, from Philadelphia University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.