Leader's Edge

A discussion on litigation, D&O, board diversity and more.

“Relentless” is how Bob Klonk describes the work ethic that was born from a childhood of scrimping and settling and has driven him to strive to outwork everyone for more than 45 years. As The Council’s 2023 board chair, he joined Leader’s Edge for a conversation on the changes he has seen in the employee benefits industry, Oswald’s 2020 merger with Maryland-based RCM&D, leading through a pandemic, and his role in the greater Cleveland community.

A graduate of the University of San Diego, Bellanca studied accounting. We discuss how he got his start in insurance, what advice he would give to his younger self, and how a positive daily routine keeps him happy, healthy and motivated.

The personal and professional journey of Travelers executive Patrick Kinney.

Leader’s Edge caught up with Amrit David, managing director at Barclays, to discuss today’s market dynamics and how some macroeconomic conditions are impacting brokerage M&A going into the new year.

Bradley Plummer, senior vice president of employee benefits at Cottingham & Butler, shares how he went from an on-campus recruit to a long time insurance executive, and what it's like to have two sons play Division I college football.

Digging deeper into the concepts of inclusion and psychological safety, humanocracy, and the dangers of power, Farzad and Wright give leaders at all levels useful advice in this new age of humanness.

John Nelson, co-CEO of Warner Pacific, shares what inspired him to work in the insurance industry, the valuable lessons he has learned from historical figures, and the hobbies that help take his mind off work.

In our latest episode of the Leader’s Edge podcast, we speak with Dave Miles founding partner of ManchesterStory, an Iowa-based startup investor in the insurtech, fintech and health tech sectors. We talk with Miles about access to funding for diverse founders, what funding rounds might look like in the next year or so, and how Des Moines is a major insurance center with opportunities for numerous partnerships, including ManchesterStory's work with BrokerTech Ventures.

In this episode of Falling Into It, we meet Chris Senkbile, founder and CEO of Project Ferro, a client-first insurtech platform that uses data to create a digitally enabled customer experience.

An insightful, mixed-bag conversation with the former presidential candidate. Leader's Edge recently sat down with him to talk about the 2020 presidential election, big tech's role in disinformation, corporate social responsibility, climate change, the opioid crisis, and his plans for the future.

Vinnie Hager, president of JGS Insurance in Holmdel, New Jersey, talks about how his experience as an intern on Wall Street helped him realize a better life for himself in insurance. Hager also shares his love for sports and what inspired him to become a licensed charter boat captain.

Kacie Conroy, director of IT at M3 Insurance, has played a major role in the development of BrokerTech Ventures and the broker focused agenda at the major insurtech conference, InsureTech Connect (ITC). She shares her thoughts on tech development in the industry, how to reach future female talent at the start of their professional journey, and offers some sneak peeks from the upcoming BrokerTech Connect agenda at ITC.

Nolan Steenberg, solutions engineer at FIRST Insurance Funding, shares new developments in the digitization of premium financing, the importance of integrated systems, managing compliance and more.

Bill Johnson, founder, chairman and CEO of The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers, shares how he was able to combine his knowledge of risk assessment and passion for film to pave a unique career path.

Havoc Shield is a cyber company that helps small and midsize businesses prepare to meet the ever-stringent requirements for cyber coverage. We discuss how the cyber threat has changed for small and midsize businesses and the challenges they have even completing the application. For brokers, this means business just sitting in the pipeline.

A conversation with Joe Tocco, Chief Executive Officer of the Americas, AXA XL In our latest podcast, we speak with Joe Tocco, chief executive officer of the Americas for AXA XL. Our conversation revolves around the role environmental, social and governance (ESG) plays in companies’ decision-making, newly proposed ESG regulations and their potential effect on insurance carriers and the U.S. business community, and next steps the industry can take to evolve on these issues. Tocco also shares his personal experience with the social side of ESG, illustrating what happens when leadership truly understands diversity, equity and inclusion.

In this episode of Falling Into It, we meet Chris Moran, a senior underwriter of cyber, tech and media at Allianz Global Corporate Specialty. Moran, a young professional based in New York City, shares how he got into the field of underwriting, the role his internships played in paving his career path, and what he hopes to learn from Allianz' global underwriting exchange program—a unique opportunity to travel internationally and establish connections with different teams around the world.

The Council's government affairs team—Joel Wood, Joel Kopperud, and Blaire Bartlett—give us the latest on recent state legislative primaries, what a potential overturn of Roe v. Wade could mean for employers, and the push for transparency among pharmacy benefit managers.

Director of Employee Benefits at Bolton

Todd Thams, founder of Mod Advisor, just finished his in-person accelerator experience with BrokerTech Ventures and we are hearing firsthand what his team learned and how it will affect their business. We also talk a little workers comp.

Talking with ResourcePro CEO Dan Epstein. Having spent years helping all aspects of the insurance value chain improve their operations and innovate for the future, Epstein shares his thoughts on M&A, fragmentation and specialization, talent, and the future of risk.

Elizabeth Chrane, Chief People Officer at OneDigital shares lessons from her career and what changes she hopes to see in the insurance industry.

The BTV Accelerator offers unparalleled access to the broker community for up-and-coming insurtechs. John Fohr, co-founder and CEO of TrustLayer, shares why he chose to join BrokerTech Ventures’ first accelerator cohort and how his company has transformed in the years since.

The Pulitzer prize winner discusses his new book. Davis is also the author of The Gulf: The Making of an America Sea for which he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in history. He is a professor of history and the Rothman Family Chair in the Humanities at the University of Florida. Davis is a polymath—historian, environmentalist, researcher and raconteur—placing the reader into the context of several pivotal moments over the last 300 years of co-existing with the bald eagle. He discusses his latest book The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird.

The newly launched Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, which aims to provide hundreds of commonly used prescription medications to patients at steep discounts, officially opened for online orders earlier this year. Using Truepill, a health tech platform, to fill and deliver prescriptions, the company keeps prices down by cutting out pharmacy benefit managers. Leader’s Edge caught up with co-founder Alex Oshmyansky, a medical researcher and former professor at Stanford University, and Ron Harrison, the company’s vice president of business development, at The Council’s Legislative & Working Groups Summit, to hear about the company’s goal to curb drug costs by working both as a retailer and its own PBM.

Sam Lisi, product director for Resilience cyber insurance, explains modularity, a cyber policy production process that allows for more flexibility and individuation of coverage. The policy architecture enables parallel policy work so that new product variations and/or provision variations can be efficiently developed and pushed to market without delay or interruption to the production process.

Matt O’Malley, US Country Manager for AXA XL, shares his path from middle school teacher to insurance executive and discusses the need to expand industry recruiting. We also talk about the trends driving insurance pricing and where AXA XL is investing in data-driven new products and initiatives.

Amy Steadman, Chief People Officer at Newfront San Francisco shares what makes a good workplace culture, what changes need to be made to the brokerage industry and how she approaches management in her position.

In this episode of Falling Into It, we meet Ben Peach, a 26-year-old associate director of digital assets at Aon. A graduate from the University of Birmingham in England, Peach studied international relations, political science and political economy. Peach shares his passion for cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies, and how that led to him to working in the insurance industry.

The Council's Republican leaning SVP Joel Wood, Democratic VP Joel Kopperud, and middle-focused director Blaire Bartlett join us for an earful. We cover the Supreme Court, vaccine mandates, mid-term elections, and threats and opportunities for employer-sponsored insurance.

Daniel Pink is one of the best-selling non-fiction authors of the last decade. We discuss his latest title, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, and how some of the lessons he has learned through research can shape the future of our work and personal lives.

Scott Naugle is president of consumer solutions for BXS insurance and co-owner of Pass Books/Cat Island Coffeehouse in Pass Christian and Gulfport, Mississippi. As an independent bookstore owner, writer, and book lover, Scott is bringing his expertise and author network to Leader's Edge in a monthly book review column and podcast series.

Moving from the broker side to the carrier side of the industry gave this AXA XL exec a unique view. June Dwyer, senior vice president and Americas broker relationship leader for AXA XL, shares her journey from broker to carrier, and how that helps align her perspective with broker clients. She also discusses the crucial role brokers play in product development, DE&I progress in the industry, and AXA XL’s commitment to addressing climate change on all fronts.

In this episode of Falling Into It, we meet Eyad Kabbani, a 26-year-old assistant vice president who works in the Cyber and E&O Center of Excellence at Marsh. A graduate of the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University, Kabbani studied risk management and insurance and earned a Council Foundation scholarship after his internship at Johnson, Kendall & Johnson in 2017. We discuss what attracted him to the industry, how his internship helped solidify his decision to pursue a career in insurance brokerage, and how growing up working in his family's small business shaped his work ethic and prepared him for the corporate world.

Guiding the Healthcare System: A Q&A with former U.S. HHS Secretaries Alex Azar and Donna Shalala

In this episode we talk with Lori Bailey, Chief Insurance Office at Corvus. With over 20 years of experience in cyber liability, Bailey shares her thoughts on the evolution of cyber risk and whether coverage has kept up. We also talk about the lack of historical data for cyber underwriting and how that's being addressed, as well as where the market is headed.

Karl Olson, vice president, professional management liability practice leader at Burns & Wilcox, talks about how healthcare organizations have managed this balancing act and what new risks may emerge as a result of COVID.

As one may suspect, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the labor-intensive agriculture industry particularly hard. But as Denise Brown and Rick Harrison from InterWest Insurance Services explain, how your Ag clients fare during coronavirus, and how they handle risk, will depend on many factors.

In this episode of our podcast series with U.S.-based insurer, Nationwide, we meet the company’s vice president of cyber insurance, Catherine Rudow, and its senior vice president and chief information security officer, Todd Lukens. Together, we explore the dynamics of ransomware, cyber entry points that businesses of all sizes should be aware of, the evolution of the threat actor, and how the public and private sectors can come together to improve the nation's cybersecurity. Rudow and Lukens warn that as we evolve as enterprises and as a society, threat actors will also evolve. They say business processes—beyond just systems and data—are at risk, and exposure is not going away any time soon. In this conversation, we identify ways organizations can improve their cyber hygiene, and better adapt to and manage the current cyber threat environment.

Amrit David works with management teams, private equity firms and alternative capital providers across a variety of transactions in the insurance brokerage space. We check in with him periodically on M&A and sat down recently to discuss brokerage IPOs, the use of SPACs, and other recent trends in brokerage transactions. Click for the podcast.

Hagerty, a global automotive enthusiast brand and classic car insurer, recently announced plans to merge with SPAC, Aldel Financial. The deal, which is valued at $3.13 billion, according to reports, will allow Hagerty to go public and trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol HGTY. We spoke with Fred Turcotte, Hagerty CFO, to discuss the recent merger, where Hagerty plans to grow, automotive trends, and, of course, the classic car market.

AXA XL’s Bob Peretti, Chief Distribution Officer, Americas, shares how his team is approaching broker relationships in the face of multifaceted risk, a constantly changing M&A landscape, and the ongoing pandemic

In this episode of Falling Into It, we meet Eleanor Ko, a 29-year-old account manager at Woodruff Sawyer. A graduate from Seattle University with a degree in business administration and management, Ko shares what she wished she had learned in college about the insurance industry, her passion for learning new skills, and what it’s like juggling her professional and personal life, while working from home.

This episode marks the beginning of a series of interviews with subject matter experts from U.S.-based insurer Nationwide. In this episode we meet Ben Davis, a loss control manager with Nationwide’s loss control services team. Davis helps us better understand business continuity plan development (including the important difference between business continuity planning, disaster recovery, and contingency planning, and how they work together) and the critical importance of having plans in place for your organization, regardless of size. We talk weather disasters, cyber security, construction, supply chain, agriculture and more, and how business continuity planning plays an integral role for each business need and operational aspect, regardless of industry. Davis also highlights the opportunity for brokers and insurers to work together to ensure their clients have proper BCP coverage beyond standard policies. “Even the best insurance coverage cannot be the sole remedy,” says Davis. “A business continuity plan that includes integrated ins coverage [is] really the best risk management strategy that the insured can have.”

Tune in to hear Gabby Taveras, co-founder of Equal Pay Group, a D&I consulting firm, on why now is the time to close the wage gap. Taveras also shares how to educate organizations on integrating inclusivity and equity into business decisions, hiring practices and retention strategies.

We discuss what UnitedHealthcare is doing to address healthcare disparities and access to care, as well as the effectiveness of wellness programs and the future of telehealth.

Business leaders are looking for answers to what they see as unsustainable practices in our healthcare system. Shawn Gremminger, director of health policy at the Purchaser Business Group on Health, which supports public and private purchasers of healthcare, discusses the issues critical to their members. These include market consolidation of health systems, drug pricing reform, value-based payment in employer plans, and how a public option would mingle with ESI.

This is part 2 of our conversation with AXA XL’s Maria Duhart, Head of the Commercial Bonds, Political Risk, and Credit & Bond Practice, and Stuart Barrowcliff, Vice President & Senior Underwriter of AXA XL’s Political Risk, Credit & Bond team in the Americas. Here we turn to Covid-19 and the effects on the political risk and commercial bond markets. And we talk about AXA XL’s work in sustainability and climate change.

In this episode of Falling Into It, we meet Ilana Shackelford, a 32-year-old account coordinator on the executive risk team at ABD, who hopes to manage her own book of business one day, while continuing to effect change in the industry.