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Kathy Ryan, SPHR, is an award-winning author and owner of Pinnacle Coaching Group, LLC.  Over the last 30 years, Kathy has influenced thousands of people in the business and non-profit sectors through her coaching, consulting, speaking and on-site training. Her expertise covers a wide range of subjects including leadership, communication, human resources management, team dynamics, and performance management.

Kathy earned her B.A. degree in psychology and history from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and has been awarded a lifetime certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the Society for Human Resources Management. She has experience working with diverse industries including insurance, hospitality and entertainment. She is certified in the use of the Myer-Briggs Type Assessment (MBTI), as well as a number of other assessments and tools to support development.

Kathy is author of the book, "You Have to Say the Words" An Integrity-Based Approach for Tackling Tough Conversations and Maximizing Performance, which won a Royal Palm Literary Award from the Florida Writers Association.  Her interactive training program based on the book has helped thousands of managers to improve their coaching skills and drive performance. Her articles on leadership and other personal development topics have been published in numerous magazines including the Insurance Journal. You can follow Kathy’s blog, Inspired Leadership, at www.CoachKathyRyan.com .

Frederick J. Fisher, J.D. is currently the President of Fisher Consulting Group, Inc. and was the Founder of E.L.M. Insurance Brokers, a Wholesale & MGA facility specializing in Professional Liability and Specialty Line risks. He is a Member of the Editorial Board for Agents of America;  a Faculty Member of the Claims College, and Member of the Executive Council, School of Professional Lines sponsored by the Claims & Litigation Management Association and Instructor for the Academy of Insurance.

Since his career began, Mr. Fisher focused on one vision: providing financial security to the client. The result was a successful 40-year career in Specialty Lines Insurance. In 1975, Mr. Fisher began his career on the service side, as an Independent E&O claims adjuster. In 1982, he bought the Company, continued with claims, while expanding the firm’s services to include qualitative claim auditing, risk management & loss control services, and acting as a TPA. In only 4 years, the annual billings increased by 400%. His claim auditing techniques and recommendations resulted in substantial client savings (including the SCRTD now known as the Los Angles MTA). Many Insurers and self-insureds adopted not only the performance standards raised in the audits but adopted his recommended Attorney Management Guidelines as a base, which are still in use today by many major insurers. 

In 1995, he formed what is now known as ELM insurance Brokers, a firm that has acted as an MGA and Wholesale Broker of Professional Liability Insurance and Specialty Lines. From nothing, the firm grew rapidly to a $30 Million dollar facility when sold in 2008. He has lectured extensively on professional liability issues since 1978 and authored over 64 articles in trade journals and periodicals. He is the author of BROKER BEWARE, Selling Real Estate within the Law. He designed a program to conduct on-site pre-underwriting risk management assessments of a clients' professional liability exposures. In 1993, he was elected to the Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) Board of Trustees. After serving in all Officer capacities, he was elected President in 1997. He remains a Special Materials Expert for several RPLU courses and is the Senior Technical Advisor for The Professional Liability Manual, first published by the International Risk Management Institute in 1990. He has taught over 100 CE classes and lectures. He testifies regularly as an expert witness in cases dealing with the duties and obligations of professionals as well as on coverage and claims-made issues.

Nancy Germond is the Executive Director, Risk Management and Education, for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, the “Big I.” She is located in Phoenix, Arizona. With almost four decades of risk management experience, her unique insights and abilities help businesses better understand and manage their risk. Nancy has authored scores of risk management-related articles, and white papers and has consulted and presented to public-sector and private-sector insurance organizations. She is a licensed P&C agent and adjuster.

A second-generation insurance professional, Nancy was the first risk manager of the City of Prescott, Arizona, and has worked in the private and public sectors as a claim and risk manager. Nancy holds a B.A. in Communication from Mills College and a Master’s degree in sociology from Lincoln University. She also holds the Associate in Risk Management, the Associate in Claims designation from the Insurance Institute of America, the Insurance Training Professional Designation from the Society of Insurance Trainers and is a Senior Professional in Human Resource Management.

Chris Burand is the Owner/Founder of Burand & Associates, LLC.  Chris is the only insurance agency consultant with an Institute of Business Appraiser’s Certified Business Appraiser Accreditation and one of the very few who are certified by the two largest E&O carriers to provide audits for agencies.  With more than 35 years of experience in the insurance industry, Chris is acknowledged as a leading consultant and is a nationally recognized speaker and author.  His broad experience and wealth of knowledge have enabled him to work with hundreds of agencies, taking great care to learn the client’s goals and understand their needs while developing a solution for their specific situation.

Chris combines education, experience, and knowledge from multiple perspectives at proven levels that few other consultants or educators can provide.  This enables Chris to provide holistic solutions.  Chris’s services help agencies, individuals, and carriers identify strengths and opportunities, optimize productivity and profits, implement real-world strategies, leverage resources, and develop realistic plans of action in order to maximize profitable growth.

Chris established Burand & Associates in 1992 (originally known as Growth Planning).  As a consultant, Chris has consulted with hundreds of agencies and many major insurance carriers.  He built and now facilitates two insurance agency networking associations.  He is also a featured speaker across the continent.  To date, he has presented more than 400 seminars and educational programs, and his articles have also been published more than 500 times.  He is a monthly columnist for The Insurance Journal, a past columnist for American Agent & Broker for eleven years, and his articles have appeared in Rough Notes, The National Underwriter, A.M. Best, many regional insurance publications, and many other trade publications.  He also publishes Burand’s Insurance Agency Adviser for independent insurance agents.

Areas of Expertise

Insurance Agency Appraisals:  Chris Burand’s professional services include appraisals for Acquisitions and Sales, Buy/Sell Agreements, Mergers, Dissolutions, and Perpetuation Planning.

Contingency Contract Analysis:  Contingency contracts offer opportunities to increase compensation through negotiations and strategically placing business.  Chris Burand’s Contingency Contract Analysis® service provides the information agents need to take advantage of those opportunities.

Note:  Chris Burand and Burand & Associates, LLC are advocates of agencies which constructively manage and improve their contingency contracts by learning how to negotiate and use their contingency contracts more effectively.  We maintain that agents can achieve considerably better results without ever taking actions that are detrimental or disadvantageous to the insureds.  We have never and would not ever recommend that an agent and/or agency implement a policy of, or otherwise advocate, increasing its contingency income ahead of the insureds’ interests.

PEP® (Productivity Enhancement):  Chris’s innovative statistical algorithm method for identifying procedural consistency, compliance, activity cost, and opportunity cost savings.

Carrier MD® Stability Analysis:  A unique analytical method for creating opportunities to learn negotiating points and insurance carrier stability from an agency’s perspective.

Producer Compensation Plans:  Chris Burand develops plans that increase profits and motivate producers.

Chris Christian stumbled into insurance in 1985 as a temporary employee at GAF Insurance Services, a bank-affiliated insurance agency in San Diego.  After six years with GAF, Chris moved to the carrier side, opening the San Diego branch office of RLI Corp, an underwriter of specialty lines of insurance.  The San Diego office was dedicated to Directors and Officers Liability coverage, and was the launching pad for Chris’s specialization in professional liability.

Chris left RLI in 1997 to establish her own underwriting facility at London American General Agency and branched out thereafter into professional liability broking.

Chris joined U.S. Risk in November of 2005 and six months later relocated herself, her significant other, and 26 animals to Tennessee, where she continues her pursuit of the art and science of professional liability broking, and contributes to the industry as a frequent speaker, author and association participant.

Marty Frappolli is a risk management and insurance consultant with Longhorn Knowledge Resources, headquartered in Austin, Texas. Longhorn offers custom individual and group insurance training, research, writing, and analytical services.

Previously, Marty served 18 years as Senior Director of Knowledge Resources for The Institutes in Malvern PA. His experience there includes the design of educational courses and safeguarding the academic integrity of Institutes curriculum. His national presentations and articles include showcases at RIMS, PLRB, IDMA, CAS, ACORD, NAPIA, and the CPCU Society. His specialty areas include claims, the IoT, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, cyber risk, and data management.

He is the author of these Institutes courses: Auto Claims Practices, Managing Cyber Risk, Claims Handling Principles and Practices, CPCU 530 - Business Law for Insurance Professionals, Principles of Workers Compensation Claims, Liability Claims Practices, and Claims Leadership & Organizational Alignment.

Before joining the Institutes, Marty led the Data Management group at NJM Insurance. Marty earned his B.A. at Rutgers University and his Masters in Organizational Leadership at Quinnipiac University. He was awarded the Fellow in Insurance Data Management (FIDM) designation by the Insurance Data Management Association (IDMA). 

Richard S. Pitts is Vice-President and General Counsel to Arlington/Roe & Co., Inc., an insurance brokerage and managing general agent headquartered in Indianapolis. Rick also serves as general counsel to the Independent Insurance Agents of Indiana, Inc. As counsel to the “Big I,” Rick speaks annually at the association’s New Laws Seminars and teaches various seminars on insurance and employment related matters. Pitts has also presented continuing education seminars to insurance professionals in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Rick is a 1983 graduate of Wabash College and a 1986 graduate of Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis. Pitts clerked for the Honorable Patrick D. Sullivan, a judge of the Indiana Court of Appeals in 1986-87. Rick is admitted to practice before Indiana state and federal courts, the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and is a member of local, state and national bar associations. Pitts has tried cases and participated in over seventy appeals.

Pitts has served as a panelist and lecturer on a variety continuing education subjects, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, “Mold: Issues Under the Microscope” for the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum (ICLEF), and “Insurance Issues for Builders” for the Indiana Builders Association. Rick has also served as chair of several of ICLEF’s seminars, including “Advanced Corporate Practice,” “Privacy Law,” and “Insurance Coverage Issues.” Rick has also presented seminars on “Insuring Fiduciary Exposures,” “Insurance Coverage Disputes,” and “Agency Succession and Perpetuation,” for the Independent Insurance Agents of Indiana, 2007. Pitts has co-authored two articles appearing in the Indiana Law Review.

Bill Whitley is a nationally recognized speaker, author and researcher who specializes in helping insurance professionals attract more clients, close more sales and deepen client relationships. Many of his unique sales and customer loyalty concepts are derived from Bill's personal experience as a top-echelon sales executive who achieved and maintained an 80% presentation-to-close ratio.

In 1989, Bill leveraged his dramatic sales success by forming The Whitley Group, a multi-media sales presentation design & production company whose focus was creating sales improvement programs for clients such as IBM, Apple Computer, EDS and AT&T.

Today, with Bill's reseach based approach, he reveals the sales messages the Top Producers use to: Attract more clients.... Communicate the essence of their value... and Create lifelong relationships.

In addition to his work as a sales messaging consultant and keynote speaker, Bill is the author of two books that capsulize and reinforce the unique sales training principles he presents in his seminars, workshops and webinars:

Eight Secrets of the Top-Performing Agents outlines the questions, comments examples and conversations used by top-producing insurance agents to position themselves as advisors, communicate their value more effectively and make everyday risk simple, visual and easy to understand. Uncovered by Bill at the request of several large insruance companies, these effective sales principles form the basis of Bill's popular seminar of the same name. More than 4,000 insurance agents have attended his Eight Secrets seminars and used what they learned to attract more clients, close more sales and create deeper client relationships.

Art of the Rainmaker offers insightful guidance on how to create effective client attraction stories, position yourself as a trusted advisor and much more. As detailed in this book, Bill's refreshing sales tactics show readers how to: Discover & communicate the essence of your organization's value to naturally attract more new clients... Eliminate the stress of "doing sales" the old-fashioned way... Close more sales through effective story-telling... and much more.

Bill and his wife, LeeAnne, have been married 25 years and live with their three children in Charlotte, North Carolina. Reach bill by email (bill@bwhitley.com) or phone (704-996-2800).

James founded a Workers' Compensation consulting firm, J&L Risk Mgmt Consultants, Inc. in 1996.  J&L's mission is to reduce our clients’ Workers Compensation premiums by using time-tested techniques.  J&L’s claims, premium, reserve and Experience Mod reviews have saved employers over   $9.8 million in earned premiums over the last three years.  J&L has saved numerous companies from bankruptcy proceedings as a result of insurance overpayments.
  
Experience

James has over 27 years of experience in insurance claims, audit, and underwriting, specializing in Workers' Compensation.  He has supervised, and managed the administration of Workers’ Compensation claims, and underwriting in over 45 states. His professional experience includes being the Director of Risk Management for the North Carolina School Boards Association.  He created a very successful Workers’ Compensation Injury Rehabilitation Unit for school personnel.  

Education

James's educational background, which centered on computer technology, culminated in earning a Masters of Business Administration (MBA); an Associate in Claims designation (AIC); and an Associate in Risk Management designation (ARM).  He is a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and a licensed financial advisor. The NC Department of Insurance has certified him as an insurance instructor.  He also possesses a Bachelors’ Degree in Actuarial Science.

Awards

LexisNexis has twice recognized his blog as one of the Top 25 Blogs on Workers’ Compensation. J&L has been listed in AM Best’s Preferred Providers Directory for Insurance Experts – Workers Compensation for over eight years. He recently won the prestigious Baucom Shine Lifetime Achievement Award for his volunteer contributions to the area of risk management and safety.  

  
Associations/Publications

James is on the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the North Carolina Mid-State Safety Council.  He has published two manuals on Workers’ Compensation and three different claims processing manuals.  He has also written and has been quoted in numerous articles on reducing Workers’ Compensation costs for public and private employers.  James publishes a weekly newsletter with 2,000 readers.

LAURA M. GREGORY, Esq., CPCU is a partner at Sloane and Walsh LLP, Boston, MA where she represents insurers in insurance coverage and bad faith matters, before state and federal trial and appellate courts. She provides coverage analysis and advice regarding claims and policies in New England and nationally. Her practice includes both first party and third-party policy issues, bad faith matters, and legislative and regulatory issues. She has specialized in insurance coverage and bad faith matters for more than 25 years and received the CPCU designation in 1999. She is also an elected official in Andover, MA, serving as a Selectwoman from 2017 to the present and chair from 2019 to 2020.  She can be reached at LGregory@sloanewalsh.com or www.linkedin.com/in/laura-gregory. 

Timothy D. Christ, MBA is the VP at Claimatic, an InsurTech company that serves several major insurers by helping them accelerate their claims process.  He published a book on insurance in 2018, Becoming a World-Class Expert: The Business of Forensic Engineering, and the 2^nd book in 2020 on business and technology that became an Amazon #1 New Release.  He was recognized as a Power 50, one of the 50 most influential insurance professionals in Latin America.  He is a frequent contributor to National Underwriter, a 5-time speaker at the Insurance Risk Management Institute’s (IRMI) Annual Energy Conference, speaker at various Risk Insurance Management Society (RIMS) events, Property Loss Research Bureau (PLRB), and others.  He has been interviewed by NBC News and has appeared on numerous insurance podcasts, including SpotOnInsurance, The Claims Podcast, and Trendbreakers.  He has personally delivered hundreds of hours of Department of Insurance (DOI) Continuing Education (CE) presentations.

Christ brings 20 years’ international experience in the insurance industry, having personally investigated hundreds of insurance claims, directly involved in many mediations and trials, and then later managing thousands of insurance claims investigations.  He built companies in Canada, Latin America, and the US, and is a frequent guest to Lloyd’s in London.  His vast experience in all P&C claims types, including homeowner all the way to managing billion-dollar losses, provides him unparalleled insight into how the claims process responds to claim events.  He worked on multiple Catastrophe events, including the Texas Mold Claims Crisis in 2001, Hurricane Wilma in Mexico in 2005, Katrina, Ike, the Chilean earthquakes in 2010, Thailand flooding in 2011, Calgary flooding in 2013, Hurricanes Sandy & Irene, and others.

Ms. Segale began her insurance career with an insurance broker in Northern California as a commercial lines manager and producer. Marjorie formed her own insurance agency a few years later, handling all lines of insurance. After the sale of her agency, she joined the staff of Insurance Skills Center, Inc., located in Huntington Beach, Californai. She is now founder and President of Segale Consulting Services, LLC and provides a wide variety of services to the insurance industry, including account review, agency audits, strategic planning, and forensic claims analysis. Ms. Segale is also a principal and founding member of the Insurance Community Center, LLC, a web-based resource and eduction on-line site for the insurance industry. In addition, Ms. Segale acts as an expert witness on agent and broker standard of care. Marjorie is a National Faculty member for the National Alliance and conducts education courses on a wide variety of subject matter across the nation.

Brenda Powell Wells holds both a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Ph.D. in Risk Management and Insurance from the University of Georgia.  She holds the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Accredited Advisor of Insurance (AAI) and Construction Risk Insurance Specialist (CRIS) designations.

Brenda has spent over 30 years studying and teaching risk management and insurance.  She presently serves as the director of that program and is the Robert F. Bird Distinguished Professor of Risk Management and Insurance.

During her career she has taught numerous risk and insurance courses.  She has also supervised countless internships and independent study projects.  Brenda has a long history of forming, supporting, and mentoring student organizations and has a wide range of experience in public relations and fundraising.  She is the founder of the Texas Risk and Insurance Professional Society (TRIPS), a non-profit entity that supports insurance education.  She has a career fundraising total of well-over $2 million.

Brenda has published articles in Journal of Risk and Insurance, Journal of Insurance Regulation, Journal of Insurance Issues, and others.  Her current research interests include mass tort litigation in the pharmaceutical industry, the effect of marijuana legalization on the insurance industry, social media, cyber liability and how insurance education impacts public attitudes towards the insurance industry.  Her publication in Journal of Insurance Issues on marijuana legalization and its impact on property-casualty insurance is considered the seminal paper in this field.

Outside of her duties in academia, Brenda serves as a private consultant and corporate trainer to the insurance and risk management industry.  Her consulting firm—Risk Education Strategies--offers agency management consulting, social media consulting, custom seminar delivery, preparation of expert opinions and testimony, continuing education course delivery, agency valuation, risk management audits, and intellectual patent application review. More information about her firm can be found at www.riskedstrategies.com