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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 course designer and webinar Instructor for the Academy of Insurance (sponsored by the Insurance Journal).

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-insured’s 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.

Mr. Fisher can be reached at 310/413-6200, Email-fjfisher@fishercg.com

Nancy Germond is the President of Insurance Writer, a consulting firm located in Phoenix, Arizona. With more than three 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, white papers and has consulted and presented to both public sector and private sector insurance organizations.

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. In 1997 she founded Insurance Writer to assist insurance organizations to better manage their employment-related issues and to better penetrate the competitive insurance marketplace. Nancy holds a B.A. in Communication from Mills College and a Masters 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 president and owner of Burand & Associates, LLC, a management consulting firm specializing in the property-casualty insurance industry.  Chris is recognized as a leading consultant for agency valuations, increasing profits, and producer compensation plans.  His services include: Agency valuations/due diligence, producer compensation plans, expert witness services, E&O carrier approved E&O procedure reviews, and agency operation enhancement reviews.  He also provides the acclaimed Contingency Contract Analysis® service and has the largest database and knowledge of contingency contracts in the insurance industry.

Chris has more than twenty-five years’ experience. He brings his broad experience and wealth of knowledge into every agency.  He is a featured speaker across the continent at more than 300 conventions and educational programs. He writes a monthly article for the Insurance Journal.  Prior, he wrote a monthly column for American Agent & Broker for 11 years.  His articles have been published more than 250 times and have been published by Rough Notes, The National Underwriter, A.M. Best, and approximately a dozen regional insurance publications. He also publishes Burand’s Insurance Agency Adviser for independent insurance agents.

Chris holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business with emphasis in Finance from the University of Colorado and a MBA from the University of Denver. He is a member of the Institute of Business Appraisers, NACVA, a Department Head for IIABA's Virtual University, a contributing consultant for IMMS, and a volunteer counselor for the Small Business Administration's SCORE program.

Areas of Expertise:

• Insurance Agency Appraisals/Due Diligence: Chris performs appraisals for Acquisitions and Sales, Buy/Sell Agreements, Mergers, Dissolution, and Perpetuation Planning.
• Contingency Contract Analysis: Contingency contracts offer opportunities to increase compensation through negotiations and strategically placing business. Chris’s Contingency Contract Analysis® service provides the information agents need to take advantage of those opportunities.
• Agency Operations Enhancement Review: Chris provides comprehensive reviews to help agencies identify opportunities, fix weaknesses, and succeed.

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.

As Director of Workers Compensation for The Seltzer Group and East Coast Risk Management, Stacey has 13 years experience as a workers’ compensation adjuster and 20 years experience consulting in the workers compensation arena.

Stacey holds her Property/Casualty/Life/Health agents license, (CISR) Certified Insurance Service Representative designation, (CWCP) Certified Workers Compensation Professional, from the University of Michigan, (NJWCP) New Jersey Workers Compensation Professions, and (CWCA) Certified Workers Compensation Advisor. Stacey also holds an insurance fraud investigation certificate and is a current instructor for the Institute of Workers’ Compensation Professionals. Stacey specializes in consulting with many employers and employees on workers compensation issues and compliance.

Stacey’s areas of expertise are in claims investigation, mitigation through client, employee, and physician relationships, hiring processes, return to work programs, reserve practices, claims handling advice and coordination with Human Resources and Safety department.

Al trained as an underwriter with Aetna Casualty and Surety Company in Springfield Massachusetts. He was transferred to Southern California to supervise the commercial property and multi peril division in Panorama City. With a territory that extended through Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, it became no surprise that Al and his family made California their permanent home.

 One of the more gratifying of Al’s duties was training and developing underwriters.

  In 1976, Al partnered with Noel Silverman, a former Aetna Claim supervisor, and together they purchased the V. L. Francisco Agency in Van Nuys, CA .After relocating to Chatsworth CA. they grew the business and through acquisitions and mergers became FGW Insurance Services .

 One of the more rewarding of Al’s duties was his involvement with the agent association education programs, training producers and account managers.

  In 1996, Al and Noel sold the agency. Following the sale, Al became an independent consultant. For six years he has worked with Insurance Skills Center on a variety of projects ranging from Call Center training, education seminars, expert witness testimony and E&O auditing.

 The most enriching duties of his third career involve training and developing Agents, Brokers, Account Managers and Underwriters.

  Al is one of ISC’s certified E&O auditors and is on the faculty for the Accredited Customer Service representative (ACSR) and Accredited Farm Insurance Specialist (AFIS) professional designation programs.

 Al and his wife, Gerry, moved to Denver CO in 2010 where Gerry is enjoying retirement after 31 years as an Elementary School teacher.

Al continues to consult, present webinars and take on whatever interesting projects that may arise.

Ron Fry joined Sherman & Company in January 2010, bringing twelve years of insurance investment banking experience to the firm. Mr. Fry’s responsibilities include sourcing and supporting banking transactions, and building relationships with clients operating in the property & casualty, life/health, and reinsurance sectors.

Before joining Sherman & Company, Ron was most recently a Vice President with Wachovia Securities LLC in the Financial Institutions Group. In that role he managed the risk of a multi-billion dollar portfolio of insurance and financial services companies and underwrote financings that included acquisitions, bridge loans, revolving and term credits, and insurance letter of credit facilities. His prior roles at Wachovia Securities and its predecessor, First Union Securities, included various roles covering financial institutions in Corporate Banking, Structuring & Underwriting and Risk Management, as well as the Agency Management division of Loan Syndications. Throughout his career he has primarily focused on insurance carriers and insurance distributors while working with a broad array of financial institutions clients.

Mr. Fry earned a B.A. in Business Administration from Belmont Abbey College and a M.B.A. at Wake Forest University’s Babcock Graduate School of Management. Prior to his undergraduate work Mr. Fry served in the US Army and continued to serve in the Army National Guard, including a 2004 deployment to Iraq, until his retirement from the military in 2006.

Contact Info:
(704) 943-2672
RFry@Sherman-Company.com

Randy Sieberg, CIC, ARM, CRM is the founder and principal consultant of Workers Compensation Consultants, a nationally recognized independent workers compensation consulting firm based in Columbia, Missouri. His firm provides fee-based professional consulting services, expert witness and litigation services and assists employers, insurance agents and brokers experiencing problems with workers compensation premium, audits, classification code, claim, experience rating and other premium generating issues. He consults with clients throughout a broad range of industries including attorneys, insurance companies, insurance agencies, agents, brokers, contractors, service providers, transportation, manufacturers, retail and wholesale operations.

He began his career in the insurance industry as a business insurance specialist in 1981. As Senior Commercial Lines Consultant for Mid-America Specialty Markets, an Estal Insurance and Financial Services Company, he continues to direct the commercial insurance team in client risk analysis and product placement. As a licensed commercial insurance producer and independent agency principal he specialized in commercial property and casualty insurance, workers compensation and risk management programs. His expertise encompasses all areas of property and casualty risk management including risk analysis, program design and implementation, commercial insurance coverage analysis and pricing for commercial clients.

As the principal consultant for Workers Compensation Consultants Randy directs activities, provides support and assigns expert witness and litigation support duties to other expert advisers on staff. The firm's highly ranked website, WorkCompConsultant.com and blog is recognized as a valuable source of information for employers, agents and brokers while providing useful, in the trenches, real life help about commercial insurance and workers compensation premium related issues for all readers.

Randy received the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation conferred from the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research in 1989, the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designation from the Insurance Institute of America in 1986 and the Certified Risk Manager (CRM) designation from the National Academy in 1994. He maintains annual industry educational updates and participates in annual continuing education seminars. He is on staff as a teaching presenter with the Academy of Insurance.

He speaks on a variety of insurance and workers compensation related topics. His presentations include: "Workers Compensation -An Employers Point of View" -"Today's Workers Compensation Issues -Their Effect on the Human Resource Manager's Job" and "Real Solutions for Managing Workers Compensation Cost." His publications include "Most Common Workers Compensation Mistakes Employers Make" -published by the Courier Magazine. He has been interviewed and quoted by Eric Krell in his article "How to Avoid Workers Comp Premium Overpayments" published for the Society for Human Resource Management. His insurance related articles have been presented in a variety of association, employer and insurance related publications.

Randy continues to face the challenges presented by our industry and looks forward to assisting new and established agents and brokers unravel complicated insurance problems. As evidenced by his stable insurance industry work history and continued professional growth, Randy provides a professional guidance and knowledge base for those clients seeking assistance and support with issues found within his areas of expertise. 

Erica R. Upmeyer, PHR, Search Associate, graduated from Emporia State University with a BS in Sociology.

Erica began her career in the Social Services field as an Employment Specialist before moving abroad for two years. During this time, Erica had the opportunity to earn her MS in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and gain valuable international work experience while completing an internship with one of the largest transportation companies in the world. Upon returning to the States, Erica transitioned into the staffing industry with the nation’s largest privately held staffing agency as an Account Executive and was quickly promoted into a Branch Manager role.

Erica’s most recent role was with Nationwide Insurance as an HR Field Manager where her primary responsibilities were supporting a start-up region overseeing all HR deliverables, with a large emphasis on recruiting insurance professionals. Her role with the CSG team includes working with candidates assisting them on their career searches as well as partnering with other team members at CSG on key searches, strategically positioning CSG within the insurance community, and sourcing best fit professionals for our client company staffing needs.

In her spare time, Erica enjoys spending time with her husband and two boys, shopping, working out, reading and watching college basketball – Go Jayhawks!

Mary Newgard, CPC, AU began her insurance career in 2003 as a commercial insurance producer for a nationally recognized independent agency, Cottingham & Butler. In 2006, she joined Capstone Search Group as a Search Associate focused on building the firm’s national reputation in agency consulting. Over the past five years Capstone has become well known for its partnership with independent, retail agencies dedicated to effective sales recruiting. In fact, Capstone is one of the few insurance recruiting firms with a dedicated focus in producer recruiting amongst all three major product disciplines: property and casualty, life and health and high net worth personal lines.

As a Senior Search Consultant, Mary works with agencies of varying size and ownership structure on enacting competitive, results driven sales and service recruiting. This includes education on compensation models, agency perpetuation, Mergers & Acquisitions and advanced technological resources. Additionally, she is integral in Capstone’s continued work with wholesale brokers, Managing General Agencies and Excess & Surplus markets, many of which face the same challenges in recruiting production based talent as retail brokers.
 

A graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, Mary is a member of the National Insurance Recruiters Association (NIRA) and is a Certified Personnel Consultant with the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS). In her spare time Mary stays busy with her husband, twin daughters, golfing and cheering on the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Peggy M. Jackson, DPA, CPCU, is an author, consultant, and nationally recognized lecturer in risk management, business continuity planning, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. She is a Principal with Peg Jackson & Associates in San Francisco, CA and Alexandria, VA. Her specialty areas include Done in a Day® risk management and contingency planning as well as SOX compliance for nonprofit organizations. Dr. Jackson has written or coauthored seven books on risk management, business continuity planning, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance for nonprofit and small business audiences for publishers John Wiley & Sons. Her books, Sarbanes-Oxley for Nonprofits and Risk Management and Contingency Planning: Done in a Day Strategies won honorable mention at the 2007 Nonprofit Management Association Book Awards. Her latest book, Reputational Risk Management, will be released in Spring 2010 by BEW Publishers.

Dr. Jackson earned a doctorate in public administration (DPA) from Golden Gate University in San Francisco and holds the professional designation of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU). She designed the Jackson Risk Management Model© as part of an award-winning doctoral dissertation on risk management techniques. She is a member of the Washington DC Chapter of the CPCU Society and was recently appointed to the governing committee of the Risk Management Interest Group of the Chartered Property & Casualty Society (CPCU).

Betsey L. Brewer, CPCU is a Partner and Senior Vice President of The Rule Company, a regional broker in Pasadena, CA. She received her CPCU designation in 1981 and has served the Los Angeles Chapter as President. She served as a CPCU Society Governor and as the national President of the CPCU Society in 2007.

Betsey’s insurance career started in 1973. She joined a small local agency in 1976 that 25 years later had transformed into Aon. A survivor and beneficiary of 7 mergers and acquisitions along the way she is uniquely able to help you understand the tools you need to survive in today’s marketplace and why the CPCU Designation and volunteering in CPCU turned into a huge growth opportunity for her.

Betsey is a Secretary and Trustee of the CPCU-Loman Education Foundation and a past Trustee of the American Institute for CPCU/Insurance Institute of America. Betsey is past president of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers Association of Los Angeles and has served on the Insurance Skills Center Board of Directors and the Board of Directors for IBA-West. Currently she serves as Strategic Planning Chair for IBA-West.

Along with her other activities, Betsey is Chair of the Board of Directors for the Girl Scout of Greater Los Angeles Council serving 41,000 girls and 22,000 volunteers. Betsey has been honored by her peers with the1998 Rie Sharp Insurance Person of the Year and with the CPCU Society Leadership Recognition Award in 1999.

Betsey and her husband Don reside in Los Angeles.

Casey Roberts brings 38 years of experience in the insurance industry.  During that time he has worked as a personal lines producer, personal lines sales manager, commercial producer, commercial sales manager, insurance consultant, continuing education teacher as well as a sales and sales management trainer and consultant.

In 2010 Casey formed Laurus (lorus) Insurance Consulting.  His company’s name was chosen with intent and purpose.  The name “Laurus” is derived from Latin words meaning “victory” or “success”.  

The main purpose of Laurus Insurance Consulting is to help insurance professionals reach their goals and sales potential; ie, to achieve Their Success. 

He has served as director for the AFIS (Agriculture & Farm Insurance Specialist) designation as well as on IIABCal’s Agribusiness committee.  He received his Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) credentials in 1989, Accredited Customer Service Representative (ACSR) in 1992 and his AFIS designation in 2005. 

His continuing education efforts include teaching topics on a national level as varied as: insurance agents/brokers errors and omissions, workers’ compensation, agency management, personal lines, farm property & liability, excess & umbrella, risk management, agency operations and numerous other commercial lines topics.   

Casey’s other passions include a seldom improving golf game, officiating women’s collegiate basketball in northern California as well as boys and girls high school basketball in the greater Sacramento region. 

He resides in northern California (Lincoln) with his bride of some 30 years, Alyson, and their two dogs, Buddy & Bear.