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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.

Nationally recognized as one of the top insurance professionals for his leadership and dedication to the insurance profession, Scott Margraves has over thirty years of “hands-on” commercial property & casualty experience.  As a front-line producer, Scott weathered five major hurricanes, three “five-hundred-year floods” and multiple catastrophic fire claims.  Scott is an insurance industry expert that brings extensive experience in all aspects of property & casualty insurance, policy forms, claims, safety programs, HR coordination, and contract integration.  Expertise includes Agent E&O, Bad Faith, & Certificate of Insurance (COI) tracking and compliance.

After graduating from Texas A&M University in 1986, Scott worked in Washington DC as a congressional assistant for four years. He moved back to Texas and began his insurance career.  Scott served as president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Houston and Reveille Club and achieved Lifetime Committeeman status for the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. 

Scott resides in Houston, Texas with his wife, Lory Margraves, and their dog, Rooster.  Lory & Scott are proud parents of three adult children.  

John O. Eubank, CPCU, ARM, is CEO and President of Professional Insurance Education, Inc. He was previously employed by the Insurance Services Office, Inc., as the Regional Operations Manager for its subsidiary Commercial Risk Services, Inc.

Mr. Eubank attended Vanderbilt University and was graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois with a BS degree in Fire Protection and Safety Engineering.

His professional affiliations have included Regional Vice President of the Society of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters (CPCU), PMLG of the Honorable Order of Blue Goose, member of the National Fire Protection Association, and member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.

Mr. Eubank serves as a trainer and speaker for various organizations including the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America affiliates. He has also conducted training for the Great American Insurance Co., Hoosier Insurance Co., the Society of Certified Insurance Counselors (CIC), Society of CPCU, The National Association of Insurance Women (NAIW), the North American Retail Dealers Association and the Southern Agents Conference.

Mr. Eubank is recognized as one of the premier insurance educators having served as a National Faculty member of the Society of CIC since 1976, a national faculty member of the IIABA Virtual University, and is the recipient of the Professional Leadership Scroll from the American Institute for Property & Liability Underwriters and the Insurance Institute of America. He has researched, developed, written and published dozens of technical manuals and articles in business and trade periodicals.

Joseph Junfola has spent over 40 years as an insurance claims professional. He has specialized in long-term exposure, or continuous property damage/bodily injury/toxic tort claims on a national basis for close to 30 years. He has specialized in construction defect, product liability, and design professional liability claims, including construction accident claims, particularly third-party-over actions in New York.

In his early days, he handled automobile bodily injury claims, both on a primary and umbrella basis, in the State of New Jersey. He first qualified as an expert in the evaluation of automobile bodily injury claims in Federal Court in the early 1990's.

He has since formed Junfola Claim Consulting Services to provide coverage and claim analysis, policy language review, litigation support, and more. He has also joined the Insurance Risk Management Institute as an Expert Commentator.

A staunch believer in continuous learning and improvement, Joe has earned the following professional designations: CPCU, RPLU, RPLU+, SCLA, AIC, ASLI, ARe, AU, ARM, CRIS, AIS, MLIS, AIC-M, and AIDA. His continual drive for education has seen him earn these additional certificates: Executive Certificate in Negotiations from the Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, the Home Inspection Certificate through Rutgers University and the National Institute of Building Inspectors, and the Certificate in Law and Legal Process from Southern New Hampshire University.

He has published several articles and an eBook, Construction Defect Claims, A Handbook for Insurance, Risk Management, Construction, & Design Professionals.

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.

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.

Richard is an insurance industry veteran, serving in various roles over over 30 years. He started his career as a Casualty Underwriter and has held roles including Underwriting Specialist, Senior Alternative Risk Underwriter, and AVP of Underwriting. He is currently the Co-Founder of Underwriter's Resource, LLC, where he is a CE instructor in several states west of the Mississippi.

He speaks for wholesale brokers, presents for the CPCU society, and is a guest speaker at Glendale Community College in Glendale, AZ.

Chris Amrhein, like most true believers in insurance, stumbled upon this business accidentally; specifically, after graduating from college and needing a job.

After beginning in this business as a life-health agent, he graduated to property-casualty sales where he first met the greatest mine of comedy material extant today, the ISO forms. Following several years as a producer and independent agency manager/owner, Chris spent many years as a full-time educator/VP-Education for the Florida Association of Insurance Agents and VP-Education for the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America. Those years found him traveling about the country teaching seminars on everything from agency management to the claims made CGL. It has also taught him the absolute truth of Jimmy Buffet's famous observation about those who make a career of the property-casualty business: "If we weren't all crazy we would go insane."

Chris is now a speaker, consultant, seminar leader and training developer, and resides in Lorton, Virginia, with the love of his life (and wife) Donna and youngest son Alexandru (17). His two older sons - Patrick, 34 and Kevin, 32 – are doing quite well without him. His email address chris@insuranceisfun.com and website www.insuranceisfun.com, say it all.

Current Industry Activities:

• Member, CPCU Oversight Committee
• Member, Accredited Adviser in Insurance (AAI) Advisory Committee.
• Primary Author (AAI textbooks):
• Foundations of Insurance Production – Personal Insurance
• Multiple-Lines Insurance Production – Commercial Liability Insurance
• Agency Operations and Sales Management – Principles of Agency Management
• Monthly columnist (1993-present) - "Policy Issues" - Insurance Journal & American Agent & Broker Magazine
• Faculty member: IIABA’s Virtual University; Society of CIC James K. Ruble Seminars
• Developer of “Street Level Ethics” Program for AICPCU/IIA

Past Activities:

• Chairman. IIABA Future One Producer Development Task Force
• Member, IIABA Future One Subcommittee on Customer Service
• Author/Editor - Florida General Lines, Customer Representatives and Adjuster Study Manuals
• Member, IIABA Agency Management & Technology Committee

Ms. Thomas is the founder and CEO of Thomas Consulting, located in Newton, Massachusetts.  Her firm specializes in creating powerful Client experiences that increase retention and profits with a specialty in P&C insurance. The firm’s services help companies to plug the “leaky Client bucket” and thereby increases its profits which it has been doing for decades with over 480 companies.

Ms. Thomas is a nationally acclaimed, powerful, engaging and dynamic speaker and consultant on Client experiences, emotional intelligence, retention, and relationships.  She has been a columnist and has published two books with her latest being an Amazon #1 Best Seller.  All of her firm’s consulting services come with a written guarantee of 100%-300% ROI within one year. 

Ms. Thomas started her career as a tax attorney with Arthur Andersen, then a Private Banker and then Change Agent with Bank of Boston. She holds a J.D. cum laude from Suffolk University and a B.A. cum laude from Wesleyan University.  She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and former Board Member of Alpha Resource Center and Insight Seminars.

After receiving his college degree from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and serving eight years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army and U.S. Coast Guard, David began his insurance career in a family-owned independent agency in Vero Beach, Florida where he was a licensed agent selling all types of insurance. 

In 1996 David accepted a training & education position with the Florida Association of Insurance Agents (FAIA) in Tallahassee, Florida where he presented continuing education seminars throughout the country on a variety of insurance subjects. After over 24 years at FAIA, David “semi-retired” in 2021 and now does independent insurance consulting for companies around the country.

In addition to being a full-time insurance nerd, David is an avid biker and smokes the best ribs, chicken, and pork in the country.