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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). 

Chris Cline has been fascinated by science, design, and the arts his entire life. He’s also spent most of his personal and professional life as an outlier. This combination of traits provides insight into his diverse interests and approach to life. 

Chris began his career as a graphic designer at an insurance company that afforded him many opportunities to learn, grow, and experience many facets of the business world. A senior executive once said to Chris, “I’m not sure if you are the most creative analytic I’ve ever met, or the most analytic creative…but, you do not think like most in this industry.”  He has chosen to embrace this observation and acknowledge how that sentiment has influenced and impacted so many areas of his life.

Throughout his career, Chris has been a part of and led several incredible teams, he co-developed and hosted an award-winning podcast, and was presented with the Independence Bell Award as industry person of the year by the Ohio Insurance Agents Association in 2022 for his passion and dedication to the insurance industry. 

Chris’s personal life has been even more rewarding. He currently resides in Ohio with his wonderful wife and son where they enjoy camping as much as they can. Though he has other deep personal passions across many diverse activities such as BMX, playing music, classic cars, and running, none of them are as important to Chris as the time he spends with his family. 

Learn more about Chris and the journey that created the Inertia of Legacy at https://inertiaoflegacy.godaddysites.com.

Chris Longo has been Chief Executive Officer of McGowan Excess & Casualty (MEC) since its founding in 2005.   MEC is a Managing General Underwriter with specialized skills in Commercial Umbrella and Excess insurance.   Chris was previously the President of St. Paul Travelers Specialty Excess & Umbrella division and oversaw all of the unsupported umbrella business within that company.  Prior to that we was President of Chubb Atlantic, an off shore insurance company based in Bermuda.   Chris spent the first 19 years of his career with various Chubb companies and held a variety of senior Casualty positions including Vice President of U.S. Umbrella operations.

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.

Michael DeFelice has held multiple roles in the insurance world. He begin his insurance career in 2008 as a health, life, and disability broker. In 2013, he began working as a health insurance coordinator for dialysis companies, helping to make sure that patients were able to receive care without disruptions. More recently, he moved into his role as insurance administrator for the Sweet Group of New York. He reviews insurance documentation to mitigate risk and create risk management solutions for projects before subcontractors can begin to work with Sweet Group.

Michael has an MBA in Project Management and the Construction Risk Insurance Specialist designation. He lives in Staten Island with his wife of 17 years.

Hayden Kopser serves as President of North Improvement, LLC, a boutique P&C brokerage catering primarily to the complex needs of HNW clientele. Hayden specializes in using his mobile app development background to help protect clients' assets and reputations from modern risks like Cyberattacks and online fraud. Prior to founding his firm, Hayden served as a Senior Underwriter at AIG Private Client Group (PCG) where he also oversaw PCG’s Cyber insurance offering. Outside of his insurance work, Hayden is a novelist, having published his debut novella 'Masha' in June of 2021.

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.  

Winter Wheeler is an in-person and online-based mediator and arbitrator. She is a former civil litigator who brings an extensive and comprehensive body of experience to her current practice. She specializes in several areas, including wrongful death, catastrophic injury, personal injury, premises liability, nursing home, legal malpractice, medical malpractice, products liability, toxic torts, automotive and trucking liability, civil rights, false imprisonment, municipal liability, water runoff, construction defect, contracts, entertainment, and family law with a specialization in domestic violence.

Most recently, Winter was a senior attorney at a prominent midtown Atlanta law firm. Winter is skilled in handling complex matters involving a diverse range of cultures, including Spanish-speaking clients. A graduate of Georgetown University and Tulane Law School, Winter has always combined her passions for culture, diplomacy, and the law. Winter was raised in Miami, Florida, and returns as often as possible.

Winter is very active in the legal community. Winter is a member of the National Bar Association and is a Board Member of the Women Lawyers Division. She is a member of the American Bar Association and serves as a Board Member of the Women in Dispute Resolution Committee. She is a member of the Lawyers Club of Atlanta and serves as the Co-Chair of the Membership Committee. She is a member of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, the Gate City Bar Association, the Georgia Asian Pacific American Bar association, and is also on the Board of the Georgetown Club of Metro Atlanta. She has been honored by the National Black Lawyers three times as Top 40 Under 40, as well as Top 100 for 2020. She spends her free time volunteering in her community and enjoying her husband and four children.

Winter is also co-author of the bestselling book, #Networked, which tells the story of how she developed a thriving mediation practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Terry has been in the insurance industry since 1979.  In an attempt to enjoy a little slower paced life he has joined the Correll Insurance Group of agencies as the President of Coastal Plains Insurance, LLC (CPI) and South East Coastal Underwriters (SECU) in beautiful Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Terry is part owner and responsible for the day to day operations of CPI and SECU. 

Prior to Terry's joining CPI he was owner and CEO of Florida Insurance Educators , Inc. which is an insurance education and consulting firm that in conjunction with Florida  Insurance School worked with state and national organizations provides a variety of educational courses and consulting services.

Terry continues to accept national speaking engagements and writes technical articles for a variety of state and national insurance publications. In his spare time Terry is also recognized by Federal and State courts as an expert on insurance coverages and serves as an expert witness.

Terry began his career in 1979 in Florida. The majority of this time was spent as the principal of an independent insurance agency in Florida where he specialized in a variety of Professional Liability programs as well as designing several specialty programs serving the Construction industry.

Terry has also worked with the Florida Department of Insurance where he was the Administrator of Agents Licensing. His primary responsibilities included the approving individuals for agent licensing and supervision the writing of all state insurance examinations. During this time he also represented the state of Florida on the National Test Development Committee which sets standards for agents licensing examinations.

Currently, Terry holds a Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation and is a National Faculty Member of the Society. In addition, he serves as the Educational Consultant in the States of North Carolina.  Terry also holds a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriting (CPCU) and Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist CRIS) professional designations.