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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 was an original Member of the Executive Council, School of Professional Lines sponsored by the Claims & Litigation Management Association and is an 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 51-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 was  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 80 articles in trade journals and periodicals. He is the author of BROKER BEWARE, Selling Real Estate within the Law, and Claims Made Insurance: The Policy That Changed the Industry. The Insurance  Journal called it an “irreplaceable classic”.  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. In 2019, PLUS bestowed him with the  Founders Award for his lasting and outstanding contributions to PLUS.  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 180 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.  Most recently, his Current company, Fisher Consulting Group, Inc. successfully applied for and received  trademark status on his well known phrase “The Gotchya’s That’ll Getchya” ®.

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.

Barry Rabkin’s forty-plus year insurance career has been driven by curiosity and passion to analyze the “why and what” about technology’s potential impact on the insurance industry. He worked for and consulted to insurers as well as having launched and led insurance industry analyst practices at IDC, The Meta Group, and, Omdia. His research encompasses customer experience, marketing and distribution, channel management, mobility, geospatial, and IoT. He has delivered scores of presentations globally to insurance and technology audiences concerning the role technology should play in the industry to get and keep customers. 

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.

Timothy D. Dodge, AU, ARM, CPCU is the Assistant Vice President of Research for Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York, Inc., headquartered in Dewitt, New York. Tim is responsible for answering members’ questions about insurance technical, legal, regulatory, and legislative matters, and for all communications with the media. He also writes for IIABNY’s weekly newsletter; maintains sections of the IIABNY Web site; writes a blog about insurance technical matters; hosted an award-winning video podcast; and teaches continuing education classes. Since 2008, he has served on national committees that work with ISO to improve coverage forms. He previously worked as a commercial lines underwriter and underwriting trainer for CNA Insurance in Syracuse. He is a graduate of the State University of New York College at Brockport and received the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation in 1998. He has held his current position with IIABNY since 2002. 

Joseph L. Petrelli is the President and a founder of Demotech, Inc. Petrelli is a Member in good standing of the Casualty Actuarial Society, American Academy of Actuaries and the Conference of Consulting Actuaries. He is a graduate of The College of Insurance (now a school within St. John’s University), having earned a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science. He has also earned a Masters of Business Administration from The Ohio State University. He has been actively engaged in the P&C insurance industry since 1969.

Employed as a consultant since 1980, his previous work experience included Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, Countryway Insurance Company and Insurance Services Office. Since he became a consultant, his clients have included the State of Ohio Department of Insurance, Ohio State Insurance Fund, State of Iowa and hundreds of regional insurance companies throughout the United States. Assignments include loss and loss adjustment expense reserve analysis, pricing recommendations and product development as well as assignment of Financial Stability Ratings® (FSRs).

Organized in 1985, Demotech, Inc. is a Columbus, Ohio based financial analysis company. Demotech, Inc. provides services to regional P&C insurance companies, Title underwriters, public entity insurance pools and specialty insurance markets including risk retention groups and captives. Given that FSRs of A or better have an impressive record of accomplishment predicting long-term solvency, FSRs of A or better are accepted by the secondary mortgage marketplace, virtually all mortgage lenders as well as an increasing number of umbrella and errors and omissions insurance markets.

Celebrated keynoter, facilitator, author and ICF-certified workplace productivity and business leader coach, Marsha Egan is devoted to energizing people to make the best use of their time so that they can lead their lives and achieve great stuff.

Focused on enabling growth through people, she applies her experience and skills to helping her clients achieve their personal, professional, and organizational goals.

Marsha Egan, CPCU, CSP, PCC, is CEO of the professional coaching firm, The Egan Group, Inc, which she started. She is an ATHENA Foundation Award recipient, one of PA's 50 Best Women in Business, and past president of the CPCU Society. A 25-yr. veteran of corporate & volunteer America, Ms. Egan intuitively reinvents leadership, by igniting leaders and entrepreneurs with positive change, interpersonal impact and innovation.

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.  

Ian Adams is associate vice president of state affairs with the R Street Institute, responsible for coordinating R Street’s outreach and engagement at the state and local level. He also is involved in the institute’s insurance research, matters related to next-generation transportation and is a frequent commentator on the disruptive impact of burgeoning technologies on law and regulation.

Ian rejoined R Street, for whom he’d previously worked as Western region director, on a full-time basis in January 2017. He was most recently a public policy associate at the international law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where he maintained a national insurance regulatory practice specialized in developing creative solutions to business problems that incorporated legislative and regulatory strategies.

Earlier in his career, Ian was a Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellow with the office of California state Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, while Hagman served as vice chairman of the California Assembly Insurance Committee. He also served as a legal extern with the office of Oregon state Rep. Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg, who was then co-speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives. Ian also worked as a law clerk for California’s largest insurance trade association.

Ian is a graduate of Seattle University, with bachelor’s degrees in history and philosophy, and received his law degree from the University of Oregon. He is a member of the California and Illinois bars.

Ian lives in a suburb of Sacramento, California with his wife, Ruth Yang.

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 Gay is an insurance professional, educator, and author with more than 40 years of experience in underwriting, agency management, brokerage, program administration, risk management, and insurance consulting. His broad industry background gives him practical insight into the challenges insurance agents face every day.

Michael is passionate about helping insurance professionals move beyond selling insurance policies to becoming trusted risk advisors. His courses focus on practical strategies for identifying exposures, improving coverage recommendations, strengthening client relationships, and reducing agency errors and omissions.

He is the co-author, with Patrick Wraight, of Risk-Proof Your Business: The Complete Guide to Smart Insurance Choices and a frequent contributor to insurance publications. Known for making complex topics practical and engaging, Michael equips agents with ideas they can apply immediately.

Michael also serves as an insurance consultant and expert witness, evaluating insurance practices and professional standards in litigation throughout the United States. That experience reinforces the practical guidance he shares with insurance professionals and helps agents recognize and address issues before they become claims.