Yelena La Forgia has 20 years of substantial experience in the insurance industry in various finance, transformation and audit roles. In her current position, Yelena is responsible for leading the US entities and the insurance segment, shaping organizational vision and strategy across finance, while partnering with the business to provide strategic guidance and drive business efficiencies and profitable growth.

Prior to Aspen, Yelena spent nearly eight years at WR Berkley where she was CFO of Berkley’s Product Recall and Small Business companies. Yelena also held various finance and audit positions of increasing responsibility at Liberty International Underwriters and AIG.

Yelena earned a BBA in accounting from Baruch College. She is a CPA licensed in New York. Yelena is a member of the Board of Directors and serves as the President of the SIFM. Yelena is a member of Chief, a women’s executive leadership organization.

Russell Sommers has more than 17 years of experience in serving insurance companies through an array of projects, including internal audit, Sarbanes-Oxley and NAIC Model Audit Rule audit, cybersecurity consulting, regulatory compliance consulting, internal controls advisory, IT audit, enterprise risk management, vendor risk management, enterprise risk management and SOC reporting.

Russ co-leads Baker Tilly’s IT examination practice performing IT examinations of covered insurance companies on behalf of state departments of insurance. Additionally, he leads Baker Tilly’s digital asset practice. Russ has consulted on exchange traded cryptocurrency funds, national securities exchanges, financial services information services companies, digital assets companies, and digital services technology platforms.

Russ earned a BS in accounting from Ramapo College of New Jersey. He is a CPA licensed in New Jersey. Russ is a certified information systems auditor by the ISACA. He is a member of the Board of Directors and the Vice President/Treasurer of the SIFM. He is a member of the Strategy Committee of the Board of Directors.