Cristina Ahn
Senior Manager, Assurance Financial Services, PwC
Ms. Ahn is a consultant in the national professional services group. In that capacity, she assists PwC engagement teams and clients with accounting for financial instruments under US GAAP. She is also responsible for thought leadership.
Cristina also had 9 years of client service experience. Cristina has extensive SEC and internal controls experience in auditing of financial statements, performing risk assessment, identifying design and operating deficiencies, and understanding of underlying business processes. She also participated in the quarterly NAIC conferences to develop PwC’s newsletter and webcasts.
She specializes in financial reporting, consolidation, SAB 99s, tax, financial, forecast planning and analysis, valuation and accounting for complex credit derivatives and highly structured investments.
Ms. Ahn graduated from Rutgers University. She is a CPA licensed in New York. She is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Tony Alejo
Managing Director, KPMG LLP
Mr. Alejo has 20 years of experience specializing in transformative programs within Finance that are enabled by data and technology.
With a reach that extends across all of KPMG’s service lines, Tony highlights industry leading practices from the broadest perspective to introduce transformational change. As an advisor to C-suite leaders, Tony has an extensive background leading programs to help clients realize value and enhance insights through target operating model design and integration, management reporting, data and analytics, financial systems design and implementation, business process reengineering, and process automation leveraging digital labor.
His focus is on designing efficient finance & accounting operations, enabling data & systems to support Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), designing and implementing Finance & Accounting (F&A) shared service and digital labor models, and leading integrated finance transformation initiatives. He has led large scale projects helping his clients achieve their strategic objectives by transforming finance operations, expanding global operations, and implementing technology to support management reporting and talent management.
Mr. Alejo earned a BS in Commerce and Accounting from DePaul University.
Jacob Alter
Assistant Vice President, MetLife, Inc.
Jacob Alter is Assistant Vice President at MetLife, Inc., a Fortune 50 company. He has been with MetLife for close to ten years and focuses his practice on corporate and international tax issues. Jacob has participated in many global acquisitions, divestitures and internal restructurings, and advises on tax compliance, provision and planning.
Prior to joining MetLife, Jacob was a Manager of international tax research and planning at the Interpublic Group (IPG), one of the world’s premier global advertising and marketing services companies with offices in over 100 countries. He began his career as an associate in the New York office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, an international law firm of over 750 lawyers with 15 offices in 8 countries.
Jacob is a member of the American Bar Association and its Section of Taxation, and is admitted to the New York bar. Alter received his LL.M in Taxation from New York University School of Law in 2010, and earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2007.
David Anderson
Director, Risk Consulting
KPMG LLP
Mr. Anderson has extensive experience developing customized solutions to solve the largest and most complex operational, regulatory, and accounting driven changes in the banking, insurance, and asset management industries.
Leveraging the strength of an audit and consulting background, Dave has proven leadership experience driving finance transformation projects throughout the financial services sector including the rollout of risk and credit based frameworks for CECL (ASU 2016-13) and IFRS 9 and coordinating the global adoption of IFRS 17 for insurers.
Mr. Anderson received a BBA in accounting and earned an MS in accounting from the University of Notre Dame. He is a CPA licensed in Illinois and North Carolina. David serves on Advisory Boards for the National Academy Foundation and Junior Achievement.
Dave is a featured speaker for external forums and conferences as well as internal training on accounting change within the financial services sector.
Scott Bain
Director, Deal Advisory KPMG LLP
Mr. Bain has over 18 years of accounting experience, including seven with one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. He has extensive technical accounting, financial reporting, SEC reporting, and regulatory reporting experience.
As a member of the accounting advisory services team, Scott provides accounting advice, interpretations and transactional support to companies undertaking a wide array of transactions such as mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. Scott’s primary focus is accounting standard implementation by assisting companies in the adoption of new accounting standards (both GAAP and IFRS). Scott’s primary practice area is financial services specifically banks and insurance companies. Mr. Bain earned a BS in accounting from Clemson University. He is a CPA licensed in South Carolina and Georgia.
Harriet Bateman
Manager, Global Forensics, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP
Ms. Bateman is an experienced forensic accountant who has focused on calculating and quantifying losses for insurance and legal professionals.
Harriet has experience working with a variety of industries to measure physical and
non-physical business interruption losses resulting from property events or cyber-attacks.
In more recent years, Harriet has focused on the valuation of business income losses arising from cyber-attacks across different types of insurance policies. These include stand-alone cyber policies, kidnap ransom and extortion, computer violation and computer fraud, and other casualty financial lines.
Fluent in Spanish, Harriet has worked extensively with clients in Spain and Latin American countries.
Ms. Bateman earned a BS in economics and Spanish from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Arash Barkhordar
Director, Corporate Tax, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Barkhordar has over 17 years of corporate tax experience. He has significant experience in the taxation of multibillion dollar global and US domiciled companies as well as closely held corporations.
Arash is currently part of the US insurance tax leadership team serving life and annuity as well as property and casualty insurance companies. Previously, he was with PwC insurance tax practice.
Mr. Barkhordar earned a BS in accounting and information systems cum laude from Queens College of the City of New York. He was awarded a JD in taxation from Hofstra University School of Law. He is a member of the New York State Bar. He is a member of the SIFM.
Christopher Bassett
Senior Manager, EY
Mr. Bassett has 10 years of experience in both industry and consulting. He specializes in strategy design and development as well as emerging technologies.
Chris is passionate about new business design and its implementation, and he builds high performance teams to accomplish the implementation of new business designs.
Mr. Bassett was previously with Suncorp Group in Melbourne Australia where he provided strategic analysis and decision support to senior stakeholders.
Mr. Bassett earned a BA with honors from Monash University, Australia. He earned an MA in philosophy from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. He was awarded an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales.
Keith Bell
Senior Vice President, The Travelers Companies, Inc
Mr. Bell is responsible for setting accounting policy, monitoring the development of accounting and regulatory reporting standards, and interacting with accounting standard setters as well as domestic and international insurance regulators on financial matters.
Mr. Bell has worked in the insurance and financial services industry for over 25 years. Prior to joining Travelers, he held similar responsibilities at Aetna, Inc.
Mr. Bell earned a BA in accounting from Illinois State University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants.
He has been active on several NAIC advisory committees, the American Council of Life Insurance’s Accounting Committees, and is currently chairman of the American Insurance Association Committee on Financial Management Issues, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds (member of the accounting, finance, and public policy committees), and a member of the AICPA Insurance Expert Panel.
Anil Bhatia
Vice President, Insurance, Atos-Syntel
Mr. Bhatia has over 25 years of multi-functional global experience. His expertise is in leading large transformational IT initiatives in the financial services sector. In his current position, Anil helps insurance clients develop the strategy, and implementation of digital transformation including legacy modernization and intelligent automation. Prior to Atos-Syntel, Mr. Bhatia was with Cognizant and Technosoft Corporation where he achieved success through honing organizational, communication and influencing skills. Mr. Bhatia earned a BS in engineering from PEC University of Technology in Chandigarh, India. He was awarded an MBA in finance from the University Business School, India.
Douglas Bloom
Director, Cybersecurity and Forensics, PwC
Mr. Bloom is a member of PwC’s Cybercrime and Privacy services practice and is a member of the firm’s financial crimes unit. He has over 16 years of experience including serving as a federal prosecutor, criminal defense lawyer and software developer.
Doug assists clients across the globe by conducting cybercrime, fraud and economic espionage investigations and responding to and containing breaches of their computer networks. In addition, he helps clients assess their cybersecurity readiness and fraud controls identifying the organizational changes necessary to protect clients against and respond to internal and external threats.
Formerly, Mr. Bloom was a federal prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he investigated and prosecuted national security cyber offenses, including economic espionage, hacking of national defense and government systems, and the theft of trade secrets.
Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Doug was an associate in Covington & Burling’s white collar criminal defense and intellectual property practices. Doug has deep technical expertise, having served as a software engineer and program manager for Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard.
Mr. Bloom earned a BS in symbolic systems and an MA in linguistics from Stanford University. He received a Juris Doctor cum laude from Harvard Law School. He is admitted to the New York bar, and an active member of the Federal Bar Council.
Paul Braithwaite
Senior Managing Director, Co-Leader of Insurance Services
Forensic & Litigation Consulting
FTI Consulting, Inc
As a past President of the Casualty Actuarial Society with over 30 years of industry experience, he brings a deep knowledge and understanding of actuarial science, underwriting, insurance and reinsurance company management to the practice.
Mr. Braithwaite has served as an Appointed Actuary to insurance companies, provided expert testimony/dispute resolution support, loss reserve reviews, reinsurance commutations/reserve reviews, underwriting audits, due diligence, finite risk/structured product pricing analysis and regulatory services. He has extensive reinsurance pricing and underwriting experience including the specialty areas of professional liability, workers compensation, umbrella liability, accident & health, agriculture, surety and various other lines of property-casualty business. He has consulted with companies on capital standards for life, health and property-casualty business and recently advised a major multi-line insurance group about issues related to a potential strategic acquisition.
Prior to joining FTI, Mr. Braithwaite was the leader of the insurance services team of a major consulting company, where he also served as the global actuarial practice leader. Mr. Braithwaite has also held high level executive roles in the industry. He has testified as an expert in insurance and reinsurance disputes and has provided expert advice to insurance companies, captives, self-insureds, brokers, and investment firms.
Mr. Braithwaite earned a BA in applied mathematics from Brown University. He was awarded an MBA in finance from the NYU Stern School of Business.
Paul is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries and a Certified Reinsurance Arbitrator.
Brandon Browne
Director, SEC Services, PwC
Mr. Browne has nine years of accounting and auditing experience primarily with insurance companies. In SEC Services, Brandon performs reviews of financial statements and other registered offering documents, while also assisting practice engagement teams on a variety of SEC related matters including disclosure requirements, SEC comment letters, waiver requests.
As a member of PwC’s National Quality Office, he is also involved with developing certain firm communications and thought leadership. Prior to joining the national office, Brandon was a member of several large insurance engagement teams in the New York office, where he developed an expertise in auditing insurance company investment portfolios and life insurance related financial statement balances.
Mr. Browne earned a BS in accounting from the Schreyer Honors College at the Pennsylvania State University. He is a CPA and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Vincent Burke
Senior Advisor, Mazars USA LLP
Mr. Burke provides accounting, auditing, and consulting services to domestic and international insurance companies.
Vincent’s more than 40 years of experience include advising entities engaged in various forms of insurance, such as health (including BlueCross BlueShield, managed, and long-term care), as well as life and annuity, personal and commercial property-and-casualty, title and mortgage companies. He also serves self-funded insurance programs, Lloyd’s syndicates, foreign and domestic reinsurers, onshore and offshore captive insurance companies.
Prior to joining Mazars, Vincent was a Senior Managing Director at LECG Corp and led its insurance and reinsurance services practice, providing accounting, auditing, and consulting advice.
Mr. Burke holds a BS in business administration from Marist College. He earned an MBA in finance from Baruch College of the City University of New York. He is a CPE, and is a Pennsylvania Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter Fellow as well as a Life Management Institute Chartered Life Underwriter.
Vincent is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, The Insurance Accounting and Systems Association and the Pennsylvania Institute or Certified Public Accountants. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the SIFM, and has also served as President of the SIFM.
Emre Carr
Senior Managing Director, Forensic & Litigation Consulting
FTI Consulting, Inc.
Dr. Carr is an economist specializing in financial markets and financial regulations. He has testified in and outside the U.S. on regulatory, financial, accounting, economic, and governance issues including high-frequency and algorithmic trading in futures and equity markets, insider trading, securities issuances, U.S. GAAP, internal controls, executive compensation, and SEC filing and disclosure requirements.
Dr. Carr’s engagements have involved regulations by the SEC and the CFTC, FINRA, the NFA and non-U.S. securities and commodities regulators His accounting and corporate governance engagements have involved the application of accounting principles under U.S. GAAP and IFRS, internal control standards under COSO, fiduciary responsibilities and executive compensation. He has analyzed trading databases consisting of billions of order and trade records in equity, futures, bond and swaps markets worldwide to interpret trading strategies, detect alleged spoofing, layering and market manipulation, as well as evaluating compliance.
Prior to his consulting career, Dr. Carr was a senior financial economist at the SEC’s Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation, which was created following the financial crisis as the agency’s “think tank” to provide sophisticated, interdisciplinary analysis across the entire spectrum of SEC activities, including policymaking, rulemaking, enforcement, and examinations. He led the economic analyses and made recommendations on numerous regulations such as the incorporation of IFRS in U.S. financial reporting, and enforcement matters involving financial institutions.
Dr. Carr earned an MBA in finance from the University of Southern California. He holds a PhD in accounting with an emphasis in econometric analysis and capital markets from Northwestern University.
Dr. Carr has served on the business school faculties of Columbia, USC, and Toronto teaching MBA courses on valuation, credit analysis, financial statement analysis, and corporate finance. His research on securities regulations has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals.
Robert Ceske
Principal, KPMG LLP
Mr. Ceske leads the insurance risk advisory team. He also serves as the lead partner for a large primary insurance company, a large reinsurance company as well as a systemically important financial market utility (SIFMU).
Formerly, Rob was with McKinsey where he advised financial services companies and banks, non-bank financial, non-financial services firms on strategy, risk management, M&A, regulatory and market impact. Prior to that, he was the chief risk officer for GE creating and leading the risk management function for corporate treasury which provided funding, market risk hedging and short-term investing for GE Capital and GE’s industrial businesses.
Mr. Ceske earned a BA in government and economics from Cornell University. He was awarded an MBA in finance, management and international business from the New York University Stern School of Business.
Rob is a member of the board of directors of the Greater New York Councils of Boys Scouts of America and a board member of the Quill and Dagger Alumni Association.
Sharda Cherwoo
Partner, EY
Ms. Cherwoo has over 36 years of experience with EY including 27 years as a Partner. She has held a variety of leadership roles focusing on innovative global entrepreneurial initiatives, strategic practice and operational, business unit leadership and client service. Sharda has been the catalyst for EY’s significant investment in robotic process automation including leading socialization of the content to gain senior stakeholder and EY executive board buy-in for the internal implementation investment as well as efforts aimed at developing both the short and long-term intelligent automation strategy and roadmap for the firm. She is responsible for EY’s Americas tax intelligent automation services for clients. Sharda also serves as the senior advisory partner to the EY Americas leadership executive team advising senior leadership on firm strategy and growth initiatives. She serves as a client service partner and leader on several of the firm’s largest global accounts. Ms. Cherwoo earned a BA in accounting from Sacred Heart University. Sharda is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Connecticut Society of CPAs.
Joseph Christiana
Senior Equity Analyst, Partner, Dowling & Partners Securities LLC
Mr. Christiana began his career at Dowling & Partners in 2007, a boutique equity research firm and full-service broker-dealer focusing exclusively on the insurance industry. Joe was admitted to the partnership in 2012.
Joe is currently a senior research analyst on the property and casualty research team. He covers numerous insurance and reinsurance underwriters, intermediaries as well as various industry topics.
Mr. Christiana holds a BA in economics from Harvard University.
Jason Clarke
Tax Manager, State and Local Tax, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Clarke has over 15 years of legal and accounting experience with 6 years of public accounting and state and local tax experience.
Jason is an accomplished income tax technician focusing primarily on general corporate income and franchise state tax issues including, state income tax minimization and restructuring engagements, state controversies, and lookback review engagements.
His experience includes a broad range of consultation experience including researching various multi-state income and franchise tax issues in order to identify potential state tax planning opportunities and solutions. Jason has also assisted companies understanding changes in state tax legislation, as well as published multiple articles on state and local tax issues.
Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Jason was a state and local tax manager at EY in both its New York and Chicago offices. He also served as law clerk for the Hon. Rhonda Reid-Winston of Washington, D.C. Superior Court, Probate and Tax Division.
Mr. Clarke has a BS in accounting from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, School of Business and Economics. He earned an MS in accounting from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Belk School of Business. Jason earned a JD from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.
Mr. Clarke is a CPA. He is admitted to practice law in Illinois.
Stephanie Coleman
Director, Financial Services Advisory, People & Organization, PwC
Ms. Coleman is a financial services specialist with extensive, global experience across several human resources areas. Her consulting experience covers the US, Australian, Middle Eastern and European markets, within which she has consulted across all aspects of the HR value chain and advised the world’s leading financial services companies on various elements of HR transformation.
Stefanie joined the US firm in 2014, after having been a senior manager within the Australian firm’s people & change practice. Prior to this, she spent five years consulting for Watson Wyatt Worldwide including with Willis Towers Watson in London, Dubai and Sydney in their talent and rewards practice.
Her experience includes designing and deploying strategic HR programs across a wide spectrum of clients – many of which carry cultural implications. Examples include values, behaviors, competency frameworks, engagement surveys and employee experience programs.
Ms. Coleman has a BA in economics from the University of Sydney. She is certified in (legacy) Towers Watson’s Global Grading System (GGS) for job grading and evaluation.
Raymond Conover
Managing Director, Conover Insurance Regulatory & Compliance Services
Mr. Conover is a career insurance regulatory professional with more than 37 years of broad-based experience. He assists insurers, attorneys and regulators in a wide variety of regulatory matters.
Ray performs market conduct exams, market conduct annual statement exams and Form A acquisition of control reviews for regulators in several states. He assists insurers and attorneys with interaction with regulators, market conduct readiness reviews (mock exam reviews), financial exam and corporate governance compliance and readiness. Ray has expertise in filings such as: Form A acquisition of control, holding company, expansion application, rate and form, and reinsurance dispute reviews.
Ray began his career with the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance as an insurance regulator. He spent most of his years with the Department in the Office of Financial Solvency including 12 years as the Assistant Commissioner and Chief Insurance Examiner. Ray was a founding member of the Financial Analysis Handbook Working Group that wrote the NAIC Financial Analysis Handbook.
Dan Cotter
Partner, Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd LLP
Mr. Cotter is Chair of the Insurance Regulatory and Transactions practice group and a member of the Privacy and Cyber practice group. His clients include a number of insurers, reinsurers and other insurance-related organizations.
Prior to that role, he was Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of Fidelity Life Association, and before that Dan was in private practice. He spent over 14 years in-house at insurance organizations, where he focused on insurance, regulatory, compliance and transactional matters.
Mr. Cotter served as President of The Chicago Bar Association for the 2014-2015 bar year and is former Chair of The Young Lawyers Section of The CBA. Dan is an adjunct professor at The John Marshall Law School, and has taught Insurance Law, Accounting for Lawyers and SCOTUS Judicial Biography.
Mr. Cotter earned a BA in Accounting from Monmouth College (Monmouth, Illinois) magna cum laude, and graduated summa cum laude from The John Marshall Law School. Dan earned his CIPP/US, a Certified Information Privacy Professional designation for the U.S. private-sector from the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
Mr. Cotter is licensed to practice law in Illinois, the Northern District of Illinois, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.
Maurice Crescenzi
Managing Director, Ethics and Compliance Practice Leader, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Crescenzi is a former in-house compliance and ethics officer with more than 24 years of combined industry and Big Four experience. Maurice has held in-house compliance officer positions at the leadership level in leading, global consumer products companies such as the Altria family of companies (Philip Morris and Kraft Foods Global, Inc.), Schering-Plough Consumer Health as well as the Animal Health companies.
Maurice is recognized member of leading compliance organizations, and he speaks regularly at compliance and ethics conferences, both in the United States and abroad. For example, a recent presentation is: “Managing the Gap: How Private Companies Adopt Public Company Best Governance Practices,” Private Directors Association. Chicago, IL 2017. He is also published on these topics.
Maurice teaches two self-designed, graduate-level courses within Montclair State University’s Master of Arts, Law and Governance, program. These “core” courses with the MA program deal with the inter-related concepts of organizational governance, compliance program design, culture, and ethical decision making.
Mr. Crescenzi has a BA in Political Science from Seton Hall University. He earned an MA in Law & Governance from Montclair State University. He is a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional.
John Cunningham
VP, Chief Financial System Officer, Starr Insurance Holdings, Inc
Mr. Cunningham’s background covers a wide range of areas including finance, reinsurance, insurance, banking and worker compensation. John’s expertise is in business process improvement through automation, standards development, improved metrics and reorganization.
John represents each corporate financial department head worldwide in order to coordinate, communicate and manage their needs with vendors, internal and external IT resources, to provide support and deliver applications functionality. John supports accounting (GL, AR, AP, FA), operations (collections), actuarial (annual statement), treasury (banking), facilities, reinsurance services, internal audit, tax, credit (ERM) and expense management (employee travel and expense reporting) departments. He also provides financial systems support to foreign growth initiatives.
Mr. Cunningham earned a BS in mathematics from Iona College. John is a member of the President’s Advisory Council of the SIFM.
Timothy Curry
Deputy Commissioner, Connecticut Insurance Department
Since becoming Deputy Insurance Commissioner in April 2016, Mr. Curry has been directly involved in a number of regulatory initiatives, which cover topics as diverse as interpreting Connecticut’s new corporate “division” legislation for insurers, review of the industry’s role in responding to “crumbling foundations” in northeastern Connecticut and responding to various challenges posed by insurtech innovations.
Prior to his service in state government, Mr. Curry enjoyed a 25-year career as in-house counsel to several NYSE-listed property casualty carriers, including Executive Risk, Chubb & Son, OneBeacon Professional and Allied World Assurance Company. His career in the insurance industry was preceded by stints as in-house counsel at financial services firms such as Advest, a Hartford-based securities brokerage, and Society for Savings.
Mr. Curry graduated with honors from SUNY– Binghamton. He earned a JD from Duke University School of Law where he edited the Duke Law Journal and graduated Order of the Coif.
He has spoken at University of Connecticut School of Law, the Treasury’s Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance on issues related to big data usage in insurance and the regulators’ response thereto.
Ronald Dabrowski
Technical Deputy to the Principal in Charge Washington National Tax, KPMG LLP
Mr. Dabrowski has more than 20 years of experience in international and business taxation concentrating in large-scale, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, including the planning and execution of business separations and acquisition integration.
Ron has had leadership roles within KPMG on emerging and cutting-edge issues, including KPMG’s section 385 practice and tax reform analysis group, and he is part of KPMG’s complex transactions practice.
He was a partner at KPMG from 2004 through 2010 and returned to KPMG in 2014 after serving in a variety of executive positions in the federal government: Special Counsel in the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy; International Tax Counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Finance Committee; and Deputy Associate Chief Counsel (International – Technical) at the IRS Chief Counsel’s office.
Mr. Dabrowski earned a BA summa cum laude from Boston College; an MA in economics from Duke University. He has a JD with honors from Duke University. He is a member of the Massachusetts, New York and the District of Columbia Bars. Ron is a member of the American Bar Association Tax Section and the International Fiscal Association.
Christopher Dougherty
Chief Underwriting Officer, XL Catlin Reinsurance
Mr. Dougherty has over 25 years of experience holding a variety of senior positions in both the insurance and reinsurance sectors.
Chris joined XL Group in 2012 as chief financial officer of insurance. In 2014, he transitioned to the newly created role of executive vice president, Insurance Underwriting and Ceded Reinsurance, and serves on the insurance leadership team. He also serves on the board of directors of XL Innovate, a VC Fund.
With previous roles as an underwriter, actuary and risk officer, Chris provides a combination of experience and perspective that has augmented XL’s efforts to improve its combined ratio and deliver sustained profitable growth.
Before joining XL, Chris was with Axis Capital Holdings Limited where he served as Chief Risk Officer of the Reinsurance segment.
Mr. Dougherty earned a BS in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame. He is an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society.
Mark DeLong
Managing Director, Operational Risk, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. DeLong has more than 40 years of experience in enterprise risk management, operations, internal audit and external audit experience.
Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Mark held a key leadership role with the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) as senior vice president for enterprise operational risk. He also served as chief risk officer for information technology and interim chief enterprise risk officer. Mark was a key leader in Freddie Mac’s enterprise three lines-of-defense and control optimization initiatives and was the executive sponsor of a new GRC tool implementation. He led teams to revise and enhance the ERM framework to integrate all risk types (credit, market, liquidity, operational) into a consistent methodology.
Previously, Mr. Delong held positions with Huntington Bank in Columbus, Ohio as EVP for deposit and loan operations, chief operational risk officer, chief audit executive, and internal auditor director.
Mr. DeLong earned a BS in business administration from the Ohio State University. He is a CPA. He is also a Certified Internal Auditor as well as a Certified Fraud Examiner and a Certified Bank Examiner.
Lou Dimopoulos
US Tax Director, Enstar Group LTD
Mr. Dimopoulos’ current responsibilities include global regulatory reporting and analysis, FATCA reporting and compliance, tax technology, risk management, internal SOX controls, transfer pricing, and accounting standards update.
Prior to Enstar, Lou had been employed at Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch where his primary focus was income tax compliance and reporting under ASC740, tax technology optimization and transformation, and other tax and accounting related areas.
Mr. Dimopoulos earned a BA in accounting from Queens College.
Martha Eckhardt
Tax Manager, Alan Gray LLC
Ms. Eckhardt has served for over two decades in the public sector working on tax-related matters. Martha prepares the most difficult individual tax returns for high net worth individuals, executives, athletes and expatriates. Martha’s expertise is in developing an excellent rapport with both clients and tax authorities. This ensures timely completion of projects with win-win outcomes for all parties. Formerly, Martha worked at Marcum, Baker Tilly, and EY. She served in the US Navy for 12 years. Ms. Eckhardt received a BS in architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned an MBA in accounting from the Fox School of Business at Temple University. Martha is an enrolled agent of the IRS. She is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents, and the New Jersey Society of Enrolled Agents.
Duncan Ellis
Head of Retail Property, North America General Insurance, AIG
Mr. Ellis has over 30 years of experience in insurance. He is responsible for growing and diversifying AIG’s property portfolio, as well as implementing consistent underwriting practices in the US, Bermuda and Canada that are aligned with AIG’s overall risk appetite to position the retail property business for sustained profitable growth.
Prior to AIG, Duncan served as managing director and leader of Marsh & McLennan’s US property practice from 1992 through 2019.
Duncan began his career in insurance as a P&C underwriter and spent six years at The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies.
Mr. Ellis holds a BS magna cum laude with a dual major in economics and biology and economics and sciences from St. Lawrence University. He earned an MBA in corporate finance and international business from NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Mr. Ellis is a board member of the Spencer Educational Foundation. He was featured in a recent article in Risk & Insurance, November 11, 2019.
James Faucette
Executive Director, Morgan Stanley
Mr. Faucette leads the firm’s US communications systems and payments research efforts, and brings a strong track record of being early to identify investment and technology trends across multiple sectors.
James joined Morgan Stanley from Pacific Crest Securities, where he was a senior analyst. He was formerly with Deutsche Bank (London) as a European tech strategist and at ING Barings (Santiago, Chile) as part of the Latin American Electrical Utilities team.
Mr. Faucette has a BS in Business Economics from the University of Arizona. He earned an International MBA from the University of Chicago.
Brad Fischtrom
Chief Risk Officer, AIG
Mr. Fischtrom is the leader of the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) function for AIG’s Commercial Insurance businesses. The group is accountable for design and facilitation of AIG’s ERM framework across the firm’s global Commercial Insurance operations and legal entities, including the effective management of all key insurance, market, credit, operational, and strategic risks.
Prior to AIG, Brad held positions at Willis Towers Watson and Aon Risk Services.
Mr. Fischtrom earned a BS in finance from the University of Richmond Robins School of Business. He is an Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU).
John Fitzgerald
Corporate Controller, ProSight Specialty Insurance
Mr. Fitzgerald has 17 years of experience in the (re)insurance industry.
John previously served in various senior finance roles at QBE Insurance, most recently as the Chief Financial Officer of its reinsurance captive, Equator Reinsurance Ltd, in Bermuda. Prior to that, he was the Chief Financial Officer of the Mortgage & Lender Services business unit of QBE North America in New York. Prior to joining QBE, he was a Senior Manager in EY’s Assurance practice based in New York, with a focus on the Property & Casualty industry.
Mr. Fitzgerald earned a BA in Economics and Accounting from The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. John is licensed CPA. He is also a member of the SIFM and a member of the President’s Advisory Counsel.
Michael Flagiello
Partner, Mazars USA LLP
Mr. Flagiello has more than 30 years of leadership experience building financial infrastructure and managing financial activities in start-up ventures as well as large, well-defined companies. An accomplished strategist, his vision and expertise in business performance has driven measurable results for global and small insurance companies. Michael provides his clients with a rare blend of financial discipline matched with creative, strategic, operational strength.
Michael’s passion surrounds technology and advancements in complex insurance industry environments. He and his team regularly assist large insurers with the major challenges of utilizing new technology in aging infrastructure.
Michael leads business strategy and transformation efforts for Mazars USA. Prior to joining the firm, he worked in executive roles for RVI Group, CNA, Facultative Resources and PwC.
Mr. Flagiello earned an MBA in accounting and finance from Pace University. He is a member of the SIFM.
John Forni
Managing Director, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Forni has over 25 years of experience advising US and multinational corporations within the financial services industry on a diverse range of tax issues and strategies.
John is a highly experienced C-suite tax executive with experience spanning all aspects of operating a complex multinational tax organization including tax operations, reporting, compliance, controversy, internal controls, tax planning, restructuring, transfer pricing, and tax technology implementation. In addition, John provides an executive perspective and hands-on experience in the development and implementation of domestic and international business tax strategies.
Prior to joining Grant Thornton, John served as a managing director in the business advisory consulting practice at a Philadelphia based accounting and consulting firm, where he focused on domestic and international tax for financial services. Prior to that, John held senior tax leadership positions for AIG, Chartis, Merrill Lynch, UBS Warburg and Bear Stearns.
Mr. Forni earned a BS in accounting and an MBA with a concentration in taxation from St. John’s University. John is a CPA licensed in New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is also a member of the SIFM.
Stephanie Frank
External Communications Manager, PwC
Ms. Frank oversees the social media committee and paid social efforts for the firm. She is responsible for managing and implementing organic and paid social media strategy. In that role, she devises new ways to share thought leadership and data through integrated channels and digital strategies to reach internal and external audiences, such as media publications, consultants, and potential clients.
Stephanie’s expertise includes paid social strategies, building digital content, social and digital strategy development, Yelping, influencer strategies, analyzing data and engagement metric research.
Previously, Ms. Frank worked at various NYC media agencies handling social media for DKNY, Belvedere Vodka, Red Mango, Brother Sewing Machines.
Ms. Frank earned a BS in communications and media studies at the CUNY School of Professional Studies.
Sam Friedman
Insurance Research Leader,
Deloitte Center for Financial Services
Mr. Friedman is the Insurance Research Leader at Deloitte’s Center for Financial Services. He conducts surveys, interviews, focus groups, quantitative analyses, and other types of studies to examine and help overcome major challenges facing the insurance industry.
Sam shares his research results and recommendations in white papers, articles, blogs, webcasts, and live presentations to help insurers grow their business, improve customer experience, transform operational effectiveness, bolster risk management, enhance technological capabilities, and increase profitability.
Before joining Deloitte in 2010, Sam was the long-time Editor-in-Chief of National Underwriter, where he published an award-winning column and blog, “A View From The Press Box.” His most recent work has spotlighted trends in InsurTech investment, innovation, privacy regulations, and cyber risk management.
Dennis Frio
Managing Director, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Frio has 25 years of consulting and industry experience specializing in the implementation and optimization of third-party risk management and supply chain processes and applications.
Dennis facilitated the creation of a global third-party risk consortium working directly with four global investment and wealth management companies and a selected operating company. In addition, Dennis has deep expertise in optimizing a firm’s finance, source to pay and third-party risk management operations within the financial services and pharmaceutical industries.
Prior to Grant Thornton, Mr. Frio worked at PwC providing expertise to Fortune 500 companies throughout the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific across a broad range of business and technical disciplines including both shared service and outsourcing assessments, finance and supply chain process and organizational redesign and full life cycle source to pay system implementations.
Mr. Frio earned a BS in accounting and finance from Montclair State University. He is member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Institute of Internal Auditors.
Daniel Gadino
Senior Manager, Deloitte LLP
Mr. Gadino is a leader in Deloitte’s insurance strategy practice with over 12 years of consulting experience. He works with clients across a range of areas including corporate and customer strategy, operating model design, and innovation. Specifically, he helps financial services clients think about organic and inorganic growth, optimizing channel strategies, as well as growing and retaining the customer base.
He has worked with multiple insurance executives to help them navigate the insurtech ecosystem, determine their investment and innovation strategy, discover new business models and accelerate their goals.
Formerly, he worked for Proctor Gamble on P&G’s global lauric oil supply chain.
Mr. Gadino earned a BA in economics and Hispanic studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He was awarded an MBA in strategy and corporate finance from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Atif Ghauri
Principal, Cybersecurity Practice Leader, Mazars USA
Mr. Ghauri is a renowned cybersecurity expert with 20 years of experience in management consulting, technical and sales operations, product management, and business development. He is an innovator in cybersecurity, receiving a patent in security analytics on embedded consumer devices monitoring user activity anomalies.
Prior to joining Mazars USA, Atif led a three year $250 million dollar geographical expansion initiative as chief technology officer of a global cybersecurity firm. Before that, Atif held leadership roles for both business and technology organizations at Comcast. He served as the chief product security officer for the technology engineering group, where he directed all security work streams to launch next generation X1 Platform, including invention and deployment of his patented fraud detection technology operational on millions of subscriber devices.
Mr. Ghauri has a BS from Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University. He earned an MA in technology management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Atif serves as an Adjunct Professor in Cybersecurity for Drexel University and Rutgers University.
Atif has attained certifications as a Certified Information Systems Security Professional, a Certified Information Security Manager, and a Certified Cloud Security Architect.
Gregory Giardiello
Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Finance & Actuarial,
North America, QBE North America
Mr. Giardiello is a senior financial executive with over 28 years of broad-based operating, management and financial experience at both multinational Fortune 50 companies and Big 4 public accounting firms. Greg focuses on strategies and key drivers that impact business performance and operations.
Prior to joining QBE, he held controllership roles at Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, Marsh & McLennan, AIG and Prudential He started his career at Deloitte providing auditing services to public companies.
His expertise is in implementing business planning and management review processes, developing high performance finance teams, creating high quality management and SEC reporting, driving process improvements as well as strengthening the financial control environment.
Mr. Giardiello earned a BS in accounting from St. John’s University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Greg is a CPA licensed in New York. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the SIFM.
James Gkonos
Counsel, Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP
Mr. Gkonos focuses his practice on insurance and reinsurance regulatory matters, contract and treaty interpretation as well as reinsurance disputes.
Jim assists clients on issues relating to financial guarantees, surety bonds and the intersection between insurance and capital markets. He frequently represents clients that have problems with insurance companies in runoff and liquidation. He has structured securitized international financial transactions and has substantial international experience in the restructure of financially impaired, insolvent or bankrupt entities.
Mr. Gkonos earned his JD from the Pennsylvania State University – Dickinson School of Law. He is admitted to the bar in Pennsylvania.
Jim is a member of the Federation of Regulatory Counsel, ABA Litigation Section, ABA International Law Section and ABA Accountants’ Liability Subcommittee, Litigation Section.
Brendan Gray
Manager, Global Forensics, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP
Mr. Gray has over 8 years of experience specializing in forensic accounting. He focusses on the quantification of insurance claims related to product recall, business interruption, fraud and fidelity. He is experienced in investigating misappropriation schemes and tracing assets due to employee theft or dishonesty, and often assists in preparing expert reports and analyses for use in trial.
Mr. Gray earned an MBA in accounting as well as a BS in accounting from the University of Scranton. He is a CPA and a member of the AICPA.
Steven Greene
Director, Insurance Tax Services, Mazars USA LLP
Mr. Greene has more than 25 years of experience with federal and foreign insurance tax including property and casualty, life, health, mortgage, financial guaranty.
Steve previously worked with EY’s financial services reviewing statutory and GAAP income tax provisions as part of financial statement audits. Prior to that, he was with LECG-SMART managing tax consulting engagements. Steve also managed IRS examinations including income tax audits resulting from net operating loss carryback claims subject to Joint Committee of Taxation Review, audits of excise tax on foreign reinsurance, federal and state income tax return preparation, amended filings and reviews and co-sourcing/out-sourcing arrangements.
Mr. Greene received his BA in accounting and earned an MS in taxation from Drexel University. He is a CPA licensed in Pennsylvania. Steve is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is a member of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is a member of the Society of Insurance Financial Managers.
Rebecca Greenhalgh
Global Alliances Executive, OneTrust, LLC
Ms. Greenhalgh supports a unique global partner program that offers data privacy resources and recommendations to over 50 global firms and consultancies that leverage the OneTrust platform to deliver robust regulatory compliance solutions to their customers. OneTrust is the largest and most widely used privacy management technology platform for compliance with global privacy laws.
Prior to OneTrust, Rebecca was with IBM working with their cloud services group. She was responsible for activating and growing a territory of white space CSP and MSP accounts in the Eastern United States, and integrating those clients into the IBM business partner ecosystem.
Rebecca earned a BS in business administration from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E, CIPM).
Charles Griffin
Managing Director, EVP, Guy Carpenter & Co LLC
Mr. Griffin works with the executive sales group, together with regional and branch managers and account teams, on key client accounts. Charlie handles property and casualty treaty reinsurance accounts for regional, specialty, and large national account writers.
Prior to Charlie’s appointment to the executive sales group, he served as branch manager for the firm’s Morristown office. Before joining Guy Carpenter, he was executive vice president of Wilcox Reinsurance Intermediaries.
Mr. Griffin holds a BS from Rider University and an MBA in finance from St. John’s University.
Steve Guijarro
Director, S&P Global Ratings
Mr. Guijarro is the lead analyst managing a portfolio of P&C and multi-line insurers. He is responsible for presenting opinions to senior executives and publishing analytical reports as well as commentaries.
Steve has developed enterprise risk management assessments for complex insurance companies by evaluating credit, market and operational risk controls, risk exposure, strategic risk management and risk culture.
Previously, he was vice president at Marsh where he managed a team of analysts that provided actuarial and advanced statistical analytics for clients.
Mr. Guijarro earned a BA in economics from Cornell University. He was awarded an MS in applied mathematics from Long Island University.
Danielle Handlan
Partner, Financial Services Practice, KPMG LLP
Ms. Handlan has extensive accounting and auditing experience in the insurance industry and has served both national and global insurance entities as well as small to medium-sized property and casualty insurers in the United States.
Danielle recently completed a short-term rotation in KPMG’s department of professional practice in New York where she was responsible for providing advice to engagement teams and delivering guidance on current accounting, auditing and regulatory topics.
She finished a two-year assignment in Munich, Germany where she served as the second audit partner on KPMG’s largest global insurance client and was responsible for coordinating and executing the global audit and resolving technical accounting issues in IFRS and US GAAP for insurance contracts raised throughout the Group.
Ms. Handlan completed a four-year rotation in KPMG’s international standards group (ISG) in London, which houses the firm’s IFRS technical experts and contacts to external organizations, including the IASB and FASB and various regulatory agencies. In the ISG, she was responsible for technical topic matters for insurance and co-authored various thought leadership pieces, and technical accounting newsletters and publications on the IASB and FASB’s insurance accounting proposals as well as developing firm-wide internal accounting and audit guidance related to IFRS and insurance.
Laurie Harris
Independent Director
IWG plc, Synchronoss Technologies, Inc and QBE North America
Ms. Harris is an independent director and audit committee chair of the boards of directors of IWG plc, the global operator of leading co-work and workspace brands; Synchronoss Technologies, a global leader and innovator in cloud, messaging, digital and IoT platforms and products, and QBE North America where she also serves on the remuneration, risk and capital and investment committees.
Formerly, Laurie was a global engagement audit partner at PwC. She has significant experience in the financial services and insurance industry sectors and meets the qualifications as an audit committee financial expert. Laurie has extensive experience in corporate boardrooms, advising over 20 audit committees of large public companies, private equity backed entities and Fortune 100 financial services organizations.
Ms. Harris earned a BS in accounting summa cum laude from the University of Southern California. She is a CPA licensed in New York, New Jersey, California and Massachusetts and is a member of the AICPA.
Laurie is a member of the board of directors of the Society of Insurance Financial Management and on the steering committee of the Women of SIFM. She is also a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and is an NACD Governance Fellow.
Lawrence Hayden
Managing Director, Audit,
KPMG LLP
Mr. Hayden has over 13 years of experience in professional accounting serving financial services entities. He provides audit and advisory services to insurance and banking clients serving a broad range of firms including non-life, life, financial guarantee, primary, reinsurance, global, regional organizations and consumer finance.
Lawrence works in integrated audits for large financial institutions and his experience ranges from small to large public and non-public companies.
Mr. Hayden earned a BS in accounting as well as an MBA in accounting from St. John’s University.
Mr. Hayden is a licensed CPA in New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Kris Hill
President, Alternative Markets
QBE North America
Ms. Hill has more than 25 years of experience serving in insurance operations and financial leadership positions. Kris is an accomplished leader who brings strong financial acumen and a global perspective to her role.
Kris is also a strategic partner to CEO QBE North America helping to define, develop and deliver financial strategy for profitable business planning and organizational growth.
Prior to QBE, Ms. Hill served as senior vice president and chief financial officer at Liberty Mutual. She previously held several positions of increasing responsibility in accounting, finance and operations at Safeco Corporation, Northstar Communications as well as at Aetna Life & Casualty. She began her career as an audit supervisor at Grant Thornton.
Ms. Hill was awarded a BS in accounting from the University of Connecticut School of Business. She is a CPA.
Lindsay Hohler
Senior Manager, Cyber Risk Services, Grant Thornton LLP
Ms. Hohler has 13 years of professional experience in risk and privacy consulting, including privacy and compliance program assessments and implementations, cybersecurity program assessments, security & privacy policies and standards and data privacy solution implementation.
Lindsay helps global institutions in transforming their data privacy programs. She frequently speaks on data privacy issues.
Ms. Hohler holds a BS in finance from the Pennsylvania State University. She is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA).
Mark Hopkins
Executive Director, Insurance Advisory Practice, EY
Mr. Hopkins has over 25 years of international experience leading strategy, finance and operations engagements for financial services companies. His current work and research focuses on life insurance and annuity company modernization as well as the future of distribution including the impact of science, analytics and technology on advice, distribution and underwriting of insurance products.
Mark has participated in model office initiatives, led due diligence on new reinsurance private placements, supported a global divestiture program, and led an international public company readiness program across all functions for a global insurer.
He served as head of the financial institutions division of an Africa-based investment bank where he served on the boards of insurance brokers and underwriters. As part of an IPO, he transitioned to become CEO of a publicly traded insurance company in Southern Africa with property and casualty, life and retirement and asset management subsidiaries.
Mr. Hopkins earned a BS in business administration and economics from the Pennsylvania State University. He is a Chartered Life Underwriter. Mark also served as a volunteer in the US Peace Corps in Botswana, Africa.
Stephen Holmes
Vice President, CTO,
FinTech Lab at Virtusa Consulting & Services Ltd
Mr. Holmes has over twenty years of IT experience with a track record of translating complex client business problems into clear and concise solutions.
Stephen began his career with IBM UK where he played several key roles in developing CICS ESA 4.3. He worked for Hewlett Packard where he collaborated with IBM and Seagate to create and license an industry standard for tape backup – Linear Tape Open(LTO).
Stephen is an industry expert in blockchain and has published articles in American Banker, Venturebeat, as well as many blockchain and Bitcoin publications. He currently is a subject matter expert on the ISO TC 307 Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology standards committee for Security and Privacy.
Mr. Holmes earned an MBA from the University of Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom.
Constance Hunter
Principal & Chief Economist, KPMG LLP
Ms. Hunter heads macroeconomic research, analytics and forecasting and is a member of KPMG’s pension advisory board. Constance works closely with the firm’s leadership and clients to identify inflection points, risks and opportunities that arise in the constantly evolving economic landscape.
She is known for correctly calling economic indicators that presage market turning points such as the Russian currency devaluation in 1998, the dotcom bubble in 2001, the real estate and credit crisis in 2007-08, the recovery of the housing market and concurrent low bond yields in 2012 and the continued low bond yields during the recovery and into the expansion.
Prior to joining KPMG, Constance held high-level positions in the asset management sector serving in the capacity of chief investment officer or chief economist. At AXA Investment Managers she helped manage over $500 billion in fixed income assets.
Ms. Hunter graduated with a BA in economics and sociology from New York University. She holds a MIA with a concentration in international economics from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
Constance was recently named vice president of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), from which she holds the Certified Business Economist designation. She is a regular speaker at conferences on a wide variety of macroeconomic topics and is a frequent guest on all major financial media channels.
In addition to NABE, she is actively involved with a several economic and financial market associations including the New York Association for Business Economics, Money Marketeers, National Committee for US-China Relations and 100 Women in Finance. She is also on the board of GallopNYC, an organization that changes lives of disabled New Yorkers by offering therapeutic horsemanship programs in six locations.
Kevin Hutchinson
Senior Manager
Deloitte Consulting
Mr. Hutchinson is an experienced consultant focused on advising clients in the financial services industry. He supports organizations’ finance and accounting functions with an emphasis on technology projects that improve access to data and advanced analytics.
Kevin’s expertise is in solving client issues related to enterprise data strategy and business intelligence especially as it relates to supporting IT-driven growth and optimization.
Prior to Deloitte, Kevin was a senior consultant at CGI Inc. delivering over $4.5M of consulting services to federal clients in finance and procurement.
Mr. Hutchinson earned a BS in information systems from Carnegie Mellon University. He was awarded an MBA in business administration and management from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Kelly Isikoff
Chief Information Systems Officer, RenaissanceRe
Ms. Isikoff has over 15 years of experience in technology risk management, information protection and security assurance. She has global responsibility for directing strategy, operations, and budget for the protection of information assets of Renaissance Re. In this role, she conducts annual cyber risk assessments and has various reporting requirements to senior executives, the board, and related investor groups.
Before joining RenaissanceRe, Ms. Isikoff was an Executive Director for JP Morgan Asset Management, where she was responsible for setting security strategy and policies as well as managing operational security departments. Prior to her time with JP Morgan, she was an SVP for Citigroup and managed security technology across a portfolio of projects in data architecture, workflow and event management, advanced search analytics and the cyber security fusion center. Previously, she worked at Warner Music Group where she led security and new media initiatives to identify innovative revenue channels within technology.
Ms. Isikoff has an MS in information technology from Stevens Institute of Technology.
Jenna Jackson
Manager, Financial Services Advisory, People & Organization, PwC
Ms. Jackson has worked with clients across various Financial Services sectors and functions in the US, Europe and the UK to deliver human capital solutions on a standalone or integrated basis to address priority client issues such as cost reduction, regulatory change, and risk management.
Jenna has extensive experience in organizational change, including top down culture change initiatives as well as workforce transformations delivering solutions to clients such as strategic workforce planning, change management, communications, and organization design.
Ms. Jackson earned a BS cum laude from Vanderbilt University.
Jeffery Jacobs
Global CIO, BlackRock, Inc
Mr. Jacobs is the Global CIO of the Financial Institutions Group, and Head of FIG – Portfolio Management. He is responsible for all single and multi-asset portfolio performance, strategic positioning, and customized solution creation across the full FIG platform at BlackRock.
Mr. Jacobs has been a member of the FIG Group at BlackRock since its inception holding a variety of positions including head of portfolio management and senior portfolio manager. He began his career at BlackRock in the account management group, prior to becoming a portfolio manager.
Mr. Jacobs earned a BA in history and a certificate in environmental studies from Princeton University.
Mr. Jacobs currently serves as a board member for The Covenant House Mother and Child Shelter. He is a former trustee and board member of The Nature Conservancy of Eastern New York.
Michele Jacobson
Partner, Executive Committee Member, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
Ms. Jacobson concentrates in complex insurance and reinsurance matters. She has represented ceding companies, reinsurers, retrocessionaires, liquidators, intermediaries and program managers in a wide range of matters in federal and state courts and before arbitration panels throughout the country.
These matters have involved issues such as misrepresentations in connection with the placement of reinsurance, disputes as to the coverage provided by treaties and policies, standards of conduct applicable to ceding companies in their dealings with reinsurers, broker negligence and terminations of program manager, managing general agency agreements.
Ms. Jacobson also represents clients in insurance regulatory matters. Ceding companies and reinsurers have called upon Ms. Jacobson’s reinsurance contract wording experience in order to proactively avoid disputes by tightening their contracts.
Ms. Jacobson earned a BA summa cum laude from Brandeis University. She was a recipient of the Louis D. Brandeis Award. She was conferred with a JD from New York University School of Law where she was the editor of the New York University Law Review. Michele is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey as well as the US Supreme Court.
Russell Johnston
Former Chief Executive Officer
QBE North America
Mr. Johnston has over 30 years of experience in the insurance industry having served in a wide range of leadership roles. At QBE, he had been intensely focused on building QBE’s position in the market around its distinctive value as an integrated specialist insurer.
Prior to joining QBE, Russ was the president of AIG Casualty in the Americas, with responsibility for all U.S., Canada, Bermuda, and London-based U.S. Casualty underwriters. He started in the industry as an underwriter at Chubb.
Mr. Johnston received a BS in finance and management from Syracuse University.
From 2012 to 2015 Russ was also on the board of directors of the National Council on Compensation Insurance the foremost authority on workers compensation in the US and was a board member of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation.
Mr. Johnston is currently the board president for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County, an organization focused on helping high risk youth.
Stephen Johnson
Managing Director, Tax Consulting Services, Deloitte Services LLP
Mr. Johnson has over 30 years of experience with Deloitte ranging from corporate and partnership work to his current specialty of individual income taxes. In 2016, he joined the Deloitte PPMD Wealth Office where he counsels Deloitte partners, principals and managing directors about their personal tax situations including new partner tax cliff planning, retirement planning and residency issues.
He has spoken widely on the topics of individual tax planning, including year-end planning and retirement planning. Additionally, Steve has created courses and teaches at Deloitte’s National Forums.
Mr. Johnson received his BS degree in accounting from Manhattan College and an MBA in taxation from Seton Hall University. He is a member of the AICPA and the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants.
David Jones
Managing Director, Financial Services, KPMG LLP
Mr. Jones has over 12 years of experience in federal taxation, providing tax compliance, accounting for income taxes, planning, and structuring of transactions to insurance clients. He works in the Metro New York area serving large public companies, middle market public and non-public entities including life, accident and health, property & casualty insurance companies, as well as traditional subchapter C corporations.
David has experience in ASC 740 Accounting for Income Taxes, IAS 12 Income Taxes, and SSAP 101 Statutory Accounting for Income Taxes. He leads engagements involving the preparation and review of tax returns, provision calculations, and various other compliance related issues. David also provides consulting services to clients including, writing and reviewing insurance taxation related research memorandums and opinion letters, and tax process and technology improvement projects, providing end-to-end process decomposition and redesign solutions.
Mr. Jones holds a BSc in Finance from the University of Reading, UK. He is a licensed CPA in Ohio and New York. David is an instructor at KPMG’s insurance tax seminars, and frequent speaker at insurance taxation conferences.
Saravanan Karuppusamy
Senior Manager
EY
Mr. Karuppusamy is in the financial services practice with a focus in the insurance and reinsurance industries. In his role, he assists clients with complex accounting, accounting change implementations and conversions, and optimizing finance processes and controls.
Saravanan has extensive experience providing accounting advice and assistance to clients related to U.S. GAAP, IFRS, NAIC statutory reporting frameworks.
Mr. Karuppusamy has a BE in mechanical engineering from Madras University, Chennai, India. He earned an MBA in finance from Anna University, Chennai, India.
Saravanan is a CPA licensed in Massachusetts. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a fellow of the Life Management Institute. He is also a member of the administrative and finance committee of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley.
Fahad Khan
Senior Manager, Deloitte Transactions & Business Analytics LLP
Mr. Khan has over 13 years of experience in providing valuation and advisory services in a variety of contexts including M&A, financial reporting, dispute resolution, fairness opinion and tax planning. He specializes in the valuation of business interests and privately held companies. Currently he serves large private equity and FSI clients.
Prior to joining the New York office, Fahad worked in the Dubai office providing valuation and financial advisory services to clients in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. He worked with regional and multinational banks, sovereign wealth funds and large family owned conglomerates for M&A, financial reporting and internal decision making purposes.
Mr. Khan graduated with a BSc in general business from Excelsior College. He earned an MBA in finance from Oklahoma State University. Fahad holds the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst.
Frederick Kohm
Practice Leader, Forensic Investigations Disputes Services
Mr. Kohm has over twenty years of experience working as an accountant, auditor, and consultant in the public accounting and financial services industry. He focuses on accounting advisory, forensic accounting, and litigation support service offerings. His clients include regulators, public and private companies, and law firms.
In addition to working with US Regulators, Mr. Kohm was previously appointed Inspector, by the Minister of Finance of Bermuda, and engaged by Government of Bermuda, Registrar of Companies, to perform investigations into transactions of a failed publicly traded company in financial services industry.
Mr. Kohm earned a BS in Business Administration from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He is a licensed CPA, and is certified in Financial Forensics. In addition, Mr. Kohm is the committee Chair of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Insurance Committee, and is an active member of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants Forensic Accounting and Litigation Support, Committee.
David Kragseth
Senior Contract Wording Specialist, Underwriting Services Division, Munich Reinsurance America, Inc
Mr. Kragseth has more than 28 years of private and corporate experience in the insurance and reinsurance industry. Currently David is responsible for drafting and negotiating insurance, reinsurance, retrocessional, finite and related corporate contracts.
David began his professional reinsurance career at Everest Reinsurance Company followed by a position at Zurich Reinsurance (North America), Inc. Following 9/11, American Reinsurance Broker Markets hired David to be their Chief Contracts Officer.
Mr. Kragseth earned a BS and an MA from Northwestern University. James was awarded a JD from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota.
David is a member of the Minnesota and New Jersey Bars. He holds the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) professional designations.
Kyle Koreyva
Senior Manager, PwC
Mr. Koreyva currently works on the audits of a global insurer. He recently finished a tour at the PwC national office working on consultations with domestic and international clients and engagement teams on a wide range of matters relating to accounting, auditing and reporting, as well as issues relating to public and private capital markets activities.
Kyle regularly presents at client and industry events on topics related to accounting and regulatory updates impacting clients. He has authored several publications focused on developments at the SEC, FASB, PCAOB, and various international regulators.
Mr. Koreyva holds a BBA from Emory University. He is a licensed CPA in Georgia, New York and Connecticut. Kyle is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants.
Ronald Kuehn
Consulting Actuary, Huggins Actuarial Services Inc
Mr. Kuehn’s over 45 years in business have given him a thorough knowledge of the property-casualty business both from a company and consulting viewpoint. He specializes in loss reserve opinions, ratemaking and funding studies as well as economic capital modeling. He works with property and casualty insurance companies, self-insured healthcare systems, self-insured corporations, brokers, auditing firms, and law firms.
Prior to joining Huggins Actuarial, Rusty was a partner with the Hay Group. When EY acquired the insurance actuarial practice of the Hay Group (Huggins Financial Services), he became a partner at EY.
Rusty currently serves on the Board of the Insurance Society of Philadelphia, and is a member of the ORSA subgroup of the ERM Committee of the Risk Management and Financial Reporting Council of the AAA. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and the International Actuarial Association. In addition, Mr. Kuehn holds the Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst designation, the Chartered Property-Casualty Underwriter designation and the Associate in Risk Management designation.
Kim Kushmerick
Senior Technical Manager, Accounting Standards – Public Accounting, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Ms. Kushmerick has over 20 years of experience in accounting. She focuses on accounting and auditing issues impacting the insurance industry.
Kim is responsible for preparing member communications related to FASB ASC 606: Revenue Recognition; managing the AICPA Insurance Expert Panel and AICPA NAIC Task Force; and liaising with the FASB, IASB, NAIC and SEC Staff on insurance issues.
Prior to joining the AICPA, Kim worked at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company as a Manager in Institutional Business – Finance. She began her career with KPMG LLP concentrating in financial services.
Ms. Kushmerick holds a BS from the University of Delaware. Kim is a CPA licensed in New Jersey.
Anders Land
Senior Vice President and Head of Internal Audit, QBE North America
Mr. Land is the Head of Internal Audit where he is the Executive in charge of the company’s Internal Audit department and NAIC Statutory Model Audit Rule compliance. In this role, he is responsible for leading an audit team of 22 professional auditors, managing a comprehensive risk based audit plan covering auditable entities across all of QBE. As QBE has recently globalized its business model, he has taken on leadership roles to develop and implemented a global audit methodology and Center of Excellence for IT and Claim operations.
Prior to joining QBE, Anders held several senior management positions at AIG including leader of AIG P&C Federal Reserve Supervision SIFI activities, integration of domestic and international finance operations, build-up of corporate functions, management of the company’s Sarbanes-Oxley program and MGA audit group.
Mr. Land graduated from the University of California with a degree in Business Economics.
Mr. Land is an acknowledged Corporate Governance and Sarbanes-Oxley specialist and has been a featured speaker on the practical implications of implementing Sarbanes-Oxley at large multinational financial services companies. Additionally, he is a member of the Financial Executives International’s research committee and was a contributor to the special working group on Sarbanes-Oxley, Section 404, which resulted in two white papers presented to the SEC and influenced public policy around the regulation. Anders is also a member of the SIFM.
Michele Landon
Senior Manager, Financial Services Tax, EY
Ms. Landon has over 17 years of experience rendering tax consulting services to a variety of clients in the financial services arena with a specific focus on US and foreign-based multinational companies. Michele co-leads global compliance and reporting activities for EY’s US insurance practice.
Michele advises financial services companies on a full range of federal and international tax issues including serving banking and insurance clients on global information reporting and withholding tax issues, preparation and review of ASC 740 and SSAP 101 calculations and disclosures, and preparation and review of Forms 1120, 1120-PC, 1120-L and 5472.
Ms. Landon has a BA in accounting from Saint John’s University. She earned an MA in taxation from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business. Michele is a CPA and a Certified Fraud Examiner.
Michele is a member of the Americas Tax Financial Services Innovation Council and is leading the EY Kickbox initiative for Americas Tax with a focus on generating revenue and ideas. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New York State Society of CPAs, Women of the SIFM Steering Committee, and the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York.
Bob Laux
North American Lead, International Integrated Reporting Council
Mr. Laux leads the IIRC for North America which is a global coalition of regulators, investors, companies, standard setters, the accounting profession and NGOs promoting communication about value creation as the next step in the evolution of corporate reporting.
Prior to joining the IIRC, Bob spent 16 years at Microsoft Corporation, most recently as the treasury controller. Prior to joining Microsoft, Bob was an industry fellow at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) where he was responsible for coordinating the activities of the emerging issues task force. Bob spent 8 years at General Motors.
Mr. Laux has a BA in accounting from Michigan State University. He earned an MBA in finance from the University of Houston. He is a Certified Management Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant.
Mr. Laux is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Management Accountants; the International Accounting Standards Board Global Preparers Forum. He is also a member of the American Accounting Association’s Future of Accounting Education and Practice Advisory Group as well as the Finance Committee.
Agnus Lau-Fernau
Senior Manager, Mazars USA LLP
Ms. Lau-Fernau has over 20 years of experience serving as a project manager and advisor to financial services companies. She has a unique combination of internal industry skills coupled with consulting experience.
Ms. Lau-Fernau’s strengths are her robust analytical abilities coupled with strategic insights that provide operational excellence helping clients achieve finance, operational and compliance improvements.
Her most recent experience was project managing two reporting projects, one in the P&C insurance industry and the other in water industry. In both projects, she successfully delivered a complete end-to-end solution including coordination of the client’s corporate finance group year-end close, working with business units to follow required project plan steps as well as managing the annual plan process for executive management review
Ms. Lau-Fernau received a BS in finance and marketing from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. She earned an MBA in finance and operations management from the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University.
Tracey Laws
Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Reinsurance Association of America
Ms. Laws has over 20 years of experience providing legal, strategic, and lobbying counsel and services. She is responsible for establishing and advocating the RAA’s public policy positions.
Tracey has advocated to Congress to streamline industry solvency regulation, resulting in favorable provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act and elevating the organization’s impact. She oversees all legal matters in the association, including drafting of amicus briefs, legislation and regulations, and handling antitrust, administrative, corporate, political action committee and personnel issues.
Tracey previously was a partner at the law firm of Chadbourne & Parke LLP concentrating on reinsurance matters.
Ms. Laws is a member of Mealey’s 2006 Insurance Advisory Council, the AIDA Reinsurance & Insurance Society Law Committee and the ABA’s TIPS Federal Involvement in Insurance Regulation Modernization Task Force. Ms. Laws is also a Board member of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies.
Ms. Laws received her BA from the College of William and Mary and her JD from the University of Virginia. Ms. Laws is licensed to practice law in Texas and District of Columbia.
Johnny Lee
Principal, Forensic Advisory Services, National Practice Leader Forensic Technology Services, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Lee is a management and litigation consultant and former attorney, he specializes in forensic investigations, data breaches, complex data analytics, computer forensics, and electronic discovery in support of investigations and civil litigation. He also provides advisory services to organizations working to address complex Cybersecurity and Data Privacy issues.
Johnny is responsible for the development, implementation, and delivery of Information Privacy and Data Governance solutions. He has extensive experience with Internal Audit & Compliance-related engagements. Additionally, he has designed and delivered training programs to boards, attorneys, executives, human resources professionals, accountants, and information technology personnel.
Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Mr. Lee served in various executive roles for global consulting firms, and he also served in the District Attorney’s Office in Atlanta, GA.
Mr. Lee has a BA in Philosophy from Emory University. He earned a JD from Georgia State University College of Law. He was Moot Court Officer and President of the Federalist Society.
Mr. Lee is a frequent speaker, panelist, and author on various topics across involving Cybersecurity, Information Privacy, Data Analytics, eDiscovery, Computer Forensics, Information Governance, Business Intelligence, and the effective use (and risk management) of Information Technology.
Robert Lewin
Partner, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
Mr. Lewin is Chair of the firm’s Insurance and Reinsurance Litigation/Arbitration practice. He has represented numerous clients in various insurance and reinsurance coverage disputes involving comprehensive general liability, directors and officers, errors and omissions, excess and umbrella liability, worker’s compensation and financial guarantee and performance bonds.
His experience in the reinsurance area has been in representing cedents, reinsurers, retrocessionaires, pool members, intermediaries and liquidators. Mr. Lewin has been involved in more than 100 reinsurance disputes, of which over 25 have been resolved after hearings or trials.
Over the past 40 years, Mr. Lewin has been responsible for several complex litigations and arbitrations, at both the trial and appellate level, in a variety of domestic and foreign jurisdictions. Mr. Lewin also represents clients in insurance regulatory matters.
Mr. Lewin received a BA from The Johns Hopkins University. He earned a JD from New York University School of Law. Robert is a member of the Bar of the City of New York; American Bar Association, International Bar Association and is on the Board of Directors of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
Andrew Linden
Attorney
Norris McLaughlin, P.A.
Mr. Linden focuses his practice on litigating and resolving business disputes, representing clients in the alcoholic beverage and cannabis industries.
Andrew counsels alcoholic beverage manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers with all facets of their business including licensing and regulatory compliance, business formation, and product labeling. Andrew contributes to the Norris’ Liquor Law Blog which highlights legal and business issues affecting clients that make, sell, or distribute beer, wine, and spirits.
Mr. Linden brings his experience of representing clients in highly regulated industries to Norris McLaughlin’s cannabis law group as its co-chair. He assists marijuana entrepreneurs, suppliers, growers, retailers, and investors with navigating complex statutory and regulatory schemes, including those related to permitting and licensing (such as initial applications, transfers, expansions, changes to ownership, and related disclosures), distribution, and general business operations (such as sales, storage of product, and recordkeeping). Andrew regularly assists clients in all tiers of the distribution chain regarding compliance and business law issues.
Mr. Linden received a BS in accounting and marketing from Lehigh University. He earned a JD cum laude from Seton University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York as well as the U.S. District Court of New Jersey and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Andrew has been included in New Jersey Super Lawyers, Rising Stars, for Business Litigation from 2013 to 2017.
Barbara Marder
Senior Partner, Global Innovation Leader, Mercer
Ms. Marder began her 30-year career with Mercer as an actuary in the firm’s Wealth business and since then has held a variety of leadership roles across the firm, including the International Consulting Group and the global mobility business.
As the Global Innovation Leader, Barbara’s responsibility is to oversee an innovation team and create new offerings for Mercer’s talent business. She leads the innovation team from idea generation to testing key assumptions to commercializing the new offering.
For the last two years, Ms. Marder led a team in Mercer’s Innovation Hub, focused on disruptive solutions in recruiting and talent acquisition. Last year, her team launched Mercer Match, a job-matching and career advice app that uses gamification, neuroscience and machine learning to pre-qualify candidates and match them to sales and customer service roles.
Ms. Marder earned a BA in mathematics and economics from Emory University.
Ms. Marder was recently named one of Consulting Magazine’s Top 25 Consultants 2017.
Charles Mattson
Senior Account Executive
Oracle
Mr. Mattson leads the financial analytic applications unit for insurance. He helps insurers understand and build the business cases for improved analytics, the internet of things, and machine learning among other new technologies with which insurers are grappling.
Previously Charles spent 5 years at SAP in the insurance unit. Before SAP, he spent 10 years at Gartner helping CIOs and CFOs understand virtualization and cloud computing. While at E*TRADE he helped banks set up electronic trading desks. Charles also worked at Thomson Disclosure where he provided 10K, 10Q and balance sheet information.
Charles holds BS in political science and government from the University of Rhode Island. He earned an MBA in finance and marketing from The University of Connecticut School of Business.
Sean McErlean
Senior Manager, Controls Advisory Services,
Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. McErlean has more than 20 years of experience providing both management consulting and internal audit services to organizations in the insurance/reinsurance industry.
Recently, Sean served as the director of internal audit for Maiden Reinsurance North America. In this position, Sean led the internal audit team in the documentation, assessment and testing of control activities to achieve audit objectives for regulatory compliance, finance, IT, and SOX 404 compliance, including ITGCs. He also participated in the global enterprise risk management quarterly meetings.
Prior to that, Mr. McErlean’s experience was with Grant Thornton in a variety of roles including internal audit, Sarbanes Oxley compliance, project management, as well as in policy and procedure documentation. He has experience evaluating and improving operational efficiency and effectiveness.
Sean has strong hands-on experience in designing, documenting, and testing Sarbanes Oxley programs for SEC registered insurance companies, reinsurance companies, third-party administrators (TPA) and Managing General Agents (MGA).
Mr. McErlean earned a BS in business administration from LaSalle University. He is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), Insurance Internal Audit Group (IIAG) and the Project Management Institute (PMI). Sean is a member of the Society of Insurance Financial Management (SIFM).
Christopher McNulty
EVP, CFO & Treasurer,
Greater New York Insurance Companies
Mr. McNulty is responsible for all financial-related activities and risk management for the company. Prior to joining GNY, Chris served as a senior vice president of finance with AXIS Capital and also with Swiss Re performing various financial functions. He began his professional career with Coopers & Lybrand where he specialized in servicing property and casualty insurance companies.
Mr. McNulty received a BS from the College of Business Administration of Fordham University. He is a CPA. Chris is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.
From September 2006 to September 2008, Chris was president of the Society of Insurance Financial Management and is presently a member of its board of directors. He has spoken at several annual meetings of the IASA and has also been an instructor at the Reinsurance Association of America’s annual Re Finance seminars.
Lee Miller
Principal, Helix Innovation Network
Mr. Miller is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and at Seton Hall University School of Management. He specializes in influencing, leadership, innovation, negotiating, and sales. He also provides training and coaching using his 3 Cs Influencing Method.
Lee advises companies, boards of directors and senior executives on leadership issues, influencing effectiveness, human resources, negotiating and compensation. He also works with individuals on career issues.
Previously he was the chief human resources officer at TV Guide, USA Networks, Good Morning America, The Early Show, Today New York, Fox and Friends, Economy Watch and Morning Edition. He also has completed a series of articles on influencing for Executive Magazine.
Jennifer Morelli
Principal, Business Change Enablement
Grant Thornton LLP
Ms. Morelli advises clients across a broad range of industries on how to handle the ‘people side of change’ through organizational, process and technology transformation. Jennifer drives value for her clients by tailoring approaches and tactics that enable strategy through disciplined execution, while minimizing organizational disruption and driving sustainability.
Ms. Morelli’s consulting experience includes enabling and preparing employees to adopt and embrace new ways of thinking and behaving to support successful business transformation. She has a wealth of experience leading initiatives involving process improvement, communication, training, culture assessments and leadership and organizational alignment.
Ms. Morelli earned a BS in psychology from James Madison University. Jennifer is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University’s Fox School of Business and is a founding board member of the Association of Change Management Professionals, Greater Philadelphia chapter.
She also is also a certified Prosci Change Management Trainer, LaMarsh Global Managed Change practitioner and a Six Sigma Green Belt.
Joseph Morris
Founder, P&C Insurance Company Strategies, LLC
Mr. Morris has over 35 years of experience in the property and casualty insurance industry including positions as chief executive officer and chief financial officer of public and private insurance companies.
Currently, Joe provides business and financial consulting services to property and casualty insurance companies with a specialization in assisting companies in developing and implementing an enterprise risk management framework. He has first-hand experience in creating ERM frameworks including meeting with rating agencies and regulatory authorities to present each company’s approach.
Joe held positions as President & CEO of the following property and casualty insurance companies: American European Insurance Group; Stonecreek Specialty Underwriters, a subsidiary of Selective Insurance Group; James River Insurance Company, and The Philadelphia Contributionship.
Mr. Morris has a BS in accounting from the Pennsylvania State University. He earned an MBA in finance from Drexel University. He is a CPA. Joe is a member of the Board of Directors of The Insurance Society of Philadelphia.
Erin Mulloy
SIFM President
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Amynta Group
Erin is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Amynta Group. She is responsible for finance and accounting operations, regional finance teams, financial planning and analysis, treasury and tax. She has 17 years of experience working with insurance and insurance services organizations. Prior to Amynta, Erin was a Partner in the Insurance Practice at Ernst & Young. She is based in New York City.
Erin has a Bachelor’s of Science from Fairfield University, is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is a CPA licensed in the State of New York.
Chris Nemeth
Principal, Advisory Services, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Nemeth has over 25 years of M&A transaction experience, spanning both consulting and industry. He’s worked across the breadth of the M&A lifecycle, including M&A strategy and advisory, operational and commercial diligence, transaction integration, divestitures, carve-outs, and performance improvement initiatives.
Prior to Grant Thornton, Chris co-led the M&A services practice at Crowe LLP. During his tenure, he led the firm’s M&A integration services practice, as well as the development of the firm’s proprietary M&A execution research.
Among other deals, Chris led the $3B cross-border integration of two specialty chemicals companies, as well as the carve-out and integration for a $43B acquisition spanning 20 countries.
Mr. Nemeth earned a BA in economics from the University of Chicago
Chris has been a frequent speaker at ACG, FEI, NACD. He has been interviewed by publications such as The Deal, CFO Magazine, The Dealmaker’s Journal, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, ALM, and Harvard Business Review.
Julie Nevins
Special Counsel
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
Ms. Nevins has been litigating complex commercial disputes for over 20 years. She handles a broad range of matters, including insurance coverage, bad faith, business torts, contracts, real property, outdoor advertising and intellectual property.
Julie has experience with various types of insurance coverage, including commercial general liability, professional liability, directors and officers, property and casualty, and media liability. In addition to litigating, Julie provides counseling on coverage and claims handling.
Ms. Nevins received a BA from Vassar College. She earned her JD from Florida State University. She was Editor-in-Chief of the Florida State University Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.
N. Adriana Nivia
CFO-U.S.
Renaissance Reinsurance U.S. Inc.
Ms. Nivia has over 20 years of experience in the (re)insurance industry and is currently responsible for the finance and operations functions of Renaissance Reinsurance U.S. Inc.
Prior to her current role, Ms. Nivia was a Senior Manager in the Audit Services practice of Deloitte where she was responsible for the management of audit and consulting engagements for a variety of clients in the insurance and financial services industry.
Ms. Nivia and earned a BS from Rutgers University. She is a CPA licensed in New Jersey. Ms. Nivia is the immediate past president of the Society of Insurance Financial Management as well as a member of the board of directors.
Christopher Nyce
Principal, Actuarial & Insurance Risk Practice, KPMG LLP
Mr. Nyce serves as the appointed actuary for a number of large domestic and international insurers, as well as leading engagements in transforming actuarial and financial processes, actuarial due diligence, and data analytics. His experience includes risk and capital management, pricing and pricing models, statements of actuarial opinion, data enhancement and cleansing, actuarial processes and governance, and related areas of practice.
Prior to KPMG, Chris worked for 19 years in various executive positions with a large European insurer holding positions leading reserving, pricing, product management as well as national and global accounts.
Mr. Nyce earned a BS in mathematics cum laude from the University of Delaware.
He is a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, and serves on its board of directors.
Sarah Ouarbya
Partner, Financial Consulting, Mazars LLP, London
Ms. Ouarbya specialises in providing advice on regulatory and compliance matters to a wide portfolio of clients. Ms. Ouarbya also oversees the provisions of outsourced regulatory compliance and reporting services to groups with subsidiaries and operations in the UK. In recent years, this work has included advice on implementation of Solvency II.
Sarah has first-hand experience of the challenges of building and maintaining regulatory compliance frameworks in periods of significant regulatory change. More recently, Sarah has been advising her clients on the implications of Brexit on their business and assisting with the development of contingency plans.
Ms. Ouarbya earned a BSc with honors in mathematics and statistics with Russian studies from the University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom. Sarah is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
Sarah is co-author of the “CCH Insurance Brokers Auditing and Accounting Guide” (5th Edition) and regularly speaks at industry conferences on regulatory matters.
Prashant Panavalli
Managing Director
Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP
Mr. Panavalli leads DHG’s New York Insurance Advisory Practice for internal audit and ERM, leveraging experience and knowledge on model risk, third party risk management, and other critical risk categories. He has developed and implemented ERM frameworks including end to end development of KPIs, GRC roll outs, and continuous risk management and monitoring.
He has managed strategic process redesigns that integrated the use of capital, risk and stress scenarios into a holistic framework for financial institutions.
Prashant was formerly with EisnerAmper focusing on insurance industry, litigation and enterprise risk management.
Mr. Panavalli earned a BBA in accounting from Pace University’s Lubin School of Business. He is a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors and the Society of Financial Examiners.
Christopher Paulison
Partner, Financial Services Advisory, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Paulison has over 25 years of experience and serves as the Leader for Grant Thornton’s Financial Services Center of Excellence (COE) for Internal Audit. Chris is active in the financial institutions marketplace – providing client services to banks of varying sizes and complexity.
Prior to Grant Thornton, Chris served as Partner for a Big 4 firm where he led the firm’s internal audit /risk practice for the Midwest Region in Financial Services. He also served as the Chief Audit Executive for a Fortune 20 company.
Mr. Paulison has supervised internal audit teams in Financial Crimes Compliance (FCC) at major global banks. His client experience includes: HSBC, ABN AMRO, Ally, Bank of America, Bank of China, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, PNC, RBS, US Bank, and Wells Fargo.
Mr. Paulison earned his BBA in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Chris most recently spoke on Auditing Risk Culture and the Three Lines of Defense at the IIA – Financial Services Exchange in Washington, DC.
John Pearce
Principal, Cyber Risk Advisory Services, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Pearce has 20 years of experience with security program strategy and implementation, security controls assessments, security operations capability maturity and development, advanced intrusion analysis and cyber remediation.
John has led and managed projects across multiple industries including financial services (banking, insurance, payments), technology, consumer products and transportation. He has also been involved in cybercrime investigations and implementation of technology security solutions. He presents frequently to corporate boards and executive teams on the challenges of cybersecurity.
He was formerly with PwC as director of cybersecurity consulting and senior manager in cybersecurity consulting for Booz Allen Hamilton.
Mr. Pearce has a BS in electrical engineering from Virginia Military Institute. He has a graduate certificate in information security management from The George Washington University. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional.
Lizélle Pell
Controller
Starr Insurance Companies
Ms. Pell has 19 years of experience in the insurance and banking industries. Liz joined Starr, a global organization specializing in insurance, travel assistance and investments in 2008 and was promoted to controller in 2014. She oversees the analysis of financial results for the global Starr Insurance Group, manages the accounting and corporate operations of Starr Insurance Companies, and performs accounting and corporate policy review.
Prior to joining Starr, Liz was a manager of corporate finance and special projects at Gallagher Re, a reinsurance intermediary. She began her career at KPMG’s financial services audit group in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the end of her three year Chartered Accountant traineeship, she was sent on an international rotation to the New York office to supervise audits in the insurance sector.
Ms. Pell earned a BS in accounting with honours degree from the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Liz is a member of the Society of Insurance Financial Management and she is on the steering committee of the Women of SIFM.
Jessica Perna
Partner, Tax, Financial Services, EY
Ms. Perna has over 15 years of experience in tax. She specializes in personal income tax and financial planning for wealthy individuals and domestic and global executives within the private equity and hedge fund arena.
Ms. Perna earned a BS in accounting from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is a CPA. Jessica earned a Personal Financial Services designation with Change from the AICPA. She also holds a Series 65 license.
Stefan Peterson
Manager, Actuarial Practice, Deloitte LLP
Mr. Peterson has 10 years of experience in the insurance industry. He specializes in loss reserving and actuarial operating model design.
Stefan manages Deloitte consulting’s actuarial modernization and exponential actuary market offerings for P&C insurers, both of which focus on developing solutions to help insurers streamline their actuarial operations.
Stefan is active in researching new market trends. Most recently, he has been active in Deloitte’s future of mobility offering, where he has conducted extensive research on the impact that autonomous vehicles and ridesharing will have on auto insurance.
Mr. Peterson has a BS in actuarial science from the University of Chicago. He earned an ACAS certification from the Casualty Actuarial Society as well as the MAAA designation from the American Academy of Actuaries.
Nathan Pohle
Manager, Deloitte LLP
Mr. Pohle focuses on the strategy and operations of life insurance companies, along with the future of the actuarial profession.
Nate’s expertise is predictive modeling and analytics which help insurance companies combine different data sources to improve their strategy and operations. These algorithmic solutions help enable best in class underwriting, pricing, and risk management processes. Nathan has co-authored several articles on these topics, including a feature article in The Actuary magazine.
Previously, Nate worked at the National Football League, along with several professional sports teams and the Northwestern University athletic department.
Mr. Pohle graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BS in actuarial science and risk management. He earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Nate is a Fellow in the Society of Actuaries (FSA), Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst (CERA), and Member of the Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).
Peggy Poon
Director, S&P Global Ratings
Ms. Poon has over nine years of experience with financial services ratings. She is currently with the North American Insurance group. Peggy is the primary analyst for a portfolio of North American life insurance companies including Lincoln Financial Group, Manulife Financial Corporation, and Athene Holding Ltd.
Prior to joining the North American insurance group, Ms. Poon worked at Capital IQ, a division of S&P Global.
Ms. Poon earned a BA in economics and international relations magna cum laude from Boston University. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.
Alessandrea Quane
EVP, Chief Risk Officer
AIG
Ms. Quane has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance industry. She oversees the management of risk on an enterprise-wide basis as well as value-based performance metrics at AIG. Alessa has served in a number of increasingly senior roles within Risk and Actuarial at AIG, including Chief Corporate Actuary, Head of Global Actuarial and Value Management.
Ms. Quane was awarded a BS in business administration specializing in actuarial science from Drake University.
Alessa is a member of the North Amercan Chief Risk Officer (CRO) Council, a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries and an affiliate member of the Institute of Actuaries.
Alessa has served as a frequent industry speaker on topics related to global enterprise risk management issues, the importance of women in positions of influence in the insurance and business arena and the promotion of the insurance industry in our educational system.
She serves as an executive sponsor of AIG’s women’s executive leadership initiative, is a member of the Drake University School of Actuarial Science & Risk Management Advisory Council, and the Business Advisory Council of Gamma Iota Sigma — the International Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science Collegiate Fraternity and a member of the Global Association of Risk Professionals Board of Trustees. She is a 2019 David Rockefeller Fellow.
Anastasia Razumova
AVP Accounting and Reporting, QBE North America
Ms. Razumova is responsible for new accounting standards implementation as well as the development and coordination of accounting policies in accordance with IFRS, AASB and other regulatory requirements.
Prior to QBE, Anastasia provided auditing services to both public and privately held companies in the United States and the Europe, Middle East and Africa across media and entertainment, telecommunication, consumer products and real estate verticals.
Ms. Razumova was awarded a BS in economics and an MBA in financial management from the Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management, Russia. She is a CPA and a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
John Reedy
Manager, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Reedy provides financial and regulatory compliance reviews, accounting consulting readiness assessments, and risk management and compliance audits for Grant Thornton’s Financial Services Clients. He has eight years of experience providing assurance and advisory services to a variety of financial services clients, including community and regional banks, US branches and agencies of Foreign Banking Organizations, and global systemically important financial institutions.
John has significant experience leading allowance for loan loss reviews and validations, audit and due diligence assessments, compliance readiness reviews, corporate governance reviews, compliance and operational risk assessments, and financial and compliance audits. In addition, he is the Engagement Manager for CECL Readiness assisting a mid-sized bank and a broker -dealer in assessing their readiness for CECL. This consists of an evaluation of the institutions’ current accounting policies, data management, modeling capabilities, and internal controls to assist the institution in the development of a CECL implementation plan.
Mr. Reedy graduated from Saint Joseph’s University with a BS in Accounting. John is a CPE licensed in Pennsylvania.
Bernard Regan
Director
Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP
Mr. Regan has in-depth experience with a number of IT systems particularly in server and email environments. He specializes in the application and management of computer forensics processes. This focus includes conducting investigations, implementation of document and data e-discovery systems, data analysis and data visualization. His expertise focuses on cybersecurity and digital forensics, data analytics and e-discovery.
Bernard has constructed scaled document review solutions to support individual investigations, ranging from small CD-based options to multiuser internet accessible solutions. He has analyzed databases from live computer networks and backup tapes, and prepared electronic documents, including emails and scanned paper documents for disclosure in commercial litigation cases.
As a forensic technologist involved in cyber events, Bernard is experienced in helping to identify what has taken place and the potential technical solutions available to remedy the problem. He has worked on cyber and digital losses ranging from ransomware and distributed denial of service attacks to system and service interruptions/outages.
Mr. Regan has a BS with honors in computer studies, and an MS in information security and computer crime.
Michael Regan
SVP, Head of Group Tax,
RenaissanceRe North America Employee Services Inc.
Mr. Regan is responsible for all international and domestic tax matters for RenaissanceRe group including tax planning, tax compliance, financial statement tax disclosures and tax administration. Mike is a key contributor and advisor to all major corporate organizational and transactional activities.
Prior to joining RenaissanceRe, Mike spent nine years at Centre Re, a member of the Zurich Financial Services group. He held several positions in that organization including tax director, director of planning and ultimately chief financial officer. In his role as CFO, Mike was responsible for all aspects of finance including accounting, treasury, ratings, taxes, and planning.
Before working for Centre Re, Mike spent twelve years at KPMG. In the role of insurance tax partner, he consulted for various insurance companies ranging from small mutual insurance companies to large multinational public organizations. He provided tax consultation in all areas of tax including provision, compliance and planning services.
Mr. Regan holds a BS in financial accounting and an MS in taxation from the University of New Haven. He is a CPA. Mike is a member of the Connecticut Society of CPA’s as well as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Steven Reiss
Head of Corporate Risk & Broking – Greater Philadelphia
Willis Towers Watson
Mr. Reiss is a global insurance industry executive with extensive, underwriting, broking & sales experience across multiple geographies (North America, Asia & Europe) and a broad array of products and services.
Steve joined Willis Towers Watson in November of 2018 to lead the CRB division in the Philadelphia territory. Steve is responsible for implementing and managing strategies and tactics that ensure the delivery of quality brokerage service and specialized expertise. In Philadelphia, Steve also leads CRB’s collaboration within WTW in order for clients to have full access to all the capabilities the organization has to help customers be more successful.
Prior to joining WTW, Steve spent 13 years with the ACE/Chubb organization in 3 senior roles: EVP, North American real estate and hospitality practice leader, chief operating officer for continental Europe and regional executive officer in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
In addition to Steve’s extensive carrier experience, he also spent 15 years in progressively more senior roles with Marsh including managing director and client executive practice leader. During this time, he served in various, broker, client management, sales and general management roles developing specific knowledge and expertise in the Japanese insurance market, domestic and multinational risk management solutions and specific industry segments including technology, real estate, life sciences, specialty chemicals, consumer electronics, and transportation equipment.
Mr. Reiss has a BA in political science and economics from Fordham University.
Christopher Riffle
Director, International Tax Services, PwC
Mr. Riffle works with financial services clients in the insurance, banking and the alternative investment space. He advises clients in addressing international tax matters such as tax planning for cross-border acquisitions, dispositions and reorganizations, withholding taxes, permanent establishment issues, treaty interpretation, global effective tax rate planning, foreign tax credits, controlled foreign corporations, subpart F income, GILTI, passive foreign investment companies, and effectively connected income.
Mr. Riffle earned a BA in economics from the Arizona State University and a JD from the University of Arizona College of Law. Christopher was awarded an LLM in taxation from New York University School of Law.
Amit Ringshia
Director, Tax – Ignition, KPMG LLP
Mr. Ringshia concentrates on design and delivery of technology solutions and has more than 16 years of experience delivering tax technology-driven transformations. He is focused on innovating solutions in areas of tax data management, tax process automation and integration, tax analytics, digital labor and tax department collaboration.
Amit is responsible for assisting in the technical aspects of projects including solution design, development, infrastructure, governance models, management and migration. He has architected solutions that integrate multiple tax technologies with company technologies to optimize efficiencies for an effective tax function. He leads teams with experience in software development and tax domain and has optimized and automated tax processes by augmentation of digital labor and intelligent cognitive technologies.
Mr. Ringshia graduated with a BS in Engineering from the University of Pune (India). He earned an MS in Information Systems from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and an MBA in Corporate Finance and Strategy from the Stern School of Business of New York University. Amit is also a Certified Agile Scrum Master (CSM) and holds a KPMG Lean Six Sigma certification.
Vivek Rodrigues
Senior Manager, Strategy and Performance Improvement, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Rodrigues has more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. He provides strategic business and technology solutions to leading Fortune 500 organizations focusing on strategy development, process re-engineering, cost management, change management and operational risk.
Formerly, Vivek was with Goldman Sachs leading the design services group for the Americas which concentrated on process improvement, operational risk and improving client service.
Prior to Goldman, Vivek was a co-head of a business improvement group at Morgan Stanley with emphasis on ‘front-to-back’ efficiency across the entire firm.
Mr. Rodrigues has a BS in accounting from The State University of New York. He earned an MS in taxation and an MBA with a concentration in information systems from the University at Albany SUNY.
Alison Rogish
Managing Director, Client Relationship Executive
Deloitte
Ms. Rogish has more than 20 years of experience focused on creating authentic connections and solutions for her clients across a range of topics from strategy development to organizational dynamics to leadership advancement to team optimization. Currently, she
is responsible for curating strategic relationships with key Washington, D.C. financial services clients to drive meaningful solutions that address her clients’ critical business issues.
A passionate advocate for women’s development, Alison has spearheaded several initiatives within Deloitte to promote the advancement of women in financial services. Alison is the founder and executive sponsor of DC Spark: Financial Services, a concept she launched in the spring of 2014 to inspire and connect executive women in the Washington, D.C. area.
Alison is co-sponsor of Within Reach? Achieving Gender Equity in Financial Services, a Deloitte Insights research series analyzing the rise of women in leadership positions in the financial services industry.
Alison holds a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University and a MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.
Svetlana Ros
Attorney
Norris McLaughlin, P.A.
Ms. Ros focuses her practice in the area of healthcare law in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Her practice includes civil and administrative litigation, with a concentration in professional licensure defense; hospital medical staff matters; hospital disciplinary actions, including hospital summary suspensions and fair hearings; drafting and analyzing bylaws; fraud and abuse investigations by state and federal agencies; investigations and refund demands by private insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid; as well as HIPAA/HITECH and other regulatory compliance counseling.
Lana lectures throughout New Jersey and New York on legal issues affecting healthcare professionals, such as over-prescribing of medications, inappropriate conduct of practitioners, general licensure, healthcare-related cyber security issues, fraud and abuse, medical records, HIPAA, and employment law.
Ms. Ros received a BS in biotechnology and nutrition, with a minor in biochemistry from Rutgers University. She earned a JD from the Seton Hall University School of Law. Ms. Ros is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania as well as the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York.
She is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, Health & Hospital Section; the Somerset County Bar Association, Co-Chair of the Continuing Legal Education committee and the New York State Bar Association, Cannabis Law Committee.
Dail Rowe
Senior Scientist, Regional Manager, WeatherPredict Consulting, Inc
Dr. Rowe has over 20 years of experience as an oceanographer and meteorologist including several years on the research faculty at the University of Hawaii, where his research focused on air-sea interactions in the western Pacific warm-pool that are essential for understanding the ENSO phenomenon. Dail is responsible for leading a team of WeatherPredict scientists focused on risk assessment and forecasting, and works closely with clients managing their exposure to meteorological risk. Dr. Rowe joined WeatherPredict’s predecessor organization as a senior research scientist in 1999 and has assumed positions of increasing responsibility since then. He is an integral part of WeatherPredict’s atmospheric and oceanic research and development efforts. Dail is a principal contributor to many WeatherPredict initiatives including real-time weather prediction, evaluation and construction of risk assessment models, and research into climatological control of catastrophic weather. Dr. Rowe holds a BS in physics from Guilford College and a PhD in physical oceanography from the University of Rhode Island.
Larry Rubin
Life Actuarial Partner, PwC
Mr. Rubin has over 30 years of experience as an actuary and manages PwC’s life actuarial practice for the Philadelphia region. Larry heads PwC’s long term care practice and has either audited or advised most of the country’s largest long term care writers. Mr. Rubin is the actuarial principal for a number of PwC’s largest audit clients where he reviews the operations of multiple business units, including life, annuity, retirement, and health.
Before joining PwC, he was with Bear Stearns where he was responsible for the development of capital markets strategies enabling insurance companies to manage risk and enhance capital. Prior to Bear Stearns, Larry was with TIAA-CREF in various positions, the last of which was as vice president of finance and chief actuary for TIAA-CREF Enterprises. Mr. Rubin was a co-author of the Institutional Investor’s book on asset and liability management. He also authored articles on asset and liability management; ERM, and long term care insurance for contingencies which were published in the Journal of Risk Finance and the North American Actuarial Journal. He also wrote monographs on retirement and long term care for the Society of Actuaries. He is a frequent industry speaker on the subject of capital markets and insurance. Some of the topics he has addressed include securitization, derivatives, fair value of liabilities, risk management, economic capital, economic earnings, and enterprise risk management.
Ty Sagalow
CEO, Innovation Insurance Group LLC
Mr. Sagalow has 36 years of experience in the insurance industry having held senior executive positions in underwriting, legal, and product development for major insurance companies.
Mr. Sagalow has expertise in new product development including cyber-insurance, directors & officers liability insurance, professional liability insurance, employment practices liability insurance, and reputation insurance.
Ty is currently CEO of the Innovation Insurance Group which provides consulting services to the insurance industry in three areas: insurance expert witness services, product development and InsurTech consulting. He was a founding member of Lemonade and currently sits on its Board.
Mr. Sagalow spent 25 years as a senior executive with AIG. His positions included 10 years as chief underwriting officer and general counsel for AIG Executive Liability which is the largest provider of management and professional liability insurance in the United States. From 2000 to 2005, he was chief operating officer of AIG eBusiness Risk Solutions, a large provider of security and privacy insurance. From 2005 to 2009, he led new product development at AIG General Insurance as President of product development before moving to Zurich North America as chief innovation officer. In 2011, he departed Zurich to create Innovation Insurance Group
Mr. Sagalow earned a BA from Long Island University. He holds an LLM from New York University School of Law, and he earned a JD from Georgetown University Law Center.
Stacy Sandler
National Practice Leader for Retirement & Wealth Consulting,
Deloitte Consulting LLP
Ms. Sandler has more than 33 years of experience assisting financial service firms with their business issues. She has been providing ideas to differentiate business offerings, improve profitability and operational efficiencies in the retirement industry.
She is the Executive Sponsor for Deloitte’s Defined Contribution Plan Sponsor Benchmarking Survey. In its 18th year of publication, this survey has been recognized as one of the leading benchmarks in the retirement industry for both plan sponsors and providers having a deep understanding of the current trends and leading practices in the retirement services marketplace.
Stacy is a sought-out speaker at many industry and client conferences. She is known for her future thinking in the industry. She has also been the creator of many roundtables, bringing very senior executives to share thoughts and networking.
Stacy has a passion for diversity of thought. She has led numerous initiatives to support her passion, such as executive sponsor for Deloitte’s Twin Cities 100 Wise Women Program, an invitation only networking and career development program for female senor executive leaders for both established and emerging female leaders.
She has led many positions including managing director of the Deloitte Minneapolis consulting practice; diversity and inclusion leader for the human capital business of Deloitte, and a sector lead in Deloitte’s insurance practice.
Most recently, Stacy is co-sponsor of Within Reach? Achieving Gender Equity in Financial Services, a Deloitte Insights research series analyzing the rise of women in leadership positions in the financial services industry.
Gregory Sandvik
SVP, Ceded Reinsurance, Allied World Assurance Co
Mr. Sandvik is responsible for overseeing all facets of ceded reinsurance strategy and execution for Allied World worldwide. He is an accomplished reinsurance executive with over 30 years of experience in the reinsurance industry.
Immediately prior to joining Allied World, Greg was the founder and owner of GBS Reinsurance Advisors, which provided consultative services to insurance companies and brokers. Prior to that, Greg was a senior executive at Aon Benfield and Guy Carpenter with account executive responsibilities for some of the world’s largest insurers. Greg began his career in reinsurance handling claims for a reinsurance underwriting company in 1979.
Mr. Sandvik earned a BS in aerospace engineering from New York University – Polytechnic School of Engineering.
Vincent Scarpati
Tax Director, PwC
Mr. Scarpati specializes in the taxation of financial products, taxation of insurance companies and tax accounting. He has extensive experience with unique instruments such as the tax treatment of financial products and insurance liabilities as well as auditing and preparing tax provisions in accordance with ASC 740 (f.k.a. FAS 109) and SSAP101.
Vince has experience working with some of the largest multi-national insurance companies primarily in the tax accounting space. Vince also has experience with managing the outsourcing of the tax function for smaller insurance companies, managing wing-to-wing services from SEC reporting, tax compliance, tax optimization through planning and structuring and tax controversy.
Mr. Scarpati earned a BA in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from Bryant University. He is pursuing an MS in Taxation from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.
Vince is a CPA licensed in New York. He is a member of the America Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Philip Schmoyer
Senior Manager, Financial Services National Consulting
Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP
Mr. Schmoyer provides internal audit and IT audit and consulting related services to clients in the insurance, financial services, healthcare, life sciences and the technology sectors.
Phil acts as lead IT examiner for a variety of risk-focused examinations for insurance
organizations including reviewing and assessing automated and manual controls as they relate
to the underwriting, claims handling, reinsurance and financial reporting processes. He also
performs data breach and vulnerability management reviews for pre-breach assessment as well
as post-breach remediation and reporting requirements.
Prior to Baker Tilly, Phil worked in the internal audit department of a large property and casualty
insurer with direct written premiums exceeding $2 billion, where he regularly performed
operational and compliance related internal audits, as well as the Japanese Sarbanes-Oxley
and Model Audit Rule implementation and compliance functions for a global group of entities.
Mr. Schmoyer holds a BS in accounting and finance from the University of Pittsburgh. Phil has attained certifications as an Automated Examination Specialist, a Certified Information Systems Auditor and a Certified Financial Examiner.
Nicos Scordis
School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science, Tobin College of Business, St. John’s University
Dr. Scordis helps insurance managers judge the risk and the uncertainty dynamic in their evolving operations which enhances their ability to make money for their investors. Nicos uses his practical and conceptual expertise to translate complex relations at the intersection of risk, insurance, and finance into easy-to-understand language.
Dr. Scordis is a Professor at the School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science (SRM) at St. John’s University in New York. He holds the John R. Cox/ACE Limited Chair of Risk and Insurance.
When he served as the Chairperson to the School, he founded the Masters in Risk and Insurance. He often writes for industry publications and regularly publishes his research in peer-reviewed journals. He has been invited to speak on risk and insurance topics worldwide including at the national meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He was sought out by the US Congress for expert testimony on financial services integration.
Gregory V. Serio
Partner & Managing Director, Park Strategies LLC
Mr. Serio is the leader of the risk and insurance management practice group. Park Strategies is a global diversified management advisory and government relations consulting firm providing strategic and organizational advice to a wide variety of commercial enterprises, non-profit associations and governmental entities, and providing expert testimony and counsel in insurance-related litigation and disputes.
Prior to joining Park Strategies, Mr. Serio served as Superintendent of Insurance for the State of New York. Mr. Serio also served as the Chairman of the NAIC’s Government Affairs Task Force, the federal relations arm of the organization. In that capacity, he led the NAIC’s Washington office on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee SMART legislation on modernization of insurance regulation and discussions on the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.
Mr. Serio graduated from the State University of New York at Albany. He earned a JD from Albany Law School of Union University.
Joseph Schneider
Managing Director, Corporate Finance, KPMG LLP
Mr. Schneider is a managing director at KPMG Corporate Finance LLC, the wholly owned investment banking subsidiary of KPMG LLP. Joe focuses on the insurance sector, advising P&C and life carriers as well as insurance services firms such as brokers, managing general agencies, third party administrators and other nonrisk-taking insurance businesses on mergers & acquisitions, capital raising and other strategic matters.
Joe is also a recognized thought leader and speaker on autonomous vehicles and insurance, co-leading this initiative at KPMG. The work of the team he co-leads has been cited in a wide variety of publications both in the US and abroad, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, USA Today, Time and Newsweek.
Prior to working at KPMG, Joe was an investment banker in the financial institutions group at Barclays in London and an insurance consultant specializing in long-tail risk.
Mr. Schneider graduated with honors in finance and spanish from the University of Notre Dame and earned an MBA from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.
Frank Schmid
Head of Commercial and Legacy P&C Inforce Management, AIG
Dr. Schmid also leads AIG’s Global Benefits Network. Dr. Schmid is responsible for portfolio management strategies of ongoing liabilities, including the conceptualization and execution of the 2017 Adverse Development Cover with Berkshire Hathaway.
Prior to AIG, Frank was affiliated with the National Council on Compensation Insurance where he pioneered the development of Bayesian econometric models in actuarial science. He also served as a senior economist in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Dr. Schmid has published numerous scholarly papers in finance and economics. He has been affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Vienna, Free University of Berlin, CERGE-EI Prague, Goethe University Frankfurt, Auckland University of Technology, and the University of Osnabrück.
Dr. Schmid earned a doctorate in economics and a post-doctorate in finance from the University of Lüneburg, Germany.
Frank holds the rank of First Lieutenant, and set the Quivering Quads 50K ultra marathon course record in 2000, for his second consecutive Quivering Quads win. He is a member of the SIFM.
Scott Shapiro
Principal, KPMG LLP
Mr. Shapiro has almost 30 years of insurance experience and specializes in operational improvement, analytics and automation.
He leads KPMG’s risk consulting practice for the insurance industry.
Prior to joining KPMG, Scott held a number of senior executive positions at The Hartford, most recently as the SVP of enterprise analytics and product development.
Mr. Shapiro earned a BA in mathematics from Binghamton University.
Sarah Sheldon
AVP, Assistant Tax Council, Tax Department, MetLife, Inc
Ms. Sheldon concentrates on indirect tax planning, transfer pricing as well as state and local controversy. Sarah’s experience is in procedural, corporate, and international tax with both the private and public sectors.
Prior to MetLife, Sarah worked for the IRS Office of the Chief Counsel in Washington, DC where she served as a subject matter expert in the National Office before joining Large Business and International Division Counsel.
Ms. Sheldon earned an LLM in taxation cum laude from the University of San Diego, and a JD from the California Western School of Law. Sarah is admitted to practice law in the State of California, before the US Tax Court, and as in-house counsel in the State of New York. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the SIFM.
Stephen Siligato
Senior Manager – Financial Services, PwC
Mr. Siligato has been with PwC for 12 years serving a variety of clients in the financial services industry. He focuses on public property and casualty insurance clients, including AIG, ACE Limited, and Global Indemnity Ltd.
Steve began his career in the Philadelphia office, followed by a three-year secondment to Tokyo where he contributed to PwC’s insurance practice in Japan
Mr. Siligato graduated from Rowan University with a BS, summa cum laude, in accounting and finance. He earned an MBA with honors from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a specialization in management and finance.
Steve is a licensed CPA in Pennsylvania and New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Russell Sommers
Senior Manager, Financial Services
Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP
Mr. Sommers has over 13 years of experience in the accounting and insurance sector. Currently, he helps clients to develop program improvements to meet obligations of the NY DFS Cybersecurity Law and the NAIC Insurance Data Security Model.
Russ specializes in risk, internal audit and cybersecurity within the financial services industry. He has led a broad array of projects including regulatory compliance consulting, cybersecurity, internal controls advisory, internal audit, risk assessment, information technology audit, vendor risk management, enterprise risk management, corporate governance, process reengineering, security operations center reporting and specialized consulting.
Mr. Sommers earned a BS in accounting from Ramapo College of New Jersey. He is currently enrolled in the MBA program in finance at D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. He is a member of the president’s advisory council of the Society of Insurance Financial Management and chair of the Young Professionals of SIFM.
Sandy Sposato
Principal, EY
Ms. Sposato is the Insurance Sector Leader for Finance within EY’s Financial Services Office Advisory Practice. She has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry; 17 years in consulting (serving insurance clients) and over 10 years in the insurance industry focused on property and casualty clients as well as life and annuity organizations.
Sandy has extensive experience in financial accounting, analysis and system optimization including: finance transformation, business process redesign, design authority as well as systems implementation.
Formerly, Sandy worked with IBM Global Business Services as well as PwC and the Hanover Insurance Group.
Ms. Sposato earned an BS in accounting from Marywood University in Scranton PA and was awarded an MBA in corporate finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison NJ.
Amy Stern
Managing Director,
Forensic & Litigation Consulting
FTI Consulting, Inc
Ms. Stern is an analytical senior executive with robust reinsurance experience and in-depth knowledge gained from more than 30 years in the industry. Prior to establishing a sole-person consulting firm in which she focused on new product development and insurtech MGA launches, Amy was responsible for leading the Global Reinsurance Division for AIG.
Amy has a strong reputation for contract interpretation and drafting and for underwriting analysis across all Property Casualty re/insurance lines of business. Her role also included oversight of corporate insurance purchasing for the AIG Group and of the reinsurance credit function.
Having begun her training as a treaty casualty underwriter at Prudential Re, Amy honed her technical understanding of traditional re/insurance through senior underwriting positions in the US/UK Division of Swiss Re (Zurich), in Specialty Casualty and Group Reinsurance at Zurich Re, and in Professional Liability at Berkley Re America. Moving from the traditional to the alternative capital marketplace, Amy joined Willis Capital Markets and Advisory. While there, she originated, structured, and oversaw the placement of insurance-linked transactions, including cat bonds, sidecars, and private deals.
Ms. Stern has a BA in economics from Cornell University. A Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Reinsurance (ARe), Amy has held Series 7 and 63 Licenses.
John Swanick
US Insurance Industry Advisory Practive Leader, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Swanick has over 35 years of public accounting and management consulting experience serving companies ranging in size from emerging growth to multinational publicly held and private insurance entities.
John has extensive experience in the insurance and reinsurance industries including property and casualty, life, accident, and health reinsurance companies. His experience includes accounting and financial reporting on both a statutory accounting and GAAP basis. He has been involved with operational improvement and financial modeling projects, due diligence procedures related to mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations litigation support and internal accounting control projects.
Mr. Swanick earned a BS in accounting and an MBA in finance from Saint Joseph’s University. He is a CPA licensed in Pennsylvania.
John is a member of the Board of Governor’s Academy of Risk Management and Insurance at Saint Joseph’s University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Life Insurance Institute. Mr. Swanick is active in the Union League of Philadelphia and the Eagles Fly for Leukemia. He is a member of the president’s advisory council of the Society of Insurance Financial Management (SIFM).
Douglas Sweeney
Managing Director, Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP
Mr. Sweeney has more than 21 years of experience providing a wide range of valuation and financial consulting services to leading global financial companies specifically insurance companies. He has substantial experience in the valuation of business enterprises, business interests, and intangible and tangible assets.
Doug has provided services both on a domestic and global basis for a wide range of valuation purposes including mergers and acquisitions analyses, tax and regulatory compliance, dispute resolution, financial structuring advice, strategic financial planning and lease financing.
Mr. Sweeney is a contributing author to Deloitte’s annual Insurance M&A Outlook. He was also a contributing author of a published article on SFAS 157, “Fair value in accounting: building credible and supportable valuations.”
Mr. Sweeney earned a BA in business administration from LeMoyne College. He was awarded an MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business.
Andrew Taylor
Senior Manager, Advisory Services, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Taylor works with companies to identify, implement and manage large financial transformation projects. His experience includes undertaking process improvement, peer benchmarking, and implementing best practices around accounting operations and CFO office activities. He has extensive experience developing and running project management offices that oversee large-scale implementations, and using technology to streamline business processes and enable reporting. His previous background includes a combined 15 years of technical accounting, management consulting, and program management.
Andrew has worked with numerous Fortune 100 companies across several industries on large-scale accounting and finance transformational projects, including a recent global review of policies and procedures and risk management processes for two prominent financial services companies. Andrew has a background in technical accounting and has also held various management positions in the cable/telecommunications industry.
Mr. Taylor earned a BA in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University. He is a CPA licensed in Pennsylvania. Andrew served four years in the United States Army, including time in the Division Recon of the 101st Airborne Division as a U.S. Army Ranger.
Joy Taylor
Principal, Growth Solutions Leader
Grant Thornton LLP
Ms. Taylor is an accomplished consulting professional, with over twenty-five years of cross-functional experience. Her expertise is in in lean sigma, team facilitation, program management, project leadership, communications and change management. She has a proven ability to manage complex, global programs and initiatives, drive process and productivity improvement efforts and lead change in a fast-paced environment.
Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Joy was co-founder and CEO of TayganPoint Consulting Group which was acquired by Grant Thornton in 2018.
Ms. Taylor holds a BS in communications studies from the University of Florida. She earned an MBA in marketing and statistics from the University of South Florida.
Joy holds an executive leadership certification from Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth as well as a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Black Belt certifications from General Electric. Ms Taylor is a founding board member of the YMS Special Stars Program; and a board member of St. Mary’s Hospital, Langhorne, PA.
Joy Tegtmeyer
Partner, PwC
Ms. Tegtmeyer is a partner in PwC’s New York banking, capital markets and insurance tax practice. She has over 14 years of experience serving financial services clients in the insurance, banking, capital markets and alternative investments spaces (BCMI).
Prior to joining the BCMI practice, Joy spent eight years in PwC’s International Tax Services practice, focusing cross-border transactions, repatriation planning, foreign tax credit planning, and passive foreign investment company issues for multinational financial institutions.
Ms. Tegtmeyer earned a BA in business and mathematics from Principia College and an MPA in professional accounting from the Red McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Joy is a licensed CPA in Texas and New York. She is a member of the Association of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of CPAs. She is a member of the SIFM.
Lindsey Thor
Tax Director, Personal Financial Services, PwC
Ms. Thor joined PwC in 2003 as a member of the San Jose, California office where she worked in both the assurance and expatriate tax groups. She joined the New York City practice in 2008 and is currently a Director in the Personal Financial Services Group.
Lindsey advises high net worth individuals, families and executives on domestic and international tax compliance and consulting matters. The majority of her clients are multinational, high net worth clients and she specializes in international, individual tax issues.
Ms. Thor has an BS in accounting from Santa Clara University. She has studied in the executive education program at Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. She is a member of the NYCPA International Tax Committee.
Peter Tofilski
Tax Manager, Grant Thornton LLP
Mr. Tofilski has over 7 years of experience in public accounting serving both public and private companies. He specializes in providing tax compliance, provision services as well as planning and restructuring for the Financial Services Sector including banks, insurance companies and real estate investment trust organizations.
Peter’s focus is to drive efficiencies in monthly and quarterly tax provision closings for his clients as well as researching issues relating to mergers and acquisitions.
Mr. Tofilski earned a BS and MS from The Pennsylvania State University, Smeal College of Business. He is a CPA licensed in New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Ellen Turi
Senior Manager, Deloitte LLP
Ms. Turi has more than 15 years of experience in global strategy, transformation and operations. Her focus is on global tax compliance and reporting engagements – providing clients with guidance on their global tax obligations, managing risk, and identifying operational efficiencies.
Ellen has been intrigued by the dramatic effect robotics, cognitive computing and emerging blockchain technologies are having on the industry. She is helping to develop Deloitte’s technology & compliance center of excellence which was created to deliver bottom line value for clients and enable automation and digital functionality.
Ms Turi earned a BS from James Madison University. She has an MBA in strategy, entrepreneurship and innovation from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Candice Turner
Principal, M&A Tax
Grant Thornton LLP
Ms. Turner has more than 20 years of public accounting and private industry experience and serves as the business line leader for the Northeast Region at Grant Thornton. Candice is an experienced tax lawyer with a demonstrated history of working in government and private practice. Her expertise includes cross-border tax, mergers and acquisitions as well as sovereign wealth funds/foreign pensions.
Candice has advised clients with respect to all US and international tax matters. She has represented funds, sovereigns, foreign pensions and consortiums on investments, acquisitions, re-financings and exit strategies across various industries, including infrastructure, real estate, private equity and public capital markets.
Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Candice was a principal in the M&A practice of KPMG. She was previously a partner at the law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, a trial attorney with the Department of Justice Tax Division in Washington, D.C., and an attorney with Shearman & Sterling.
Ms. Turner received a BS in mathematics and English from the University of Alabama. She earned an LLM and a JD from the New York University School of Law. She is admitted to practice in New York and the U. S. Supreme Court.
Candice has also authored many articles and publications on international tax and is an active leader in international tax organizations. She is chair of the Women of IFA Network of the International Fiscal Association.
Alex van Dijk
Managing Director & Branch Manager, Guy Carpenter & Co LLC
Mr. van Dijk is the co-manager of Guy Carpenter & Company’s Metro New York offices which include New York, Morristown, Norwalk, Boston and Portland, Maine.
As a Senior Broker in the firm’s treaty division, he also manages several client relationships in the areas of specialty casualty, professional liability, environmental and other more traditional property & casualty covers such as property per risk, property catastrophe, umbrella and casualty clash. Alex is also involved in employee relationship groups as a senior sponsor and mentor.
Prior to joining Guy Carpenter, Alex served as Assistant Manager of Marsh & McLennan’s FINPRO unit. During his tenure there, he was involved in the design, negotiation and management of directors & officers’ liability, errors and omissions, general liability and umbrella liability insurance programs for a diversified client base.
Mr. van Dijk holds a BS in finance with a minor in history from Boston College and an MBA in finance and sales management from Fordham University.
Mark Van Emburgh
Vice President, Tax, Munich Reinsurance America
Mr. Van Emburgh specializes in research, tax planning and structuring for the Munich Re US tax group. Mark provides tax consulting for acquisitions and disposals of affiliates; for the tax compliance of the Munich Re US tax group including international, federal, and state and local for various US affiliates.
Mark is responsible for US tax reporting under IAS 12 Income Taxes and the consolidation of the federal tax return for the Munich Re US tax group. The Munich Re US tax group includes property/casualty direct and reinsurance writers, life reinsurance writers, foreign corporations and various subchapter C corporation entities. Mark also focuses on US GAAP reporting under ASC 740 Accounting for Income tax and SAAP 101 Statutory Accounting for Income tax reporting for various US affiliates.
Prior to joining Munich Re, Mark worked in the tax group for a public medical manufacturing company in NJ as well at KPMG in Philadelphia.
Mark holds a BS in accounting from Montclair State University and a MS in Taxation from Widener University. Mark is a CPA licensed in NJ.
Gina Vargas
Senior Manager
Deloitte Consulting
Ms. Vargas has over 13 years of experience with a focus on advising insurance CFOs and finance executives on performance management, finance transformation, finance operating and service delivery model development, and business process improvement. She has been both a functional and technical lead in the successful delivery of many finance transformation and FP&A assessment modernization engagements focusing on transforming processes leveraging market-leading tools such as Oracle, SAP, Anaplan and Workday.
Formerly, Gina was a management consultant with EY where she delivered business performance management solutions.
Ms. Vargas earned a BA in economics and chemistry (minor) from New York University.
Edouard Vieux
SVP, Client Management Leader, Swiss Re America
Mr. Vieux directs a team of six client managers servicing and marketing to the east region of the US. Additionally, he manages a small number of treaty client relationships. As part of the R&N leadership team, he is responsible for setting strategy and executing the business plan focused on meeting the goals and objectives of clients and Swiss Re.
Ed began his insurance career with a small retail broker in Connecticut securing both life and property and casualty licenses. He later joined National Re and held various positions in the treaty department eventually becoming a junior account executive. National Re was purchased by General Re in 1996, and after a short stay at GRC, he moved to Swiss Re. In 2007, he assumed the role of marketing executive and northeast region manager for US Direct.
Mr. Vieux graduated from Central Connecticut State University with a BS in marketing. He is a member of the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters and received the associate in reinsurance designation. He is a member of the Westchester chapter of the Society of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters and serves on a number of committees with the New York Insurance Association.
David Walsh
President & CEO, Amalgamated Life Insurance Company
Mr. Walsh is also the CEO of Alico Services Corporation and oversees operations for the entire Amalgamated Family of Companies. His leadership team is credited with improving the organization’s infrastructure and expanding its offerings and national footprint.
Prior to joining the organization, Mr. Walsh served in senior executive positions at AIG, and Swiss Re. He also served as the Director of Insurance and as the Director of International Trade for the State of Alaska. His professional career also includes having served as a member of the United States delegation to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as well as a prosecutor during the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
Mr. Walsh has an MA in Professional Studies, Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. He earned a JD from the University of Wisconsin. He also holds an MBA from Alaska Pacific University. He is currently working toward a PhD from the University College Dublin.
Dave serves on the boards of numerous professional and charitable organizations, including the Insurance Federation of New York; the Sidney Hillman Foundation, and the college of Mount Saint Vincent. Additionally, he is past Chairman of the Life Insurance Council of New York.
He was formerly the President of the Westchester-Putnam Boy Scout Council. Mr. Walsh is a Distinguished Eagle Scout. This is awarded for significant professional accomplishments as well as a solid record of continuous community volunteer involvement for at least 25 years after attaining the level of Eagle Scout.
Ellen Walsh
Partner, Regulatory Consulting, PwC
Ms. Walsh provides risk management and regulatory compliance advisory services to PwC’s leading insurance clients. She has assisted some of the industry’s largest global clients in designing and implementing their global compliance programs working to “operationalize” compliance risk management standards into business processes and through the design of enabling technology and effective talent management approaches.
Ellen is currently leading PwC’s efforts related to the impact of the regulatory change on financial institutions, specifically on insurance companies. She is working with her clients to assess the impact that the Department of Labor Fiduciary Standard will have on their business and how to address the execution of numerous changes that need to be in place prior to implementation in 2017.
Ellen is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has authored numerous articles and whitepapers including: A Closer Look at the Dodd-Frank Act and Its Impact on Insurance Companies; A Brave New World for Insurance Companies: Federal Oversight and Banking Regulation; The Evolving Role of the Chief Compliance Officer: The Impact of New Regulatory Requirements.
Ms. Walsh graduated from Fordham University with a BA in American Studies and Economics and earned her MBA at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Walsh leads PwC’s role as the secretariat of the Global CCO Forum, which is comprised of the group CCOs of the world’s largest insurers. She also is a member of the board of directors of the Compliance and Ethics Forum for Life Insurers (CEFLI).
Christine Watson
Partner
PwC
Ms. Watson has 17 years of experience in insurance related mergers and acquisitions taxation. She has performed restructurings, due diligence reviews of multi-national targets, has consulted with clients on global and domestic acquisition and divestiture planning, demutualizations, reinsurance and has assisted both buyers and sellers in evaluating the tax impacts and purchase price considerations of structuring taxable and tax free transactions for both domestic and foreign targets and intercompany transactions.
Christine has worked extensively with both corporate and private equity clients across the lifecycle of a transaction and in many industries. She has experience with health insurers, non-stock (blue, mutual, tax exempt) companies, life and property and casualty insurance companies, captive insurance company arrangements, warranty companies, health insurers, and experience with foreign and domestic insurance company structuring, reinsurance tax issues, and insurance company permanent establishment considerations.
Additionally, Christine has experience with insurance and noninsurance U.S. consolidated tax return and GAAP and statutory tax provision issues, as well as consulting on issues surrounding the issuance and taxation of debt obligations.
Christine has co-authored an article on the taxation of captive insurance companies appearing in the Journal of Corporate Taxation and is a frequent speaker on M&A at industry tax conferences including the Insurance Tax Conference and the Blue Cross/Blue Shield National Tax Conference.
Ms. Watson was awarded a BBA in accounting from the University of Georgia – Terry College of Business. She earned an MACC in tax from the University of Georgia – J. M. Tull School of Accounting. Christine is a CPA licensed in New York and Georgia. She is a member of the AICPA.
Jennifer Weiner
Partner, Financial Services Professional Practice Group, EY
Ms. Weiner has over 24 years of audit and advisory experience. She has served a variety of public, private and foreign traded companies within the financial services industry, including property and casualty insurers, life insurers with traditional and variable products, health care organizations and broker dealers.
Jennifer is a principal technical resource on accounting and financial reporting matters to EY insurance professionals and clients, and is a member of the EY global IFRS insurance technical panel. She is involved in a broad range of internal risk management activities, including tracking emerging accounting issues and consulting with engagement teams that serve insurance, wealth and asset management, as well as banking and capital markets.
From 2010-2013 Jennifer was a senior fellow at the FASB where she was the lead project manager on the insurance contracts project. This involved working with the IASB to develop a new standard to improve the financial reporting for insurers and included: writing technical papers and developing recommendations, presenting to the boards and drafting the proposed Accounting Standard Update, Insurance Contracts.
Ms. Weiner earned a BS in accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a licensed CPA in New York. Jennifer is a Fellow of the Life Management Institute, and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Timothy Williams
Principal
EY
Mr. Williams is a leader within EY’s robotics & intelligent automation practice. Tim has over 20 years of experience in transforming processes and operations in financial services, leveraging robotic process automation (RPA), process reengineering and other intelligent automation techniques.
Prior to EY, Mr. Williams spent nearly 10 years leading large-scale operations and process transformation programs at Accenture both in the Charlotte area and abroad in London and Singapore.
Mr. Williams earned a BS in organizational leadership as well as an MBA in operations and finance from Purdue University. Tim is a certified Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma.
James Wrynn
Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting, Inc.
Mr. Wrynn has more than 30 years of experience as an attorney focusing in the insurance sector. He currently leads the Governance, Risk and Regulation practice at FTI. He helps insurers, reinsurers, captives, brokers, investors, regulators, corporations and their legal and business advisors address complex strategic and tactical issues of local, regional, national and international importance. Jim has earned wide recognition as a premier authority on domestic and global insurance regulation.
Prior to FTI, Mr. Wrynn served as Managing Director and Vice Chair, in the US, of Guy Carpenter’s Global Strategic Group. Previously, he was a Senior Partner at Goldberg Segalla leading the Global Insurance Regulatory Practice. Jim also served at the last Superintendent of Insurance for NY where was involved with drafting the Financial Services law.
Representing the United States as a member of the IAIS, he participated in international issues such as Solvency II; systemic risk; the development of a common framework for the supervision of internationally active insurance groups (known as “COMFRAME”); group supervision; and numerous other issues and initiatives.
Mr. Wrynn earned a BS in accounting from St. John’s University, College of Business Administration and a JD from St. John’s University School of Law.
Jim holds an “AV” Preeminent Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating in legal ability and professional ethics that a lawyer can achieve. Jim is a designated “Super Lawyer” based on a vote of his peers in New York.
R.J. Zielinski
Senior Tax Manager, Deloitte LLP
Mr. Zielinski has over 10 years of experience within the financial services taxation industry with a specialization in insurance. RJ has served various clients in life insurance, property & casualty insurance, health insurance, reinsurance, and financial guarantee companies. He has significant experience in accounting for income taxes, statutory tax accounting, insurance tax advisory services, tax technology implementation, and federal tax compliance.
RJ has spent significant time in the separate account DRD space consulting with clients on tax return deduction enhancement and automation of the data gathering and computation process at larger mutual and stock life insurance companies with separate accounts. Additionally, RJ has experience working with tax technology implementations, solutions, and identifying process improvements and efficiencies using tax technology.
Mr. Zielinski has a BA from Fairfield University. He earned an MS in Taxation from the McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley University. He is a CPA licensed in New York. He is also a member of the SIFM.