AGENDA

• 8:15 AM

  Registration and breakfast

• 8:50 AM

  Opening remarks from Chairperson

  

  Bobbie Goldie

  SVP, M&S and Corporate Distribution
  IAT Insurance Group 

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  Bobbie Goldie

  SVP, M&S and Corporate Distribution
  IAT Insurance Group 

• 9:00 AM

  Opening remarks from Event partner

  

  Kristie Felton

  Head of Partnerships
  At Bay

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  Kristie Felton

  Head of Partnerships
  At Bay

  Kristie Felton spearheads At-Bay’s digital distribution strategy as Head of Partnerships. In this role, she has strengthened relationships utilizing the integration of the REST API platform with At-Bay’s partners. Previously, Kristie served as Head of Alternative Distribution for 2 years and NW Regional Executive for 5 years at Hiscox USA, where she drove new initiatives for profitable growth through brokers, partnerships, and MGAs. Before that, Kristie spent more than a decade overseeing underwriting production with retail and wholesale brokers on the West Coast as Vice President at Liberty International Underwriters.

• 9:05 AM

  Keynote address: The Virtues of Leadership and Success: How to Perform Your Best, Make Your Mark, and Grow

  Speaker to be announced shortly

• 9:55 AM

  Panel: Standing out from the crowd with your personal brand

  Every insurance leader needs a strong personal brand that evolves as you advance in your career. It’s a matter of continually crafting and curating the skills and experience that make you, you! In this session, gain advice on how to best articulate your personal brand, in and out of the office, and how it can be the key differentiator in your career.

  • How to make a strong, lasting impression – from the office, in the boardroom, or at your dining room table
  • Improving your digital footprint: leveraging popular social platforms like LinkedIn to market and build your brand
  • Tips for engaging internal sponsors to be your advocates
  • Using your everyday creativity to help you emerge as an authentic leader

  Panelists

  

  Lisa Gentile

  Vice President
  Liberty Mutual Insurance

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  Lisa Gentile

  Vice President
  Liberty Mutual Insurance

  Growing a business profitably, being forever curious, and tackling the challenges along the way, while also growing leaders, facilitating professional development opportunities in my current organization and beyond, and mentoring others (while also being mentored!) are the passions that drive me. I am currently the VP of Middle Market Umbrella at Liberty Mutual. I strive to create and sustain a culture of transparency, inclusion, innovation, and continual growth within my teams.  

  With over 25 years of expertise, primarily in Casualty lines with multi-line experience, I have run the gamut of insurance gigs: from underwriting to consulting to broking to executive leadership to acting as functional SME for large scale IT projects relating to umbrella rating and underwriting engine transformations. I have deep expertise in leading underwriting and strategic initiative project teams, developing leaders and underwriting talent, and sustaining and improving the profitability of large portfolios of Excess and Umbrella Casualty business. My credentials also include several years of brokerage experience with both a large national and a global broker, handling multiple lines of property and casualty insurance for medium to large risk management clients in the areas of technology, manufacturing, hospitality and real estate, among others. I also spent a short time in the Public Sector segment overseeing a regional book of property, casualty, professional lines, and worker’s compensation. Outside of my profession I have been a university student mentor, scholarship reviewer and university career center advocate. 

  Specialties: Excess Casualty specialization, strategy, product and leadership in the field; Property & Casualty expertise; insurance consulting; large client handling and problem solving; people management; mentoring teams and individuals; working with senior management to tackle large-scale organizational issues. 

  

  Anna Tan

  Head of Excess Casualty Wholesale
  Navigators, a brand of The Hartford

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  Anna Tan

  Head of Excess Casualty Wholesale
  Navigators, a brand of The Hartford

  Anna Tan is Head of Excess Casualty at Navigators, a brand of The Hartford. Anna leads a team of dedicated professionals across the country providing creative solutions to meet the demands of a dynamic excess market. She joined Navigators in 2011, opening the San Francisco branch for the Excess division and quickly became an integral part of the management team by leveraging and expanding new production sources, developing new products, and growing high performing teams. Prior to Navigators, she was with C.V. Starr & Company, Inc. for 9 years, where she held various underwriting roles in the casualty lines.

  Anna graduated cum laude from the University of California at Davis with a double major in Economics and International Relations. Born in China, Anna grew up in Mexico as her family moved around before finally landing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Anna and her husband Chris enjoy traveling, rock climbing, and hiking with their son Matthew and daughter Elizabeth.

• 10:40 AM

  Networking coffee break

• 11:05 AM

  Creating a space for everyone

  It takes one leader to start a shift in a company’s culture – to encourage active participation by all members of your team, to build an inclusive culture, and to support the celebration of diversity. This session will highlight effective and innovative strategies for creating a workplace that is both welcoming and empowering – and the prominent role you can play in driving them.

  • Building a supportive environment for both emerging and established leaders in insurance: What does it take?
  • What are the best strategies for crafting a hybrid culture that encourages participation by everyone?
  • Communication that fosters openness and empowers your team

• 11:40 AM

  Celebrate the resilience of women in insurance

  Emma Ye will discuss the diverse challenges she has faced through her career and personal life as a young, ambitious, immigrant female leader in insurance. Emma will share stories of her early days in start-ups and her perspective as she built her own Risk Team at At-Bay. Discover how professional opportunities, while also becoming a new mother, have enlightened Emma to appreciate the resilient spirit of women in insurance. 

  

  Emma Ye

  VP of Risk
  At-Bay

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  Emma Ye

  VP of Risk
  At-Bay

  Emma Ye serves as the VP of Risk at At-Bay, where she oversees risk management, portfolio performance analytics, rate plan development and implementation, and the design and production of the underwriting engine. She directs the Risk team, which she built from the ground up starting in early 2021. Prior to At-Bay, Ye was the lead predictive modeler at CyberCube, where she built a cyber-attritional loss and catastrophic model. Before that, she spent seven years working on property and casualty lines and pension benefits at Aon.

• 12:10 PM

  Lunch networking break

• 1:10 PM

  Panel: A guide to proactive problem-solving

  What separates an impactful leader from others is their ability to effectively problem-solve – to communicate transparently, consider the different perspectives and stakeholders, and challenge the status quo. This session will feature industry leaders who will unpack problem-solving in a workplace setting, and practical tips for finding the best solution to any task or project.

  • Building a team culture that considers different stakeholders – both internally and externally
  • What are the six key problem-solving skills all leaders should master?
  • How can you become an effective problem-solver, regardless of your level of leadership?

  Panelists

  

  Yiana Stavrakis

  President
  Monarch E&S Insurance Services

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  Yiana Stavrakis

  President
  Monarch E&S Insurance Services

  Yiana Stavrakis serves as President of Monarch E&S and joined the firm in 2020. Yiana is a significant contributor to the company’s national expansion and is instrumental to the ongoing growth and strategy of Monarch.

  Prior to joining Monarch, Yiana was Chief Sales Officer for Specialty Program Group, providing strategic sales and marketing guidance to acquired business partners. She began her insurance career with Metro Insurance Services, Inc., a real estate MGU, and steadily rose in both position and authority as she mastered underwriting & claims management.

  In 2012, Yiana joined Preferred Concepts, LLC. as part of the Metro acquisition, providing operational support to the unit’s underwriting teams and carrier partners. Following Preferred Concepts, she joined the wholesale brokerage world via AmWINS Group, Inc.; her role included developing strategic retailer and carrier relationships. Yiana graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers Business School with a Major in Business Management and a Concentration in Management Information Systems. She is a licensed property, casualty and surplus lines insurance professional and holds both an ASLI and a CPCU designation.

  Yiana is an IBANY board member and is co-founder and past president of NAPSLO’s Next Generation. In 2010 she received the NAPSLO Past President’s Award for outstanding committee work, in 2013 she received the Steven R. Gross Under 40 Award, and in 2015 she received IBANY’s First Emerging Leader Award.

  Yiana has most recently been named one of Insurance Business America’s Hot 100, 100 Women to Watch, and was a finalist for Insurance Business America’s Woman of Distinction Award.

  

  Kendra Cimmino

  Senior Director of Sales, Insurance & Channels
  SambaSafety

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  Kendra Cimmino

  Senior Director of Sales, Insurance & Channels
  SambaSafety

  Kendra Cimmino serves as the Sr. Director of Sales, Insurance & Channels at SambaSafety since 2018.  She has been the driving force behind the company’s Volta solution and has built and developed strong sales teams during her tenure. Her focus is to cultivate an environment where team members can be transparent when they are missing the mark and to dig deep on the journey they need to take to overcome our obstacles.

  Cimmino believes  in order to have the most raw, uncomfortable conversations that help build stronger teams, she needs to model that as a leader and be vulnerable when working on new personal challenges. When you do the hard work together, you can celebrate the wins together.

  Prior to joining SambaSafety, Cimmino  was a National Account Manager for Indeed.com

  

  Heidi Sirota

  Chief Pet Officer
  Nationwide

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  Heidi Sirota

  Chief Pet Officer
  Nationwide

  Heidi Sirota serves as Nationwide’s Chief Pet Officer, leading the nation’s first and largest provider of pet insurance protecting more than 1 million pets. She joined Nationwide in 2018 as vice president of marketing for the Retirement Solutions business and led an expansion of its capabilities and markets.

  Before joining Nationwide, Heidi transformed consumer experiences in human health care. As UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Bank vice president of marketing, she pioneered the retailization of health savings accounts, and as a marketing executive at Aetna and ConnectiCare she introduced new, engaging ways for consumers to shop for health insurance and get care.

  Heidi started her career in commercial bank operations, then moved into investment and insurance marketing leadership at The Phoenix Companies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Loyola Marymount University and completed executive education from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

  Heidi sits on the Board of Trustees of the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI), the Board of Directors of Second Harvest Food Bank in Orange County, California, and is a Board member of The Bradley cinema in Bradley Beach, NJ. Also she is an Advisory Board member for the University of California Santa Barbara-Extension, Customer Experience Certificate Program and the executive sponsor of Nationwide’s Pet Advocacy and Wellness Support (PAWS) Associate Resource Group.

  news.nationwide.com/en-us/heidi-sirota/

  

  Nicole Halverson

  Director of People & Culture
  Carpe Data

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  Nicole Halverson

  Director of People & Culture
  Carpe Data

• 2:00 PM

  Making an impact with emotional intelligence

  Emotional intelligence is a key determinant of a successful leader, especially in an ever-evolving insurance industry. The ability to connect emotionally with your team benefits everything from engagement to overall team productivity. This session will feature an EI expert on strategies for leading with empathy and making a meaningful impact within your team

  • What does emotional intelligence look like in the workplace?
  • How can EI play a key role in communication in a virtual office
  • How can you leverage empathy to impact and empower your team?
  • Effective strategies for improving mindfulness and avoiding burnout

• 2:30 PM

  Networking coffee break

• 2:55 PM

  Panel: Lessons learned from a multigenerational workforce

  For the first time, five generations are interacting within the workforce. While it’s easy to focus on potential conflict, there is a unique opportunity for insurance leaders to take advantage of the varied perspectives and experiences each generation offers. This session will feature a panel of different generations who will share their own experiences, and strategies for leveraging diverse thoughts and collaborating effectively.

  • How to incorporate team strategies such as knowledge sharing, clearing defined expectations, and active listening
  • What are we learning right now from each generation?
  • Understanding your team and how it translates to your client base

  Panelists

  

  Claudia Merkle

  Fmr CEO
  National MI, subsidiary of NMI Holdings, Inc.

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  Claudia Merkle

  Fmr CEO
  National MI, subsidiary of NMI Holdings, Inc.

  Claudia Merkle served as the CEO of National MI since January 2019. She was responsible for the company’s day-to-day management, financial performance, and long-term growth strategy and a champion of servant leadership. Claudia joined National MI in 2012 as senior vice president of underwriting fulfillment and risk operations and was promoted to executive vice president and chief of insurance operations in 2013, COO in 2016, president in May 2018, and CEO in January 2019. Claudia played an instrumental role in building and leading the organization and felt that people become motivated when you guide them to the source of their best talent.  If Claudia could interview one of her heroes, it would be Eleanor Roosevelt, respecting her great strength yet compassionate, empathetic leadership style.    

  Prior to joining National MI, Claudia held executive leadership positions within the mortgage banking and mortgage insurance industries.  Claudia served as vice president of national and regional accounts, risk and operations at PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. Previously, she served as vice president, regional manager at Meridian Mortgage, managing retail mortgage originations. She also held roles at Wachovia Bank in training, retail mortgage origination, underwriting, operations and Community Reinvestment Act lending.  

   Claudia was the recipient of the 2021 San Francisco’s Business Times Most Influential Women in the Bay Area, the 2017 HousingWire Vanguard Award and HousingWire’s Women of Influence Award in 2016 and 2019.  She was recognized on MReport’s Leading Ladies List in 2015.   

  Claudia holds a B.S. in management from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.  

     

    

  

  Nicole Perrault

  Head of Product and Propositions, iptiQ
  Swiss Re

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  Nicole Perrault

  Head of Product and Propositions, iptiQ
  Swiss Re

  Nicole has almost 20 years in the industry working to create insurance companies from startup to scale – and she particularly enjoys ones that are tackling challenging industry problems. At iptiQ by Swiss Re, Nicole focuses on building out products and value propositions for their digital and embedded distribution channels. Prior to iptiQ she was an insurance executive at Hippo Insurance and Narragansett Bay after getting her start in the actuarial program at OneBeacon.  She is an inspiring servant leader, combining insurance expertise with a technology-driven mindset.   Nicole has a degree in Mathematics and Economics from University of Massachusetts. 

  

  Lori Rosenberg

  Principal, Business Insurance Division
  Marsh McLennan Agency

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  Lori Rosenberg

  Principal, Business Insurance Division
  Marsh McLennan Agency

  Lori Rosenberg joined Marsh & McLennan Agency (MMA) in 2009 and is a Principal with the firm.  Lori is responsible for designing and implementing complex risk management programs specific to clients in a variety of industries including non-profits, life science, and tech. In addition, Lori leads our enterprise risk management services helping firms analyze, prioritize and integrate risk into their organization. She holds the ISO 31000 certification for ERM.

  Formerly a senior vice president with Marsh, Lori’s experience spans 30 years covering brokerage, risk management and underwriting. She has provided brokerage services to mid-size clients throughout the Bay Area.

  As a UCLA chancellor associate and active alumni of Tri Delta sorority, Lori mentors graduating seniors in business careers. Lori graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology.

• 3:45 PM

  Closing keynote: Leveraging industry trends

  In this session, hear from key industry leader on some of the most pressing industry trends that are currently shaping the insurance market – and what you need to know to remain an informed and effective leader today.

• 4:10 PM

  Closing remarks from Chairperson

  

  Bobbie Goldie

  SVP, M&S and Corporate Distribution
  IAT Insurance Group 

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  Bobbie Goldie

  SVP, M&S and Corporate Distribution
  IAT Insurance Group 

• 4:15 PM

  Networking and drinks reception