Eric Bischof
Managing Director
Morgan Stanley

Eric Bischof is a Managing Director and Head of North America Financial Institutions in Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley. Over the past 16 years, he has advised on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and capital raising for insurance and reinsurance clients, as well as other financial institutions, globally.

Eric joined Morgan Stanley in 1996 and currently is based in New York City. From 1999 to 2003, Eric was based in London covering European insurers and reinsurers. Before joining Morgan Stanley, he worked at Providian Corporation, a U.S. consumer financial services company, where he was responsible for strategic planning and corporate finance. Eric received his MBA from the Amos Tuck School, Dartmouth College and his BA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Karen Clark
President & CEO
Karen Clark & Company

Karen Clark is President and CEO of Karen Clark & Company, a company she formed in 2007 to help insurers and other entities better understand and manage catastrophe risk. Ms. Clark developed the first hurricane catastrophe model and in 1987 founded the first catastrophe modeling company, Applied Insurance Research (AIR) which subsequently became AIR Worldwide after acquisition by Insurance Services Office in 2002. She has spent over 20 years working closely with meteorologists, seismologists, engineers and other experts to develop the most scientifically advanced catastrophe models, and she has led the development of software applications that are used globally as standard tools for catastrophe risk assessment and management.

In 2000, Ms. Clark was selected by Business Insurance as one of the “Top 100 Women in the Insurance Industry.” In 2001, she was honored as “Woman of the Year” by the Association of Professional Insurance Women (APIW). In 2007, she was honored with the Review Worldwide Reinsurance Award’s Lifetime Achievement award. Most recently, Ms. Clark has been honored with an award certificate for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize bestowed on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for her support of the work of the IPCC since its inception.

Ms. Clark has appeared numerous times on national television and was featured in two History Channel specials on Northeast hurricanes and earthquakes. She holds a Masters Degree in Economics and an MBA, both from Boston University.

Bill Coffin
Editor in Chief
National Underwriter Life & Health

Bill Coffin is the Editor in Chief of National Underwriter Life & Health. He has been covering the insurance and risk management industries for 17 years. Prior to joining National Underwriter, he was the Director of Publications for the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS), where he ran Risk Management magazine, RiskWire and the Risk Management Monitor blog. He has also worked for the American Re-Insurance Company as a research analyst, and as an editor for the A.M. Best Company, where he wrote for Best’s Underwriting Guide, BestWeek and Best’s Review.

Robert V. Deutsch
Managing Director
GCP Capital Partners

Bob Deutsch joined GCP Capital Partners as a Managing Director in 2010. He has 29 years of experience in the insurance industry. Most recently, Bob was a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Ironshore Inc. Previously he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CNA Financial Corporation. Bob was Chief Financial Officer and Chief Actuary of Executive Risk Inc. (now part of The Chubb Corporation), where he also served as President of its insurance subsidiaries. His prior experience includes Swiss Reinsurance America Corporation and Ernst & Young.
Bob serves on the Board of Directors of Acrisure, LLC, Chaucer Holdings PLC, Wilton Re Holdings Limited, Entitle Direct Group, Inc. and The Actuarial Foundation. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Bob received his undergraduate degree from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania in 1981.

John Q. Doyle
Executive Vice President, Chartis Inc;
and Chief Executive Officer, Chartis U.S.

John Q. Doyle is an Executive Vice President of Chartis Inc. and President and Chief Executive Officer of Chartis U.S. Mr. Doyle is responsible for Chartis’ commercial property casualty businesses and its private client group in the United States and Canada.

Prior to his current position at Chartis, Mr. Doyle was Executive Vice President of American International Group’s Property Casualty Group and President and Chief Executive Officer of AIG Commercial Insurance.

Mr. Doyle joined National Union, an AIG company, in 1986. He held senior executive positions in management and professional liability, excess casualty, workers’ compensation, and field management within AIG’s domestic commercial property and casualty companies. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of National Union, President and Chief Executive Officer of American Home Assurance Company, and Executive Vice President of AIG’s Domestic Brokerage Group Field Operations. In 2006, Mr. Doyle was elected AIG Senior Vice President, Domestic General Insurance.

Mr. Doyle is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, and currently serves as a member of the University at Buffalo School of Management Dean’s Advisory Council. He is also a member of the Board of the New York Police and Fire Widows’ & Children’s Benefit Fund.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Edmund F. (Ted) Kelly
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Liberty Mutual Group

Ted Kelly is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Mutual Group. Mr. Kelly joined Liberty Mutual in 1992 as President and Chief Operating Officer, and was elected Chief Executive Officer in 1998. Mr. Kelly was elected Chairman of Liberty Mutual Group in April of 2000.

Mr. Kelly has been a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Mutual Group since 1992. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America; a member of the boards of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, the EMC Corporation, the American Ireland Fund, the Insurance Information Institute; and he serves on various other community and education boards. In addition, Mr. Kelly is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Born in Ireland, Mr. Kelly graduated from Queen’s University in Belfast and obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

S. Ming Lee
President and CEO
AIR Worldwide

Ming Lee is president and CEO of AIR Worldwide (AIR), a provider of risk modeling software and consulting services to more than 400 insurance, reinsurance, financial, corporate and government clients worldwide. Mr. Lee has led several departments since joining AIR in 1996. Most recently, he directed the operations of AIR’s Consulting and Software Services Group. Since the introduction of catastrophe bonds, he has led AIR’s pioneering modeling support for insurance-linked securities and was directly involved in many of the insurance industry’s landmark securitization transactions. Mr. Lee has also directed AIR’s work in the corporate, government and weather risk management sectors, where he assisted corporations and government agencies in assessing their exposure to natural and man-made catastrophes, and in developing plans to manage these risks. Mr. Lee is a member of the Governing Board of the OECD’s Global Earthquake Model initiative and on the board of Atmospheric and Environmental Research, which is on the forefront of research on global climate change and other issues in atmospheric science. Before joining AIR, Mr. Lee held senior executive positions at several leading information technology companies. A former U.S. Navy officer, Mr. Lee holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

John Lupica
Chief Operating Officer, Insurance North America; and
President & CEOACE USA

John Lupica was appointed Chief Operating Officer, Insurance-North America, in January 2010, adding to his duties as President & Chief Executive Officer, ACE USA, a position he has held since May 2006. He previously served as President & Chief Operating Officer of ACE USA since January 2005. Mr. Lupica’s prior positions at ACE include serving as President of ACE Professional Risk, a position to which he was appointed in December 2001, and as President, ACE USA Regional Operations. As President of ACE Professional Risk, Mr. Lupica had senior management responsibility for the Management Liability, Professional Liability, Programs, Surety, and Aerospace units. In April 2004, Mr. Lupica assumed the additional position of President of ACE USA Regional Operations, responsible for driving distribution strategies with brokers on both a national and regional basis, as well as expanding ACE’s product and marketing approach to local distribution sources.

Mr. Lupica joined ACE USA as Executive Vice President of Professional Risk in November 2000. Prior to joining ACE, Mr. Lupica served as Senior Vice President for Munich-American Risk Partners, Inc. He also held various management positions at AIG, including Divisional Vice President of one of National Union’s Directors and Officers Groups, and Regional Manager of AIG Risk Management’s Mid-Atlantic Region.

Mr. Lupica received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation.

Seraina Maag
Chief Executive, North America Property & Casualty
XL Insurance

Seraina Maag is Chief Executive of the North America Property & Casualty (P&C) unit of XL Insurance, XL Group plc’s global insurance operations. She directs XL Insurance’s multiline property & casualty operations, including underwriting activities for General Property, U.S. Risk Management, Excess Casualty, North America Programs, Environmental and Excess & Surplus coverages, in the U.S. and Canada. Throughout her career, Ms. Maag has held leadership positions in commercial insurance and finance in the US and abroad. Before joining XL Insurance, Ms. Maag was President of Zurich North America Commercial, Specialties Business Unit where she managed all aspects of the unit’s U.S. operations. She was promoted to this position after serving as the unit’s Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Maag also served as head of Investor Relations & Rating Agencies for Zurich Financial Services in Switzerland. In that role, she was responsible for managing relationships with investors, analysts and rating agencies on a global basis. Prior to joining Zurich in 2002, Ms. Maag was a founding partner and financial analyst for NZB Neue Zuercher Bank in Switzerland. Between 1990 and 2000, she held various management positions within underwriting and financial at SwissRe in Switzerland and Australia. Ms. Maag was elected a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, which nominates individuals to help discover innovative solutions to today’s most pressing problems through various initiatives and workstreams, as well as catalyzing the next generation of leaders. She holds an MBA from Monash Mt. Eliza Business School in Australia and is also a CFA (Certified Financial Analyst) Charterholder.

Edward Majkowski
Partner, Financial Services
Ernst & Young LLP

Ed Majkowski is a partner in Ernst & Young’s Financial Services Office. He has more than 18 years of experience focused primarily in the industries of insurance and asset management. Ed has significant experience in performing audit services to property/casualty, life/health insurance and reinsurance enterprises and asset managers. He has coordinated audit services for companies with a wide range of size and complexity, including a Fortune 100 financial services organization, companies with global operations, and U.S. domestic insurance and asset management enterprises.
Over the past 10 years, Ed has also been responsible to oversee and perform a wide range of advisory services to several financial services organizations, including two Fortune 100 Companies. Ed advises clients in the areas of business strategy, regulatory compliance, risk management, performance improvement, enhancing internal controls, and transaction due diligence.
Ed is the President of the Society of Insurance Financial Management, and he has spoken several times on various topics. His most recent speeches were focused regulatory matters impacting financial services organizations, with particular emphasis on insurance companies.
Ed received his B.S. in accounting from St. Peter’s College. He is a member of the AICPA.

Christoper McShea
Principal, Insurance Advisory Services
Ernst & Young, LLP

Chris McShea is a Principal with the Insurance Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young. He leads the Operations Improvement service line within the Midwest Insurance Sector. During his twenty-five years of insurance industry experience, Mr. McShea has had the opportunity to work across the major functions of insurance carriers and brokers. During his eighteen year consulting career, he has balanced internal practice leadership roles with client service activities. His client service focus has been directed at supporting executive agendas targeting growth and profitability.

Mr. McShea recently led the development of Ernst & Young’s concept paper on innovation entitled “Focused Innovation – Exploring the Property/Casualty Insurance Industry’s Competing Objectives”.

Prior to joining Ernst & Young in 2002, Mr. McShea managed the property and casualty business unit for a software development company focused on Internet applications. Prior to that, he served as National Practice Director of the property and casualty business unit for another major consulting firm. Mr. McShea has been quoted in the national press on a variety of insurance issues and is a frequent speaker at insurance conferences. He has served on various committees supporting the United Way of Chicago and participated as a mentor for the Mentium 100 Program. Mr. McShea is an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a graduate of The Johns Hopkins University.

Brad Melvin
Executive Managing Director
Aon Benfield

Brad Melvin is an Executive Managing Director with Aon Benfield. Mr. Melvin has 18 years experience underwriting and marketing all lines of property and casualty reinsurance business with a focus on property risk and catastrophe reinsurance. Mr. Melvin is co-head of Client Development for the U.S. region and one of four members of the Global Re Client executive team, a team responsible for bringing best practices and innovation to our clients and brokers.

Peter Porrino
Global Director of Insurance Industry Services
Ernst & Young, LLP

Peter R. Porrino is Ernst and Young’s Global Director of Insurance Industry Services. Peter manages the firm’s worldwide expansion of insurance industry services and supporting resources, and he oversees strategic planning and industry thought leadership and marketing initiatives.

With 30 years experience working in and advising the industry, Peter has considerable property/casualty expertise in reinsurance, commercial insurance and personal lines insurance. His background includes designing and implementing solutions to improve the quality and value of management’s financial information; developing effective relationships with the investor community and security analysts, including how to position business strategies and present meaningful financial and non-financial performance information; identifying appropriate candidates, assessing values, and pricing acquisitions; and business strategy assessment and redeployment.

Peter, a CPA, joined Ernst & Young in 1978, serving in the firm’s National and New York insurance practices for 15 years before leaving the firm to serve in senior management positions at several insurance companies, primarily Zurich Financial Services (ZFS). He served as the chief financial officer of Zurich Centre Group, a diverse group of global insurance, reinsurance and finance-related businesses. He also served as the chief financial officer and as chief operating officer of Zurich Reinsurance Centre, Inc. He rejoined the firm in 1999.

He holds an MBA in finance from New York University and a BBA in accounting from Pace University. He is a past chairman of the board for the Western Connecticut Chapter of the MS Society and is a current member of the Advisory Council for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Mark Puccia
Managing Director
Standard & Poor’s

Mark Puccia is a managing director in Financial Services. As Chief Criteria Officer of Insurance Ratings worldwide, Mark is responsible for establishing insurance rating criteria and overseeing ratings quality for property/casualty insurance, reinsurance, life/health insurance, and various international insurance company ratings. He established Standard & Poor’s initial ratings of life/health insurers and property/casualty insurers in the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to his insurance responsibilities, Mark is a member of Standard & Poor’s Analytic Policy Board, which oversees criteria for all of Ratings Services. Mark is also the chief criteria officer for the Funds Ratings Group. In this capacity, Mark will be overseeing criteria development for money market funds, bond funds and government investment pools.

Mark’s prior work experience includes several years with Chase Manhattan Bank’s insurance lending group arranging multi-million dollar credit facilities for several large insurers. He arranged the first foreign financing for the country’s largest stocked-owned diversified financial services institution. He previously served as a senior management analyst with Connecticut General Corp.’s group pension operations. Mark holds a B.A. in economics from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Pennsylvania.

Christopher J. Swift
Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.

Christopher J. Swift is executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. As the company’s CFO, Swift is responsible for finance, treasury, capital, accounting and investor relations. Additionally, Swift is leading the newly formed Strategic Initiatives Office, which is charged with aligning and integrating the company’s strategy, capital investment, financial investment and operating plans across the enterprise. He is also a member of the Executive Leadership Team.

Swift joined the company on March 1, 2010 from American Life Insurance Company (ALICO), an operating company of American International Group (AIG), where he was Vice Chairman and CFO.

Swift began his career as an auditor with KPMG focused on financial services. He rose through the ranks at the firm and was eventually appointed head of the Global Insurance Industry Practice. In this capacity, he worked with clients from both the Life and P&C segments. He was responsible for matters ranging from strategic and regulatory to audit, risk, advisory and tax services.

Swift received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Marquette University and earned a certified public accountant designation. He is a member of the International Insurance Society.

Peter C. Thomas
Chief Risk Officer; Executive Vice President & Managing Director
Willis Re Inc

Pete has 34 years of insurance and reinsurance underwriting, broking and management experience. He joined Willis Re in October 2004 as a Senior Vice President and was promoted to Executive Vice President and Managing Director in 2005. He joined us from Arch Re where he worked as a management consultant. Prior to Arch Re Pete worked for PMA Reinsurance Management Company. At PMA from 2001-2003, Pete was first a Senior Vice President and then an Executive Vice President responsible for strategic planning, claims, operations, information technology, underwriting services, accounting, contracts, human resources, and marketing.

Prior to joining PMA Reinsurance, Pete was President and Chief Operating Officer of the Burlington Insurance Company, First Financial Insurance Company and Alamance Group (1997-2000). He spent much of his career at Guy Carpenter in increasingly more responsible roles (1978-1986 and 1990-1997) ending his tenure as a Managing Director. He took 1987-1990 to serve as a Senior Vice President at Trenwick American Reinsurance Company.

He began his insurance career in 1976 as a licensed independent insurance agent at Allen, Russell & Allen, Inc., Hartford, Connecticut.

Pete is the co-chair of the HB Insurance and Reinsurance Litigation and Insolvency Roundtable and he is a regular lecturer for the Reinsurance Association of America on a range of reinsurance technical topics.

Mark Thresher
Executive Vice President; and
Chief Financial Officer,
Nationwide

Mark Thresher – executive vice president and chief financial officer of Nationwide — In addition to finance, Mark leads Nationwide’s investment operations and Nationwide Realty Investments.

For the last five years, he served as president and chief operating officer of Nationwide Financial. Previous to that, Mark was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Nationwide Financial. He joined Nationwide as vice president and treasurer in 1996. Prior to joining Nationwide, Thresher spent 18 years with the accounting firm KPMG, LLP.

Mark earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Otterbein College.

Mark is a member of the Financial Services Roundtable, and of the Otterbein College Board of Trustees where he chairs the audit committee and serves on the investment and advancement committees. Mark will serve as the 2009-2010 statewide campaign chair for the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges, for which he currently is a board member and serves on the program services committee. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the American College Center for Ethics in Financial Services.

In addition, he is chair of the COSI Columbus board of trustees, and was a congressional delegate for the 2006 National Summit on Retirement Savings held in Washington, D.C.

Keith Toney
Senior Vice President
Mu Sigma

Mr. Toney is the Senior Vice President – Client Management with Mu Sigma, an analytics services company that helps their clients institutionalize data-driven decision making within their organizations. Mr. Toney’s role is to engage with clients to develop analytical solutions that create value for their business leveraging a global delivery model. Mr. Toney is responsible for driving top line profitable growth, marketplace adoption, and strategic partnerships for Mu Sigma.

Prior to Mu Sigma, Mr. Toney was Vice President and General Manager for the Insurance Analytics business unit of LexisNexis/Reed Elsevier (formerly ChoicePoint), the nation’s leading provider of distributed data, authentication services, and underwriting decision technology to the insurance and risk information industries. The Insurance Analytics business unit is responsible for the creation and maintenance of a broad array of innovative analytical tools and techniques that serve the P&C insurance marketplace through the use of predictive modeling, statistical optimization, and enterprise complex data management. This work stems from researching the effectiveness and utilization of the insurance underwriting data sets provided by LexisNexis across the insurance value chain.

Prior to LexisNexis, Mr. Toney is formerly the CEO & President of InsurQuote, a leading provider of competitive analysis software in the Property and Casualty insurance industry. InsurQuote produces comparative rating software products, specializing in providing sophisticated analytical solutions with an emphasis on modeling for the complexities of P&C insurance pricing, credit-based tiering, and underwriting. InsurQuote was acquired by ChoicePoint in October 2004.

Steven N. Weisbart, Ph.D.
SVP & Chief Economist
Insurance Information Institute

Steven N. Weisbart is senior vice president and chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute. Dr. Weisbart oversees the Institute’s program of economic research and analysis, preparing studies in support of the organization’s communications mission, speaking to media and conducting briefings for member companies, industry organizations and public policymakers. A specialist in annuities, pensions, and life, disability and long-term care insurance, Dr. Weisbart frequently also makes presentations on property/casualty issues to industry audiences as well as legislative forums.

Since joining the I.I.I. in 2005, Dr. Weisbart has authored several significant research papers and articles on a variety of insurance issues, including the threat of an avian flu pandemic and the effect of the aging U.S. population on the property/casualty insurance industry.

Before joining the I.I.I., Dr. Weisbart served as vice president at Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) in New York, where he was responsible for reports and informational publications for customers and others on insurance, pensions and related financial topics. Prior to joining TIAA-CREF he was associate professor of Insurance in the Department of Risk Management and Insurance in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. Dr. Weisbart is a member of the American Risk and Insurance Association and the Society of Financial Service Professionals.

Dr. Weisbart received his Ph.D. and Master of Arts degrees in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an S.S. Huebner Foundation Fellow. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Cornell University. Dr. Weisbart also holds the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) credential.

Dr. Weisbart has authored and co-authored four books as well as papers that have appeared in numerous publications, including the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the Journal of Financial Service Professionals (where he was previously an Associate Editor), the CPCU Journal and Best’s Review. Currently he serves on the editorial board of the Risk Management and Insurance Review. He has been quoted in leading publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek.

Dr. Weisbart is an adjunct professor at the School of Risk Management, Insurance, and Actuarial Science in the Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University.

James Wrynn
Superintendent
New York State Insurance Department

James J. Wrynn was nominated by Governor David A. Paterson to be the 40th Superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department. He began serving as Acting Superintendent on August 20, 2009. Wrynn previously served as the Executive Director of the New York State Insurance fund since April 22, 2009. He has 25 years experience as a trial attorney focusing in the areas of life, accident and health insurance, property and casualty insurance, general liability insurance, insurance coverage disputes, professional malpractice, and product liability.

Wrynn was a founding partner in the law firm of MacKay Wrynn & Brady, LLP, which specializes in the area of civil litigation and appellate practice, with strong emphasis on insurance law. He has an extensive legal background in insurance, counseling agents, brokers, risk retention groups and insurance companies in most lines of insurance and excess insurance, reinsurance, self-insurance and captive insurance. His experience includes knowledge of insurance, accounting and tax issues affecting entities doing business both on and offshore. Wrynn began his legal career in 1982 in the Manhattan office of McCormick, Dunne & Foley as a legal intern.

Wrynn is admitted to the federal and state courts in New York and New Jersey and the Supreme Court of the United States. He has designations as both an Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Associate in Captive Insurance (ACI). Wrynn is a member of the New York and New Jersey State Bar Associations, the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, and is a board member of the Catholic Lawyers Guild – Queens County. Previously, Wrynn served on the Board of Managers and the Grievance Committee of the Queens County Bar Association, as past-president of the Brehon Law Society, and as an officer ibn the Flushing Lawyers Association. A former member of the Network of Bar Leaders, he also served as a board member of the New York City Economic Development Corp. and the New York City Business Relocation Assistance Corp.

Wrynn is also very involved in the Irish Community and in the peace process in Northern Ireland. This includes meetings, conferences, and dealings with the Irish Ambassador, the Consulate General, the British Under-Secretary for Northern Ireland, and numerous other parties both here and abroad. He was part of the delegation that accompanied President William Jefferson Clinton to Ireland in December of 2000 and the delegation that accompanied the New York State Attorney General in March of 2005. More recently, he traveled with New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to Ireland in 2007.

A life-long resident of Queens, Wrynn earned an accounting degree from St. John’s University College of Business Administration and graduated from St. John’s University School of Law in 1984. While at St. John’s, Wrynn was a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon, the National Honor Society in Economics, and was named to Who’s Who in Americabn Colleges and Universities. Wrynn continues his close relationship with the law school, presently serving on the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association.

Active in his community, Wrynn served on Community Board 13, as a member of the St. Kevin’s Parish Council, as vice president of the Floral Park Community Council, and on the Board of Directors of the Community Advocacy Center – Preventive Law for the Elderly. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade Committee, one of the largest Memorial Day Parades in the country, and was the 2006 “Man of the Year.”