Leader's Edge

In this episode of the Leader's Edge Podcast, podcast producer Zach Ewell is joined by Jack Else, regional vice president for P&C contract binding for the west region at Nationwide E&S, and John Steiner, regional vice president for P&C contract binding for the central region at Nationwide E&S. The three examine how the current soft market has shifted the underwriting desk’s philoso...

In this episode of the Leader's Edge Podcast, podcast producer Zach Ewell is joined by Brady Kelley, CEO and president of the Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association. The two explore the range of capacity and solutions available in the wholesale insurance market, emerging risks reshaping the sector, and how the business has evolved in the past five years.

In this episode of Politics & Risk, The Council’s SVP of Government Affairs Joel Kopperud sits down with Council President and CEO Joel Wood. With just over two weeks left before America’s midterm elections, Wood and Kopperud break down the key issues and races they’ve been keeping a close eye on this campaign season. Additionally, both share how next month’s midterm results could impact the i...

The success of the second BrokerTech Connect conference validates the belief of its parent organization, BrokerTech Ventures, that it can be a convener of stakeholders across the insurance industry, says Mike Victorson, BTV co-CEO and CEO of M3 Insurance. The Chicago conference doubled in size in 2026, including insurtechs working with the top brokerages. This shows that BTV is no longer a startup...

Crawford & Co. is dedicated to ensuring that its institutional knowledge is passed from experienced claims adjusters to the younger generation, Chief Sales Officer Mark Cunningham tells the Leader’s Edge Podcast. That means establishing training programs that help replicate the learning that today’s dispersed and remote workforce would have gleaned in person at yesterday’s office. But it also...

In this episode of the Leader's Edge Podcast, reporter Russ Banham discusses his October cover story on cyber-enabled cargo theft. From the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in 2021 to today’s supply chain disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, the freight shipping industry is no stranger to risk. But Russ’s feature examines an evolving version of an old threat–cargo theft from trucks. In t...

In this episode of our personal lines podcast series, associate editor Chris Hann sits down with Walid Nehme, Chairman at Associated Alliance. Nehme shares what it was like growing up in Lebanon during a time of war, how that conflict shaped him and his family into becoming more resilient, and how his love of mathematics led him into a career in insurance. 

A string of high-profile art heists in France, as recently as early September, highlights the unique risks in holding these pricey pieces. Tyler Najeer, who specializes in fine arts and jewelry risk management for Gallagher, joins the Leader’s Edge Podcast to discuss the landscape for insuring high-value fine art and collectibles, and what exposures help enable these thefts. Najeer also shares his...

In this episode, Leader's Edge speaks with Lance Malcolm, president of U.S. network solutions at Crawford & Co., about wildfire resilience in Europe and the United States. With wildfires scorching Spain and southern France this summer, and nearly 8 million acres burned in the United States to date in 2026, Malcolm draws parallels between the two regions’ exposure and building practices. He dis...

In this episode of our personal lines podcast series, associate editor Chris Hann interviews Jennifer Hill, Vice President and Operations Director at Harmon Dennis Bradshaw, a partner with Higginbotham. Hill shares how a college major switch from accounting to risk management set her on an unexpected path into insurance, stories from her formative years breaking into the industry in New York City,...

The new chair of The Council of Employee Benefits Executives (CEBE), Kenneth Olson, joined The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers Vice President of Government Affairs Audra Jackson for a discussion during the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum. CEBE is the executive committee that guides The Council’s government affairs team in benefits-related advocacy and policy decisions.  Olson, vi...

Talking with Leader’s Edge at the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum, Dennis Gushue, ThreeFlow’s senior vice president of sales, discusses why he sees increased desire among carriers for data integration. He also dives into the AI experimentation he sees in the industry, how to spot pitfalls in that work, and weighing AI vendors.

In this episode recorded live at The Council's Employee Benefits Leadership Forum, Leader's Edge Podcast Producer Zach Ewell sits down with Isabelle Moins of APRIL International to talk international health insurance. Moins maps out how historically insuring expats abroad has given way to a new class of digital nomads and remote employees, needing new benefit solutions. From simplified digital-fir...

Construction continues to reshape America's landscape, with demand growing for more efficient airports, improved hospitals, and larger sports complexes across the country. In this episode, Jon Tellekamp, chief underwriting officer of construction for the Americas at AXA XL, joins the Leader’s Edge podcast to discuss how insurers are responding to the needs and risks of large scale modern day const...

John Butler, cyber product lead for E-Risk, a Nationwide company, explores supply chain vulnerabilities, AI powered threat actors, and more. From expanded attack surfaces and AI-powered threat actors to supply chain vulnerabilities and governance gaps, this conversation explores what businesses, brokers, and underwriters need to do to adapt to these evolving challenges. The views expressed in this...

In this episode of our personal lines podcast series, associate editor Chris Hann interviews Jack Butcher, Chairman and CEO of Vantage Insurance Partners. Butcher shares personal stories and reasons why he’s spent part of his career volunteering with fire and emergency rescue services, how his life of volunteering draws parallels to his career in insurance, lessons he’s learned from mentors, and s...

During the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum in May, the outgoing chair of The Council of Employee Benefits Executives (CEBE), Lisa Hawker, sat down with Kerry Finnegan, former senior partner at Mercer and also a past CEBE board chair, now a senior advisor at Oliver Wyman. CEBE is the executive committee that guides The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers government affairs team in ben...

Eric Rentsch, Zywave’s chief product officer and head of emerging markets, talks with Leader’s Edge onsite at the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum. The conversation centers around AI use in insurance industry operations and covers issues including embedding AI more effectively into existing workflows, roadblocks to implementation and strategies for overcoming them, how to measure AI ROI, an...

Speaking with Leader’s Edge onsite at the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum, Jon Trevisan, vice president and head of distribution for group insurance at Prudential, shares takeaways from Prudential’s recently published research in its Benefits and Beyond series. The conversation covers employees’ financial strain and the trade-offs they make as a result, the effects on their mental and phys...

Recorded live at The Council's Employee Benefits Leadership Forum, Leader's Edge Podcast Producer Zach Ewell sits down with Massimo Nini, SVP of Consulting, Underwriting, and Actuarial at AGA Benefit Solutions. Nini maps out the Canadian healthcare landscape, by comparing and contrasting the American healthcare system with its northern neighbor. From the rise of GLP-1s to evolving healthcare legis...

A conversation with Dan Kueter, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Employer and Individual. One of the most crucial topics discussed in healthcare coverage today is the challenge of affordability. Diving right in, Dan Kueter discusses where employers are most focused in dealing with healthcare coverage affordability and how they see it affecting their workforces. Other issues like plan simplicity and transpa...

Q&A with the Jessica Jung, President of Oswald.

As life grows increasingly complex, exemplified today by the risk and promise of artificial intelligence, it can be easy to become frozen with overthinking about the next steps, says author Daniel Pink. But sometimes life demands more action and less analysis, he believes. Speaking to Leader’s Edge Editor in Chief Sandy Laycox and Podcast Producer Zach Ewell at The Council’s Operations Leadership...

In this episode, Leader’s Edge Editor in Chief Sandy Laycox sits down with David Glasgow, a leading legal expert in diversity, equity, and inclusion, to unpack the rapidly shifting legal landscape surrounding workplace DEI programs. Glasgow walks through the cases he’s watching most closely, explaining why they could have far-reaching implications for employers across industries, and how the curre...

A conversation with the President of Risk and Broking at WTW.