IN-the-Know

Matt Swafford is Senior Litigation Counsel at Shelter Insurance Companies, where he manages litigation across the United States for Shelter and affiliated companies and provides general counsel to Shelter's claims branches. He practiced law in Kentucky for over ten years with a focus on insurance, business, and employment litigation, clerked for Justice Will T. Scott at the Supreme Court of Kentuc...

Joe Paduda is the principal of Health Strategy Associates and the author of the thought-provoking Managed Care Matters blog. He is also the president of CompPharma, LLC, a research and consulting firm dedicated to improving pharmacy programs in workers' compensation. In 2012, Joe received IAIABC's President's Award for his efforts to address the opioid problem in workers' compensation. He currentl...

Melissa Burt DeVriese is the President at Security First Insurance Company. She has been with Security First Insurance Company since 2009 and has been President since March 2020. Before serving as President, she held a variety of roles, including Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel. Melissa holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Miami and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetow...

Sandip Chatterjee is the Executive Vice President of Client Management & Innovation at MedRisk, leading the Account Management organization. He also leads the Product & Innovation for MedRisk where he is responsible for the creation of new solutions to drive improved experiences and outcomes for MedRisk Customers and Partners. Prior to joining MedRisk, Sandip was a Managing Director at Marsh McLen...

Michael Koscielny, MBA, CPCU, CIC, ARe, AIC, API, AIS, AINS, is chief executive officer and founder of Born2Lead, LLC. He has over 40 years of experience creating effective teams and innovative processes for underwriting and pricing for various insurance companies. He currently serves as Director of Marketing for Graduate Programs at The University of Olivet. He is an instructor for The National A...

Rosa Royo is the Director of Worker's Compensation and Loss Prevention at Miami-Dade County Public Schools. A graduate of Barry University, Ms. Royo has been a Risk Manager for over 30 years and has specialized in Worker's Compensation for the last 20 years. She is employed by Miami-Dade County Public Schools and supervises a high-volume customer-service-driven worker's compensation program. In 20...

Omari Aarons-Martin is the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the National African American Insurance Association, a 2,100-member 501c6 organization that works to diversify the insurance industry and provides professional development programming to its members. A champion of workplace inclusion and equity, Aarons-Martin has received recognition from Insurance Business America, the G...

John M. Howard is chairman and CEO of Truist Insurance Holdings where he oversees the retail and wholesale insurance businesses. He has three decades in financial services and currently serves as executive sponsor of the SERVE (Supporting Emergency Responders & Veterans Engagement) Business Resource Group at Truist. He is chairman of the board of both The American College of Financial Services and...

Teresa Chan is the Director of the Master's in Insurance Management program at Columbia University. She launched the program in 2019 after 27 years of insurance industry experience in legal, product, and business development. Prior to joining Columbia, Teresa was an advisor on the formation of MGU start-ups funded by Willis Group that leverage emerging technological capabilities to underwrite spec...

Jen Cogbill is the Senior Vice President of the GBCARE Advisor Team at Gallagher Bassett. With over 28 years of experience in the insurance industry, Jen currently directs GBCARE Advisor team strategies and training initiatives for the Gallagher Bassett Client Services and Claim Operations team. Her responsibilities include client engagement, industry presentations, data analytics, and review of i...

Traci Adedeji is the incoming 2024 President and Chair of The Institutes' CPCU Society and works as a Vice-President at JP West, Inc., where she heads the firm's personal and small commercial lines insurance operations. Her insurance career began in 1984, and her experience includes leadership roles with several national carriers. Her professional affiliations include membership in the Society for...

John Smith is President and Chief Executive Officer at Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company (PLM). With more than 40 years in the insurance business, he was a property underwriter at Aetna Casualty, a branch manager at CNA, and the Northeast Regional Vice President at General Accident. John has served on the Board of Directors of both PLM and Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company...

Brian Chance is a Senior Vice President, Claims and Risk Manager in the Cost Based Efficiency division at Stephens Insurance, LLC. In this role, he engages with clients to develop strategies to eliminate hidden costs inside their workers' compensation programs. Brian has 30+ years of experience in the insurance industry with a focus on large employer self-insured workers' compensation programs. He...

Description: Ann Mason, WCLA is TruGreen's National Workers Compensation Manager. With 35 years of experience in the insurance industry, Ann began her career in 1988 as a claims adjustor. She quickly rose through the ranks and enjoyed roles in claims support, office administration, and human resources. Ann played a pivotal role in establishing quality control standards for an independent medical e...

Shannon Totten is the Executive Vice President and Head of Retail Excess Casualty Insurance, Sompo International, North America.  She joined the Excess Casualty department of Endurance Specialty in 2003, later acquired by Sompo in 2017, as a Vice President and took on increasing responsibilities including Bermuda Business Unit Leader. Prior to joining Endurance, she worked for AIG as an excess cas...

Megan Angus is the Western Senior Claims Manager for Sodexo, a worldwide industry leader in food service and facility management, where she is responsible for managing the oversight of the workers' compensation claims. Megan has over 11 years of experience in workers' compensation with an emphasis on California and is an ambassador for the Alliance of Women in Workers' Compensation. She has a bach...

As Pie's first Chief Claims Officer, Dimitrius King is responsible for leading and implementing the company's claims strategy. Over the past 15 years, Dimitrius has held various strategic and claims leadership roles in both personal lines and commercial lines at Liberty Mutual and The Hartford. In today's episode of the In The Know podcast, Chris Hampshire and Dimitrius discuss his shift away from...

Description: After 39 years on the carrier side of the industry, Greg Massey retired from Zurich and launched GJM Advisors, LLC in 2022. Now he provides Property & Casualty product, strategy, portfolio management, education, and leadership advisory & consulting. In today's episode of the In The Know podcast, Chris Hampshire welcomes Greg for a conversation about the post-career phase of life. As s...

After graduating from FSU's Risk Management/Insurance program, Tom Budz began his insurance career at AmTrust, where he held several underwriting positions including Specialty Practice Underwriter working with specialty verticals and national brokers. Tom currently works as a Middle Market Underwriter for Chubb and works part-time at the local fire department and as a volunteer with the Big Brothe...

Manohar Pradhan is Vice President and Chief Technology Officer with responsibility for Insurance Products and IT operations at Cabrillo Coastal. He joined Cabrillo as a systems analyst in 2009 and grew his career through a series of leadership roles of increasing responsibility, including Assistant Vice President, Applications and Technology, Vice President, Applications, and Infrastructure Operat...

Doug McElhaney is a Partner at McKinsey & Company and will be the opening Keynote Speaker at In2Risk 2023. Doug is the global leader of McKinsey's dedicated group of AI practitioners serving P&C and life insurance companies. In this role, Doug leads a global team of data scientists, AI experts, and data engineers that help leading insurance companies build next-generation analytics solutions and c...

Amanda Sulkosky is a senior analyst for the business, planning, and analysis department at NJM Insurance Group. Amanda earned the CPCU designation in 2022 and is actively involved in the Central Jersey Chapter of the CPCU Society, where she assists with volunteer recruitment and development. She is also a member of the Emerging Leaders Committee and Tech & Innovation Committee, where she brings he...

Justice Peprah Agyei is the Regional Manager of the National Insurance Commission in Ghana, a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), and an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute of the United Kingdom and Ghana (ACII, ACIIG). He holds an MPhil in Enterprise Risk Management and Business Consulting from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. In today's episode of the In...

Description: Dr. Simi George is the Chief Data Scientist and Product Officer at NeuralMetrics, which enables actionable and transparent risk-assessment intelligence for P&C carriers, brokers, and agents. She has more than 20 years of experience in data science, descriptive statistics, and analytics, delivering global impact via cutting-edge products and data-driven management. Previously, she head...

Eric Hubicki is a Senior Vice President of Underwriting for North Carolina-based Topsail Reinsurance Underwriters, LLC. He has more than 25 years of experience in primary and reinsurance underwriting operations. After spending time on the primary side in underwriting and management roles, Eric started his reinsurance career with SCOR Reinsurance. He was an integral member of a specialty lines unit...