Ray started his insurance career forty years ago in Boise, ID with a regional insurer after his graduation from Boise State University. His career includes stops in Hawaii, Utah, Arizona, California, and now full circle back to Idaho. He has held roles as an Underwriter, Broker and now Risk Manager for the JR Simplot Company headquartered in Boise. He is responsible for Insurance, Alternative Risk Financing Solutions and Claims.

Simplot is an international food and agriculture company with more than 12,500 employees running operations around the globe and distributing products to more than 60 countries worldwide. Simplot’s integrated portfolio of businesses include mining, fertilizer manufacturing, farming, ranching, food processing and other agriculture related interests.

At Simplot, our Purpose is to Contribute to Feeding Our World, which we achieve through our Mission of Bringing Earth’s Resources to Life.

Roger Andrews retired in 2016, after 25 years, as director of risk management for E.D. Bullard Company located in Cynthiana, Kentucky. He reported to the President & CEO in managing the international risk for this major manufacturer of personal protective equipment including hard hats, fire helmets, respiratory equipment and thermal image cameras. His duties included: the purchase of all property & casualty, and workers’ compensation policies; review of all product literature and warnings; and, management of all litigation and claims under the self-insured retention. From 1993 to 1997, he also performed the duties of General Counsel. Since 1997, Roger telecommuted from an office in his home in Provo, Utah.

Mr. Andrews has served in various risk management positions during his career. He drafted the legislation that created the Risk Management Division and was the first director of risk management for the State of Maine in the early 1980’s; he served as the manager of property and casualty for Hannaford Bros. Co, a large food and drug store chain in Scarborough, Maine; and, as director of risk management for Bath Iron Works Corporation, a large U.S. Navy shipbuilder located in Bath, Maine. Prior to law school, Mr. Andrews worked as a commercial underwriter for Travelers Insurance Company in Hartford, Connecticut.

Shannon Berg, APR, is the Founder and CEO of Berg & Associates, an award-winning PR and crisis communications firm. With nearly 25 years of strategic communications consulting experience, Shannon helps businesses and leaders respond to crises and manage complex issues.

Shannon’s expertise in reputation management and incident response is built on real-world experience. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Shannon served as the director of communications for the City of Detroit. In that post she played an integral role in the city’s response to the 3-day Northeast blackout of 2013. From there, her crisis communications leadership expanded to include class action and high-profile litigation, data breaches, employment and labor crises, regulatory threats, and workplace safety, to name a few. Based on her crisis response background, research, and industry best practices, Shannon developed Communications Command Center, a desktop and mobile app to technology-enable the risk-informed crisis communications plans her team creates for global and regional clients.

Shannon is APR accredited by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and is certified in Crisis Communications and Business Resiliency by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is FEMA certified in early terrorism warning and response and earned a PRSA masters course certification in crisis communications. Shannon graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in public relations.

Shannon and her husband and their three children live in Portland, Oregon. When she’s not working or parenting, she’s gardening or hitting the trails with Hilda, the family poodle, training for a trail race.

David Bidmead is President - Global Clients and is based in New York. He is a proven leader and visionary change agent whose record of accomplishments includes four years as Pacific Region Head and CEO of Australia, two years as US West Zone Leader and three years as CEO of Marsh’s US Operations. In his most recent role, David guided Marsh’s Multinational Client Service Practice.

During Q2 2016 David was appointed to his current role as President of our Global Client Practice – in this capacity, David is responsible for enhancing the engagement that Marsh enjoys with our largest and most influential clients and increasing the scope and impact of the differentiated value that together we create.

David joined Marsh in 1995, and now enjoys more than 37 years of experience in the risk and insurance industry, including senior leadership positions in the areas of Country and Regional CEO, Global Client Engagement, Alternative Risk Financing, Captive Management, Financial and Professional Risks, and complex claims advocacy.

An active supporter of the Marsh Global Inclusion & Diversity Strategy, David is the Co-Executive Sponsor of the Marsh African Heritage Colleague Resource Group. In this role, he assists in the development of the strategic plan, acts as a sounding board for new policy, and champions the CRG with other senior executives by sharing the Group’s missions, activities, and progress.

David is also a member of the Marsh & McLennan Global Leadership Council.

Carla specializes in assisting clients to identify and mitigate personal, corporate and professional liability risks. Her practice is concentrated on Cyber, Technology Errors and Omissions, Directors’ and Officers’ Liability, Employment Practices Liability, Fiduciary Liability, Crime, Kidnap & Ransom, and Professional Liability including medical malpractice. She consults with companies to uncover any liability exposures and then provides solutions to help mitigate those liability exposures.

Carla has been in the insurance industry since 1982. She began her insurance career in the management liability underwriting department for financial institutions. She works with a vast array of clients including multi-hospital healthcare systems, private and public corporations, not-for-profit organizations and independent professionals. With Carla’s experience and knowledge, she is frequently asked to speak on D&O and cyber liability risks.

Kevin Bradshaw is senior vice president and Western division manager at FM Global. In this position he oversees operations for Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Latin America operations. He is based in the company’s Western division headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

Prior to his current appointment, Bradshaw had been vice president and operations manager, Forest Products operations since 1999 and before that served six years as account engineering officer. He joined the company in 1986 as a loss prevention consultant in Dallas.

Bradshaw received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Texas Tech University.

Robert Cartwright Jr. has over 35 years’ experience in H/R and Risk Management and this extensive background has resulted in remarkable career accomplishments. In his current position as Division Manager, Environmental, Health, Safety and Sustainability for Bridgestone Retail Operations, LLC he is responsible for over 470 locations in 18 states.

Since becoming a member of RIMS (Risk and Insurance Management Society-1999), Mr. Cartwright was elected to serve as President of RIMS Global Board of Directors in 2018. He handled both national and international portfolio assignments, in addition to serving on Spencer Education Board of Directors and CWC Risk Board of Directors. Mr. Cartwright previously served as President of the local Delaware Valley Chapter of RIMS, former Chairman of RIMS External Affairs Committee and former Chair of RISK PAC, where he is actively involved with RIMS Legislative Summit, a major RIMS lobbying event held each year in Washington, DC.

With over 100 Presentations, Articles and Media Contributions both nationally and internationally, Mr. Cartwright speaks on topics as Workplace Violence, Return to Work Programs, Enterprise Risk Management, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Ethical Compliance and Effective Safety Programs.

Mr. Cartwright has also spoken on risk management practices at international RIMS Conferences held in India, China, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Africa. He also supports teaching students at Temple University, University of Central Oklahoma, and Gallaudet University as well as the National WC Seminar in Chicago, the CWC Risk Conference in California and various conferences throughout the United States and globally.

Mr. Cartwright achieved a Bachelors’ Degree in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix.

Penni Chambers oversees the procurement and maintenance of corporate domestic and international insurance for Hillwood Development Group, L.P - a Perot Company. Hillwood is a leader in the development and acquisition of industrial, office, and multifamily properties across North America and Europe. Hillwood is actively engaged in all stages of development including land acquisition, master planning, building design and construction. Since its inception in 1988, Hillwood has developed over 86 million square feet of industrial space and has land holdings providing another 99 million square feet of future development.

Ms. Chambers joined RIMS global Board of Directors in 2021 and served as president of the RIMS Dallas Fort Worth Chapter in 2019.

Penni holds a B.S. in Biomedical Science from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. She also holds the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), and Certified Risk Manager (CRM) designations. Penni is licensed for Property & Casualty as well as Risk Manager in the State of Texas.

Jim has a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University and has been employed in the insurance and risk management claims profession for over 51 years. He is a licensed adjuster and holds the Associate in Claims designation from the Insurance Institute of America and is also a Certified Public Manager. His past experience includes serving as an arbitrator for the Committee on Insurance Arbitration, a claims manager for the Utah office of an insurance company, the claims administrator for the Utah Property & Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association, and President of the Utah Adjusters’ Association. Currently, he is serving as the Claims Manager for the State of Utah Division of Risk Management. His work experience includes management, the handling of multi-million dollar fires, multiple fatality accidents, aircraft and helicopter accidents, employee dishonesty claims, civil rights claims, employment claims, workers compensation claims, jewelers’ block claims, and complex coverage and liability losses.

Jim Conway, aka ‘Sarge’, is one of the world’s most experienced snow and extreme sports risk management consultants. Jim specializes in action and adventure sport film making, avalanche education, and heli-skiing operations management. After getting an engineering degree from Montana State University and working in that profession for over ten years, his sports career started in the early 90’s as a professional extreme skier highlighted by top ten finishes in the World Extreme Skiing Championships and numerous magazine covers, film, and TV appearances. Combining his extreme winter sports experience with an engineer’s analytical approach, Jim was able to develop a program that established a new level of professional risk management in these very dangerous activities.

While innovative, this program draws upon many of the same risk management principals used by the military, business, and industry. Units including the Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics School and the Navy Top Gun School call upon him to give motivational talks. This ‘risk management for risk takers’ approach has proven effective in communicating risk management principals to young aggressive servicemen and women.

Jim has expanded this risk management methodology into other sports including freestyle motocross, base jumping, mountain biking, whitewater kayaking, high-altitude running, and commercial helicopter operations. Most recently Jim has developed a motorcycle safety awareness and advanced training program called “Semper Ride” that motivates young Marines to increase their decision-making ability and physical skills. This program has resulted in a 50% reduction in Marine motorcyclist off duty fatalities over the last four years.

Mary Daly is a Principal at Oliver Wyman Actuarial Consulting, Inc. She is co-leader of the Los Angeles office where she provides property/casualty consulting services to a variety of clients. Mary has worked with a wide range of coverages, including workers’ compensation, general liability and auto liability. Projects have included reserve analyses and loss projection studies.

She is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).

Bill has been with The Walt Disney Company since 2007 and is a Senior Manager with Enterprise Risk Management. Certified through the Disaster Recovery Institute and with almost 20 years of experience in the business continuity field, he oversees a small team of business continuity professionals who provide guidance and support through consulting and governance activities. Bill’s two other risk mitigation responsibilities include addressing property carrier’s concerns about insured facilities and well implementing controls to avoid incidents at Disney’s large construction projects, such as the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster at Walt Disney World. So far in 2021, Bill and his team helped to develop 154 business continuity plans for Disney’s EMEA, APAC and India operations.

Bill’s prior employers include Deloitte & Touche, BearingPoint, Perot Systems and the US Navy. He has a graduate degree from Rollins College and an undergraduate degree from the University of Oklahoma. Boomer Sooner!

Adamantia is a Senior in EY’s Insurance & Federal Claims Services practice in San Francisco, CA. Over the past years she has assisted clients through disaster recovery and management of their insurance claim process. Her recent experience includes assisting clients with significant losses resulting from COVID-19.

Adamantia is currently assisting medical providers in CA and Utah to prepare and submit project worksheets to FEMA in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She is assisting with reviewing and preparing documentation required for the Streamlined Project Application (SPA) and the PA program and navigating the regulation changes and different available COVID-19 funding sources to avoid duplication of benefits.

In the past, Adamantia has assisted a large medical provider with the analysis, preparation, and presentation of their insurance claim due to COVID-19 losses. She also assisted a large Automotive Association with their preparation and presentation of their insurance claim due to an event cancellation as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions. Other areas Adamantia has assisted: a large global services firm with the preparation of significant insurance claims pertaining to COVID-19 losses; the City of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County with their FEMA and federal funding recoveries after the 2017 Wildfires. Adamantia assisted with educating the city and the County on the documentation required for the reimbursement process. She also assisted with developing Hazard Mitigation funding applications, Public Assistance project implementation, and compliance with federal laws and regulations.

Harlan Hammond, MBA, ARM, CPHRM, DFASHRM, is the Assistant Vice ¬President for Corporate Risk Management at Intermountain Healthcare, where he has worked since May 1986. He previously worked as a financial auditor with Arthur Andersen in Seattle focusing on healthcare. His current responsibilities include managing Intermountain’s property and casualty self-insurance and commercial insurance programs.

Harlan received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Utah, followed by an MBA degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. He served in various capacities with the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), including twice as a board member and as faculty for the ¬Barton Certificate in Healthcare Risk Management Program. He served two terms as president of the Utah Society for Healthcare Risk Management (USHRM), and also served as president of the Utah Chapter of RIMS.

He and his wife, Julia, live in Holladay where they enjoy time with family and exploring our amazing state of Utah.

Special Agent Casey Harrington is the current Supervisor of the FBI Cyber Squad in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is responsible for Utah, Idaho, and Montana. Since joining the FBI in 2005, Special Agent Harrington has worked in the FBI's New Haven and Boston Divisions, Cyber Division, and as an Assistant Legal Attache in Frankfurt, Germany.

Cindi Heffernan joined McLarens, an international claims adjusting firm, in November of 2020 as a National Account Executive for Major Accounts. She has over 30 years’ experience in the insurance industry in claims, underwriting, account management, production, and brokerage management. Ms. Heffernan graduated collage with an insurance specialist degree and went on to earn her Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters designation. She has specialized in risk management and insurance portfolio development for the port industry for over 20 years and has been active in the development of port industry specific manuscript policy form and programs designed to incorporate the unique challenges and exposures specific to port authorities. Ms. Heffernan has also handled major catastrophic hurricane claims.

She has held positions with McGriff, Sedgwick/Marsh, Hugh Wood Inc. and Alliant as the National Ports Practice leader and Managing Director. Ms. Heffernan is a frequent speaker at industry conventions and seminars and is an active member of the AAPA Finance and Risk Management committees, RIMS and local and regional associations.

Chris Herron has been involved in some of the largest privately funded construction projects in U.S. History, including the multi-billion-dollar Echelon Resorts and Fountain Bleu Mega-Resorts in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has extensive experience as a Project Manager in all phases of construction, from pre-construction and design services to project closeout. His expertise includes specification writing, bid administration, project management, estimating, and cost controls. Chris also has experience in scheduling services and has created and implemented schedules on a variety of projects.

Chris’ experience with Surety work includes all aspects of performance for defaulted contractors. This includes pre-default assessments and consulting, project status assessments, cost-to-complete estimates, rebid/award for completion contracts, and project management throughout completion. Chris also has experience in the preparation and independent review of claims for both the principal and obligees.

Jonathan Johnson serves as the CEO of Overstock. Since assuming this role in 2019, Johnson has focused the e-commerce home furnishings retailer on sustainable, profitable market-share growth. Overstock is one of the top four U.S. online home furnishings retailers. 

From 2016-2021, Johnson served as president of former subsidiary, Medici Ventures.  Medici focuses on using blockchain technology to democratize capital, eliminate frictional middlemen and re-humanize commerce. Medici made investments in and grew many cutting-edge blockchain technology and fintech businesses. This innovative portfolio is using disruptive technology in projects that range from bringing populations out of poverty to overhauling securities markets.  In early 2021, Medici’s assets were converted into a Fund overseen by Pelion Venture Partners.

Johnson joined Overstock in 2002 as general counsel and has held various positions within the company, including member of the board.  He has been an integral part of Overstock's growth from a small start-up to a publicly traded company with over $3 billion in sales and nearly 2,000 employees.

Prior to Overstock, Johnson worked for TenFold, practiced corporate law in LA and served as a judicial clerk at the Utah Supreme Court. Johnson received his Juris Doctor degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU.

Helen is tasked with leading the West Coast Region, which is housed in San Francisco. Her responsibilities include producing, underwriting, and servicing national account insureds interested in large retention casualty programs. Helen has over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry with the majority of her experience focused on large casualty in various underwriting, marketing, and management positions.

Education B.A., Applied Mathematics towards Statistics, UC Berkeley

Mr. Koonce is the Chief Claims Officer, for Sedgwick. In this role, Koonce is responsible for product development and innovation, industry analysis and thought leadership, best practices and compliance standards, legislative and regulatory relationships, and continued involvement in client programs for Sedgwick’s lines of business. Prior to his current role, Koonce was the Managing Director responsible for Sedgwick’s casualty retail business unit in which he oversaw program results and service execution across the company’s retail customer base. This included use of innovation and technology to improve client outcomes and customer experience.

Prior to joining Sedgwick, Koonce was senior director of risk management for Walmart Stores, Inc., the nation’s largest private sector employer. In this role, he managed the retailer’s domestic property and casualty claims program. He simultaneously served as president of Claims Management, Inc., Walmart’s wholly owned third party administrator.

An attorney by trade, Koonce was previously an administrative law judge for the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission and an appellate court justice for the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Koonce has served on various state self-insured association boards, as well as the National Council of Self Insurers (NCSI), and National Unemployment and Workers’ Compensation (UWC). He continues to serve as a member of several local non-profit boards and industry risk management advisory boards.

Koonce earned his BBA degree in economics from Harding University and his JD degree from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. He is licensed to practice law in the State of Arkansas and is a member of the American and Arkansas Bar Associations.

Steve has been with Starbucks since 1997, serving as director, risk management since 2006. Steve’s responsibilities include global property and casualty insurance, claims management, risk financing activities and management of the risk team within Starbucks treasury & risk management department.

Steve was a board member of the Washington RIMS Chapter for seven years, serving as President in 2005, and he is a current board member of Starbucks Vermont-domiciled captive insurer.

Steve has a degree in Political Economy from the University of California at Berkeley, and he lives in the Seattle area with his wife and 10-year-old twins.

Romy' brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise software design and development to Pulpstream. As a serial entrepreneur, his business-critical solutions are in use by some of the world’s largest enterprises including Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Randstad, Software AG, and AT&T.

Before founding Pulpstream, Pankaj was the founder and CEO of LongJump, one of the first Platform as a Service offerings. LongJump was acquired by Software AG for $35 million under his guidance. Subsequently, he led Software AG’s cloud initiatives as general manager of Agile Apps.

Pankaj holds 2 patents in object modeling for network policy management, as well as policy-based network architecture. He earned his degree in computer science and engineering from the G.S. Institute of Technology and Science. His business philosophy centers on empathizing with customers to build powerful solutions that relieve their pains. He is committed to delighting his customers and making them successful, which is a value he shares with his team.

Matt Merna is Senior Vice President, Chubb Group; Division President, Chubb North America Major Accounts. He has executive and operating responsibility for Chubb’s retail commercial property, casualty and accident and health insurance businesses that serve the large account and corporate market in the U.S. and Canada. He is responsible for all aspects of the Major Accounts division, including strategy, production, product development and management, and profit and loss performance.

Prior to being named Division President, Mr. Merna served as Chief Operating Officer for Chubb North America Major Accounts, where he was responsible for overseeing the unit’s day-to-day operations. Mr. Merna focused on bringing innovative risk management solutions to the large account and corporate market, and expanding Chubb’s wide range of core specialty products, services and coordinated account management in all segments.

Before serving as COO for Major Accounts, Mr. Merna was Senior Executive Vice President, Chubb Global Casualty. In this role, he led an experienced, award-winning team of industry professionals, beginning in 2010. Mr. Merna and his team were committed to providing the most innovative, best-in-class underwriting and service as well as a full range of industry-leading global casualty offerings for large multinational companies and smaller but growing companies with increasing exposures around the world.

A 20-year veteran of the large-risk and national accounts marketplace, Mr. Merna joined Chubb, formerly ACE Group, in 2000 and has held various senior leadership positions at the company, including serving as President, Chubb Alternative Risk Solutions (formerly ACE Financial Solutions). Prior to his tenure with Chubb, he held various management positions in public accounting and insurance in New York and Europe.

Mr. Merna received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from West Virginia University.

Eric is Chief Economist and Chief Risk Officer for Weidner Apartment Homes, one of the largest apartment investment and management companies in the U.S.A. He is a member of Weidner's Executive Team. Eric created Weidner’s captive insurance company and operates it as its Vice President and Director. He manages the team in Weidner's risk management department. His team structures and procures the insurance programs (including health insurance and worker's comp.) for the company. The team manages all claims and related litigation and manages most of Weidner's non-insurance litigation on the plaintiff and defense sides. Eric’s team is responsible for real estate tax assessment appeals and participates in budgeting for the company and its investment portfolio.

Eric Moselle was the CFO, partner and the lead investor of a small profitable mobile applications software company called DigitAlchemy. There he helped run the company. He put together the company's legal structure, managed its banking relationships and structured its credit facility. He structured its investment fund and raised the equity capital its fund used to acquire mobile apps for the Android and iOS platforms.

Eric spent the first ten years of his career working in commercial real estate appraisal and commercial real estate mortgage banking.

Eric earned a BA in Finance with a minor in Economics from Washington State University and an MBA from the University of Washington. He chairs the board of the John 14:2 Foundation, which owns houses where disadvantaged teenagers live. He was Co-Chair of the Board of Eastside Academy, a high school for struggling youths. Eric owns a small apartment building in Kirkland, Washington.

Eric is a family man and an active outdoors-man.

Dave North is executive chairman of Sedgwick, a leading global provider of technology-enabled risk, benefits, and integrated business solutions. A proven industry leader, Dave brings vision and experience to the company, its customers and the industry.

Prior to assuming this executive role, Dave led the company’s growth from $50 million to over $3.5 billion as Sedgwick president and chief executive officer—a position he held since 1995. Under Dave’s leadership, Sedgwick grew from a boutique, regional third-party claims administrator to the premier global provider of innovative business solutions in the areas of workers' compensation, disability, absence management, property loss adjusting and more. Today, Sedgwick has more than 27,000 colleagues throughout 65 countries who take care of people and organizations by delivering cost-effective claims, productivity, managed care, risk consulting and other solutions.

Dave has over thirty-nine years of experience in risk management services. He is a frequent speaker at national and regional industry conferences. In 2016, EY honored Dave with its Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Southeast U.S. Region. He previously developed and taught the American Management Association course on Advanced Risk Management Strategies: Managing the Total Cost of Risk. In 2002, Dave was recognized by Business Insurance as one of the 35 “Rising Stars” in insurance worldwide. And, he co-authored the book The Art of Self-Insurance. Dave has served on the board of the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute and is past chairman of the board of the Integrated Benefits Institute.

Originally from the greater Philadelphia area, Emily Pancoast is a recent graduate of Temple University where she earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in Risk Management and Insurance and a minor in Health Care Management. During her time at Temple, Emily was an active member of the Sigma Chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma. She also served as President of Temple’s Net Impact chapter, an organization inspiring emerging leaders to build a more just and sustainable world. Emily worked as a resident assistant for first year students and a mentor through Big Brothers Big Sisters. She was a peer teacher in the Risk Management and Insurance department and is a two-time Spencer Scholar. After graduating in May of 2020, Emily moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco to start her current role as a Health and Benefits Analyst at Willis Towers Watson. As an analyst, she assists fellow team members and clients with compliance documentation, benefits and financial analyses and helps manage the 2021 High Tech and Retail benefits benchmarking studies. She proceeded to earn her Group Benefits Associate designation in the fall of 2020. Emily is an active member in the Big Brother Big Sisters program in San Francisco.

Mike is General Manager & Director for corporate insurance programs, real estate acquisition and development, and construction for The Papé Group of companies. Mike’s responsibilities include the development, implementation, and management of the company's AL/GL/WC single-parent captive, self-insured medical, property & casualty, and retail insurance plans.

The Papé Group, Inc. is the premier mobile capital equipment dealer on the west coast, serving customers in the heavy construction, forestry, material handling, warehousing, commercial transportation, agriculture, turf, and trenching industries. Founded in 1938, the company now has over 145 locations and 3,700+ employees in 85+ cities across 9 western states.

George J. Plesce is executive vice president, U.S., Latin America and sales, at FM Global, one of the world’s largest commercial property insurers. Based in FM Global’s corporate offices in Johnston, Rhode Island, USA, he has oversight of regional insurance and engineering operations as well as global business development.

A 30-year veteran of the company and named a “2021 Executive to Watch” by Risk & Insurance magazine, he was previously senior vice president, chief client experience and sales officer.

Before that, Plesce served as vice president, operations manager for FM Global’s Washington, D.C., USA operations. Earlier in his career, he served as an operations manager, operations vice president, client service manager and business development executive. Plesce joined the company in 1991 as a senior account executive.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Juniata College in Pennsylvania, USA.

Jill Powell is an Executive Director at Ernst & Young in the Insurance & Federal Claims Services (IFCS) practice in the Chicago, IL office. The focus of Jill’s practice is complex insurance claims and dispute-related services.

She has assisted clients in a variety of industries through their disaster recovery and management of the insurance claim process. Jill’s experience includes handling some of the largest insurable and public assistance losses resulting from the Superstorm Sandy, Joplin Tornado, Japan Earthquake, flooding in Queensland, Christchurch Earthquake, Hurricanes Ike, Katrina, Wilma, and the 2004 Hurricanes as well as September 11. 

She has assisted private, not-for-profit entities and state and local governments with receiving and managing FEMA flood claims and CDBG-DR grants as well as the monitoring of federal funding through sources such as FEMA, NFIP, HUD, NFIP, and various transportation agencies.

She has worked extensively with policyholders to develop claims management teams to respond quickly and effectively to crises including working with an insurer’s consultants to facilitate the claims process for clients. In addition to this claims experience, Jill has managed insurance investigations and assisted in several insurance claim and valuation related disputes.

Prior to joining EY, Jill spent four years working in Arthur Andersen’s Value Solutions group and two years at a smaller accounting firm focusing primarily on litigation, forensic accounting and business valuation.

Chad Rosenberg is a Principal of Rosenberg & Parker where he oversees client and surety relations as well as marketing and technology. He has over 30 years of experience as a surety underwriter and broker. Chad began his career with Reliance Surety Company in 1987 and held underwriting positions in the home office in Philadelphia, and in offices in Seattle and Sacramento.

Chad presently handles the surety programs for publicly traded and privately held corporations in the energy, manufacturing, construction, technology, pharmaceutical, environmental, and waste hauling industries.

Chad has given formal presentations on surety related topics to many construction trade associations and Risk & Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS) Chapters, as well as insurance companies, banks, law firms and accounting firms. He has authored numerous articles and publications, including the popular books Commercial Surety for Dummies and International Surety for Dummies.

Chad obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Virginia. He is currently the District Governor Elect for his Rotary District and serves on the Rotary Youth Exchange Committee. The father of five children, Chad and his wife Jennifer reside in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. In his precious free time, Chad is a fly fisherman, a skier, and a cheese enthusiast.

Paul Rytting is the Director of the Risk Management Division for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He directs several teams of risk professionals in administering global safety & insurance programs and managing litigation & claims.

Raised in Utah, he attended secondary school in West Africa and London and received his Bachelors and Juris Doctor degrees from Brigham Young University. In his spare time, he and his wife, Irene, can be found with their family in the mountains and on the lakes near West Yellowstone, Montana.

Jon has over 40 years experience in many facets of the insurance industry, currently employed as the Director of Corporate Insurance at one of the leading General Contractors in the Western US, Big-D Construction Corp. He is responsible for insurance purchases, risk transfer program analysis, claims administration, and risk financing through their wholly owned captive insurance company. He started his career as a large account, international casualty underwriter specializing in energy in Dallas, TX. Hired by one of his clients to join their Risk Management Department, he spent the next 9 years with a diversified international utility/energy/drilling contractor/construction/ engineering firm, rising to the position of Manager - Risk Management, forming one of the first Vermont-domiciled captive insurers in 1988. Jon joined Marsh in their Salt Lake City office, serving as an outsourced risk manager to their largest client, Property Practice Leader, and RM Dept. Technical Manager, working on a number of industries, including energy, healthcare, petrochemical, mining, logistics and basic metals. Jon joined Moreton & Company in 2008, developing their captive insurance business unit over the next decade. Jon is the current President of the Utah Chapter of the Risk and Insurance Management Society, was a past President of the D/FW Chapter of RIMS (1994), and was the Founding (2005) and a Multi-year (2007 - 2016) President of the Utah Captive Insurance Association. He has a wide lecturing background from various industry associations, the UCIA and VCIA, the Utah Chapter of CPCU, as well as local universities.

David Strayer is the John R. Park professor and head of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at the University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois@ Urbana-Champaign in 1989 and worked at GTE laboratories before joining the faculty at the University of Utah.

Dr. Strayer’s research examines attention and multitasking in real-world contexts such as driving an automobile. He has published over 175 scholarly articles in this area and for the last 20 years has focused on understanding driver distraction stemming from multimodal interactions in the vehicle.

Gaurav is a Partner and Co-Practice Leader within Lockton’s Transaction Liability team. Prior to joining Lockton in December 2020, Gaurav served as a Senior Managing Director within Aon’s Transaction Liability group, where he led the development of transaction liability insurance products in the M&A context and the growth of the representations and warranties insurance marketplace.

Before joining Aon in 2014, Gaurav practiced as an M&A attorney for seven years, first at Shearman Shearman & Sterling in New York, and then at Fenwick & West in Silicon Valley.

Gaurav lives in the SF Bay Area and spends most of his time outside of work trying to keep up with his three daughters (ages 8, 6 and 3).

Brad Wood is the current Vice President of Risk Management for Unifi, formally known as Delta Global Services, where he directs the company-wide risk and insurance programs. He has over 20 years of risk management experience, with 15 years of handling risk within the aviation and aerospace industries.

Brad has previously worked at Lockheed Martin, SkyWest Airlines and Marsh. He graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelors in Organizational Communication and a minor in Japanese.

Brad and his wife, Sharee, have five children. He enjoys 80s rock music, small gym workouts, and traveling with his family (even if it is non-rev). When riding on a plane, Brad will always choose the aisle seat.