The Society of Actuaries (SOA) is pleased to present the ninth annual Underwriting Issues & Innovation Seminar, being held virtually in July. The seminar remains at the forefront of underwriting issues and innovations and will include 18 sessions over three weeks. Topics include pandemic learnings, underwriting requirements optimization, how to build an accelerated underwriting algorithm, regulatory issues including compliance with models, underwriting around the world and much more. Please join us for this informative and entertaining seminar, which will also include an opportunity to network with your friends and colleagues.
Individual registration pricing for this information-packed seminar is $400 and gives you access to all sessions as well as the session recordings. Group pricing is available for organizations registering more than one individual. Please contact Lisa Collins lcollins@soa.org for group pricing.
The seminar offers three sessions on each of the following Tuesdays and Thursdays in July. Visit the agenda page for more details.
• July 13 and 15
• July 20 and 22
• July 27 and 29
Be sure to register today for this highly anticipated seminar.
2021 SOA Underwriting Seminar Program Committee
The following members were instrumental in arranging this program:
- Al Klein, FSA, MAAA
- JJ Carroll, FSA, MAAA
- Frank Chechel, FSA, MAAA
- Mike Cusumano, FSA, MAAA
- Dale Hall, FSA, MAAA, CERA
- Lisa Seeman, FSA, MAAA
- Maria Beaulieu
- Tami Britton
- Bruce A. Dahlquist
- Donna Daniells
- Ammon J. Dixon
- Nichole Myers
- Jennifer Richards
Sponsorship
Looking to get your organization recognized? Consider sponsoring the Underwriting Issues & Innovation Virtual Seminar. You can view the sponsor brochure.
Thank you to our 2021 Underwriting Issues and Innovations Seminar Sponsors
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Thomas Ashley, MD, FACP
VP & Chief Medical Director
Tom oversees all medical operations for Gen Re in North America, including the maintenance and updates to the underwriting manuals SOURCE–Life and SOURCE–DI, medical training of underwriters, and research and development. He is board-certified in internal medicine, geriatric medicine and insurance medicine. He studied Biochemical Sciences as an undergraduate at Harvard College, then attended medical school at Case Western Reserve University where he also completed residency in internal medicine.
During his more than 30 years of insurance medicine experience, Tom has served as ACLI Medical Section Chair and Program Committee Chair, past Chair of the American Academy of Insurance Medicine Mortality and Morbidity Committee, and he currently serves on the faculty of AAIM Basic Mortality Methodology Course. He is a member of the ACLI Risk Classification Committee
Mary Bahna-Nolan, FSA, MAAA, CERA
Mary serves as senior vice president, head of product innovation and strategy for the Life Insurance Division of Pacific Life Insurance Company. In her role, she oversees product design and strategy, underwriting innovation and data analytics.
Prior to joining Pacific Life, she was most recently Executive Vice President, Head of Life R&D for SCOR Global Life. In that role, she was responsible for building and shaping the company's global strategic direction for R&D activities supporting the interaction of mortality, underwriting, medical research, behavioral research and business development.
Throughout her extensive career, Mary served in senior leadership roles, including chief actuary, chief product actuary, and chief risk officer for various domestic and global organizations and as a consultant for seven years with PwC, providing audit and advisory services to life insurance and reinsurance clients.
Mary is a Fellow and Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst in the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. In addition to serving roles on internal corporate boards, Mary is currently on the board for MIB, served on the boards of the Academy of Actuaries and Society of Actuaries and serves on and/or chairs numerous committees for both organizations. She is also a frequent industry speaker and author of several papers. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with a B.S. in Actuarial Mathematics and Economics.
Christina Baldwin
Christina is the Head of Underwriting at Ladder. After entering the insurance world, she quickly discovered how antiquated and difficult it could be for customers. This led to a passion for finding ways to simplify and streamline the end to end insurance process.
Christina spent the early years of her career at New York Life. She started as a line underwriter then progressed to a variety of roles, which included overseeing facultative reinsurance as well as leading auditing, training, and research initiatives. Prior to joining Ladder, Christina was the Vice President of Underwriting and Chief Underwriter at iptiQ by Swiss Re.
Renee Batts
Assistant Director Business Strategy and Innovation
Principal Financial Group
Renee has 11 years’ experience in life insurance focusing on business architecture, strategy and research and development across the life insurance value chain. She leads teams of innovation, business and technology professionals in proofs of concept in the underwriting space specifically, as well as in holistic wellness, policy acquisition and policy self-serve. In her role at Principal she spent five years testing, growing and launching the My Principal Lifestyle wellness program for both new and inforce life customers.
In her role she is involved in the ACLI Innovation Subcommittee as well as LIMRA’s Digital Strategy Study Group.
Daniel Bouchard, ASA, CERA
Senior Actuary – Accelerated Underwriting Data & Analytics
Dan is an actuary at Hannover Re with a focus on data & analytics. He is based in Orlando and is responsible for consulting with clients to optimize risk selection in an accelerated and/or automated underwriting environment. This includes building & implementing various predictive models.
Dan Brown, FALU, FLMI, AIAA, AIRC, ARA, ACS
Dan is the Chief Underwriter at the Baltimore Life Insurance Company. Dan is responsible for all lines of new business, underwriting, and mortality management, as well as underwriting innovation to better serve both their captive agency and brokerage customers.
Before joining Baltimore Life in 2020, Dan has also worked for New York Life, Munich Re and John Hancock in various strategic underwriting positions. He has experience working with development of predictive underwriting models, integrating new 3rd party data source, building underwriting rules, improving automation and straight through processing, and electronic medical records.
Scott Coller
Scott applies his experience in retail and hospital pharmacy to connect prescription histories and medical claims data to mortality and morbidity risk in insurance applicants. At Milliman IntelliScript, he oversees the development of our Medical Data product so that life, health, and long-term care underwriters can use medical claims to better understand the risks revealed by prescription information.
Education and credentials
- Doctor of Pharmacy, University of Florida
- Licensed Pharmacist, WI and IN
- Bachelor of Science: Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Experience
- Clinical Instructor, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Director of Pharmacy, St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital
- Pharmacy Manager, Stoughton Hospital
Donna Daniells FALU, FLMI, MBA
Donna has held a variety of underwriting and leadership roles over her career, in the US and Canada. She currently leads the digital underwriting strategy at Equitable, in the Charlotte area. Her past industry involvement includes editor of ‘On The Risk’ and numerous roles within the Academy of Life Underwriting including Curriculum, Survey, Forum meeting and Board member. Most recently she was on the team that created and launched continuing education credits for the Underwriting profession.
Katie Devlin
Katie Devlin is the Vice President of Data Solutions for Clareto, where she is focused on network expansion, patient-directed access, and strategic partnerships. Prior to joining Clareto, Katie was Director of Electronic Health Strategy at MassMutual, where she led an enterprise-wide initiative for the Fortune 100 carrier. Previously, Katie led complex integration projects and service lines related to the expansion of Pioneer Valley Information Exchange (PVIX) Massachusetts and managed Baystate Health's technology innovation center, TechSpring, where she developed products in partnership with vendors such as Cerner, InterSystems, Imprivata, and Hearst Health.
She also spent several years working on various clinical applications at Trinity Health (formerly Catholic Health East), Cooley Dickinson Hospital (part of MGH), and Holyoke Medical Center, where she led physician EHR training and specialized in computerized provider order entry (CPOE), electronic documentation, and ambulatory order management. Katie is a Certified Professional in Health Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS). She holds a Bachelor and Master of Science from Western New England University and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Health Science in clinical informatics at Bay Path University.
Mark Drauschke
Mark Drauschke is the Head of Life Business Development for MassMutual US Product. He joined MassMutual in April 2014. Prior to joining MassMutual, Mark worked at MetLife in the product management department in various capacities including the competition area and managing product development efforts for life products. He has a BA from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Boston University.
Maria Ferrante-Schepis
Expert Speaker, Author, President Maddock Douglas
After more than 25 years as an executive in insurance and financial services, Maria’s charge is to focus on businesses’ most important opportunities for innovation, recognizing the significant public and government demand for change. Her mission is to enable like-minded professionals to proactively shape their own change before being disrupted.
Maria identifies, examines, and provides an innovation roadmap to take advantage of opportunities in key areas — topics that are appropriate for executives and business professionals in any industry.
Maria co-authored the book, “Flirting with the Uninterested: Innovating in a ‘Sold, Not Bought’ Category.” She is a frequent industry speaker and columnist for Think Advisor and was named one of the 20 most creative people in insurance by National Underwriter.
Sam Friedman
Sam Friedman is the North American VP of Sales for Binah.ai. He started his career in the military, following that up with a degree in counter-terrorism and homeland security, and spent the next ten years in the cybersecurity space. After successfully bringing several cyber startups to market, Sam joined Binah.ai and pivoted his focus on what he thinks is an even greater challenge, the healthcare revolution.
Binah.ai developed an app that provides real-time vital signs measurements using only a smartphone, laptop or tablet camera. Since launching Binah.ai’s U.S. headquarters in 2019, Sam leads a team of sales representatives, partners and tech support. Sam is already working hand-in-hand with executives of major hospitals, clinics, telehealth providers, insurance agencies and telecommunications companies, to help get America – and the world – on the right healthcare track.
Philip Fung
Founder / CEO, Kit.com
Philip Fung is founder of Kit.com - an at-home health diagnostics platform for businesses. Previously, Philip was one of the early engineers at Facebook, focusing on growth and mobile apps. In 2005, Phil was in-between classes at Stanford and ran into Mark Zuckerberg, who was sitting by himself holding a sign "Come Work at Facebook". Phil left school a month later to work there.
Susan Ghalili
Susan Ghalili is Vice President of Underwriting Transformation and Chief Underwriter at John Hancock Financial where she has responsibility for managing all aspects of the Underwriting operations and risk management to include managing impacts to mortality and morbidity results. Ms. Ghalili is also responsible for executing ongoing research and development strategies and innovation to further position John Hancock underwriting as an industry leader.
Prior to joining John Hancock in 1998, Ms. Ghalili had spent 17 successful years at Sun Life of Canada, US Division.
Ms. Ghalili is a Fellow of Academy of Life Underwriting (FALU), a Fellow of Life Management (FLMI) and a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), she is a member of ACLI Risk Committee, and the MIB Advisory Committee.
Christie Goodrich
Christie Goodrich is Vice President of Life Products at Sammons Financial Group. Christie leads the product development, pricing, implementation and reinsurance teams. Christie’s career spans over 25 years at a number of companies including Mutual of Omaha, Voya, Principal Financial Group, Aviva and Global Atlantic with her primary focus on Life and Annuity Product Development and Pricing. Christie is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries.
Neal Halder, CLU, FLMI, AALU
Assistant Vice President & Chief Underwriter
Principal Financial Group
Neal has 35 years’ experience as an underwriter, with 28 years at Principal and the last 15 as Chief Underwriter.
In his role as Chief Underwriter he has responsibility for all aspects of underwriting at Principal including underwriting philosophy and governance, rules, automation and data analytics, R&D, underwriter training and quality assurance, medical department, and vendor management.
Neal is a member of the ACLI Risk Classification Committee, MIB Advisory Council, Association of Home Office Underwriters (AHOU) and Impaired Risk Underwriters Association (IRUA).
Mary Hanson
Mary Hanson is Vice President and Underwriting Manager for Swiss Re. She joined Swiss Re's facultative underwriting department January 2016 and currently, a part of Swiss Re's Actuarial Innovation team.
Mary has more than 25 years of industry experience and is active with regional and national organizations.
Mary is a FALU and FLMI. She received a Bachelor of General Studies from the University of Missouri, St. Louis with emphasis in finance, math, business, communications, and computer science. In her spare time, Mary enjoys working with time with her family and volunteering with animal rescues.
Adnan Haque
Assistant Vice President
Adnan Haque is Assistant Vice President for Munich Re’s North American Integrated Analytics team. Since joining Munich, Mr. Haque has applied data science and machine learning techniques to a variety of Munich Re and client projects – including smoker predictor models, mortality models, and triage models. He also conducted a validation of the relationship between data collected from wearables and mortality. Mr. Haque currently focuses on risk selection using predictive models, rules, and third-party data at the point of sale. Prior to joining Munich Re, Mr. Haque was a Data Scientist at AXA and has held a mix of actuarial and data science roles.
Ryan Hinchey
Chief Actuary
Health IQ
Ryan focuses on developing innovative insurance products and underwriting techniques for the Health Conscious. Over his 19 years in the insurance industry he has held leadership roles in various product development and risk management functions. Prior to Health IQ, Mr. Hinchey led product and digital strategy at NN Group (formerly ING Group) where he designed holistic financial planning solutions sold online. Previously, Mr. Hinchey served as a consultant at Milliman’s Financial Risk Management team where he developed risk management and hedging strategies for insurers across the US and Europe. He started his career at The Hartford where he advised senior leadership on hedging strategies to support the variable annuity line of business. Mr. Hinchey is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries who has been awarded 12 patent claims in the InsurTech space. Ryan has a bachelor's degree in Actuarial Science with a minor in Economics from the University of Connecticut.
Shelby Hollister-Share, FLMI, FALU, LTCP
Head of Life Underwriting, Equitable
Shelby Hollister-Share is Head of Life Underwriting, Equitable and has over 30 years of experience in underwriting and operations. Prior to joining Equitable she served as Sr. Vice President, Swiss Re. She has also held a broad range of underwriting positions at Genworth, MassMutual, Hartford Life, Paul Revere Insurance Group, General Re, and First Colony Life. Ms. Hollister has earned Fellow designations at The Academy of Life Underwriting and Life Management Institute. She also has her Long Term Care Professional designation. She is a graduate of The University of Mary Washington with a B.A. in Economics. Shelby is a past member of the AHOU program committee and has been an industry speaker at AHOU, SOA, International Underwriting Congress and regional underwriting meetings.
Community involvement includes a current past position as President of the board for the Adult Care Center of Central Virginia, and a past CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer for abused and neglected children. Shelby was also in the 2013 Class of Lead Virginia, “a non-profit organization created to educate proven leaders about regional differences and opportunities across the Commonwealth.” She is currently on the board of the Girl Scouts of America Hornets’ Nest Council in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Ryan Holt, FSA
Reinsurance Group of America
Ryan Holt is an Associate Actuary at Reinsurance Group of America. He has 9 years of experience in the reinsurance industry covering a variety of disciplines including valuation for living benefits products, pricing and modeling of complex life and LTC products, and building assumptions and models to understand the impact of novel underwriting practices. At RGA, Ryan has worked to help life insurers implement and monitor accelerated underwriting programs as well as new underwriting tools. Aside from being an actuary, Ryan enjoys all forms of music, video games, and spending time with his 3 children.
Michael House, FSA
Actuary, Bestow
Michael joined the team at Bestow in November 2020 with a focus on direct-to-consumer life product pricing and product design. He works cross functionally with underwriting, marketing, engineering, operations, legal, actuarial, and reinsurance, with the goal of connecting the dots across various specialties.
Previously, Michael worked in the Corporate Actuarial team at Lincoln Financial Group and in the Insurance Product Design and Pricing team at Haven Life. He is very interested in creating easy to understand, affordable insurance products available to the masses
Mike Hoyer FSA, MAAA
Mike Hoyer is an actuary and product manager with Milliman IntelliScript. He is based in Chicago. Mike plays a role in predictive modeling product development and oversees several mortality risk assessment products.
Ben Hsieh
Ben has been with Bestow from its beginnings and has helped build the data and analytics, actuarial and underwriting teams. His current role includes representing those functions in developing partnerships and products. He is based out of Dallas and holds the most world championships for Bestow's daily mini hoop basketball competitions.
Gretchen Juneau
Vice President of Underwriting Transformation
Gretchen is the Vice President of Underwriting Transformation for Prudential. She began her career as a Prudential Underwriter many years ago and has been in her current position since January 2019.
Gretchen is responsible for identifying opportunities to transform the underwriting process for our clients, producers, and underwriting staff. She partners with vendors, data scientists, and reinsurers to implement new data sources, and build a simplified and efficient underwriting process.
Gretchen earned her Bachelor’s degree as well as her Master's degree from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Gretchen earned her FALU in 2010 and also has FLMI and ACS designations. She currently resides with her husband in the Minneapolis area.
Colin Kearney
Global Head of Underwriting and Claims
Colin is responsible for the direct supervision of SCOR’s Underwriting and Claims functions globally, which includes motivating all of our markets to embrace and adapt to the accelerating speed and focus on improving the Insurance customer journey. His primary duties are risk management of medical underwriting and claims, operational efficiencies, continuous improvement of SCOR’s underwriting claims manuals (SOLEM) and participating in underwriting and claims innovation initiatives.
Colin promotes all aspects of the exchange of best practices with a strong belief in the value of collaboration among our markets and functions as well as ensuring our teams have the knowledge and tools available to better serve our clients and, in turn, ensuring an exceptional experience for the insurance consumer.
Prior to his current role, Colin has worked in a number of markets including Canada, the United States, France, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Colin has more than 30 years of experience working in the reinsurance and insurance industry and has presented at numerous events and seminars. He is a founding member of the French Underwriters Association and holds an MBA from the Open University Business School in Milton Keynes and numerous insurance certificates, including qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Insurance and the AHOU.
Lief Larson
Lief Larson is the COO and co-founder of insurtech Jenny Life® (jennylife.com). He helped develop the very first Apple AppStore and Google Play native apps for an end-to-end life insurance buying process and co-wrote both of the Company’s patent filings. He is also a licensed insurance producer. Lief has been a career software engineer, technologist, entrepreneur and operator. He founded or co-founded multiple high-growth private, venture-backed companies, including KIOSK, Inc. (kiosk.com) and Engage, Inc. He has also been a technology consultant to numerous companies, including IBM, MGM, Hilton, Target and others. Larson attended the University of Wisconsin (Business) and the University of Minnesota (Communications / Marketing).
Cindy MacDonald FSA, MAAA
Cindy MacDonald is a Senior Director, Experience Studies at the Society of Actuaries (SOA) where she manages the internal and external resources that work with approximately 250 SOA volunteers to produce SOA experience studies. Prior to coming to the SOA in 2010, Ms. MacDonald worked at Allstate Financial where she obtained over 25 years of experience in life and annuity product development and asset/liability management. Ms. MacDonald is a Fellow in the Society of Actuaries, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a CFA charterholder. She received her BS in mathematics/actuarial science from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
Sandeep Manchanda
Business Head, Life Products
Sandeep has over 20 years in insurance and joined EXL 5 years ago. He led the development of analytics-based products, created the end-to-end underwriting offering, and now leads innovation and development of all new solutions for Life. Before EXL, he held CIO/CDO roles at Marsh & McLennan and Zurich. Fully embedded in big data analytics, product development and agile methodologies, he combines business process, technology, data, and analytics to transform operations.
EDUCATION & TRAINING:
MBA with distinction, General Management and Finance, Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, NY
Bachelor of Technology, Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India
PERSONAL INFORMATION:
Stand-up Comic; Experienced Meditator; Licensed Skydiver; Advanced Scuba Diver; Former Landmark Forum Introduction Leader
Bruce Margolis, DO, MBA
Bruce Margolis, DO, MBA is AVP, Chief Medical Director for Pacific Life. He is board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, and insurance medicine. Bruce has been in the insurance industry since 1996 and has been involved with life, health, disability and long-term care products. Prior to Pacific Life, he served as Medical Director for CRL, Medical Director and later Chief Medical Director for Genworth Financial and the Chief Medical Director for MetLife. Prior to that, he was in private pulmonary practice in Philadelphia.
In 2003, Bruce earned his MBA from Eastern University in Pennsylvania. He is a Fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Internists and a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians. Bruce has earned his Long-Term Care Professional (LTCP) and Certified Health Insurance Executive (CHIE) designations from America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). He is the current Chair of ACLI’s Risk Classification Committee. His special interests include genetic testing, cognitive impairment, and the determinants of healthy longevity.
Allison Martin
Founding Member and Executive Director
UDoTest, A Recuro Health Company.
Allison is the founding member and executive director of Recuro Health and the CEO and founder of Massachusetts-based UDoTest, a B2B At-Home Disease Testing Software Company. Inspired by cancer prevention in Africa, Allison’s global awards from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Genentech, Frost and Sullivan, to name a few, both during and pre-pandemic, led Allison to becoming a leader in the at-home testing industry. As a serial entrepreneur, as well as with her work with America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Innovation Lab and in the global telecommunications industry, led to Allison having been frequently interviewed for her work on improving the access and the cost of better health for many.
Jason McKeever, MBA, FALU, FLMI
Jason McKeever joined Lincoln Financial Group in 2021 where he provides strategic leadership for automated underwriting solutions. Jason has 13 years of underwriting and new business experience and has served as a subject matter expert and product owner for accelerated underwriting, underwriting rules, straight through processing, and digital health data. Jason holds an Associate in Applied Science Degree in Computer Information Systems from Hamilton College, a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance with a Certificate in Risk Management and Insurance from The University of Iowa, and a Master of Business Administration Degree with distinction and Leadership Certificate from The University of Iowa.
Hareem Naveed
Hareem Naveed is a Director for Munich Re's North American Integrated Analytics team. She specializes in working with established clients and new startups to introduce innovative solutions to the life insurance market that support point of sale underwriting. Prior to joining Munich, Hareem worked on early intervention systems for police departments at the University of Chicago's Center for Data Science and Public Policy
Michael Nyszczot, FSA, MAAA
Vice President, Product Management and Underwriting
Michael Nyszczot is Vice President for the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. Michael supports the Adviser Client Experience (ACE) and leads the automated underwriting program and mortality management. Michael leads the strategic efforts by continuing to enhance and expand automated underwriting for life insurance. Michael and his team work closely with Penn Mutual’s traditional underwriting, leveraging new data sources, techniques, and predictive models to innovate the financial professional and client experience. Michael is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in actuarial science. Michael is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.
Kevin Oldani
Senior Vice President and Chief Underwriter
Kevin has over 38 years’ experience in the life insurance underwriting and underwriting management. He has been a manager of both reinsurance and direct company underwriting departments and has established underwriting and workflow practices for specialty markets that include COLI/BOLI, Bank distribution, Simplified issue markets, Accelerated Underwriting programs and others. He is responsible for Automation, Analytics and Underwriting. Kevin is currently Senior Vice President and Chief Underwriter for Hannover Re. He is past president of SEHOUA, COLI Directors, IRUA and VP program for the AHOU.
Reed Perry
Director of Business Development
Diameter Health
Reed Perry is the Director of Business Development for Diameter Health, a software company focused on optimizing healthcare data. Reed leads strategic partnerships and market development for Diameter Health, including their work in the life insurance market over the past few years.
Prior to joining Diameter Health, Reed worked for other healthcare technology companies in operational and strategy roles. Reed received his Bachelor's degree in Finance and Information Systems, as well as his MBA, from Boston College.
Rob Philibert MD PhD
Dr. Philibert is the CEO and founder of Behavioral Diagnostics (www.bdmethylation.com) and co-founder of Cardio Diagnostics Inc (www.cardiodiagnosticsinc.com) . Dr. Philibert completed his M.D. and PhD through the University of Iowa Medical Scientist Training Program in 1989. After finishing his residency in Psychiatry in 1993, he then completed 6 focused years of bench top research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Subsequently, he returned to the University of Iowa where he has a part time appointment as a Professor of Psychiatry with adjunct appointments in Genetics, Neuroscience, and Biomedical Engineering. He has nearly 200 peer reviewed scientific publications and an extensive portfolio of patents covering the use of epigenetics for the assessment of smoking, alcohol consumption and heart disease.
Michelle Privett, MS, RN, FALU, FLMI, PCS
Michelle Privett, MS, RN, FALU, FLMI, PCS, is a life underwriting leader, registered nurse, and professional editor who hails from the great state of West Virginia. She is a Process Specialist for Insurance for Pyramid Solutions, Inc., where her expertise is applying intelligent automation to improve operations for insurance companies. She also founded her own consulting company, Illuminate! Consulting. She completed a Master of Science Degree in Nursing and has over 25 years of registered nursing experience in cardiac, renal, emergency medicine, and solid organ transplantation. The only thing she ever wanted to be was a ballerina, but somehow, she ended up an underwriter and loved it enough to be here twenty years later! Michelle is the Vice President of the AHOU Education Committee and serves as the Vice President of the Ambassador Program for the Texas-Wide Underwriting Conference (TWUC) Board of Directors. Michelle loves to write and volunteers as a Contributing Editor for On The Risk, authoring a variety of articles and helping underwriters to become published authors.
Zach Pugh
Zach currently serves as Director of Underwriting of Ethos. In his over 25 years of experience in the industry Zach has served in various levels of underwriting leadership for number of direct carriers as well as reinsurers including Swiss Re, SCOR, Mutual of Omaha, Primerica, and Protective Life. He has spent his time working in various underwriting paradigms including traditional underwriting, automation, and predictive models as well as levering techniques from lean manufacturing as well as other business tools to improve the customer journey in the life insurance application process.
Dave Rengachary
Dr. Dave Rengachary is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Director for U.S. Mortality Markets at RGA Reinsurance Company. Prior to joining RGA in 2013, he was a general neurologist in practice at Missouri Baptist Medical Center where he also served as medical director for their Primary Stroke Center.
Dr. Rengachary attended the Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University. He then completed an adult neurology residency at Washington University followed by a fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology. He is the primary author and editor of the Washington University Neurology Survival Guide. He serves on the board of directors of Memory Home Care Solutions and Oasis, non-profit organizations respectively dedicated to Alzheimer’s caregiver support and healthy aging. Dr. Rengachary is enrolled in the Executive M.B.A. program at the Olin Business School at Washington University.
In 2020 Dr. Rengachary accepted a position as vice-chair of ACLI’s Risk Classification Committee. He is Past-President of the Midwestern Medical Directors Association; current Deputy Director of the Longer Life Foundation; Medical Consultant for the Academy of Life Underwriting; and a member of the Educational Committee of the American Academy of Insurance Medicine.
John Reynolds
John Reynolds is Senior Vice President, Strategy & Development for ExamOne. He is responsible for the strategic planning, innovation and management for ExamOne’s product portfolio, professional services, data analytics, as well as leading the development of the company’s strategic partnerships. He has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, primarily in sales management, product development and field operations.
Prior to joining ExamOne, John was responsible for sales and management of iPipeline’s insurance software SaaS products. He received his business degree from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
Jennifer Richards
Jennifer Richards (aka JR) leads the Underwriting and Product Development functions for Bestow, a tech-start up focused on redesigning the insurance and underwriting experience.
JR had prior stops at Mass Mutual, New York Life and Principal Financial Group. Notable accomplishments include playing a lead role in developing Tele-Underwriting, Principal’s Accelerated Underwriting Program, the use of Electronic Health Records and standing up Principal National, a 49-state insurance company.
JR lives on a lake in northern Minnesota with her husband and Teddy the cutest dog ever! She has 3 children scattered all over the U.S. that she visits in their vintage Airstream.
Paul Rivard
Paul Rivard is currently SVP, Chief Risk & Experience Officer at EMC National Life, where he is currently leading growth and innovation strategy. Prior to his current role, Paul led Munich Re's Underwriting Client Solutions Team. Paul constantly works to execute innovative, high-value solutions in many key areas, including underwriting and distribution optimization, new data sources and modelling for better market segmentation, customer engagement and personalization, health and wellness programs. Paul is a spirited collaborator, driver of excellence, and is passionate for innovative solutions.
Albert Roux
Albert is currently the VP of Product Management for the Fraud product at Onfido. Previously, he was the Head of the Product Supply organization at Criteo which includes Traffic Quality, Inventory Quality and Brand Safety. He has spent the last 13 years in Traffic Quality fighting malicious actors. Prior joining Criteo, he spent 10 years at Microsoft Bing leading Traffic Quality teams. As a former triathlete and karate competitor, in his spare time he is trying to redeem his fitness level by hiking the Cascades mountains.
Anil Sanwal
Vice President,
Business Initiatives Lead
Anil Sanwal leads RGAX's Eldercare and Aging initiatives and is responsible for driving the strategy and providing thought leadership and research on this topic. He is passionate about how the industry continues to innovate and is a champion for helping accelerate this innovation, especially in the areas of Eldercare and Aging, utilizing data, technology and industry insights. Previously, Anil held the position of Vice President Global Group Products in RGA's International Division. In collaboration with RGA’s global managing directors and regional and local heads of business development, responsibilities included identifying new group reinsurance opportunities in RGA’s global markets and seeking markets where RGA could expand its existing reinsurance offerings. Anil's RGA experience also includes Vice President, Group Reinsurance and Development at RGA Life Reinsurance Company of Canada. Prior to joining RGA in 2007, Anil was Head, Group and Client Services with Munich Re Services India Ltd., where he was responsible for developing the group reinsurance business. His focus was on the life and health insurance market on the Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Anil received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in math and statistics from Western University and a Diplôme de langue et civilization françaises from the Université de Paris, Sorbonne.
Randy D. Shaull, FSA, MAAA
Assistant Vice President – Life Pricing & Design
Pacific Life Insurance Company
Randy recently started with Pacific Life in August of 2020 accepting the role of Assistant Vice President for Pricing & Design of the Life Insurance Division. In this role he is responsible for driving forward the design and pricing of Pacific Life’s entire life portfolio. Randy closely collaborates with the Senior Leadership Team to ensure the final solutions delivered within Pacific Life meet the financial needs of the distributor and policy owner customer base. He is a pro-active supporter of working closely with Marketing, Client Services, New Business and Underwriting to understand the needs of the customer.
Prior to moving to Pacific Life, Randy had a successful 30-year career with the Sammons Financial Group member companies leading a variety of teams which included Life Design & Pricing as well as Forms Filing, Competition and AVP & Field Relationship Actuary. Randy is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries a member of the American Academy of Actuaries and has been a recent presenter at SOA meetings.
Debbie Smith
Debbie is Medical Director for Swiss Re's team of doctors providing medical support to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Debbie started working in insurance in 1985, holding senior positions in insurers across multiple functions; underwriting, claims, sales marketing, compliance and project management before moving into reinsurance. She qualified as a doctor, working with Swiss Re from 2007, and held dual roles until recently, working as an Acute physician in the UK's largest Trust before moving full time into the CMO role for EMEA. She sits on the committee of the Assurance Medical Society and is the Scientific Officer for LUCID, serving also on the Association of British Insurers Critical Illness Working Party.
Debbie is married, with 3 young adopted children. She was an officer in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, serving on active duty in Kosovo and Iraq. More recently she spent a sabbatical in the NHS, working in the COVID-19 unit of her local hospital.
Mike Taht, FSA, FCIA, MAAA
Executive Vice President
Research & Underwriting
Mike joined Munich American Reassurance Company in November 2008. He is responsible for Biometric Research on a North American basis and the U.S. Underwriting and Medical and Integrated Underwriting Solutions departments. As such, he oversees all aspects of risk selection and is responsible for how Munich Re addresses the rapidly shifting underwriting paradigm. Prior to this role, Mike was responsible for the Individual Reinsurance business in the U.S. He serves on the board of directors and is a member of the executive leadership team.
Before joining Munich Re, Mike was a principal with Towers Perrin, a large international actuarial consulting firm. In this role, Mike consulted on issues such as securitization of individual life business, mortality issues and appraisals of both life reinsurance and life insurance companies. Mike’s clients included some of the largest life reinsurance and life insurance companies in the U.S.
Mike is a graduate of the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science in Math and Economics. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Mike is also a past president of the Southeastern Actuaries Conference.
Tanya Thompson, FLMI, AALU
Leader, Mortality Insights, Controls and Medical Services
Brighthouse Financial
Tanya Thompson is responsible for mortality and morbidity risk management of all individual life insurance for Brighthouse Financial. She collaborates with internal and external partners to provide leadership and direction for the development and implementation of underwriting guidelines and processes, short and long-term underwriting strategies and underwriting technology and innovation. In her role as Chief Underwriter, she ensures competitive, responsible underwriting that meets pricing expectations and company risk tolerance.
Before joining Brighthouse Financial in 2019, she was the Vice President, Chief Underwriting Officer at TIAA Life Insurance Company. Tanya has over 20 years of underwriting and risk selection experience as an Underwriter and Chief Underwriter working for Liberty Life Insurance Company and RBC Insurance.
Tanya holds a BS in Financial Management and an MBA from Clemson University. She is a Fellow in the Life Management Institute (FLMI), an Associate in the Academy of Life Underwriting (AALU) and a Certified Bourbon Steward.
Jason Von Bergen, FSA, MAAA
Jason Von Bergen is Vice President – Research & Analytics in the Risk Selection Strategy department at Northwestern Mutual. His division is responsible for research to support traditional underwriting standards and requirements development, new underwriting data research & development efforts, automated underwriting program and tool development, and future strategy for risk assessment. Two major areas of focus for his group include the development and management of Accelerated Underwriting programs for Life and Disability Income and researching new, digitally available data for underwriting. He is an actuary by training and has been with Northwestern Mutual for 18 years, serving in in many roles ranging from traditional actuarial functions, corporate strategic planning, distribution strategy development, and now risk selection strategy. Away from work, Mr. Von Bergen enjoys playing basketball, home improvement projects, and spending time with his family on their hobby farm.
Kacie Williams-Tolentino
Life Vendor Manager
The Guardian
Kacie manages and oversees all day-to-day vendor operations and works closely with Guardian’s Underwriting Research and Development team to assess, pilot, and implement vendor service offerings.
Kacie is a graduate of Muhlenberg College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy. She has been at Guardian for 12 years, holding a variety of positions prior to her role as Life Vendor Manager. She has played a significant role in the creation and evolution of Guardian’s Vendor Management Office.
Kacie is a 2020 Guardian CEO Award recipient for her contributions to Guardian’s COVID underwriting program. In her free time, she enjoys international travel, interior design, and reading.
Monica Wilson, Dr
Dr. Monica Wilson is the Chief Medical Director of John Hancock Life Insurance Company, the US division of Manulife. Dr Wilson is an intensive care specialist with over 12 years of clinical experience in critical care medicine and has worked in the US, Canadian and global reinsurance markets for over 15 years, with experience in life and critical illness insurance, claims adjudication and product development. Dr. Wilson has served as the North American Chief Medical Officer for Swiss Re, as well as Medical director for Canada Life and Canada Life RE. She is a Diplomat of the Board of Insurance Medicine an active member of the American Academy of Insurance Medicine (AAIM) and was the past president and is the current treasurer of the Canadian Life Insurance Medical Officer Association (CLIMOA).
Matthew Wolf
Matthew Wolf is the Head of Product and Actuary at Dayforward Inc, a brand-new life insurance carrier startup. Matthew has a broad range responsibility including insurance product design and pricing, product filing, software product owner for the insurance system components, and underwriting analytics and accelerated program development. Prior to joining Dayforward, Matt lead the Actuarial Product Development and Data Analytics teams at Haven Life at Mass Mutual and in various actuarial roles at Zurich and AXA Equitable Life Insurance Companies.
Daniel D. Zimmerman, M.D.
Senior Vice President, Head of Global Medical
RGA Reinsurance Company
Daniel D. Zimmerman, M.D., is Senior Vice President and Head of Global Medical, RGA Reinsurance Company. He is responsible for thought and medical leadership, case consultation, product development, executive and C-suite advisement, client support, and internal and external education. Additionally, he serves as editor of ReFlections, RGA’s global medical newsletter.
He is also Managing Director of The Longer Life Foundation, www.longerlife.org. This not-for-profit collaboration between RGA and Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine funds the study of factors that either predict the mortality and morbidity of select populations or influence improvements in longevity, health, and wellness.
Before joining RGA in 2014, Dr. Zimmerman was a medical director with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company for 8 years. Previously, he practiced primary care internal medicine and pediatrics in Tampa, Florida.
Dr. Zimmerman received his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and his undergraduate degree in Medical Microbiology and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Wisconsin, USA. He has held leadership positions with the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), participated in program committees of the American Academy of Insurance Medicine (AAIM), and frequently represents RGA to key industry professional organizations. He has also contributed several articles to the Journal of Insurance Medicine, OTR, and Best’s Review.
Below is information regarding the pricing of the event, how to register and payment options. If you have any questions about any of the information, please reach out to Customer Service.
Pricing
Full Series |
SOA Member |
Non-Member |
Individual (one access code – no broadcasting) |
$400 |
$400 |
Individual - Retired/Academic/ Unemployed/ Government Fee (one access code-no broadcasting) |
$200 |
n/a |
Company rate - 3+ from same company ** |
$340 |
$340 |
** You may select from the drop-down option if two or more people from your company are attending. If you need to confirm eligibility for this discounted rate, please email Lisa Collins at lcollins@soa.org
General Information
Registration Includes:
- Login instructions
- One internet connection/access code per order
- One set of presentation materials
- Audio streaming through the web
- Access to the subsequent recordings
Payment Information:
- Full payment is required at the time of registration.
- Register online, via credit card, received no later than the registration close date. An order confirmation of your registration will be sent by email.
- Refunds will not be issued.
- The SOA is considered a not-for-profit corporation in Canada and therefore needs to collect applicable taxes. Based upon your primary residency or company address, the appropriate tax will automatically be calculated for you during the online registration process.
Please contact Customer Service with questions regarding registration.
Thank you to our 2021 Underwriting Issues and Innovations Seminar Sponsors.
Learn more about each company by clicking on their logo or the video link next to a company logo.
PLATINUM SPONSORS
Clinical Reference Laboratory
ExamOne, A Quest Diagnostics Company
Hannover Re
Kit.com
Milliman
Munich Re
PartnerRe
RGA Reinsurance Company
SCOR
Sureify
Swiss Re
GOLD SPONSORS
Clareto
Dacadoo
Gen Re
MRS | Management Research Services
MIB
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