Alessa Quane
Alessandrea (Alessa) Quane is the Executive Vice President, Chief Insurance Officer of Oscar. Alessa has extensive experience in both the domestic and international insurance markets through her nearly 25 year career at AIG through global roles in Enterprise Risk Management and Actuarial. She served as Executive Vice President, Chief Risk Officer for AIG as well as Chief Corporate Actuary, Head of Global Actuarial and Value Management, and Chief Risk Officer of AIG Property Casualty during her tenure. Prior to her tenure with AIG, Alessa specialized in pricing and research for non-standard auto at Allstate. Alessa is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and an affiliate member of the Institute of Actuaries. Alessa holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a major in Actuarial Science from Drake University. She was honored in 2019 with the Stuart A. Klugman Distinguished Alumni Award from Drake University for her achievements as an actuary and chief risk officer, her professional engagement and community involvement.
Alanah Mitchell
Alanah Mitchell is the Aliber Distinguished Professor of Information Systems and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the Zimpleman College of Business at Drake University. She is an experienced teacher, researcher, and consultant in relation to the design, implementation, and use of information and communication technologies for collaboration, specifically in global virtual teams. Dr. Mitchell has worked with the U.S. Strategic Command Center, Principal Financial Group, General Mills, and a number of other Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations. Additionally, Dr. Mitchell serves as an expert for news media outlets including Business Insider, Forbes, TIME, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, in addition to others.
Bob Cataldo
Robert F. Cataldo serves as Vice President and Chief Investment and Strategy Officer. Mr. Cataldo joined UFG as a Senior Portfolio Manager in 2011. In 2015, he was promoted to Assistant Vice President. In 2018, he was named Vice President and Strategy Officer. In 2020, Robert was elected Vice President and Chief Investment and Strategy Officer. Mr. Cataldo holds a BA in Economics from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Drake University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) professional designation.
Brad Fredericks
Brad Fredericks is senior vice president and chief investment officer for EMC Insurance Companies. Mr. Fredericks joined EMC as a portfolio manager in 2010 and was named Chief Investment Officer in 2014. Prior to his current role, he held a variety of analyst and portfolio management positions for an asset management firm. He holds a BBA from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Iowa.
Chris Freese
Chris Reddy
Christopher J. Reddy is the executive director responsible for investment affiliates and sustainable investing at Principal Asset ManagementSM, the asset management arm of Principal®. He is responsible for overseeing Post Advisory Group, Spectrum Asset Management and Origin Asset Management as well as sustainable investing strategy across the firm.
Reddy began his career at Principal in 1986 and has more than 36 years of global financial services experience through leadership roles focused on institutional and retail investment management, insurance, marketing, product development, sales, mergers and acquisitions (M&As), board governance, business entry and development, and sustainable investing. Prior to his current role, he was president of Post Advisory Group; led strategic marketing, product development, and M&A efforts for Principal Asset Management; acted as president and chief operating officer of the firm’s European operations based in London and Dublin; served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Nippon Life Insurance Company of America; and helped to establish Principal’s Asian business operations.
Outside of his day-to-day responsibilities, he currently serves as chairman of both Post Advisory Group and Spectrum Asset Management as well as the Principal Asset Management Sustainable Investing Oversight Committee. Global roles and pursuits have provided Reddy the opportunity to live and work in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Jakarta, and the United States. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and finance from the State University of New York at Albany, in addition to executive-level certifications from INSEAD, the University of Chicago, and the University of Southern California.
Dale R. Uthoff
Mr. Uthoff currently serves as Chief Product Officer for the Group 1001 Life and Annuity business. He is responsible for pricing and product development of the Company’s fixed, indexed and variable annuity products. He also oversees the hedging programs established to manage the risk associated with the indexed annuities and variable annuity guarantees. He began his career in the insurance industry working on financial risk management and actuarial modeling at Mutual of Omaha. Mr. Uthoff later joined Aviva where he held various roles including modeling and asset/liability management for the company’s US products including fixed indexed annuities and indexed universal life. In 2013 he joined Guggenheim Insurance Services and later became Chief Risk Officer. While at Guggenheim, he led the development of asset/liability management and enterprise risk management programs for its Companies. In 2018 he joined Delaware Life to lead the variable annuity line of business to accelerate the Company’s re-entrance into the variable annuity market and to ensure strong results from the existing business. Mr. Uthoff is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.
Dennis Menken
Dennis Menken is senior vice president and chief investment officer of the general account for Principal Financial Group. Menken joined Principal® in 1994. Prior to his current role, he held a variety of portfolio management and credit underwriting positions at Principal Global Investors, the asset management arm of Principal. His background also includes a position as an auditor at Deloitte & Touche. He received a master’s degree in accountancy and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Iowa. Menken has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Institute, the CFA Society of Iowa and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Dusan Stojanovic
Dusan Stojanovic has 25 years of banking industry experience, most recently with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines where he served for 12 years, mainly in the roles of Chief Risk Officer and Chief Operating Officer. FHLB Des Moines is among the largest of 11 federally chartered, wholesale banking cooperatives, serving 1300+ financial institution members – commercial banks, savings institutions, insurance companies, and credit unions headquartered in 13 states and three U.S. territories.
Prior to joining the FHLB, Mr. Stojanovic was a bank supervisor in various capacities with the Federal Reserve System, as well as the Vice Governor for Bank Supervision with the National Bank of Serbia.
Garrett Boyd
Garrett Boyd is a cyber security professional with a military background and deep experience protecting the U.S. government’s most sensitive and mission-critical networks. He is currently a senior consultant at Unit 42, working on cyber security client engagements remotely out of Texas.
Garrett joined the team in 2020 from Chenega IT Enterprise Services, where he was assigned to serve as senior cyber threat intelligence analyst in the Executive Office of the President at the White House. There, he correlated incident activity through enterprise threat fusion to assess and direct response operations and defensive measures of the Presidential Information Technology Community (“PITC”) Systems. He also provided information and analysis on nation-state threat actor activity targeting principal individuals and White House Assets and data. Among his other duties were to provide expert technical advice, guidance, and policy recommendations on critical IT security matters to non-technical personnel.
Previously, Garrett served on the cyber incident response team at TEKsystems, working principally with the U.S. Marine Corps Cyberspace Operations Group on investigations into malware, suspicious emails, and non-compliance activity. He also conducted real-time and historical threat investigations for the Marine Corps Enterprise Network (“MCEN”) responding to internally and externally reported events from United States Cyber Command (“USCYBERCOM”), Marine Forces Cyber Command (“MARFORCYBER”), C4, Headquarters Marine Corps, and other agencies. He also worked with Defense Point Security as a senior security analyst assigned to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s security operations center.
Prior to this, Garrett served ten years in the U.S. Marine Corps, rising from data analyst at Camp Pendleton to senior cyber analyst and instructor at the Corps’ Defensive Cyber Operations in the Cyberspace Operations Group at Quantico, Virginia. In his most recent position, he handled cyber investigations for the MCEN, applying investigative techniques, risk analysis, and network forensics while adhering to internal policies and direction from Federal government leadership. He also trained watch analysts and incident responders on proper process, forensic patterns, and investigation techniques.
During his service with the USMC, he was also an information system security officer for the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and a cybersecurity engineer for the 1st Marine Division Communications Company.
Garrett also serves as a mentor for individuals transitioning from active duty into the civilian cyber security industry, focusing on resume translation, education, and technical training. He has also worked as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. teaching hands on cybersecurity and forensic courses to international relations students.
Jason Clark
Jason Clark is a Principal in Blackstone Insurance Solutions focused on asset allocation and portfolio management for insurance clients. Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Clark worked on reinsurance and M&A transactions at Global Atlantic. Mr. Clark holds an MBA from Yale University and a BA from Northeastern University.
Jason Gross
Jason Gross is an award-winning technology, strategy and innovation leader with over 25 years of experience leading organizations and transformation. In his current role as Vice President & Head of Platform for ManchesterStory, Jason is leading efforts to accelerate the engagement between insurance carriers, “insurtech” start-ups and the industry at-large. Prior to joining ManchesterStory, he served as Vice President for a top P&C carrier leading corporate strategy, innovation, and business transformation. He has held numerous leadership roles with insurance innovation organizations, including as Co-Chair of the Global Insurance Symposium and Vice Chair of the Global Insurance Accelerator.
Jeff Lorenzen
Jeff is Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer for American Equity Investment Life Holding Company and a member of the Life Company board. He joined the Company in February 2009 as Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer (CIO), and served in that role for 12 years. Before joining American Equity, he spent the prior 17 years as President & CIO of WB Capital/IMG, a $5.5 billion institutional investment management firm focused on small insurance companies and public fund investing. He started his career at the Statesman Group in the investment department in 1989. Jeff currently serves on the board of ARAG Group, a prepaid legal insurance company and the Greater Des Moines Partnership Economic Development Board. He also served the investment industry as a Board Governor for the CFA Institute, the global, not-for-profit association of investment professionals that awards the CFA and CIPM designations. The institute is a leading voice on global issues of fairness, market efficiency, and investor protections. He is also a past president and board member of the CFA Society of Iowa. In addition to his CFA charter, he has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance from the University of Iowa and a Master of Business Administration degree from Drake University. Jeff is an active industry speaker on insurance asset allocation, third party manager selection, and investment risk management. Jeff has two kids, Cecile, 18, and Emmett, 15.
Jennifer Barp
Jennifer J. Barp is the Worldwide Vice President of Finance for Kemin Industries. Kemin is a global, multinational company where Jenni is responsible for the financial information and systems. Jenni joined Kemin in 1998 as a Financial Accountant. In 2001, she became the Finance Director of Kemin Agri-Foods North America before moving to her current role.
Jenni received her undergraduate degree in finance and economics, with an accounting minor from Chadron State College in Nebraska. She was awarded her master’s degree in business administration from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
Jenni has served on a number of boards over the years but currently is on the Foundation Board of Directors for Chadron State College and the Leadership committee for Easter Lake revitalization.
Jenni and her husband Eric live in Johnston, Iowa, her two children Alexis & Tyler are both at universities furthering their education.
Kevin Croft
Kevin Croft, Distinguished EMC Associate Professor of Practice and Director of the Kelley Center for Insurance Innovation, teaches Finance, Risk Management and Insurance classes. Professor Croft began his career at the Principal Financial Group where he was involved in a diverse set of roles including insurance product pricing, financial statement preparation, reserve determination, developing asset liability management solutions, managing mutual funds, and investing non-affiliated insurance portfolios. Prior to joining Drake, Professor Croft served as senior vice president and head of structured products at American Equity where he co-led the investment team managing a $52 billion portfolio and oversaw growth in the structured products portfolio from $2.7 billion to $12.9 billion.
Linda Betz
Linda currently is a consultant for the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), which is a non-profit that shares threat intelligence across the financial sector. Her responsibilities are to facilitate the sharing of security best practices across 200 Insurance Companies, and the top 100 financial services CISOs. Linda has been the Chief Information Security Officer for IBM, Travelers Insurance, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines. Linda attained her PhD from Nova Southeastern University. Her dissertation was a case study related to the financial sector and cyber security. She was a member of the Board of Directors at the University of St Joseph’s in West Hartford, CT. Linda has volunteered as an ABET evaluator in the field of Computer Engineering.
Nick Gerhart
Nick is responsible for proactively seeking out and developing opportunities to optimize company growth through innovation that is consistent with Homesteaders’ core values, purpose and vision. A proven change agent, strategist and executive leader, Gerhart previously served as Commissioner of the Iowa Insurance Division, where he transformed that department and increased the State of Iowa’s international prominence through his thought leadership and the creation of the Global Insurance Symposium held annually in Des Moines. He also previously served as Chief Administrative Officer for FBL Financial.
Nina Pappas
Nina Pappas received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law. She began her insurance career handling Errors & Omissions and Financial Lines claims for several years before transitioning to Cyber Underwriting. Nina managed a team of cyber/tech underwriters prior to joining Beazley as a Large Risk Underwriter.
Renee Sedlacek Lee
Renee Lee has spent her career cultivating strategic partnerships for collective impact and developing nationally recognized and award-winning community-based programs. Currently serving as the Sr. Program Manager for ESG Stakeholder Engagement, Renee manages Workiva’s engagement with global associations, government entities, and industry networks to drive results towards Workiva’s corporate ESG Targets focused on Innovation, Environment, People, and Philanthropy.
About Workiva: Workiva offers the only assured, integrated reporting platform that brings Financial Reporting; Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG); and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) together in one controlled, secure, audit-ready environment to produce investor-grade reports.
Samuel Block
Sam Block leads the ESG research of the global Materials sector and is a member of the North American leadership team at MSCI ESG Research. He helped develop the standardized key issue model used in MSCI ESG Ratings methodology and continues to be a senior contributor in methodology development. His research has focused on the investment implications of a variety of sustainability themes including climate change, the circular economy, community relations, biodiversity, labor, health and safety, and income inequality.
Prior to joining MSCI in 2009, Sam worked in both manufacturing and environmental engineering at Northrop Grumman Corporation. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering and earned a MS in Environmental Management and Planning from the Whiting Engineering School at Johns Hopkins University.
Scott Ham
Scott Ham is the CEO of Pinpoint Predictive and was previously the President & CEO of Transamerica’s life, P&C and non-life business, where he provided strategic vision and leadership to global organization. At Transamerica he oversaw day-to-day operations and management of over 6,000 employees, $1.6 billion in new sales and over $6 billion in overall premium. Scott more recently was extensively involved with insurtech startups as a strategic advisor at McKinsey & Co, where he also led a Small Commercial Insurance SaaS platform that made possible real-time underwriting and pricing decisions through cutting-edge machine learning analytics and 3rd party data. Scott is joining Pinpoint to lead the company through a period of unprecedented growth.
Scott Haugh
Scott Haugh is Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer at Wellabe. He oversees teams focused on regulatory compliance, financial planning and analysis, pricing and inforce management, data analytics, and enterprise risk management. Scott began his actuarial career at Securian in 2000, where he worked for 10 years in the Financial Institution Group Division. From 2010 to 2013, he was Director of Capital Management at Aviva USA. He led FP&A at Global Atlantic prior to joining Wellabe in 2018. Scott holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and English from the University of St. Thomas and a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Notre Dame. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries.
Shawn Smith
Shawn Smith is the Risk Management Director at Merchants Bonding Company and has 30 years of experience in the financial services industry; including 18 years in Enterprise Risk Management, Operational Risk Management, and Auditing. Prior to joining Merchants, Shawn held the role of VP of Operational Risk at Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines and Assistant Director of Operational Risk at Principal Financial Group. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska and a member of the Risk Management Society (RIMS).
Steven Walsh
Steve Walsh, CPA, VP – Enterprise Risk Officer, provides strategic oversight of all enterprise risks at EMC Insurance. Steve has over 19 years of experience, spending the last 10½ years at EMC serving in roles including head of investor relations prior to its publicly-traded holding company’s going private transaction, AVP Strategic Research and Analysis Manager, and has spent the last two years in his current role. Prior to his time at EMC, he served in various SEC financial reporting and audit roles. Steve received his B.S.B.A in accounting from Creighton University.
Susan Osweiler
Susan is Vice President and Chief Risk Officer for Sammons Financial Group (SFG) and a member of the SFG Bermuda Ltd. board. She is a multi-disciplinary leader who has built successful careers in the insurance industry, academia, and the not-for-profit sector with positions ranging from Program Director, Chief Financial Officer, and Corporate Actuary to founder of a multi-agency non-profit service organization. Prior to joining SFG, she served as associate professor of practice in actuarial science at Drake University, and was the director of the university’s School of Actuarial Science & Risk Management. Susan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a major in Actuarial Science from Drake University and a Master of Science in Statistics degree from Texas A&M. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the Academy of Actuaries.
Travis Keeney
Travis Keeney is the Director of Risk Management for Tri-City Electric Company, one of the country’s largest electrical contractors. He has worked in the construction industry for over sixteen years serving in various engineering, safety & compliance, and risk roles. Travis is responsible for overseeing the corporate EHS program and personnel, managing the company’s insurance, as well as strategically analyzing and mitigating risk within the organization. In 2017, he was named nationally as one of America’s Rising Stars of Safety by the National Safety council. Tri-City is a captive member of Specialty Trades Insurance Company where Travis currently serves as the chairman of Risk Control. Prior to joining the company in 2010, Travis’ career began as a graduate of Iowa State University working several years with a large global general contractor.
Yuyu Fan
Yuyu Fan is a Senior Data Scientist at AllianceBernstein. She leverages statistical, machine learning, and deep learning models to distill insights from financial data. Yuyu leads projects leveraging the latest NLP techniques to generate investment signals for AB’s portfolio management teams using text data. She also engages with AB’s client teams to develop models and actionable insights to improve client engagements and the sales process. Prior to joining the firm in 2018, Yuyu worked at College Board as a psychometrician intern for two years, using machine learning models to monitor test validity, reliability, and security. Yuyu holds a BA in sociology from Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China), MAs in sociology and psychology from Fordham University, and a Ph.D. in psychometrics and quantitative psychology from Fordham University. Location: New York.