ICTC2013: Topics and Speakers - Insurance-Canada.ca - Where Insurance & Technology Meet

The topics listed below generally reflect the use of technology for the business of insurance in Canada by the P&C Insurance Industry with best practices today and trends and directions towards tomorrow. The speakers including insurance practitioners, analysts, consultants and technology providers all bring experience and thought leadership to their sessions.

The following sessions are a significant sample of the final agenda; more will be added here as they are finalized. View the PDF Agenda at a Glance for the overall conference structure.

Monday, March 18

Social Boot Camp (Grand Ballroom West)

“Welcome” (12:45pm)
– Doug Grant, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca

“Current State of Insurance and Social” (12:50pm)
– Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action

“Beyond Social Media Basics and Confluence of Mobility” (1:10pm)
– Michael Kim, Vice President, Cognizant Business Consulting

“Operationalizing Social Media” (1:30pm)
– Tim Relke, Insurance Services, iGATE (Canada)

“Peer & Sponsor panel review of Industry Case Studies” (1:50pm)
– Anthony Giagnacovo, Managing Director, Audatex Canada

Coffee & Networking Break — 2:30

“What is Your Digital Footprint?” (2:45pm)
– Andrew Milne, CEO, bv02

“Peer & Sponsor panel review of Industry Case Studies” (3:35pm)
– Barb Szychta, Director - Risk Management Services, Frank Cowan Company

Telematics & UBI: Basics and Beyond (Grand Ballroom East)

“Welcome” (12:45pm)
– Patrick Vice, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca

“UBI/Telematics boot camp by IMS” (12:50pm)
– Moderator Blair Currie, Product Management, IMS
– Andrew Van Mil, Vice President - Marketing, IMS
– Michelle Debus, Sr. Director - Operations, IMS
– Irma Joeveer, Director - Customer Care, IMS
– Dr. Ben Miners, Vice President - Emerging Technology, IMS

Coffee & Networking Break — 2:30

“Is the Industry at a Tipping Point?” (2:45pm)
– Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
– Dick Welch, Principal, REW Insurance Consulting Services

“Beyond UBI to Self-Drive, Shared and More” (3:15pm)
– Catherine Kargas, Vice President, MARCON

“Panel Review of Opportunities & Challenges” (3:45pm)
– Moderator Precksha Saksena-Sood, Managing Director, Telematics Update
– Blair Currie, Vice President - Marketing, IMS
– Angelique Magi, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, The Guarantee Company of North America
– Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
– Catherine Kargas, Vice President, MARCON
– Dick Welch, Principal, REW Insurance Consulting Services

Tuesday, March 19

Perspective Sessions & Keynote (Grand Ballroom Centre)

Keynote Presentation: “Technology and Innovation in the Insurance Industry: Learning to Keep up with an Accelerating Pace-of-play” (8:45am)
– Alister Campbell, CEO, The Guarantee Company of North America

“Navigating new territory: Marketing in insurance in the age of the mobile, social, online price shopper...” (9:30am)
– Moderator Julie Donahue, VP and Partner Insurance, Global Business Services, IBM
– Marcelo Regen, VP - Allstate Brand, Allstate
– Brett Boadway, Manager - Corporate Communications, The Dominion
– Rick Orr, Chairman of the Board, Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario
– David Dobrindt, NA Insurance Industry Smarter Commerce Executive, IBM

Broker Sessions: Being Competitive (Grand Ballroom West)

“Brokers: Where Is It Going?” (10:45am)
– Catherine Kargas, Vice President, MARCON

“P&C Systems and Standards Landscape” (10:57am)
– Debbie Olsen, VP - Product Innovation, iter8

“eDocs: The Game Not Yet Won” (11:15am)
– moderator Wendy Watson, President, ORBiT
– Bill Redford, Director of Development, Keal
– Kim Opheim, Product Manager, Applied Systems
– Bryan Mo, Manager - Broker Technologies, RSA
– Jackie Selby, Director - Personal Lines, Intact
– Laura Hill, Vice President - Finance, Planning and Analysis, Marsh Canada
– Karen Gale, Information Technology Manager, Allen Insurance

“Commercial Lines: Looking further ahead” (12:00pm)
– moderator Wendy Watson, President, ORBiT
– Phil Henville, VP - Product Development, iter8
– Jeff Purdy, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Canada, Applied Systems
– Pat Durepos, President, Keal
– Bryan Mo, Manager - Broker Technologies, RSA
– Rick Dresher, President, Affiliated Insurance
– Jamie Martyn, Vice-President, Kennedy Insurance
– Rick Rass, Ass't Vice President, Portfolio Managed Business, Commercial Lines, The Dominion

Lunch & Networking Break — 12:30

“Real-Time Policy Change: Innovation becomes real” (1:15pm)
– moderator Wendy Watson, President, ORBiT
– Pat Durepos, President, Keal
– Phil Henville, VP - Product Development, iter8
– Charles Samolczyk, Senior Vice President - Sales and Marketing, Brovada
– Katherine Evans, VP & CFO, Unica
– Jeff Ives, President and Owner, Ives Insurance
– Wendie Noccey, Manager - Information Technology, Grenville Mutual Insurance

“Broker Challenge: Where are You on the Analytics Trail?” (2:00pm)
– Greg Purdy, Managing Partner, Pathway Partners, Ltd.; getClarity, Inc.
– Doug Davis, President, Davis Consulting Inc.
– Shaun Donnelly, Co-Founder, getClarity

“Perspectives on Brokers of Tomorrow” (2:30pm)
– Bryan Bedford, Senior Analyst, Insurance Technology, Peel Mutual Insurance
– Jeff Purdy, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Canada, Applied Systems
– Colin Simpson, President & CEO, Intrinsync Insurance Solutions Inc.

Leveraging Data and Analytics Sessions (Grand Ballroom Centre)

“Improving Risk Management Through Location Intelligence” (10:45am)
– Rich Ward, Business Solution Architect, Pitney Bowes Software
– Louise Trainor, Assistant Vice President - Analytics, Economical

“Optimizing the Claims Experience” (11:30am)
– Keith Ellis, Global Predictive Analytics Solutions Leader, IBM

“Innovation in Customer Service: Taking the Auto Repair Process Online” (12:00pm)
– Darcy Gorchynski, Director - Business Development, Audatex Canada

Lunch & Networking Break — 12:30

“Understanding Risk from a Proximity to Peril” (1:15pm)
– Steve Sigal, Senior Director - Product Management, DMTI Spatial
– Katherine McMahon, Manager - Risk Technology, Genworth

“Converting Information into Growth and Profit for Property Insurance in Canada” (1:45pm)
– Moderator Colin Smith, Senior Vice President - Operations, OPTA Information Intelligence
– Jamie McDougall, Vice President - Personal Insurance Solutions, Gore Mutual Insurance
– Steve Livingstone, Director - Portfolio Management, Unifund Assurance Company
– Ron Burns, Vice President - Personal Lines, The Guarantee Company of North America
– Richard Boire, Founding Partner, Boire Filler Group; Chair of Predictive Analytics World Toronto

“Rating on Social: Straight-Through-Pricing with Big Data” (2:25pm)
– Jamie Rodgers, VP - P&C Insurance Practice Lead, CGI
– Dan Adamson, Founder, President & CEO, Outside Intelligence

Policy Management and Potpourri Sessions (Grand Ballroom East)

“Policy Management System Replacement for Underwriting Efficiency, Ease of Doing Business”(10:45am)
– Derek Oke, Senior IT Architect, The Dominion
– Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
– Liza Smith, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, OneShield

“Beyond Modern Technology: Taking Advantage of PAS” (A Panel Discussion) (11:15am)
– Lynne Von Wistinghausen, Vice President - Operations & Information Technology, CNA Canada
– Prateek Kumar, Vice President – Business Solutions, MajescoMastek
– Matthew Turack, Vice President, CAA Insurance (Ontario)
– Neil Betteridge, Vice President - Strategy, Guidewire
– John Roller, ASW P&C Global Pre-Sales Lead, Accenture Software P&C
– Mitchell Wasserman, CEO, Oceanwide
– Matthew Yeshin, Managing Director - Marine Practice, Marsh Canada Limited

Lunch & Networking Break — 12:30

“Agile as a Change Enabler” (1:15pm)
– Andrew Pitt, Vice President - Financial Services, Intelliware Development Inc.

“The Voice of the Consumer: ‘Innovation In Insurance Service Technology Required’” (1:40pm)
– Mike Fitzgerald, Senior Analyst, Celent

“Social: Another Look” (2:05pm)
– Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
– Mike Fitzgerald, Senior Analyst, Celent
– Michael Kim, Vice President, Cognizant Business Consulting
– Tim Relke, Insurance Services, iGATE (Canada)

“Telematics Redux” (2:30pm)
– Moderator Precksha Saksena-Sood, Managing Director, Telematics Update
– Blair Currie, Vice President - Marketing, IMS
– Angelique Magi, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, The Guarantee Company of North America
– Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
– Catherine Kargas, Vice President, MARCON
– Dick Welch, Principal, REW Insurance Consulting Services

Concluding Sessions & Keynote

“Leading Brokers Look to Tomorrow” (3:30pm) (Grand Ballroom West)
– Moderator Daryl Angier, Editor, Canadian Insurance Top Broker
– Rick Dresher, President, Affiliated Insurance
– Kevin Donovan, President, Donovan Insurance Brokers
– Jason Vander Zalm, Vice President - Information Technology, Square One Insurance

“TD: Data Leads to the Future” (3:30pm) (Grand Ballroom East)
– Parin Kothari, Business Architecture Consultant, TD Bank Financial Group

“The Analytical Insurer: What Does Big Data really mean for Insurers?” (3:45pm) (Grand Ballroom East)
– Stuart Rose, Global Insurance Marketing Manager, SAS

Keynote Industry Panel: (4:15pm) (Grand Ballroom Centre)
Opening Presentation: “The Nexus of Forces: Driving Innovation and Transformation in Insurance”
– Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner
Panel Discussion: “The Engaged Insurance Environment: Agile, Mobile, Analytic, Collaborative”
– Moderator Doug Grant, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca
– Moderator Patrick Vice, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca
– Debra Ambrose, Senior Vice President, National Sales and Marketing, Aviva Canada
– Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
– Mike Fitzgerald, Senior Analyst, Celent
– Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner
– Chris Hill, Partner, Erb and Erb Insurance Brokers Ltd.

Tuesday, March 19

Vendor Forums (Vendor Forum Area)

“Quoting – A New Approach: IQA (Insurance Quote Accelerator)” (10:20am)
– Michel Sabourin, President, QFD - Smart Design

“The Path to Location Economics” (12:20pm)
– DMTI Spatial

“Five Keys to a Successful Document Management Project” (12:40pm)
– Gavin Kingshott, Account Executive, Microdea Inc.

“Empower Your Team to Take Action on the Move” (1:00pm)
– Ken Reycraft, Sales Engineer, MicroStrategy

“A New Cloud-Based Platform for Specialty Product Distribution” (3:00pm)
– CGI

Social Boot Camp

“Current State of Insurance and Social”

— Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action

The insurance industry is now several years into the social media journey. The many interesting examples of social media usage by insurers make for entertaining presentation material, but many are still questioning the business value. Behind the scenes, the social landscape is changing. Leaders are now thinking way beyond the big social networking sites, and considering how to combine the core social capabilities with technologies for collaboration, crowdsourcing, and analytics to create business value. And the most fundamental change of all is the move to incorporate these technologies into existing business processes to create enhanced or new capabilities for every part of the business. In this session, Mark Breading will share SMA research on the current state of these technologies in insurance and the new trends in this space.

“Beyond Social Media Basics and Confluence of Mobility”

— Michael Kim, Vice President, Cognizant Business Consulting

We've all seen the statistics on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the enormous popularity of LinkedIn for recruiting/networking, but what really are insurers doing with social media besides advertising and public relations management? Will social media become a core information source and customer interaction channel for sales, underwriting and claims? How will the confluence of social media and mobility change its potential?

Based on Cognizant research and observations in the North American Insurance industry, we will share recent trends/developments of social media for Insurance: where investments have been made, where the industry is heading, and where it could potentially go, especially with mobile technology platforms.

“Improve Customer Satisfaction and Increase Revenue by Operationalizing Social Media”

— Tim Relke, Insurance Services, iGATE (Canada)

Operationalizing Social Media is for more than your marketing function.

Operationalizing Social Media is about creating awareness across your business, from marketing to product to operations and technology, as the newest channel for customer satisfaction, revenue and profitability enhancement.

Insurance companies leverage a social media analytics platform for various purposes. Examples include:

Research and development of new products;

Fraud detection;

Real-time risk profiling of applicants during underwriting;

Handling of customer satisfaction issue s in real-time;

Effective and timely interactions with clients during post-catastrophic events.

This requires a well thought out process that is based on certain well-defined principles, while conforming to compliance and regulations and maintaining clients' privacy.

Key outcomes include the ability to make operations more agile, provide better customer personalization, increase customer satisfaction and revenue. Investments in social analytics will be the differentiator in enabling Insurance companies to achieve these outcomes.

In this session, we will look at some of the key principles of operationalizing social media for Insurance companies. We will also discuss the challenges and approaches to using analytics on clients' social data.

“Peer & Sponsor panel review of Industry Case Studies”

— Anthony Giagnacovo, Managing Director, Audatex Canada

A panel review of industry case studies.

“What is Your Digital Footprint?”

— Andrew Milne, CEO, bv02

Social media on its own is a buzzword: it's just a set of engagement tools. The bigger question at hand here is what is your digital footprint? How do you engage now, and will this set of new eMarketing tools actually help the bottom line?

Let's address the underlying business problems. How do we get more sales? How do we build deeper relationships and build confidence, while selling to a wider but more focused audience? Many are finding their traditional channels are being challenged by more educated clients and more price sensitive offerings. How do you set yourself apart? How can you enter into a relationship warm and maintain that personal touch while growing? Enter eMarketing, social media and the digital footprint: all part of the overall solution. Start doing the right thing today.

In this session, Andrew Milne will look at:

the tools available to build your digital footprint

how using these tools can help shorten the sales cycle

how others are using these tools successfully

the business case for online engagement

how to integrate a digital strategy into existing marketing efforts

“Peer & Sponsor panel review of Industry Case Studies”

— Barb Szychta, Director - Risk Management Services, Frank Cowan Company

A panel review of industry case studies.

Telematics & UBI: Basics and Beyond

“UBI/Telematics boot camp by IMS”

— Moderator Blair Currie, Vice President - Marketing, IMS

An increasing number of Canadian insurance companies are investigating Usage based insurance (UBI). This has resulted in a pressing need to identify the key factors for success with UBI.

Accordingly IMS has set up a UBI Boot Camp to help insurance companies and partners fast track their learning in how to set up a successful UBI program.

This Boot Camp addresses many the prime concerns of insurance carriers in this space, and covers:

1. Introduction and moderation (Blair Currie, Vice President - Marketing, IMS)
2. The business model (Andrew Van Mil, Product Management, IMS)
3. Devices and Deployment (Michelle Debus, Sr. Director - Operations, IMS)
4. Consumer adoption (Irma Joeveer, Director - Customer Care, IMS)
5. Data, Analytics, Visualization and Intelligence (Dr. Ben Miners, Vice President - Emerging Technology, IMS)

Over the past 5 years, IMS has worked with 8 of the top 25 US auto insurance companies to run usage based insurance programs in America. We also have experience with similar programs in the UK and a Young Drivers program in Asia Pacific.

Please join us to share our experience on how to succeed with UBI.
To guarantee a seat at the Boot Camp, please reserve your seat now.

“Is the Industry at a Tipping Point?”

— Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
— Dick Welch, Principal, REW Insurance Consulting Services

Telematics is receiving a great deal of press and interest by the insurance industry. Although the concept of UBI has been around for at least 15 years, actual implementations have been very limited until recently. Many are wondering if the industry is nearing a tipping point, where UBI programs will begin to have a transformational effect on the industry.

SMA will share recently completed research on the state of usage-based insurance and telematics in insurance. This session will provide new insights into the current state and future plans for insurers regarding UBI programs, devices, data, patents, and customer issues. The research presentation will be followed by a panel discussion.

“Beyond UBI to Self-Drive, Shared and More”

— Catherine Kargas, Vice President, MARCON

Modern automobiles are equipped with numerous automated safety features (antilock brake system, emergency brake assist, forward collision warning, traction control system, blind-spot detector, lane-departure prevention, electronic stability control, adaptive cruise control, etc.). Even more features are available in higher-cost models, including automatic pedestrian recognition and self-parking.

The fully autonomous version of these vehicles is not that far away. Is the insurance industry prepared for the driverless road ahead? What impact will these vehicles have on premiums? Who will be liable in case of an accident?

“Panel Review of Opportunities & Challenges”

— Moderator Precksha Saksena-Sood, Managing Director, Telematics Update
— Blair Currie, Vice President - Marketing, IMS
— Angelique Magi, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, The Guarantee Company of North America
— Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
— Catherine Kargas, Vice President, MARCON
— Dick Welch, Principal, REW Insurance Consulting Services

The concluding session of the Telematics Boot Camp will be a discussion of the experiences of Usage Based Insurance and Telematics in the USA, Europe and elsewhere. Canada, perhaps later to the game than several other countries, has some unique characteristics. How might telematics then play out in the Canadian space, eh?

Perspective Sessions & Keynote

Keynote Presentation: “Technology and Innovation in the Insurance Industry: Learning to Keep up with an Accelerating Pace-of-play”

— Alister Campbell, CEO, The Guarantee Company of North America

“Navigating new territory: Marketing in insurance in the age of the mobile, social, online price shopper...”

— Moderator Julie Donahue, VP and Partner Insurance, Global Business Services, IBM
— Marcelo Regen, VP - Allstate Brand, Allstate
— Brett Boadway, Manager - Corporate Communications, The Dominion
— Rick Orr, Chairman of the Board, Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario
— David Dobrindt, NA Insurance Industry Smarter Commerce Executive, IBM

A recent article in Canadian Underwriter confirms that auto insurers have tripled their marketing spend over the past 9 years with little impact on insurance premium growth. Boards of Directors are asking for a formal accounting of the increase in spending while at the same time insisting that insurers get closer to consumers, expand to new market segments and improve the mobile, social and in person experience for policy holders across all dimensions of the business.

As marketers we are faced with the best of times, coupled with some very challenging mandates:

Developing state-of-the-art views of unique customer segments and customer behaviors to enrich the buying experience and influence product innovation

Effectively integrating our valuable agents and brokers into marketing campaigns that are increasingly mobile, social and direct to consumers

Working with our colleagues in underwriting, policy servicing and claims to collectively improve the customer experience to drive advocacy (NPS) and retention

In addition, we must upgrade the capabilities of our teams, and ensure that we demonstrate measurable returns to our owners and policy holders

In this session industry experts and your peers will discuss their views on the changing role of marketing in insurance, and the new capabilities required for success:

What insurers and brokers are doing to adapt to the requirements of the new consumer?

How the role of marketing is changing in the P&C Industry?

How marketing organizations can incorporate all sources of data to develop new views of the consumer to sell, retain and advocate for the brand?

What should marketing executives focus on over the next 3 to 5 years to increase revenue and decrease turnover?

How do marketing executives leverage analytics and technology to better perform marketing functions?

How has the relationship between marketing and other functions like CIO, CFO, Lines of Business, Claims, changed?

How best to demonstrate return on investment of marketing dollars?

Broker Sessions: Being Competitive

“Brokers: Where Is It Going?”

— Catherine Kargas, Vice President, MARCON

The Canadian broker channel continues to lose market share to the directs. Are brokers using their competitive advantage to compete in the P&C insurance landscape? This presentation will focus on ways that brokers can compete effectively given evolving consumer demographics and expectations.

“P&C Systems and Standards Landscape”

— Debbie Olsen, VP - Product Innovation, iter8

Success of the broker distribution chain is clearly top of mind for many in 2013. New ideas, new technologies, new innovations are needed and will continue to emerge in order to compete effectively with direct writers. One serious and complex challenge is how to effectively build and layer these 'new' solutions and standards into our current landscape of 'old' systems and standards that the industry uses widely today.

This session examines this challenge in detail by walking through the evolution of the core business systems and data standards used by both Brokers and Carriers to communicate electronically, building a diagrammatic representation of the standard data flows across today's core systems. The goal of the session is to clarify and simplify how we see and plan new technologies and innovations that need to be adopted, for both Business and IT folks, by creating a single common view with a common language as a shared foundation for mutual understanding.

Business architects, technical architects, product managers and anyone interested in a better understanding of broker-carrier core systems, data standards and how data flows through the various systems used across the broker distribution channel today should attend this session.

“eDocs: The Game Not Yet Won”

— Moderator Wendy Watson, President, ORBiT
— Bill Redford, Director of Development, Keal
— Kim Opheim, Product Manager, Applied Systems
— Bryan Mo, Manager - Broker Technologies, RSA
— Jackie Selby, Director - Personal Lines, Intact
— Laura Hill, Vice President - Finance, Planning and Analysis, Marsh Canada
— Karen Gale, Information Technology Manager, Allen Insurance

We all know what this means, we all get the benefits, but still, not everyone has come to the table. Brokers share how their workflows were changed to take advantage of eDocs, the benefits and what they want to see as next steps. Carriers and vendors need more brokers to turn off the paper. What will it take? Survey says ...

“Commercial Lines: Looking further ahead”

— Wendy Watson, President, ORBiT
— Phil Henville, VP - Product Development, iter8
— Jeff Purdy, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Canada, Applied Systems
— Pat Durepos, President, Keal
— Bryan Mo, Manager - Broker Technologies, RSA
— Rick Dresher, President, Affiliated Insurance
— Jamie Martyn, Vice-President, Kennedy Insurance
— Rick Rass, Ass't Vice President, Portfolio Managed Business, Commercial Lines, The Dominion

The future for commercial lines is in your hands. Our panel participants share their insights and views on all that brokers need and will have at the point of sale, whether in the office or in the field. The future is bright for commercial lines. Bring your sunglasses.

“Real-Time Policy Change: Innovation becomes real”

— Wendy Watson, President, ORBiT
— Pat Durepos, President, Keal
— Phil Henville, VP - Product Development, iter8
— Charles Samolczyk, Senior Vice President - Sales and Marketing, Brovada
— Katherine Evans, VP & CFO, Unica
— Jeff Ives, President and Owner, Ives Insurance
— Wendie Noccey, Manager - Information Technology, Grenville Mutual Insurance

A few carriers and vendors are making the necessary trek down the Real Time Policy Change road. These pioneers are sharing with the rest of the industry why they decided to break this particular trail, what it took them in resources and cost, and what they see as the next phase. The brokers on the panel tell us about their experience in this journey, the impact on their operations and their customers. Join us for stories worthy of a listen.

“Broker Challenge: Where are You on the Analytics Trail?”

— Greg Purdy, Managing Partner, Pathway Partners, Ltd.; getClarity, Inc.
— Doug Davis, President, Davis Consulting Inc.
— Shaun Donnelly, Co-Founder, getClarity

In the “good old days,” we all did analytics, and today we still do. For some things we still use the simplest of tools and some common sense. The content of a customer or prospect letter would vary according to some basic criteria. Today the tools available can help determine with greater certainty the "content" of that letter and the timing when it should be sent.

Many broker management systems gather transaction data which allows more analysis and reporting of key performance indicators of the business - customers, employees, financials, transactions, process times etc.

With the explosion of data available internally and from a variety of other sources and with increasingly sophisticated tools, this session will look at opportunities and challenges for the use of analytics. Brokers are are not in this alone; to get optimal value from data and tools, brokers and insurers who find a way to travel this trail together will benefit most.

“Perspectives on Brokers of Tomorrow”

— Bryan Bedford, Senior Analyst, Insurance Technology, Peel Mutual Insurance
— Jeff Purdy, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Canada, Applied Systems
— Colin Simpson, President & CEO, Intrinsync Insurance Solutions Inc.

Topic description forthcoming.

Leveraging Data and Analytics Sessions

“Improving Risk Management Through Location Intelligence”

— Rich Ward, Business Solution Architect, Pitney Bowes Software
— Louise Trainor, Assistant Vice President - Analytics, Economical

Location is at the heart of virtually every insurance decision – and the ability to precisely pinpoint latitude and longitude can drive improved performance and profitability. This session will discuss new trends in location intelligence technologies and how near-real-time geospatial analytics are drastically changing catastrophe modeling and risk management practices, including:

Understanding a policy in context to the company's book of business

Determining probable maximum loss to evaluate the impact of a catastrophe on your business

Providing easily consumable near-real time perspectives on your company's exposure

“Optimizing the Claims Experience”

— Keith Ellis, Global Predictive Analytics Solutions Leader, IBM

With the continued soft market conditions and customer loyalty at an all time low, Insurers are realizing that quality and speed of their claims processing is a key competitive differentiator. At the same time, they are no longer prepared to accept fraud as a cost of doing business. Leading Insurance companies across the world are applying analytics across the claims lifecycle and in the process are driving faster decisions while boosting the bottom line by reducing the cost of fraud.

“Innovation in Customer Service: Taking the Auto Repair Process Online”

— Darcy Gorchynski, Director - Business Development, Audatex Canada

For auto insurers, effective communication during the repair process can enhance the overall customer experience, and minimize delays and other unnecessary costs. Audatex Canada will share recent experience and real-world insights from the field demonstrating how a web -based tracking system during the repair process can improve customer satisfaction, increase efficiency, reduce cycle time, and win new customers.

“Understanding Risk from a Proximity to Peril”

— Steve Sigal, Senior Director, Product Management, DMTI Spatial
— Katherine McMahon, Manager - Risk Technology, Genworth

The recent devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy is just one example of risk relating to peril. DMTI Location Hub offers a fast, efficient means to assess your book of business and its proximity to a number of natural and man-made sources of peril. Please join us to learn how Location Hub can assist not only with water but also the complete risk picture; enabling greater underwriter productivity, ratings accuracy and avoidance of unnecessary exposures to accumulation, perils, and fraud. In this session you will learn best practices of enterprise Location Intelligence and how your organization can immediately start realizing the benefits while building towards a location smart enterprise.

“Converting Information into Growth and Profit for Property Insurance in Canada”

— Moderator Colin Smith, Senior Vice President of Operations, OPTA Information Intelligence
— Jamie McDougall, Vice President Personal Insurance Solutions, Gore Mutual Insurance
— Steve Livingstone, Director, Portfolio Management, Unifund Assurance Company
— Ron Burns, Vice President - Personal Lines, The Guarantee Company of North America
— Richard Boire, Founding Partner, Boire Filler Group; Chair of Predictive Analytics World Toronto

The industry's attention is turning to applying information and advanced analytics in new ways to personal and commercial property insurance in Canada following the success many have experienced in introducing individualized rating in auto. In a discussion panel with the business executives who are ultimately responsible for the success of their business line strategies we will explore the opportunities and potential impact in areas such as:

Customer expectations and experience

Risk Management

Underwriting efficiency

Rating strategies (Rating by Peril)

Target marketing

While our panel will NOT be giving away their own internal strategies and operational plans, you can be assured that, akin to their responsibilities, their thoughts and comments will be from a “business of insurance” perspective.

“Rating on Social: Straight-Through-Pricing with Big Data”

— Jamie Rodgers, VP - P&C Insurance Practice Lead, CGI
— Dan Adamson, Founder, President & CEO, Outside Intelligence

In this session the participants will discuss and illustrate how rating engines can ingest the results of big data and social search analysis in the underwriting and pricing process. Through Use Cases and actual implementation experiences, this presentation will show the art of the possible when it comes to calling out for additional risk information from beyond the borders of your company and seamlessly integrating the results through workflow and business rules.

Policy Management and Potpourri Sessions

“Policy Management System Replacement for Underwriting Efficiency, Ease of Doing Business”

— Derek Oke, Senior IT Architect, The Dominion
— Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
— Liza Smith, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, OneShield

Maintaining multiple legacy environments across lines of business and core processes such as policy is not only expensive and resource-intensive; it does not deliver the market and product agility needed to compete in today's market.

Attend this Question & Answer session to hear Derek Oke of The Dominion share real-life methods and best practices for successfully implementing modern core administration system solutions across multiple lines of business. Mark Breading, Partner at SMA Strategy Meets Action, will begin the session with an industry overview. Liza Smith, General Manager of Global Operations at OneShield, will moderate this discussion.

See how an effective policy management system replacement strategy can deliver the following:

Automated, efficient underwriting—including substantial reduction in time required to review submission applications and to issue policies

Ease of doing business to enable brokers to complete new business and policy changes in minutes vs. days

Performance metrics to become more data-driven and customer-centric.

“Beyond Modern Technology: Taking Advantage of PAS” (A Panel Discussion)

The current generation of Policy Admin Systems has a great deal of embedded function and opens the door to a great many extension opportunities. This panel, a combination of PAS providers and the people who use them, will explore how people are taking advantage of the the base functions as well as look at some of the opportunities and challenges of extensions.

Agile Product Development and Rollout
— John Roller, ASW P&C Global Pre-Sales Lead, Accenture Software P&C

A primary purpose for any PAS and its support systems is to be the revenue engine for the carrier. A key path to revenue growth is still speed to market, and that is not just the important step of development of products, but the whole process required to ultimately roll that product out in order to sell a policy.

Designing customized products for different distribution channels
— Mitchell Wasserman, CEO, Oceanwide
— Matthew Yeshin, Managing Director - Marine Practice, Marsh Canada Limited

A flexible and configurable Policy Administration System is a must in today's marketplace. Carriers and MGA's need to respond quickly to market opportunities and provide unique solutions for their customers and partners. The era of all-purpose one-size-fits-all insurance offerings is giving way to a highly competitive and specialized marketplace where segmentation is critical for both growth and profitability. Carriers that have the policy systems and internal processes capable of creating and managing new products in days instead of months will gain significant market share in the coming years.

Moreover, new modern policy systems, especially those low-cost solutions that are offered through the cloud with easy-to-use self-service configuration tools, now allow traditional brokers and agents to design and launch their own programs, complete with branded portals, online transaction processing and streamlined collaboration tools to enhance client communication.

Taking Advantage of Deployment Options
— Lynne Von Wistinghausen, Vice President - Operations & Information Technology, CNA Canada
— Prateek Kumar, Vice President – Business Solutions, MajescoMastek

Topic description forthcoming.

Taking a Customer-centric Approach to Business Decisions
— Matthew Turack, Vice President, CAA Insurance (Ontario)
— Neil Betteridge, Vice President - Strategy, Guidewire

You've successfully deployed your new, modern policy admin system and are now wondering where to go from here? CAA SCO gained the flexibility to better support its members, along with the insights they needed to know how best to work with them. For example, CAA has been able to shorten its new policy quote times from 12 to 2 minutes, making the 'quick quote' process ... not only quick, but also hassle-free for customers. Learn how adding context to your underwriting and servicing decisions can enable your organization to know more and guess less about your customers and your business. You'll be able provide a differentiated customer experience with capabilities such as proactively reaching out to policyholders that lie in harm's way. Your policy admin system is the heart of your customer centricity initiatives – is it doing its job?

“Agile as a Change Enabler”

— Andrew Pitt, Vice President - Financial Services, Intelliware Development Inc.

A constant across all businesses is change. Insurance is no exception. When you're in the business of insuring the welfare of others, a change in your company's technology can seem like a risk larger than its reward. Agile methodologies are gaining more traction and organizations are discovering that these processes are an effective way to mitigate the risks associated with implementing new technologies, integrating new processes or transforming business practices in fast-paced and demanding environments.

This session will explore Agile as a means to successfully respond to the need for change. We'll share case studies that illustrate the ways Agile methodologies allow your business priorities to drive the change process and provide you with the groundwork you'll need when considering Agile for future development projects.

“The Voice of the Consumer: ‘Innovation In Insurance Service Technology Required’”

— Mike Fitzgerald, Senior Analyst, Celent

For most insurance companies, innovation in service technology is necessary in order to deliver consumers' increasing expectations regarding service. This may take the form of new methods of engagement (service via smartphones), the ability to hand off tasks between automated systems and call center personnel (and back again), and/or more efficient management of customer data. But what service innovations carry the most value? Will an insurer gain any benefit in the eyes of consumers if it pursues innovation?

In order to gain insight into these and other questions, Celent conducted an online survey of consumers in August, 2012. The data both supports and challenges commonly held assumptions about customer experience requirements. This presentation will review the results and offer specific responses for insurers.

“Social: Another Look”

— Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
— Mike Fitzgerald, Senior Analyst, Celent
— Michael Kim, Vice President, Cognizant Business Consulting
— Tim Relke, Insurance Services, iGATE (Canada)

Topic description forthcoming.

“Telematics Redux”

— Moderator Precksha Saksena-Sood, Managing Director, Telematics Update
— Blair Currie, Vice President - Marketing, IMS
— Angelique Magi, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, The Guarantee Company of North America
— Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
— Catherine Kargas, Vice President, MARCON
— Dick Welch, Principal, REW Insurance Consulting Services

Although the first few minutes of this session will be a summary of key observations from Monday's Telematics Boot Camp and Beyond, the remainder will explore questions, topics and issues which arose in subsequent discussions.

Concluding Sessions & Keynote

“Leading Brokers Look to Tomorrow”

— Moderator Daryl Angier, Editor, Canadian Insurance Top Broker
— Rick Dresher, President, Affiliated Insurance
— Kevin Donovan, President, Donovan Insurance Brokers
— Jason Vander Zalm, Vice President - Information Technology, Square One Insurance

Everyone and every business faces challenges in today's marketplace. Insurance is no exception. Within that larger community, Insurance brokers as a group face challenges as big as any.

The channel has suffered especially in personal lines an ongoing erosion of market share for many years.

The promise of the broker is to shop the market, but few if any have that ability. Choice, yes. All the choice?

Across-the-desk service, or at least local service, and relationships are valued, but instant and improving communications and threaten that as well.

Millenials and premillenials have different ideas about what is important, both at work and as consumers. Employing them or serving them present new challenges, and opportunities.

...and yet there are brokers who have not only responded well, but are doing well.

Explore with us as representatives of that community share their perceptions of the characteristics of today's leading brokers, and how they use technology to advantage. Then take a stroll with them as they anticipate how some of those characteristics will evolve in the next few years.

“TD: Data Leads to the Future”

— Parin Kothari, Business Architecture Consultant, TD Bank Financial Group

Leadership needs data as much as data needs leadership. The technology & tools of data are only as good as the skills and processes that drive the inputs, processing, output and ultimately application to decision making. So in order to derive the most value of the data & corresponding trends (MDM, Big Data, Analytics), one has to model the ecosystem and build a long term approach that adapts to the changing customer preferences, privacy & regulatory developments, and technology maturity besides other factors. As TD is getting to grips with its rapidly expanded customer base across North America primarily through acquisitions, it is on a journey to design and build data capabilities that will generate incremental value in near term while laying down building blocks for the future.

“The Analytical Insurer: What Does Big Data really mean for Insurers?”

— Stuart Rose, Global Insurance Marketing Manager, SAS

Insurance organizations are already inundated with data, and the volumes are growing rapidly due to telematics, social media, and data from other unstructured sources. Today, Big Data technologies are taking the business world by storm, introducing new approaches to rapidly analyzing large amounts of data from many sources. Big Data is often defined as the volume, variety, and velocity of data that exceeds an organization's ability to manage and analyze it in a timely fashion. But the true value of Big Data is realized when it can be harvested for fast, fact-based decisions that lead to great business results.

Seizing those opportunities requires taming the tidal wave of Big Data. By applying holistic data analytics strategy and with the emergence of high-performance analytics technologies, insurers can gain valuable insights from big data in less time than ever before.

The analytical insurer integrates analytics into daily business processes – exploring and exploiting reams of data for strategic business advantage. This session will discuss such things as...

How Insurers are using analytics to optimize operations in distribution, claims and risk management,

What insights and competitive can insurers gain from Big Data and analytics

Overcoming challenges to analytics adoption

Other takeaways: what big data means for insurers; why it offers such potential for innovation, productivity and profits; and how high-performance analytics is changing the way the insurance industry handles big data.

Keynote – Opening Presentation: “The Nexus of Forces: Driving Innovation and Transformation in Insurance”

— Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner

Gartner defines the Nexus of Forces as the combined impact of 4 trends – mobility, social, information innovation, and cloud. These forces are creating new opportunities for insurers but simultaneously pressuring companies to evolve as consumer and broker demands shift and as competition before more fierce. This presentation will review the impact created by the Nexus on the insurance industry and highlight how leading insurers are embracing these changes for strategic advantage.

Keynote – Panel Discussion: “The Engaged Insurance Environment: Agile, Mobile, Analytic, Collaborative”

— Moderator Doug Grant, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca
— Moderator Patrick Vice, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca
— Debra Ambrose, Senior Vice President, National Sales and Marketing, Aviva Canada
— Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action
— Mike Fitzgerald, Senior Analyst, Celent
— Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner
— Chris Hill, Partner, Erb and Erb Insurance Brokers Ltd.

Technology is evolving with breathtaking speed, forcing changes to the way things “have always been done.” Explore with senior industry leaders and with guest analysts who specialize in technology in insurance how the industry is coping and simultaneously seeking ways to gain competitive advantage.

Vendor Forums

“Quoting – A New Approach: IQA (Insurance Quote Accelerator)”

— Michel Sabourin, President, QFD - Smart Design

Don't miss out. “Quoting – A New Approach” is a must-see. In this session, you will discover how current technologies can be integrated with valued added vendors to reduce and eliminate many lengthy quoting processes. See how we process the acquired data through our advanced calculator and formatting engine. Discover the many benefits of our IQA (Insurance Quote Accelerator) and how it can immediately improve your company's response time. Our various deployment methods offer easy integration. This session is a must for companies looking to renew/enhance their quoting process.

“The Path to Location Economics”

— TBA, DMTI Spatial

Topic description forthcoming.

“Five Keys to a Successful Document Management Project”

— Gavin Kingshott, Account Executive, Microdea Inc.

Have you done your homework? The benefits of electronic document management are significant and well documented; such as improving efficiency of paper based processes, enhancing customer service and reducing organizational costs, to list a few.

However, before these game-changing benefits can be realized there are some critical points and best practices you need to be aware of. Using real world examples and my first hand experience in the Insurance and Document Management Industries, I will detail the FIVE Keys to a Successful Document Management Project.

“Empower Your Team to Take Action on the Move”

— Ken Reycraft, Sales Engineer, MicroStrategy

Attend our presentation to learn how mobile software will change how you do business; hear how you can make your field sales force 10x more effective using mobile sales apps and how insurance companies like Co-operators, Wawanesa, RSA, Zurich and AXA are using MicroStrategy to impact the bottom line with agile business analytics.

Today, five of the top six global insurance companies rely on MicroStrategy for their reporting, analysis, and monitoring of corporate data.

Attend our vendor forum session and be eligible for FREE trial software!

“A New Cloud-Based Platform for Specialty Product Distribution”

— TBA, CGI

Topic description forthcoming.

Speaker Bios

Dan Adamson, Founder, President & CEO, Outside Intelligence

Dan is a search and business intelligence expert who is the founder, president and CEO of Outside Intelligence. Previously, he was a technical lead at Microsoft for the Bing Health team and Health Solutions Search, and the Chief Architect at Medstory, a vertical search start-up that was acquired by Microsoft.

Dan holds several search algorithm patents.

Debra Ambrose, Senior Vice President, National Sales and Marketing, Aviva Canada

Debra Ambrose is the Senior Vice President of National Sales, Marketing and Broker Operations for Aviva Canada. Her varied career includes developing strategic marketing plans, business development, sales management, operations, research and insights; and the management of multi-functional work teams.

You may have recently seen Debra on CTV's Canada AM in January, as the Head of Marketing at Aviva Canada, she has been leading a Social Marketing program called the Aviva Community Fund which has given away $3.5 million dollars since its inception in 2009.

Debra has substantive executive experience ----managing large marketing organizations and sales professionals. Prior to joining Aviva Canada, Debra was the Head of Product Development and Financial Services for American Express Canada. During this time, Debra developed several cobranded credit card products and successfully managed large corporate partnerships.

Debra describes herself as a passionate marketer with a keen eye for progressive and innovative marketing. Some of her favourite brands include Aviva and American Express, Apple, and President's Choice Financial.

Daryl Angier, Editor, Canadian Insurance Top Broker

Bio forthcoming.

Bryan Bedford, Senior Analyst, Insurance Technology, Peel Mutual Insurance

Bryan has co-hosted web seminars, led numerous educational sessions for the broker distribution channel and presented at leading insurance conferences such as IASA & ACORD/LOMA. He has contributed to published articles on Underwriting Automation and Real-Time Adoption in key trade journals.

Bryan is involved and committed to key industry initiatives in the insurance technology arena and has a strong understanding of current trends. Most recently he has been driving adoption and increased usage of real-time technology tools in insurance distribution workflows. Prior to starting his career in insurance, Bryan co-founded an Internet/New Media company and worked with a non-profit group in New York City.

In addition to his BSc, Bryan graduated with honours from both the Fellow Certified Insurance Professional [FCIP] program and the Canadian Risk Management [CRM] certification. He was also awarded the Centenary Excellence Award as the top FCIP student across Canada in 2008-2009.

Neil Betteridge, Vice President - Strategy, Guidewire

As Guidewire's Vice President Strategy, Neil Betteridge plays a key role in guiding the strategy, direction and positioning of Guidewire's offerings supporting P&C insurers. Previously, Neil held the role of Guidewire's Director of Product Marketing where he was instrumental in the marketing strategy, positioning, and direction of Guidewire's suite. Neil has over 25 years of business technology experience with the last 17 years focused on solutions in the insurance industry. Prior to Guidewire, Neil was with Skywire Software (now Oracle), as Vice President of Product Management. Neil has also served in development, product management, strategy and marketing leadership roles with several other technology provider and user organizations. In addition to his professional experience, Neil holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science from McGill University.

Brett Boadway, Manager - Corporate Communications, The Dominion

Bio forthcoming.

Richard Boire, Founding Partner, Boire Filler Group; Chair of Predictive Analytics World Toronto

Bio forthcoming.

Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action

Mark has more than 25 years of insurance and information technology experience in a variety of leadership roles. He has held both technical and business roles in sales, consulting, marketing, and business strategy, including roles as IBM's Global Insurance Strategist, Global Insurance Marketing Leader, and Director of Global Executive Conferences for insurance and banking. In these roles, he has advised C-level executives around the world.

Ron Burns, Vice President - Personal Lines, The Guarantee Company of North America

Ron has spent the past 22 years working at various levels of management within The Guarantee Company of North America (The Guarantee). Most recently he has been the Vice President National Personal Lines Underwriting Standards and Vice President National Standard Personal Lines. He is a resourceful and detail oriented insurance professional with extensive experience in the area of High Net Worth client insurance needs. He has been part of the team responsible for the development of product and procedures for the underwriting, accounting and claims departments to fulfill the needs of these clients and creating solutions to ensure these individuals are covered by broad policy wordings, while balancing and developing underwriting standards to create a financially sustainable business model for The Guarantee.

He is also involved with Insurance Bureau of Canada as an Ontario Committee Member. The RMS Steering Committee for the implementation of Iclarify. He is the Consumer Liaison Representative – Complaint Handling Officer for The Guarantee and is the past Chairman of the Association of Canadian Insurers – Habitational Committee.

Alister Campbell, CEO, The Guarantee Company of North America

Alister Campbell is CEO of The Guarantee Company of North America. As CEO, Alister is accountable for driving The Guarantee's continued profitable growth, and overall strategy and operations in Canada and the United States.

Over the past 27 years he has held senior executive positions in a range of capacities within the life and property-casualty insurance industries including general management, marketing, brokerage distribution strategy, financial services and e-commerce. Prior to his appointment at The Guarantee, he was CEO of the Canadian branch of a major global insurance company.

Alister has previously served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Property & Casualty Insurance Compensation Corporation (PACICC) and as Deputy Chair of the Board of the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Risk Institute in Financial Services and a proud Member of the United Way of Greater Toronto Campaign Cabinet. Alister holds degrees from the University of Toronto, the London School of Economics and the Wharton Graduate School of Business.

Blair Currie, Vice President - Marketing, IMS

Blair Currie brings a wealth of global marketing knowledge and experience to IMS. A digitally advanced global marketer known for his innovation and creativity, Blair's twenty five years of experience in both client side and advertising agency roles has lead him to work with Fujitsu, McCann Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB, TBWA and Aegis Media. He is highly knowledgeable about IMS UBI Intelligence and leads a team of creative professionals in the development of marketing initiatives to make IMS the world leader in connected car technology.

Blair holds an MBA in marketing and international business from the Rotman School of Business as well as a bachelor of science, from the university of Toronto. He has devised marketing initiatives for Coca-Cola, Mars, Nestle, P&G and Pepsi across the globe, from bases in Canada, the United States, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam and the UAE (Dubai).

Doug Davis, President, Davis Consulting Inc.

Doug Davis is the president of Davis Consulting Inc. In his thirty plus years of experience and involvement in the insurance industry he has helped over six hundred brokerages across Canada to streamline and improve their operations with respect to marketing, processes and strategic planning. Doug has come through the ranks of the industry by working for and with insurance companies, system vendors, an actuarial firm and brokerages.

In the mid 1990s he created Canada's first lead generation and appointment setting company for personal and commercial lines markets, which he later sold. He has also managed large national group insurance programs and has been a partner in a very successful niched brokerage. Doug is currently working with insurance brokers to analyze their client and product base and to develop key strategies that target the ideal prospect.

Michelle Debus, Sr. Director - Operations, IMS

As Senior Director of Operations at IMS, Michelle Debus uses her extensive experience in operations and information technology to act as a member of the senior leadership team to contribute to the strategic direction of the company. Michelle oversees multiple teams within IMS, including information technology, purchasing, manufacturing, manufacturing engineering, professional services group and program/project management. Her project coordination has been instrumental in the establishment of the IMS UBI Intelligence product, and as such, Michelle has a broad range of knowledge that would be beneficial for any company looking to enter the UBI space.

Before joining IMS, Michelle's previous roles included AVP of Information Systems and Director of Business Manufacturing Systems at Sandvine, as well as her work as IT and Manufacturing Manager at Cisco Systems. She has an MBA from Royal Roads University.

David Dobrindt, NA Insurance Industry Smarter Commerce Executive, IBM

David Dobrindt runs IBM's North America Smarter Commerce for Insurance practice. Smarter Commerce is an integrated approach to doing business in the age of the empowered customer, addressing every phase of the distribution lifecycle – source (i.e. obtain data needed for underwriting), market (i.e. run sales campaigns), sell (i.e. execute digital transactions), and service (i.e. more efficient contact centers). Mr. Dobrindt runs IBM's efforts to help customers with all aspects of their Smarter Commerce efforts and is a thought leader in marketing in the insurance industry, the changing face of the consumer and core distribution functions.

Mr. Dobrindt brings extensive experience with strategy consulting, application development, engagement management and FSS solutions, including his experience in IBM's Business Consulting Group as well as IBM's Software Group, to help clients achieve business objectives through the use of IBM assets and offerings.

Prior to joining IBM, Mr. Dobrindt worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Coopers and Lybrand.

Julie Donahue, VP and Partner Insurance, Global Business Services, IBM

Julie Donahue is a Vice President and Partner in Insurance Global Services for IBM. She joined the IBM Canada Global Business Services team in January 2013 to lead the Insurance Practice. In her new role, she is responsible for working with Insurance accounts in Canada on strategy development, business transformation, change management and business model optimization.

Julie, representing Insurance, is an inaugural member of the IBM Industry Academy, a body that recognizes the contributions and industry expertise of the top 50 industry leaders in the company.

For over 20 years, Julie has worked extensively with insurance companies executives at the intersection of business and technology strategy and business model transformation. Her clients include New York Life, The Hartford, GNP, Prudential, MetLife, Progressive Insurance, State Farm, Marsh McClellan, PICC, China Life and Northwestern Mutual.

In 1996, Julie co-founded an eBusiness strategy consulting firm, Mainspring, to help insurance companies and bank determine the best strategy and model for exploiting the Internet. Julie came to IBM in 2001 as part of the acquisition of Mainspring.

Shaun Donnelly, Co-Founder, getClarity

Shaun Donnelly has over 26 years experience working in a variety of business environments. He has served as a VP & GM for both Praxair and Nedschroef NV before founding Evince Corporation in 1998, a consultancy that specializes in corporate branding and marketing strategies, database development and web solutions. In 2000, he also co-founder of FastFacility.com, a GIS solution and real estate database portal.

During this time Shaun coined the concept of "ShovelReady" which has has had industry-wide implications around the globe.

Shaun is also the co-founder of getClarity, which provides in-depth Canadian data and visualizations tools to businesses across the country.

Kevin Donovan, President, Donovan Insurance Brokers

Bio forthcoming.

Rick Dresher, President, Affiliated Insurance

Rick Dresher has been an insurance and risk management advisor for the past 35 years, serving small and medium-sized business operating across Canada and internationally. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce, with a specialist in Commerce and a major in Economics. He later added an Environmental Studies major to his degree and obtained a Masters degree in Urban & Environmental Planning.

Rick started his insurance career working part-time in his father's brokerage, Dresher Insurance Brokers, in Etobicoke. That company was eventually merged to form CMD Insurance Services, in Etobicoke, where Rick was a partner. In 2008, Rick & his wife Rima, sold their interest in CMD and purchased Affiliated Insurance Management in Oakville. Rick's primary focus has always been commercial lines and computer related issues in the brokerage.

Pat Durepos, President, Keal

Pat Durepos has been in the insurance industry for over 40 years as a broker since 1971, and President of Keal Technology since 2004. Pat is the Chairman of Alliance Assurance Inc., a brokerage that employs 53 people with annual revenues of $34,000,000 in Grand Falls, New Brunswick. Keal Technology is the second largest provider to the Canadian independent broker channel as measured by the number of brokerage management software users. Keal employs 80 people with clients in every Canadian province, develops four products and maintains numerous alliances to fulfill its client needs. As a Canadian broker, Pat is intimately aware of the sophisticated nuances of the Canadian insurance industry and effectively leads the Keal Technology team in exclusively supporting the Canadian independent broker distribution channel.

Pat has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Atlantic Canada Brokers' Man of the Year in 1987, Broker of the Year in 1992 awarded by Atlantic Canada Brokers as well Business of the Year presented by the New Brunswick Economic Council in 1998. In 1999, he was the recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for New Brunswick. In 2006, Durepos was honoured as the recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Atlantic Provinces with a national leadership citation.

Pat's other businesses include Broadway Place Ltd., Advantage Financing Inc., and GRD Air Inc.

Keith Ellis, Global Predictive Analytics Solutions Leader, IBM

Keith Ellis is IBM's Global Predictive Analytics Solutions leader for Financial Services and has over 14 years of experience in helping organizations leverage Predictive Analytics to drive more effective decisions and business outcomes.

One of Keith's core competencies and passions is helping organizations move beyond simply using predictive analytics as an advanced analysis technology, to transforming the business by embracing and embedding data driven decisions into an organizations business processes and systems. Keith's key area of focus has been to understand how Predictive Analytics can leverage all forms and types of data, both structured and unstructured, to lower risk and improve fraud identification.

Keith collaborates across IBM teams to identify and create best-of-breed solutions that enable our customers to most effectively address common challenges within today's Financial Services industry, which span Customer Analytics, Integrated Risk Management, and Operational Effectiveness.

Katherine Evans, VP & CFO, Unica Insurance Company

Katherine is a graduate of McGill University in Montréal and previously served as a partner in a public accounting firm. She has been involved in the Property & Casualty industry for a number of years and in a senior position with Unica Insurance during the development of its broker portal technology. The Ease of Doing Business initiative for the company's broker force is a primary focus of Katherine's attention with Unica.

Mike Fitzgerald, Senior Analyst, Celent

Mike Fitzgerald is a Senior Analyst in Celent's insurance practice and is based in Cary, North Carolina. He has specific expertise in property/casualty automation, operations management and insurance product development.

Mr. Fitzgerald's research focuses on billing, business process and operations, social media use in insurance, and distribution management.

Mr. Fitzgerald brings extensive industry experience to the analyst role. Prior to joining Celent, he was Vice President of Enterprise Underwriting Solutions at Zurich North America, where he led the evaluation of technology alternatives to support a new underwriting product development process. He held a number of positions at Royal & Sun Alliance, including a field operations regional executive role. His technology implementation experience includes the installation and maintenance of billing, automobile policy administration, and workers compensation automation. In the 1990s, Mr. Fitzgerald led an initiative which delivered one of the first global online technical underwriting and claims learning platforms in the industry.

Mr. Fitzgerald has a B.A. in economics from Davidson College, Charlotte, North Carolina and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. He is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

Karen Gale, Information Technology Manager, Allen Insurance

Karen is the Information Technology Manager for Allen Insurance Group; a six office, family owned and operated insurance brokerage in eastern Ontario.

In 1995, after raising her family, she accepted a position at Allen Insurance Group as a newly licensed Registered Insurance Broker. Her past experience with IT and business administration quickly lead her into the technology side of the insurance industry.

Karen is the Past President of Keal System Users (KSU); the national user group for Keal system software.

Anthony Giagnacovo, Managing Director, Audatex Canada

Anthony Giagnacovo is Managing Director for Audatex Canada and has more than 20 years executive experience with global IT leaders including Adobe Systems, Peoplesoft, i2Technologies, and IBM. He oversees the company?s national operations and is responsible for building in-country business divisions and expanding Audatex Canada's customer base. Anthony's mandate in Canada is to deliver transformative technology-based solutions that get consumers back on the road more quickly and happily, with a higher return for collision repair shops and insurers.

Darcy Gorchynski, Director - Business Development, Audatex Canada

Darcy Gorchynski has a combined total of 32 years experience in the auto insurance industry, having worked with the Manitoba Public Insurance Company and most recently, 23 years with Insurance Company of British Columbia (ICBC). Having managed claims portfolios varying in size from 15 staff to 600 staff, Darcy has extensive knowledge of the end to end process of auto physical damage and personal injury claims. In his most recent position as Director of Material Damage Services at ICBC, Darcy was accountable for a wide span of control functionally and geographically with responsibility for supplier contracts, stakeholder relations and collision repair technical training. Darcy recently transitioned to a senior role at Audatex Canada as Director of Business Development, where he will continue to apply his years of insight into leveraging technology to enhance service delivery and improve the overall claims experience.

Doug Grant, MBA, CIP, Consultant, Insurance-Canada.ca

A keen analyst of computer and networking evolution for more than 30 years, Doug is cognizant of the changes that are occurring in the Internet insurance world and their impact on the industry. As a frequent industry speaker, columnist and consultant, as well as a principal in the Insurance-Canada.ca Web site, he brings a unique perspective to the session. Read a more extensive biography here.

Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner

Kimberly Harris-Ferrante is a Vice President and Distinguished Analyst in Gartner Research, where she is responsible for monitoring the business and technology trends within the global property and casualty and life insurance industries. She specializes in strategies and technologies to support distribution, customer relationship management, exception-based underwriting, policy administration, claims management and administration, business process management, and back office processing and optimization, as well as strategies around improving insurance IT architectures using services oriented architectures and business process management. She is an active participant in Gartner's outsourcing community where she leads on trends and best practices in IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing in the industry.

Ms. Harris-Ferrante has been an insurance analyst with Gartner since 1998 and has been active in the research field since 1992 in areas such as social sciences, healthcare, law and information technology. In these positions, she supported quantitative research projects, including focus group support, survey creation, data entry, programming, statistical analysis, and report writing.

Ms. Harris-Ferrante earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's degree in sociology from East Carolina University. She has completed coursework for a Ph.D. at North Carolina State University. Her key areas of concentration included research methodology and statistics.

Phil Henville, VP - Product Development, iter8

Bio forthcoming.

Chris Hill, Partner, Erb and Erb Insurance Brokers Ltd.

Chris Hill is a fifth generation owner and the Principal Broker at Erb and Erb, in Kitchener. He joined the firm in 2002. Chris is keenly aware of the need for independent brokers to embrace and adapt to rapidly changing consumer expectations and an increasingly competitive marketplace. His priority at Erb and Erb is to develop bold new strategies based on innovation, collaboration and "beyond best in class" principles to ensure the continued success of the independent brokerage channel.

Chris is active in the insurance industry and the community. He has been a Director with IBAWR, currently sits on the Working Group Committee for IBAO and is an active member of ORBiT. He is also Director at Chicopee Ski &Summer Resort and a youth baseball coach.

Laura Hill, Vice President - Finance, Planning and Analysis, Marsh Canada

Laura Hill is a Vice President for Marsh Canada Limited in the Financial, Planning and Analytics Practice, with over 20 years experience in the Insurance Industry. In her current role, Laura is responsible for the financial management, analysis, budgeting and reporting of Marsh's Risk Consulting, Private Client Service and Consumer/Commercial Practices.

Laura works with the Senior Management teams to develop & align strategic and financial goals, and supports with their execution, ensuring integrated process improvements, operational efficiencies and accurate financial reporting within defined cost benefit metrics to maximize Marsh's ROI.

In addition to her Finance responsibilities, Laura is a member of Marsh Risk Consulting's Senior Leadership Group. Working with Specialty Practice Leaders to ensure operational efficiencies, she consults directly with National & Growth Leadership to integrate consulting methodologies and CRM technologies with that of necessary financial reporting.

Laura is a Past President of the TAM BMS User Group, promoting education, information exchange and providing networking opportunities to Brokers with the GTA. Laura is an active member of ORBIT, and supporter of real time development.

Jeff Ives, President and Owner, Ives Insurance Brokers Ltd.

Jeff Ives officially entered insurance industry 29 years ago. Growing up with the family brokerage in the back yard, he has really been in the business his whole life, handling at one point or another virtually every job in the office.

Jeff became a partner in the family business in 1992 and began taking over full management in 1995 at that time the brokerage had one office handling mainly personal lines business. Today Ives Insurance Brokers Ltd has 5 offices in Ontario, they are fully licenced and operating in 4 states and today Jeff is the sole owner of Ives Insurance Brokers Ltd. Ives Insurance Brokers Ltd is a leading commercial insurance broker in Southwestern Ontario and their commercial business accounts for seventy percent of the business written through Ives. Ives Insurance Brokers Ltd is also a Lloyds cover holder.

Jeff holds his CAIB designation and has participated on many insurance carrier advisory committees.

Irma Joeveer, Director - Customer Care, IMS

As Director of the high-performing Customer Care team at IMS, Irma Joeveer heads up the group that is the public voice and face of the company. She and her team must represent IMS ethically and in the most professional manner possible, while fostering successful relationships with resellers and providing best in class support to clients throughout the sales cycle.

With over 10 years of experience in the customer management field, including tenures at fidelity national information services, EFD eFunds corporation and Allstream, Irma's vast understanding of customer needs, especially in the context of UBI programs, has afforded her insights into what makes UBI programs successful. With real-life examples to draw on, Irma's knowledge and expertise in the area of UBI client care will enlighten and assist those looking to enter the UBI space.

Catherine Kargas, Vice President, MARCON

Catherine Kargas, MBA, is a business strategist with over 20 years of experience providing consulting advice to executives in the insurance, transportation (with an emphasis on alternative propulsion technologies) and energy sectors. She is the Vice President of the management consulting firm, MARCON, and the Vice Chair of Electric Mobility Canada.

Catherine has worked with numerous players in the P&C space, including insurance carriers and brokers. She is a member of the Insurance 2023 group and an Insurance-Canada.ca collaborator.

Michael Kim, Vice President, Cognizant Business Consulting

Michael Kim is a Vice President and the Global Insurance Practice Lead for Cognizant Business Consulting, where he is responsible for leading management and technology consulting services to the Insurance industry.

For over twenty years, he has advised senior Insurance executives on top strategic, operational and technology issues. He specializes in assisting insurers with business strategy, IT strategy, distribution/sales effectiveness, underwriting/operations improvements, claims leakage reduction, profitability improvement, and strategic sourcing.

Michael holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gavin Kingshott, Account Executive, Microdea Inc.

Gavin Kingshott is an Account Executive with Microdea Inc, a leading Document Management and Workflow Automation Company. Gavin joined Microdea in 2010, with a focus on the Insurance and Financial Services Industry. He has combined 7 years working as a Commercial Insurance Broker and 11 years in technology to bridge the gap between the business of insurance and the application of technology.

As an experienced broker who faced the challenges of a paper based business and the processing times involved, he understands the operations of the insurance business and which areas require streamlining. This combined with a solid understanding of the IT side of the business, Gavin works with his clients to establish best practices that fit the document management needs of their organization.

Parin Kothari, Business Architecture Consultant, TD Bank Financial Group

Parin Kothari is an experienced management consultant who works with macro-level strategic models to micro-level operations primarily architecting the building blocks for a business that can withstand and monetize changes in the broader socio-economic environment, especially those related to the maturity of technology. Parin started his career at the Boston Consulting Group in South Asia and more recently was instrumental in establishing the business architecture practice at Wells Fargo Bank's Internet Services Group. Today, he is at TD Bank's North American Internet Channel organization driving product management, business architecture and operational maturity.

Parin is also active in the community and works on education projects with several not-for-profit organizations across four continents.

Prateek Kumar, Vice President – Business Solutions, MajescoMastek

Prateek Kumar is Vice President - Business Solutions at MajescoMastek. Prateek has more than 13 years of experience in the IT industry predominantly focused on the North American insurance industry. At MajescoMastek, he is responsible for growing the technology business for insurance focused IT products and services across the property & casualty and life & annuity lines of business. He is an MBA from the Virginia Tech.

Steve Livingstone, Director, Portfolio Management, Unifund Assurance Company

Steve's background includes 20-plus years of personal insurance experience in the Canadian marketplace. This work has encompassed large generalists and smaller niche players, retail, group and specialty, and direct writers, and has involved underwriting, strategic work, and business management and operational roles across Canada. Steve started his career at Chubb and has gained further experience with roles at RBC, Aviva, Economical & RSA. He is currently Director, Portfolio Management for RSA's direct writing arm, Johnsons.

Angelique Magi, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, The Guarantee Company of North America

Angelique Magi is the Vice President, Strategic Initiatives for The Guarantee Company of North America (The Guarantee). In her new role at The Guarantee, she is accountable for exploring a range of segment, product and distribution strategies to evolve their portfolio of profitable, specialty lines business.

Over the past 20 years she has held positions of increasing seniority in a range of capacities within the property-casualty insurance industry including claims, underwriting and portfolio management positions before focusing on the transportation industry sector.

Prior to Angelique's recent appointment at The Guarantee, she was National Director, Transportation of the Canadian Operation of a major Insurance Company where she was the strategic business lead accountable for the overall direction, development, profitability, appetite, and growth of a $100m+ multi-line trucking portfolio. She was named to the Canadian Trucking Alliance's Cargo Task Force. She has been part of the Canadian Risk Insurance Management Society (CRIMS) and the National Insurance Conference of Canada (NICC) speaker's panel on Transportation Emerging Issues. In addition, Angelique was featured in Truck News in August of 2012 and January of 2013 on telematics and the impact to the transportation insurance market.

A graduate of Flagler College in St. Augustine Florida with a BA in Political Science, she has her CIP designation through the Insurance Institute of Canada.

Jamie McDougall, Vice President Personal Insurance Solutions, Gore Mutual Insurance

Jamie McDougall is Vice President, Personal Insurance Solutions at Gore Mutual Insurance Company. Established in 1839, Gore Mutual is Canada's oldest Property & Casualty insurance company. Jamie leads Gore Mutual's Personal Insurance team, overseeing the national underwriting operations as well as product development and pricing. His team has been recognized in the last 4 surveys conducted by the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO), for their achievement of excellent performance.

Jamie began his work with Gore Mutual in 2000 as an operational process improvement consultant and completed numerous projects detailing and analyzing operational processes in claims, finance and underwriting. Following on the success of these projects, he was promoted to the role of Director, Claims Analysis and Planning in 2001 and then Vice President of Claims in 2004. Facilitating the development of claims strategies, he established innovative reporting and analysis databases, and tools for evaluating claims handling effectiveness and efficiencies. Jamie transitioned to Personal Insurance in 2007, as Vice President. During an executive transition period, Jamie also took on the responsibility of Gore Mutual's national commercial underwriting operation in 2011. He now dedicates his efforts to Personal Insurance and the numerous industry developments that are occurring, including exploration of predictive analytics and telematics. Jamie serves on various industry organizations including the iClarify Steering Committee for OPTA Information Intelligence.

Jamie holds his MBA degree from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. His prior work experience includes coaching executives across multiple industries, as a Management Consultant in process improvement, performance management and strategy. Outside of the office, one will usually find Jamie, a certified SCUBA instructor, underwater enjoying a dive or helping others discover this fascinating hobby.

Jamie Martyn, Vice-President, Kennedy Insurance

Bio forthcoming.

Katherine McMahon, Manager - Risk Technology, Genworth

Bio forthcoming.

Andrew Milne, CEO, Founder & Lead Strategist, bv02

As the entrepreneurial leader of bv02 for the past 12 years, Andrew has a knack for marrying creative thinking with industry-leading strategies and technology to effectively solve business problems. He consistently pushes the boundaries of digital business by engaging with users across platforms in order to build exceptional interactive experiences. Leading digital design and innovation has been a focus for Andrew throughout his career, which has included roles at national companies and digital agencies.

Andrew has spent over a decade creating innovative strategy, eMarketing, communication, design and web development solutions as the lead strategist and founder of bv02. He has worked with notable clients such as the National Gallery of Canada, McGill University, CAA, Teknision, McGill University and OC Transpo.

Andrew is also actively involved in community organizations, sharing his time, experience and strategic abilities as an advisor and active board member for several groups, including the Beluga Foundation, IABC Ottawa, AndyCamper and the Algonquin College Multi-Media Program.

bv02 is an award-winning full service digital creative agency that has been specializing in creating digital solutions for clients in private-sector businesses, government departments, cultural institutions, and crown corporations for over 10 years. Our services include: web design, responsive web development, eMarketing, web video and strategy. Innovative and results driven, bv02 combines business acumen with creativity, design thinking and technology to deliver effective and measurable web and communications solutions.

bv02 is a testament to the fact that with the right people, there are no problems - only creative solutions.

Dr. Ben Miners, Vice President - Emerging Technology, IMS

As Senior Director, Emerging Technologies at IMS, Dr. Ben Miners specializes in the planning, research, and development to transform emerging technologies into practical solutions that help make vehicles safer, smarter, and greener. Over the last decade, Dr. Miners led advanced research and development activities, seamlessly integrating human, machine, and vehicle. His work has led to the successful integration of IMS UBI Intelligence, the only complete, turnkey solution within the UBI market space.

Dr. Miners continues to facilitate activities that deliver innovative solutions to tomorrow's challenges today. Before joining IMS, he focused on automation engineering projects across diverse areas including transportation, logistics, process optimization, and remote monitoring fields involving highly usable interfaces, advanced sensing, high speed data collection, pattern recognition, data warehousing, analysis and intuitive visualization.

Dr. Miners holds a Doctorate in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, a Master of Science from the University of Guelph, and is a licensed professional engineer.

Bryan Mo, Manager - Broker Technologies, RSA

Bryan's focus is delivering on an ease of doing business proposition for RSA's broker partners across personal and commercial lines and across Canada. His responsibilities require him to work closely with brokers, underwriters, sales, and IT to strategize, deliver new enhancements and solutions, and training/support for RSA's broker technologies. Prior to joining RSA, Bryan was a consulting manager with Accenture for over six years focusing on large financial services clients across North America.

Wendie Noccey, Manager - Information Technology, Grenville Mutual Insurance

Wendie Noccey is a fifteen year IT veteran dedicated to building relationships with Grenville's partners. Her expertise spans policy administration systems, broker connectivity solutions and project management.

As the Information Technology Manager of Grenville Mutual Insurance Company, Wendie and her team have integrated solutions with their policy administration systems to offer broker connectivity solutions for real-time Inquiry, New Business Upload, and most recently, Policy Change.

Wendie is a champion for change and constantly strives for customer satisfaction. She advocates and promotes strong partnerships within all of the Grenville Mutual internal business service groups as well as our Brokerage partners throughout Eastern Ontario.

Derek Oke, Senior IT Architect, The Dominion

Derek has been with The Dominion since 2004 and in his current role, he provides architecture oversight for a multi-year core system replacement project. This project will replace all legacy applications from user entry applications to back-end reporting.

Prior to The Dominion, Derek worked with multiple technology providers in implementing Policy, Claims and Billing Systems for insurers in the U.S. and Canada. His experience spans across many roles including lead architect and project manager.

Debbie Olsen, VP - Product Innovation, iter8

Debbie Olsen is an industry veteran and standards evangelist with a career spanning 20+ years on the Carrier side in progressive Underwriting and Operations roles for both direct writers and intermediated writers, followed by 10+ years on the insurance Vendor technology side in key roles for Strategic Planning, Product Management and Quality Assurance. This knowledge and experience enables her to expand iter8's strategic market analysis and thought leadership mandate in her current Product Innovations role. Debbie was a founding member of the CIP Society and a member of its governing board for many years. Debbie continues to give back to our industry today through her generous involvement in both ORBiT and CSIO.

Kim Opheim, Product Manager, Applied Systems

Kim Opheim, CIP, brings over 30 years of experience in the Canadian insurance industry in both the life and property casualty fields. His experience ranges from broker principal, IT Manager, and most recently VP of Business Development with one of Ontario's largest P&C Brokerages. He led successful data integration, network infrastructure, document management, and VoIP phone projects. Kim has done private research for an industry think tank on Broker Management Systems for the exclusive use of some of Canada's most prestigious insurance brokerages.

Rick Orr, Chairman of the Board, Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario

Rick joined Orr Insurance Brokers in 1992; he and his brother Jeff are fourth-generation owners of Orr Insurance Brokers Inc., in Stratford.

Rick is active in both the industry and the community. He is Chairman of the Board of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario, a board member of CSIO and a member of the IBAC Technology Committee. He also sits on a number of local boards including the Hospital and the Parks Board.

He believes that technology is critical to the future success of the independent insurance brokerage distribution system. Rick believes that by working together to create meaningful solutions we can drive costs out of the channel allowing Brokers and Insurers to remain the best distribution model for consumers.

Andrew Pitt, Vice President - Financial Services, Intelliware Development Inc.

Andrew is a seasoned technology executive with expertise in the strategy, development and integration of complex business applications. For over a decade, Andrew has been a trusted advisor to many top tier Financial Services clients on a wide range of projects, and has developed the Intelliware Financial Services Practice into an industry leader. Andrew has been with Intelliware for over 15 years. Prior to joining the company he consulted to a variety of industries on engineering and management systems. Andrew is a Professional Engineer and has an Engineering degree from Queen's University.

Greg Purdy, Managing Partner, Pathway Partners, Ltd.; getClarity, Inc.

With more than 25 years of experience in the insurance technology marketplace, Greg brings a unique perspective on how to build a successful company. In 17 years as C.E.O. of Applied Systems Canada Greg oversaw the growth in the Canadian marketplace from 200 brokers to over 1200. In 1992 Greg added the responsibility for international development and successfully established the UK operations with The Agency Manager UK.

In 2008, Greg formed Pathway Partners Ltd. with Michelle Cole-Kennedy to advise brokers on a wide range of operational and strategic topics with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions.

In 2011 Greg played a key role in the launch of getClarity Inc, a business intelligence company that focuses on bringing sophisticated demographic and statistical analysis to businesses of all sizes. With over 1.7 million records of new data on a monthly basis getClarity identifies timely market opportunities and as a result maximizes the return on investment.

Greg is the founder of the Canadian Insurance Strategy Group, which can be found on LinkedIn.

Jeff Purdy, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Canada, Applied Systems

Jeff is responsible for Applied Systems' Canadian operations and has overseen the integration of Compu-Quote. He began his Applied Systems career in the company's Canada operations in 1989. In 1993, he was named president of Applied Systems Canada, assuming responsibility for Canada product development, sales, implementation and customer support. In 2002, Jeff relocated to Applied Systems' U.S. headquarters as vice president of Diamond Implementation and Account Services, departments within the carrier division then operated by the company. Since 2004 he has been in charge of primary sales and in June of 2012, returned to the Canadian marketplace as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Applied Systems Canada.

Rick Rass, Ass't Vice President, Portfolio Managed Business, Commercial Lines, The Dominion

Rick is responsible for the development and implementation of The Dominion's strategy for Portfolio Managed Commercial Business (Package Property & Casualty and Individually Rated Commercial Automobile).

He has been in the insurance industry for 32 years, the last 18 years of which have been in senior underwriting and business development roles, focused on the automation of “simple” Commercial business; first, with RSA, then with Aviva here in Canada and subsequently the United Kingdom and now with The Dominion.

His focus during that period has evolved from the deployment of call centre technology to Commercial rating portals to data integration solutions with CMS vendors to portfolio management and the leveraging of quote analytics to drive performance.

Bill Redford, Director of Development, Keal

Bill Redford is the Director of Development at Keal Technology. In this capacity, he manages the development of Keal's suite of software solutions including sigXP, comXP and dokXP. Bill has been with Keal since 2007 and has served in this position for the majority of this time. Bill has a 20 year- plus history in information technology.

Prior to working for Keal Technology Bill held financial, IT and operational management positions in several businesses. He spent most of his career working in leading edge technology companies centered on e-commerce in Canada and the United States. Creating, automating and streamlining processes dealing with internal systems have been his focus.

Marcelo Regen, VP - Allstate Brand, Allstate

As Vice President, Allstate Brand, Marcelo Regen, MBA, CMA, oversees the Allstate Insurance Agencies across Canada, Customer Contact Centres, Marketing, Brand Education, Group Insurance and Online Experience. He is a member of Allstate Canada Group's leadership team.

Marcelo began his career with Allstate in 2004 in Finance and Planning. In 2007 he was promoted to the position of Director, Business Planning & Analysis and played a key role in the development and launch of the redesigned Allstate agencies. In 2011, he moved into the agency sales environment as Director, Business Development where he led several agencies in the GTA. He was promoted to Assistant Vice President, Corporate Development in 2011, working with leaders throughout Allstate Canada Group to identify growth opportunities. Marcelo was promoted to his current role in June 2012.

Prior to joining Allstate, Marcelo worked in the consulting industry, specializing in organizational change for the financial services sector. He also served as Business Intelligence Manager for the Federal Retirement Funds Administration in Argentina. Marcelo holds a degree in Economics from the National University of Tucuman (Argentina). He graduated Magna Cum Laude with an MBA from Austral University (Argentina) and also obtained his CMA designation in Ontario.

Tim Relke, Insurance Services, iGATE (Canada)

Responsible for customer satisfaction and revenue growth by driving client-value – Increase revenue, Decrease cost, Reduce capital, Meet risk, regulatory and other to-dos. What else is there?

Experience includes significant achievement in identifying and structuring complex and strategic opportunities totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

Leverage industry experience – including business process outsourcing including offshoring, IT services including outsourcing, management consulting, and banking, financial services and insurance – to drive client-value.

Ken Reycraft, Sales Engineer, MicroStrategy

Ken Reycraft is a Sales Engineer at MicroStrategy, the leading independent public business intelligence software vendor. Ken joined MicroStrategy in 2011 and is focused on the Insurance and Financial Services industries.

Ken has 15 years of experience in the IT industry having worked for various software companies.

Jamie Rodgers, VP - P&C Insurance Practice Lead, CGI

Jamie is the Vice President, P&C Insurance Practice Lead at CGI which includes responsibility for the Insurance Information Services business. He is an experienced management and technology consultant with a long track record in the P&C insurance industry.

Prior to joining CGI last year, Jamie served as the Executive Director of Product Development at Manitoba Public Insurance.

John Roller, ASW P&C Global Pre-Sales Lead, Accenture Software P&C

John was a co-founder and Senior Vice-President of Product Management of Duck Creek Technologies prior to the Accenture/Duck Creek merger. Post merger he continues to work with the Product Management team in an executive advisory role, and also heads up the Global Pre-Sales team for all of ASW P&C. Since the inception of Duck Creek, John has also played several other senior leadership roles, including Operations, Professional Services, and Development. Along with his Pre-Sales and Product Management responsibilities, he is still actively engaged with the vision and delivery of the next generation of "speed to market" product tools. John previously served as Vice President of Operations at AMS Rating Services through 1999. He began with AMS in 1987 and held progressive leadership roles in the MicroMagic/AMS organization throughout his 13-year tenure. John was previously a high school educator, and he holds a bachelor's degree in Mathematics. John works out of our Bolivar, MO office.

Stuart Rose, Global Insurance Marketing Manager, SAS

Stuart Rose is Global Insurance Marketing Manager at SAS Institute. Stuart began his career as an Actuary, and now has over 20 years' experience in the insurance industry. Prior to working for SAS, Stuart worked for a leading global insurance company in both their Life and Property and Casualty divisions. He also worked for a variety of software vendors where he was responsible for marketing, product management, and application development. He has been responsible for the successful development and implementation of enterprise systems working with insurance companies in United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and South Africa. Stuart graduated from Sheffield University with a BSc in Mathematical Studies.

Michel Sabourin, President, QFD - Smart Design

Mr. Michel Sabourin, President of QFD - Smart Design, leads the technology and design of industry solutions. An ingenious thinker, with the ability to rally teams around new ideas, he has assisted and re-shaped many industries with Business Intelligence concepts and design. Sharing his knowledge and expertise with partners and teams has proven the right recipe for success.

Previously, Mr. Sabourin led a major initiative for a Global Insurer involving the re-design of the Commercial quoting system, a revolutionary game changer. He has designed numerous enterprise-wide business intelligence platforms, implementing leading-edge concepts on how information should be shared and accessed by executives, management teams, researchers/developers and end users.

Mr. Sabourin has been in the Information business his entire career. He has a passion for data and technology and his enthusiasm energizes his team. Mr. Sabourin's track record for delivering state-of-the-art, global systems, platforms and business intelligence solutions speaks for itself. He focuses on leadership and meaningful collaborations and partnerships.

Precksha Saksena-Sood, Managing Director, Telematics Update

Precksha Saksena-Sood is the Managing Director of Telematics Update, an influential business intelligence organisation within the connected car industry. Telematics Update's mission is to serve the burgeoning mobile, CE and digital industries as they converge with the automotive industry. Telematics Update currently provides cutting-edge industry news, analysis, reports and senior-level B2B conferences.

Precksha has been with the organisation for seven years and has been managing the group for four years. During her tenure, she has trebled the business, making it the foremost centre of business intelligence in the telematics industry.

Her time within the telematics industry has given her the opportunity to develop a 360 degree view of this rapidly expanding segment. Precksha has an MA in International Journalism from City University in London. She lives with her husband near the historic Tower of London. When not working, Precksha spends her time reading on various subjects, with a special interest in continental literature.

Charles Samolczyk, Senior Vice President - Sales and Marketing, Brovada

Charles is a Senior Vice President with Brovada Technologies, a leading provider of insurance-focused connectivity and automation solutions. Charles is responsible for Brovada's overall Sales and Marketing initiatives and is an active member of the senior leadership team. Since joining Brovada in 2009, Charles has been a key player in the growth and success of both the NexCenter and NexExchange product suites. Charles helps clients realize their vision and improve their day-to-day operations by leveraging Brovada's products and integration expertise.

Jackie Selby, Director - Personal Lines, Intact

Jackie has over 25 years of experience in the insurance industry and is responsible for Personal Lines internal and external technology projects at Intact Insurance.

In the past 10 years Jackie has played a key role in leading broker connectivity development with a focus on developing user friendly tools that eliminate barriers between broker and company and enhance workflow efficiency.

Steve Sigal, Senior Director, Product Management, DMTI Spatial

Steven Sigal is Senior Director - Product Management for DMTI Spatial where he is responsible for driving DMTI's product strategy and execution to establish the strategic vision and lead the execution of new features and products. Steven leads the Product Management team's mandate of gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, working with the Technology Group to define the product vision and to deliver products that enable our customers to harness the benefits of Location Intelligence.

Steven has over 13 years experience working for a variety of software vendors serving the Insurance marketplace specializing in Document Generation, Content Management, Policy Administration, Rating, Underwriting, Product Development and Location Intelligence.

Colin Simpson, President & CEO, Intrinsync Insurance Solutions Inc.

Intrinsync was founded in 2012 with the mandate to develop real business solutions that will improve the sustainability of the Independent Broker Network in Canada by making the brokerage of the future more competitive.

A long time proponent of the Independent Broker Network and Canadian Insurance businesses, Colin specializes in corporate transformation and change management. He has worked in the Insurance industry for over fifteen years and is a seasoned corporate executive and director. His recent roles have focused on the North American P&C market and have included leading Kingsway Financial Services Inc as President & CEO through, arguably, the most turbulent period of its corporate history. Colin has held other senior executive roles that have leveraged both his strategic and operational capabilities including the President & CEO of York Fire & Casualty Insurance.

Colin holds an Honours Degree in Business Law and Economics, A Masters Degree in Accounting & Finance and is a qualified CA (Scotland).

Colin Smith, Senior Vice President of Operations, OPTA Information Intelligence

Colin has more than 18 years of experience in business planning, execution, operations and information technology in continuously progressive management positions. He is recognized for his creative, innovative and collaborative approach to business and brings a well-rounded perspective to the value of information in the insurance industry. Colin currently holds the position of Senior Vice President of Operations at Opta Information Intelligence, an SCM company dedicated to helping drive profitable growth for clients by creatively deriving and delivering business value through information and innovation.

Liza Smith, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, OneShield

Liza Smith has been focused on providing insurance companies software solutions for over 12 years. She joined OneShield to spearhead the company's entry into international markets and as GM of Global Strategy, Liza is responsible for global expansion efforts. Previously, she held the position of Vice President, Global Head of Insurance for EMC Document Sciences and was responsible for the company's largest vertical. Former positions also included, General Manager at Insurance Services Office and North American Marketing Manager and Alliance Director for insurance software provider Sherwood International.

Barb Szychta, Director - Risk Management Services, Frank Cowan Company

Barb Szychta is the Director of Risk Management Services at the Frank Cowan Company. As a member of the senior management team, Barb is responsible for leading and managing both the loss control and risk analysis teams. Under Barb's direction the Risk Management Department focuses on risk inspections, contract reviews, policy & procedural analyses, risk consultations, and developing and delivering educational seminars on the risk issues facing Frank Cowan Company clients. Barb also represents Frank Cowan Company at many Municipal and Not-for-profit conferences as a key-note speaker delivering risk management messages to key industry influencers.

Barb is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University and holds her CIP, CAIB and CRM insurance designations that have lent to her 22 years of client and risk management experience. Barb has been a member of the MMS Task Force. In 2010, Barb received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Ontario Recreational Facilities Association. She joined the Frank Cowan Company in 2005 after working for many years at one of the world's largest insurance brokerage firms where she managed the insurance and risk portfolios for a number of large, global companies.

Louise Trainor, Assistant Vice President - Analytics, Economical

Louise Trainor is assistant vice-president of analytics at Economical Insurance, one of the largest property and casualty insurance companies in Canada.

Originally from Armagh, Northern Ireland, Louise began her studies in Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and completed the third year of her four-year degree at the University of Waterloo as an exchange student.

Louise started her career at Economical shortly after graduation where she held progressive leadership positions within the Actuarial department for more than ten years. Founded on her educational background in actuarial sciences and statistics, she effectively applies her analytical curiosity to overcome business challenges.

Matthew Turack, Vice President, CAA Insurance (Ontario)

Matthew Turack, is the Vice President of CAA Insurance (Ontario). CAA Insurance Company (Ontario) was founded in 1974 and is part of CAA South Central Ontario. With over 1.9 million Members, CAA South Central is the largest CAA Club in Canada. CAA Insurance Company (Ontario) provides auto and property insurance to clients in Ontario and the Maritimes. With over 13 years progressive management experience, he led the development and implementation of advanced technologies which are enabling CAA to leverage business intelligence to improve production, while maximizing profitability and reducing the combined ratios in its insurance operations through targeted risk selection.

Matthew is a high-energy professional, possessing strong management and numerate skills with a focus on bottom-line profitability. Proactive in identifying opportunities and seeking creative but practical solutions to drive business results. He possesses proven business strategy development expertise and highly effective presentation skills. His exceptional leadership abilities motivate and inspire commitment within a team and across an organization.

Andrew Van Mil, Product Management, IMS

As Product Developer Manager, Andrew Van Mil brings a rich background in software design and development as well as strong experience in project management to the IMS team. With almost thirty years of experience in the software industry, he has held management positions with eMedia Interactive, Open Text Corporation, Image Stream Communications and Microsoft Corporation. Among his strengths are specialized skills in web, local and enterprise search, document and knowledge management, communities of practice and other collaborative technologies. He is also an accomplished leader who instills passion and commitment in his capable team of engineers at IMS.

Andrew holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Jason Vander Zalm, Vice President - Information Technology, Square One Insurance

Jason ensures that Square One is effectively harnessing the transformative power of technology. He is responsible for all software and web development, system administration, physical IT infrastructure, and relationships with technology-related vendors. He joins Square One with a strong track record in business requirements analysis, project management, and software development.

Most recently, Jason spent four years at the British Columbia Automobile Association. While there, he was responsible for the feature prioritization, business analysis, and quality assurance of all of the company's business facing systems. He was also involved in a multi-million dollar rewrite of the company's policy management system and subsequent successful migration of more than a million policies.

Jason previously led the account management and software development functions at a Toronto based IT consulting company. And, he gained his strong technical background during his time as a software engineer at companies like Nokia Mobile Phones and Infowave Software.

Jason has a bachelor of science in software engineering from the University of Victoria and a master of business administration from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.

Patrick Vice, Partner, Insurance-Canada.ca

Patrick is a founding partner of Insurance-Canada.ca with more than 20 years of experience enabling technology and electronic commerce in the risk management and insurance communities. He currently serves as Director - Information Technology for the Frank Cowan Company Limited, Canada's premier provider of public entity risk management and insurance services, where he carries management responsibility for all information technology development, infrastructure, and support. Prior to his current role, Patrick held positions of increasing scope and responsibility with insurance companies, consulting firms, and technology solution providers. Read a more extensive biography here.

Lynne Von Wistinghausen, Vice President - Operations & Information Technology, CNA Canada

Lynne vonWistinghausen is the Vice President of Operations and Information Technology at CNA Canada. Her expertise includes strategic planning, business process re-engineering/process improvements, project management with the delivery of software applications/enhancements, people management and insurance operations management.

Lynne began her insurance career with Chubb Insurance Company of Canada before joining CNA in 1998 as the Manager of Ops/IT. She has since advanced her career, including the secondment to CNA Europe in 2007 to lead the restructuring of the IT and Operations departments.

Lynne holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario and a diploma in accounting from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Lynne stays actively involved in her industry and is a member of the Canadian Chief Information Officer Association and the Canadian Women in Technology Association. She also likes to keep abreast of the latest industry information, as well as continuously fine-tune her craft through various technology and project management courses and leadership programs.

Dick Welch, Principal, REW Insurance Consulting Services

Richard Welch is an independent consultant to insurance companies, agents, and service providers with a specialty in building Usage Based Insurance strategies, while also providing counsel in product management, strategic planning, underwriting strategy and business intelligence. Of late, he has been collaborating with the research and advisory firm Strategy Meets Action on research work in Usage Based Insurance/Telematics. A former CEO at the Premier Insurance Company of Massachusetts with 18 years of executive level experience, Welch is a veteran of the Property Casualty business with a broad knowledge of all aspects of insurance operations and a passion for analytics.

Rich Ward, Business Solution Architect, Pitney Bowes Software

Bio forthcoming.

Mitchell Wasserman, CEO, Oceanwide

Leveraging degrees in software engineering and accountancy, Mitchell has brought a powerful ability to break down and optimize complex processes to several technology companies for over 25 years. In 1996, Mitchell co-founded Oceanwide and has led the company as President and CEO since its inception, building the company into the market leading cloud-based insurance software application provider with the most experience and deepest customer base. Mitchell has chaired an ACORD Marine standards committee and has spoken at IUMI and AIMU events on important industry issues.

Wendy Watson, President, ORBiT

Wendy has been in the insurance industry for m9ore than thirty years, covering both the direct writer and brokerage sides of the business. Having garnered experience in underwriting, developing system user requirements and conducting systems testing with a direct writer, Wendy made a move to the brokerage side, where her abilities landed her as Vice President of Operations for a highly regarded full-service brokerage.

Wendy has represented brokers as a Beta broker for Applied Systems, then as an active member on the Canadian Interface Ad Hoc Committee of ASCNet for Applied Systems. Playing an active role in the Real Time Broker Expo hosted in Cambridge on September 16th, 2008 lit a fire to really drive real time in Canada. This passion to continue educating brokers on what is possible through the use of Real Time functions resulted in the birth of ORBiT.

As President of ORBiT, Wendy has facilitated a significant increase in collaboration amongst participants in the broker distribution channel. This collaboration is key to the ongoing development of Real Time best practice workflows, which in turn enable the education of brokers and other stakeholders. Turning what could be into what is!

Matthew Yeshin, Managing Director - Marine Practice, Marsh Canada Limited

Matthew Yeshin is marine practice leader for Marsh Canada and Manager of the Toronto Marine Group. He specializes in marine placements for clients in logistics/transportation, mining and technology.

Matthew gained practical marine insurance experience in the North American market, and while working at Marsh UK, a leading Lloyds broker in the United Kingdom.

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