SPEAKER BIOS

JOSEPH J. ANNOTTI
Assistant Vice President of Public Affairs
Property Casualty Insurers Association of America

Joseph J. Annotti is Assistant Vice President of Public Affairs for Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI). He is responsible for the overall management of the association’s media relations and grassroots political activities. He develops and delivers public policy messages on the association’s key issues to the trade, business and consumer media, and supervises the association’s grassroots program, known as EMPOWER.

Prior to joining PCI, Annotti served as vice president of marketing communications for American Business Insurance, a major national insurance broker. He spent over eight years with Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of California as vice president of public affairs. He has authored a variety of articles for insurance and journal business publications and has made presentations on media relations and grassroots political advocacy to groups across the country.

Annotti lives with his wife, Jody, and their two sons in Golf, Illinois.

BERNARD N. BOURDEAU
President
New York Insurance Association

Since 1990, Bourdeau has been President of the New York Insurance Association, Inc. (NYIA) an organization which traces its roots back to 1882. Today it is an association of about 75 property/casualty insurers licensed in New York. The primary objectives of the association are to keep members apprised of New York regulatory and legislative developments, which may affect them, and to lobby the Legislature and the Insurance Department on issues of importance to our members. In support of these objectives, NYIA also engages in communications designed to help the general public better understand insurance principles, as well as hosting a variety of seminars on emerging topics of interest.

For 12 years prior to joining the Insurance Association, Bourdeau was a senior staff advisor at the New York State Senate where his field of expertise was insurance, banking and economic development. He holds a Degree in Economics and an M.B.A. from the University at Albany. He has also received the professional designation of Certified Association Executive (CAE) from the American Society of Association Executives in 1999.

DAVID J. COLMANS
Executive Director
Georgia Insurance Information Service

David J. Colmans is a veteran trade association and marketing communications executive, and he worked for more than a decade as an electronic journalist in the southeastern United States.

He helped develop the Georgia Insurance Information Service (GIIS) in 1994 and became its executive officer in
April 1997.

Since 1990, Colmans has been president of Colmans Communications Group, Inc., a marketing consultancy focusing on trade associations management, technology and health care.

His professional specialties include trade association management; healthcare and technology marketing; and software development for the marketing communications industry.

P.J. CROWLEY
Senior Fellow and Director of National Defense and Homeland Security
Center for American Progress

Philip J. (P.J.) Crowley is a Senior Fellow and Director of National Defense and Homeland Security at the Center for American Progress.

During the Clinton administration, Crowley was Special Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Affairs, serving as Senior Director of Public Affairs for the National Security Council. Prior to that, he was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. In all, Crowley was a spokesman for the United States government and United States military for 28 years, 11 of those years at the Pentagon and three at the White House. He served for 26 years in the United States Air Force, retiring at the rank of colonel in September 1999. He is a veteran of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. During the Kosovo conflict, he was temporarily assigned to work with then NATO Secretary General Javier Solana.

Prior to joining American Progress, he served as a national spokesman for the property/casualty insurance industry, focusing on strategic industry issues that included the impact of terrorism on commercial insurance in the aftermath of the World Trade Center tragedy and to the effect of asbestos litigation on the broader economy. A native of Massachusetts, he is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and an avid Red Sox fan and golfer. He is married to Paula E. Kougeas, also a retired Air Force colonel and now a teacher. They live in Alexandria, Virginia with their children, Mary and Christopher.

ERNST N. CSISZAR
President and Chief Executive Officer, Property Casualty Insurers Association of America

Ernst Csiszar, former director of the South Carolina Department of Insurance and NAIC President, was elected to President and Chief Executive Officer of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), effective October 4, 2004.
During his term as insurance director, he served as the chair of the NAIC's International Insurance Relations Committee, vice chair of its Race-Based Premium Working Group and was the NAIC representative for the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and chairman of the IAIS Subcommittee on Securitization. He also served as a member of that organization’s Reinsurance Committee.

Additionally, he has represented the NAIC on a variety of development initiatives at the request of the United States Department of Commerce and the United Agency for International Development.

Originally from Romania, Csiszar immigrated to Canada in 1966. He earned his bachelor of law degree from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. Prior to his appointment as director of insurance in South Carolina in 1999, he served as the president and chief executive officer of Seibels Bruce Group, Inc. of Columbia, S.C., from 1995 to 1998. He was a visiting professor at the School of Business at the University of South Carolina from 1993 to 1995. He also served as managing co-director of the European investment-banking firm Holborn Holdings Corporation in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1979 to 1988.

JILL DALTON
Managing Director, Property & International Practice, New York
Marsh, Inc.

Jill Dalton is a Managing Director and Manager of the New York Property and International Practice for Marsh, Inc. Prior to taking this position, she was North American Property Practice Leader for Marsh Inc. In that role, she focused on issues surrounding terrorism; both in the private sector with insurance companies and in the public sector with the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA) which was enacted on November 26, 2002.

Dalton joined Marsh in 1985 in the NY operations where she was responsible for managing the property insurance programs for many large multinational organizations. In 1997 she moved to Marsh’s Boston operations where she managed the Property and International practice until March 2001 when she assumed the position of Practice Leader which she held for three years until March of 2004.

Dalton has a bachelor’s degree in economics and Spanish from Boston College and a master of business administration in management from Fordham University.

LARRY L. FORRESTER
President & Chief Executive Officer
Insurance Education Foundation

Larry Forrester has devoted his entire 34-year career to the insurance industry. In 2003, he retired as the President of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), the largest property/casualty insurance trade association representing 41 percent of the insurance marketplace.

As Forrester approached retirement from NAMIC, he concluded that he was not ready to turn his attention to fishing and “honey-do” lists. He was approached by the Insurance Education Foundation (IEF) and asked to join forces to educate main-street America about insurance. Since Forrester helped form the IEF in 1988, he quickly signed on as the President and CEO.

The Insurance Education Foundation has one mission: to improve the understanding of insurance and its role in society through the education of teachers and students. It has been documented that a more informed consumer is a more responsible consumer. Perhaps most importantly, educating high school students about managing the myriad of risks they face daily may help them avoid costly mistakes.

Forrester graduated from Purdue University, served in Vietnam and he and wife Diana have two married sons and one grandson.

JAMES FREDERIKSON
Executive Director
Arizona Insurance Information Association

Jim Frederikson is executive director of the Arizona Insurance Information Association. The role of the AIIA is to educate the public and media about insurance related matters; develop and disseminate material to expand public knowledge and effectuate meaningful legislative change; represent the state's major property and casualty carriers in public discussions and debate; and serve as an information resource for media, industry lobbyists, company executives, company employees and agents. AIIA also administers an industry speakers bureau and develops and coordinates industrywide marketing efforts.

Prior to joining the AIIA, Frederikson served as public relations director of the Yuma Regional Medical Center, Yuma, Arizona, where he advised division heads, managers, board members and physicians on community relations and marketing strategies. Frederikson also was a reporter for the Yuma Daily Sun and also owned and published the Banner Journal, a weekly newsletter and offset print shop.

Frederikson is co-founder and director of the Arizona DUI Task Force, a member of the Red Means Stop Coalition and a member of the Governor's Committee on Traffic Safety.

Frederikson is married with two children.

RICK GENTRY
Executive Director
Insurance Council of Texas

Rick Gentry is the executive director of the Insurance Council of Texas.

The Council is a trade association of property and casualty insurance companies operating in Texas. It represents its members in regulatory matters such as rules and forms hearings. It also sponsors educational symposium and seminars, publishes insurance manuals and forms and serves as an information clearinghouse for its members, the news media, regulatory and legislative staff.

Prior to joining the Council in 1997, Gentry served for 15 years as regional vice president of the Insurance Information Institute’s Texas office.

Gentry’s extensive public and governmental affairs background includes working for the former Texas State Board of Insurance, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Attorney General of Texas, the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and former Congressman Jake Pickle.

Gentry holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas and a Master's degree in Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

BARBARA GREENE
Consultant and Lecturer
Logos Consulting Group

Barbara Greene is an independent consultant and lecturer. She brings to her consulting practice nearly two decades of legal counseling and dispute resolution experience. Additionally, as a result of owning and operating her own business, she possesses expertise on matters relating to entrepreneurship, marketing and communications management. She has traveled and conducted business extensively in Asia, Australia, Europe and South America and is an expert on intercultural transactions and communications.

Greene practiced law actively for 14 years and worked from 1990 to 1998 as a senior legal advisor at Mitsubishi Corporation and its U.S. subsidiary, Mitsubishi International Corporation. While at Mitsubishi, she managed a broad transactional practice focused on international joint ventures and other long-term investment structures. She also advised key businesspeople on, and participated directly in, strategic planning, corporate governance and public relations matters. She became the first woman to be appointed an officer in the U.S. subsidiary. Greene began her legal career during the M&A boom of the mid-1980’s and worked as an associate at three major law firms where she specialized in commercial real estate transactions.

Prior to working with Logos Consulting, she was President and Chief Executive Officer of Barbara Greene Fine Art, Inc., an art gallery, consultancy and publishing concern she founded in 1998. She and selected artists have been featured in such prestigious publications as Art & Antiques, ArtNews, NY Arts, Asian Art News, Bomb, Traditional Home, Metropolitan Home, FotoFile, O (the Oprah Magazine), M, Zoom, and Blacklines.

Greene graduated from Harvard University in 1980 with an AB degree, cum laude, in Psychology and Social Relations. She received her JD degree in 1984 from Columbia University, where she was a Charles Evans Hughes Fellow. She also studied painting and photography at the School of Visual Arts and Parsons School of Design.

Greene serves on the board of VIP Community Services, Inc. She lectures on the topics of career transition and art collecting, and has been a guest lecturer at New York University.

ROBERT P. HARTWIG
Senior Vice President and Chief Economist
Insurance Information Institute

Robert P. Hartwig is Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for the Insurance Information Institute.

Hartwig previously served as Director of Economic Research and Senior Economist with the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) in Boca Raton, Florida, where he performed rate of return and cost of capital modeling and testified at workers’ compensation rate hearings in many states. He has also worked as Senior Economist for the Swiss Reinsurance Group in New York and as Senior Statistician for the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington, DC. He is a member of the American Economic Association, the American Risk and Insurance Association, the National Association of Business Economics and the CPCU Society.

Hartwig received his Ph.D. and Master of Science degrees in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics cum laude from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has served as an instructor at the University of Illinois and at Florida Atlantic University. Hartwig also holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) credential.

Hartwig has authored and co-authored papers that have appeared in numerous publications, including the Journal of Health Economics, the Proceedings of the Casualty Actuarial Society, the John Liner Review (where he also serves on the editorial board), Dossiers et Etudes (Geneva Association), the Journal of Workers’ Compensation, Global Reinsurance, Risk & Insurance, Insurance Day, Compensation and Benefits Review, and is a regular contributor to National Underwriter and many other industry trade publications.

Hartwig also makes frequent presentations to industry associations, company management, industry executives and analysts and speaks internationally on a wide range of insurance issues. He has testified before numerous regulatory and legislative bodies, including the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises.

Hartwig serves as a media spokesperson for the property/casualty insurance industry, and is quoted frequently in leading publications such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, Business Week, NewsWeek, U.S. News & World Report, CFO, Fortune, Forbes, The Economist and many others throughout the world. Dr. Hartwig also appears regularly on television, including appearances on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, CNBC, Fox, PBS and the BBC.

GARY R. KERNEY, AIC, RPA
Assistant Vice President
Property Claim Services
Insurance Services Office, Inc.

Gary Kerney has been with Property Claim Services (PCS) since 1981. During that time, he has been responsible for catastrophe identification, loss estimating, and catastrophe response and mitigation activities. He manages PCS divisional operations while remaining involved with catastrophe issues affecting both the private and public sectors.

PCS is a unit of the Insurance Services Offices, Inc. PCS interacts with over 850 insurance and reinsurance companies around the world. PCS specializes in catastrophe loss adjustment issues and other matters involving the property insurance business. Serving primary insurers, reinsurance companies, Fairs Plans, and wind pools, and other organizations affiliated with the insurance industry, the PCS staff conducts a wide variety of projects in catastrophe management, professional education, and industry communications.
After graduating with a BA from Rutgers College, Kerney began his career as an independent adjuster and value appraiser with GAB Business Services, Inc.

Kerney holds the professional designation of Associate In Claims (AIC) from the Insurance Institute of America, and he is qualified as a Registered Professional Adjuster (RPA). He is a member of the Loss Executives Association and served as the organization's President from 2000 to 2002. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Society of Registered Professional Adjusters. He is a member of the Response and Recovery Committee of the Institute for Business and Home Safety. In addition, Kerney is an associate member of the National Emergency Management Association.

Kerney has published numerous articles on catastrophe related subjects.

MAGDALENA PADILLA, Esq.
President
Insurance Council of New Jersey

As chief executive staff officer for the Insurance Council of New Jersey, Padilla oversees the general operations of the organization and serves as primary spokesperson for New Jersey’s insurance industry. Before the Board of Directors named her President in 2004, she served as Vice President, Government Affairs and Counsel for the Insurance Council. She brings considerable state government, legal and business experience to this important position. Most recently, she was Director, Business & Economic Policies for the New Jersey Commerce & Economic Growth Commission and served as Acting Secretary of the Commission.

Her broad background also includes time as Assistant Counsel to the Governor of New Jersey. One of her major accomplishments, while serving in that position, was the drafting of the complex legislation that created the Commerce and Economic Growth Commission. She also coordinated the inter-departmental and legislative lobbying effort to support the Commission's creation. In addition, Padilla served as Legislative Liaison for the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs and as Deputy Attorney General in the New Jersey Attorney General's Office. During her tenure in the Attorney General's Office, she served as counsel to the Department of Insurance, prosecuted violations of the New Jersey Insurance Fraud Act as well as counsel to the Division of Consumer Affairs.

After receiving her Bachelor’s degree from Fordham University, she attended the United States Army Intelligence Center and School at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. She then attended Rutgers Law School and earned her J.D. in 1990.

She is the vice-chair of the New Jersey State Bar Military Law Section and a member of the Executive Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Insurance Law Section. A 2000 Fellow of Leadership New Jersey, she is also a Board member of Peirce College in Philadelphia, PA.

JULIE A. ROCHMAN
Senior Vice President of Public Affairs
American Insurance Association

Julie Rochman is Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for the American Insurance Association (AIA), the leading national public policy advocacy organization for property-casualty insurance companies. A member of AIA’s senior management team, Rochman and her staff are responsible for developing and executing issue-specific communications strategies to advance AIA efforts at both the state and federal levels. These campaigns include paid and earned media, as well as grassroots operations. She also represents AIA on the Highway Loss Data Institute Board of Directors.

Rochman has nearly 20 years of public affairs and government affairs experience representing the insurance industry, as well as public health and safety organizations. She is both an association and industry spokesperson, regularly consulted and quoted by national print, broadcast and electronic media on a variety of property-casualty insurance-related issues. She counts among her most significant professional achievements managing all public affairs aspects of the successful effort to enact the federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002.

From November 1996 until joining the AIA near the end of 2000, Rochman was Vice President of Communications for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Prior to her stint at the IIHS, she was Assistant Vice President of Public Affairs for the Alliance of American Insurers. Before joining the Alliance, she worked for the Insurance Information Institute, at an advertising agency, for a public health organization dedicated to preventing drunk driving and for a global insurance brokerage.

A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Rochman earned a B.A. in international relations from Tulane University and a master’s degree in American government from the University of Virginia. She resides in Washington, DC.

GREGORY V. SERIO
Superintendent of Insurance, New York

Gregory V. Serio was nominated as Superintendent of Insurance by Governor George E. Pataki on April 10, 2001 and was confirmed as New York's 39th Superintendent by the State Senate on May 9, 2001. Prior to his appointment as Superintendent, Serio served for six years as First Deputy Superintendent and as General Counsel of the Department for three years.

Previously, Serio served from 1989 to 1994 as Chief Counsel to the Senate Standing Committee on Insurance, and as Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman and Deputy Majority Leader. Before entering public service, he was associated with the Long Island law firm of Rivkin, Radler, Dunne and Bayh and has also served as of counsel to the Albany law firm of Crane, Kelley, Greene and Parente. In addition, Serio has also served as adjunct professor of public administration at C.W. Post College of Long Island University.

Among the many programs and initiatives undertaken and accomplished at the New York Insurance Department, Serio was instrumental in the efforts to bring captive insurance companies to New York, to streamline the product approval process, to bring on-line electronic processing of new and renewal licenses and to implement New York's groundbreaking Healthy NY program. Additionally, as Superintendent, he has directed the development of the State's disaster coalition and insurance emergency operations center and the development of the Health Care Roundtable, a forum for the debating of significant health insurance and health policy issues.

Serio is the 2001 recipient of the Government Official of the Year award from the Chamber Alliance of New York. He also has been honored with the 1996 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from Albany Law School and the 1996 Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. During his tenure, the Department has also received the Governor's Regulatory Reform Award (1997), the Theodore Roosevelt Ethics Award (2001), the Rockefeller Institute's Best of Web Award (2002) and the New York Training Council's Excellence Award (2002).

Serio is involved in numerous local organizations, including the Albany Law School Government Law Center where he serves on its advisory council. He is also a past chief and active member of the Verdoy Fire Department in Latham, New York and has served the Town of Colonie in numerous capacities.

A native of West Hempstead, Nassau County, he resides in Latham, Albany County, with his wife, Linda and daughter, Katharine Justine.

JEFFREY SKELTON
Assistant Vice President for Personal Insurance Legislative Affairs
ChoicePoint

Jeffrey Skelton is the Assistant Vice President for Personal Insurance Legislative Affairs at ChoicePoint. ChoicePoint is the leading provider of identification and credential verification services for making smarter decisions in today’s fast-paced world. He joined ChoicePoint in 2002 to aid the company in its effort to educate regulators and legislators about the companies’ insurance products.

Prior to joining ChoicePoint, Skelton was a lobbyist for insurance and banking industry clients. He also served as government relations director for the Georgia Department of Insurance for three years.

ELIZABETH A. SPRINKEL
Senior Vice President
American Institute for CPCU/ Insurance Institute of America

Beth Sprinkel serves as senior vice president of the Institutes and heads the Insurance Research Council (IRC), a division of the Institutes. The IRC examines public policy issues relating to all lines of property and casualty insurance that affect insurers, their customers and the general public. Through extensive data collection and analysis of that data, the IRC produces research that assists insurers and others in making sound decisions on legislative and regulatory issues. The IRC does not advocate public policy, directly influence specific legislative initiatives or lobby. It is supported by leading property and casualty insurance organizations.

Sprinkel also heads the Publications Department and is responsible for the instructional design, graphic design, editing, production and internal and external printing of the Institutes’ educational, marketing and research materials.

She joined the IRC in Wheaton, Illinois, in 1987 and served in various research positions. She assumed her current position when the IRC became a division of the Institutes in 1998. Before joining the IRC, she was with National Economic Research Associates in White Plains, N.Y.

Sprinkel earned a Master of Science degree in managerial economics and decision sciences from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in 1982. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, cum laude, from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, in 1980.

Sprinkel is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA) and the Society of Insurance Research (SIR).

GORDON STEWART
President
Insurance Information Institute

Gordon Stewart is president of the Insurance Information Institute which he joined in July 1989. Stewart came to the I.I.I. after a career in politics, business, theater and teaching.

From 1982 to 1989, he was vice president for public affairs at the American Stock Exchange. Before going to the Exchange, Stewart served in the White House as deputy chief speechwriter to President Carter. Earlier, he was chief speechwriter and executive assistant for programs and policies to New York City Mayor John Lindsay.

Before joining the Carter White House, he was the original director of the play, "Elephant Man," and has directed and conducted productions at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center and the Edinburgh Festival, among others. Prior to that Stewart taught English and Drama at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

Since becoming president of the Insurance Information Institute, Stewart has focused its work on improving public understanding of insurance, primarily through the global media. The I.I.I. now provides assistance on an average of 14 stories per working day and covers all aspects of print, magazines, television, radio and new electronic media.

The I.I.I. today is generally recognized as the most credible and frequently used single source of information and referral concerning a widely diverse industry. Its Board represents companies from all sides of the industry. In addition, some twenty other insurance organizations contract with I.I.I. for media services.

Stewart has also led in the creation of significant new industry-wide efforts such as the Hurricane Insurance Information Center in Florida following Hurricane Andrew, a precedent which was repeated after the Northridge earthquake and the Malibu fires, and is ready to be redeployed for large events.

Also new is the Property/Casualty Insurance Joint Industry Forum which brings together the major insurance company associations for the first time in an annual meeting.

I.I.I. is involved in products as diverse as original research with the National Bureau of Economic Research, through widely used consumer publications, to maintaining the National Insurance Consumer Helpline on behalf of the entire U.S. property/casualty industry.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Oberlin College, Stewart also holds a master's degree from the University of Chicago; a certificate in theatre and music from the University of Vienna; and a master's in fine arts from the Yale University Drama School. Stewart is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Association. He is secretary of the Judson Welliver Society of former chief presidential speechwriters.

PHILIP W. STICHTER
Executive Director
The Griffith Foundation for Insurance Education

Since 1993, Philip Stichter has served as Executive Director of The Griffith Foundation for Insurance Education, a non-profit and 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization working with state legislators, state regulators, professors of risk management and insurance, executives, and practitioners to promote the teaching of risk management and insurance by colleges and universities, to encourage student participation in these disciplines, and to offer education programs for public policymakers on the basics of risk management and insurance.

For the last eight years he has also served as a part-time consultant with Rector & Associates, Inc., a regulatory and corporate planning consulting firm on insurance issues. Previously, he was Executive and Senior Vice President of Grange Insurance Companies with management responsibilities for pricing and actuarial services, personnel, training, building and purchasing services, insurance records, corporate security and special investigation unit. He also served as Partner in the firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease specializing in insurance, corporate, and administrative law matters. His broad range of practice included property, liability, life, health, reinsurance, and surplus lines insurance issues; corporate governance, organizational structures, and corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, and demutualizations; policyholders, agents, brokers, and underwriters; impact of federal laws on state regulation; state law compliance issues; and preparation of legislative proposals, contracts and legal opinions. In addition, from 1969-1972 he was Assistant Superintendent of Insurance for the State of Ohio, serving as the in-house counsel for the Department of Insurance, with extensive involvement in statutory interpretation issues, drafting of legislation, corporate transactions, liquidations, rule-making, enforcement proceedings and liaison with the Attorney General's office and with the state legislative committees dealing with insurance issues.

He earned a J.D. Degree from Harvard Law School, Bachelor of Arts Degree from Northwestern University and was a U.S. Naval Officer on active duty from 1960-1963. Born in Toledo, Ohio, he is married with three sons.

JOSEPH B. TREASTER
Insurance Reporter
The New York Times

Joseph B. Treaster has been a reporter for The New York Times for more than thirty years. He began his career with The Times as a foreign correspondent in Southeast Asia and has reported from dozens of countries in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean for The Times and other publications.

While based in New York, he wrote about illegal drugs, crime, and terrorism for several years and traveled on special assignments to the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and the Baltic states before studying at the Columbia Business School on a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in 1995 and 1996 and shifting to financial news reporting for The Times.

He has received numerous journalism awards for his work domestically and internationally, including three from the Overseas Press Club of America for work in Africa and Latin America.

VINCENT J. TROSINO
President, Vice Chairman of the Board & Chief Operating Officer
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

Vincent J. Trosino is president, vice chairman of the board and chief operating officer of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Bloomington, Illinois.

He is also vice chairman of the board of State Farm Fire and Casualty Company and State Farm Life Insurance Company. He is a member of the board of directors and executive committees of State Farm General Insurance, State Farm Lloyds, Inc., State Farm Life and Accident Assurance and State Farm Annuity and Life Insurance companies. He serves on the board of directors of State Farm Investment Management Corp. and State Farm International Services, Inc. and the executive committees of State Farm Mutual and State Farm Fire and Casualty.

Trosino joined State Farm in the Pennsylvania regional office in 1962. He moved to the home office in 1967 and was named director – home office personnel relations in 1972. He served as division manager and deputy regional vice president in the Southern California regional office through 1980 and was named regional vice president for the Northeastern regional office in 1981. He was elected vice president in the President's Office in 1986, executive vice president in 1987, chief operating officer for State Farm Mutual in 1991, vice chairman in 1994 and president in 1998.

Trosino received a bachelor's degree from Villanova University, Villanova, Pa., and a master's degree from Illinois State University, Normal. He taught human resources management at Illinois State.

He was elected to the Brookings Institution Board of Trustees in 1996, where he serves on the executive committee and the budget and finance committee. He joined the Board of Directors of the Insurance Information Institute in 2002 and the Board of Directors of Vulcan Materials Company in 2003. Trosino is past chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Institute for CPCU, the Insurance Institute of America and the Insurance Institute for Applied Ethics.

In 1992, Trosino was appointed to the Judicial Inquiry Board by Illinois Governor Jim Edgar, where he served two consecutive four-year terms. He is a former member of the board of directors and executive committee of the American Judicature Society, a national organization that promotes excellence in courts.

He served on the Illinois State University Foundation Board of Directors from 1989 to 1997 and as chairman from 1993 to 1997. He also serves on the Villanova University College of Commerce and Finance Board of Advisors and is past chairman of the advisory board of the Children’s Foundation of McLean County, Ill.

He is the recipient of the 2001 Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Humanitarian of the Year Award and was named to the board of directors of The National Italian American Foundation in 2002.

CAROLE WALKER
Executive Director
Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association

Carole Walker is Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association (RMIIA). RMIIA is a non-profit, non-lobbying communications organization that serves property/casualty insurers in the Rocky Mountain Region.

Walker has a B.A. in broadcast journalism from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. For eleven years, Walker worked as a television news reporter and anchor for ABC, NBC and CNN affiliates in Washington, Montana and Wisconsin. Walker has won numerous industry awards for her work as a television journalist, including an Associated Press Award for Enterprise Journalism and a Positive Press Award for a series on urban neighborhood groups.

The RMIIA office in Denver is a clearing house for statistical and background information on safety and insurance-related issues. Walker serves as an industry spokesperson to the media in the four-state region of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

DAVID A. WINSTON
Senior Vice President-Federal Affairs
National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies

David A. Winston joined NAMIC in 2003 as Senior Vice President-Federal Affairs. He leads the association's federal lobbying efforts from its Washington, D.C. office.

An accomplished Capitol Hill veteran, Winston has more than two decades of federal government and insurance industry experience and has worked on a wide variety of legislative and regulatory issues affecting the insurance industry.

Prior to joining NAMIC, Winston spent more than 22 years with the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), where he was most recently vice president, functioning as chief federal lobbyist, and managing their Government Affairs Department and grassroots efforts. Prior to joining NAIFA, he served on the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

He earned a J.D. degree at Vermont Law School and an A.B. from Washington University, St. Louis, and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Winston is president of the J&M Foundation, a private foundation supporting education, the arts and medical research. He is also a member of the Washington University Regional Cabinet in Washington, D.C., and the Government Affairs Committee of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.