Jeff Kroeger is Chief Commercial Officer for Insureon, the number one independent marketplace for online delivery of small business insurance. 

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Jeff is responsible for Insureon's sales, marketing and operational functions along with long-term strategy.  Before his promotion to Chief Commercial Officer in June 2020, Jeff was Insureon's Executive Vice President of Strategy and Development.

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Jeff has more than a decade of experience in the commercial insurance industry working for top insurance carriers, such as The Hartford and CNA Insurance. At The Hartford, Jeff held multiple roles, all with increasing responsibility. His final position, was serving as the Head of Strategic Partners and Programs, responsible for developing and supporting national insurance partners, identifying new ventures, and designing and launching a countrywide distribution strategy. 

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Jeff sits on the board of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation, serving as the Chair of the Midwest Division. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

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Elisabeth is the commercial underwriting leader for CNA‚ Chicago branch. In her role, she leads a group of 25 underwriting professionals to drive growth and profit. She is passionate about building and leading high performing teams and developing individuals to realize their highest potential.

With 16 years of experience in the insurance industry, she has held various leadership roles with increasing responsibility. Prior to joining CNA, Elisabeth began her career with The Hartford.

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She is a graduate of The Michael F. Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma.

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Debbie Babcock's background includes experience in banking, marketing, and brokering in the commodity, securities, and insurance industries. She administers special projects for the Katie School of Insurance and Risk Management at Illinois State University including the Lloyd's of London annual program, Insurance Executive Forum, Katie School Golf Classic, Katie School Scholarship Program, Risk Manager on Campus Program, Executive-on-Campus Program, international internships, Katie School alumni events and the Katie School Hall of Fame Dinner plus external industry networking and outreach. She is also Advisor to the insurance fraternity, Gamma Iota Sigma, Alpha Kappa Chapter.

Ms. Babcock received a B.S. from the University of Illinois and is a current board member of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation - Midwest Division and past Volunteer Chair and member of the Executive Committee; board member of the Association of Professional Insurance Women; member of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) and past Board Member of the Mid-Illinois Chapter of RIMS; member of the Chicagoland Risk Forum Committee: member of the Association of Lloyd's Brokers, PLUS and the Katie School Advisory Board of Executives, past board member of the Spencer Educational Foundation; and past Board member of and President's Award recipient from the American Risk and Insurance Association.

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TJ Collins serves as an Executive Vice President for Amwins Insurance Brokerage.  In addition to leading a team concentrating on casualty placements in the wholesale segment of the industry, TJ assists in co-leading the Kansas City office.  He also holds many internal leadership roles and committee chairs internally at Amwins.  Since graduating from The University of Missouri in 2011, TJ has held many board seats at various charities in Kansas City.  He has 12 years of insurance experience and nine years on the wholesale side of the industry.  TJ is married with one son.

Arun is a Partner in KPMG’s Insurance Practice. He leads theChicago office’s insurance market growth initiatives and audit technology development/deployment. He is also heavily involved in, and passionate about the Firm’s national recruitment efforts, specifically those outreaches to ensure professionals from underrepresented groups choose and succeed at KPMG.

Arun has over 17 years of experience serving the insurance industry in both an audit and advisory capacity. His focus extends across the insurance industry, serving accident and health, property and casualty, and life and annuity clients.

Arun has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Finance from Indiana University, and is a licensed CPA in Illinois and NewYork.

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Mimi Fiske is a graduate of Manhattan College with a degree inMarketing and Computer Information Systems.  She began her 27 year insurance journey with General Star Management Company in New York City. She helped launch the Excess Casualty division with Liberty International before spending a decade with Argo Group in Chicago.  At Argo, she most recently served as Vice President and Excess Casualty Division Manager, managing a large book of excess and surplus risks.  After a short tenure with Peachtree Special Risks as Vice President and Casualty Broker, Mimi helped launch the surplus lines platform at XL.  She is currently the RegionalPresident of Markel Midwest and holds the Associate in Surplus Lines Insurance designation.  She is married with 2 sons.

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SteveGray serves as the Regional Vice President for The Hartford‚ Middle and LargeCommercial business in the Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky; and Michigan regions. In this role, Steve‚ primary responsibility is to provide sales and underwriting leadership; inclusive of account stewardship, employee satisfaction, and the establishment of The Hartford as a provider of choice for our distribution partners.  

Steve has 23 years‚ experience with The Hartford and has been tasked with numerous leadership responsibilities in Small Commercial and Middle Market.  Additionally,Steve serves Chairman of the IICF Ohio Chapter Board of Directors. 

Gray received his Bachelor of Business Administration from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.  He holds his CIC and CRM designations.

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Laura Hollerich is a Managing Director in the Advisory Services practice ofErnst & Young LLP based in Chicago. Laura has deep experience in global broker, carrier and client relationship management.

Laura has more than 20 years of global insurance experience as both a consultant and serving senior client positions. Laura has led many multi-year transformation initiatives covering business process redesign, technology, distribution strategy and capability development.

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Gianne James began her career at FIRST Insurance Funding (FIRST), a division of Lake Forest Bank & Trust Company, N.A., a Wintrust Community Bank, 15 years ago and worked in various capacities managing front-end operations teams and leading the Integrated Solutions Department until October 2021. James currently serves as the SVP of Governance and Assurance managing a multi-faceted department focused on oversight, compliance reporting, BSA monitoring, and quality control.  

James passionately leads diversity and inclusion efforts at FIRST. She, along with the leadership at FIRST, are dedicated to promoting pathways to career development that ensure a diverse and equitable workplace.

A proud graduate of Spelman College and a 2022 Chicago Urban League IMPACT Fellow, James and her husband raise their three sons in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

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Based in Chicago, Chris oversees the Midwest Region forLiberty Mutual‚ Global Risk Solutions Group. Global Risk Solutions include the operating units of Liberty Mutual National Insurance, North American Specialty (Ironshore), Surety and Liberty Specialty Markets' US underwriting teams.

Chris joined Liberty Mutual in 2017 with the acquisition of Ironshore. Prior to Liberty Mutual, Chris was Ironshore's Regional Executive for the Midwest and led the Central Region Property team. Prior to Ironshore, Chris worked with Lexington Insurance Company on the Property team in the New York Region and Commonwealth Insurance in Vancouver, Canada.

Chris has a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from theUniversity of Victoria. Chris is an avid skier, loves the outdoors and has three boys, Patrick, Liam, and Finley with his wife Katherine.

Jennifer Kratochvil is a Banking & Finance partner in the Chicago office of Mayer Brown LLP. She represents lenders and borrowers in syndicated secured and unsecured lending transactions, letter of credit transactions, and other financing transactions.  In particular, she focuses on financing transactions for insurance companies, including letter of credit facilities for credit for reinsurance and general revolving credit facilities and term loans.  

Amy Littleton is president of Stretch PR, a full-service creative public relations agency that delivers results. She is a PR strategist and business leader who is focused on delivering powerful communications and integrated brand activation programs to business and consumer clients. Amy’s goal is to combine storytelling with technology to connect brands and people in meaningful ways.

Previously,Amy was president of Reputation Partners, a strategic business communications agency, and executive vice president and managing director of KemperLesnik, a public relations, brand activation, content marketing and events agency regularly recognized among Chicago’s Best and Brightest Places to Work®. Over more than two decades, Amy has handled public relations campaigns and delivered communications results for many blue-chip clients, including Allstate, Aon Plc., KitchenAid, PwC, Whirlpool Corp., and many more.

Amy has also held communications positions at Edelman, Slack & Co., General Mills, Inc., and her own PR consultancy Littleton Consulting.

Amy holds a MBA from Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business, a BS from The Florida State University and a Certificate in Leadership from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She is past president of the Public Relations Society of America Chicago; board member of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation; and founder and president of the non-profit Friends of Catherine and Channel Lakes. Follow Amy at LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Jessica McMahon serves as the Regional Vice President for Zurich’s Large Property team in the Midwest. The offices under her leadership include Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis and Kansas City. Jessica is based out of Chicago and has been with Zurich 14 years, starting with an internship in college. Jessica received her Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. She has two children – James and Vera with her husband Drew.

Melissa is the product line leader at USAA P&C Company for Renters and all Specialty Property products.  

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Florida State University and an MBA from Mercer University.

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Sean Prestipino is currently the Regional Vice President for the Chicago Regional Office for The Hartford’s Middle and Large Commercial Business. Sean is responsible for delivering a best-in-class work environment, while being the acknowledged Commercial Lines enterprise leader for the Hartford in the states of IL/MN/WI/ND/SD. He has held this role since November ’22. Sean has over 20 years of industry experience and has been an employee of The Hartford since 2003.

Prior to this role, Sean held various positions within the Hartford’s Financial Lines/GlobalSpecialty organization. Most recently, Sean held the title of Head of MiddleMarket Management Liability.  In this role, Sean was responsible for talent management, sales & underwriting execution, and P&L leadership of the Hartford’s Retail Private and Not-For-Profit Management Liability business.  

Sean is a graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance.  Sean currently resides in a suburb of Chicago with his wife and 2 children, and in his spare time enjoys both officiating and coaching youth sports.

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In September 2004, Bill joined the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation as Chief Executive Officer and is responsible for the overall operation and strategic direction of the Foundation.

Bill comes to the Foundation after a 31-year career with the Walt Disney Company, having worked in the Parks and Resorts division with assignments in Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Resort in Paris. He was a member of the executive team that managed the $2 billion expansion of the Disneyland Resort in Southern California. Bill has a broad background in marketing, communications, planning and development and external relations. He is a chairman emeritus of the Orange County Business Council.

He has served on numerous nonprofit boards throughout California such as the California Golden State Museum, Children’s Hospital Orange County and Cypress College Foundation. He is a strong advocate of education and completed his undergraduate and graduate degree at California State University Fullerton. In 1989 he was recognized as a distinguished alumnus. Prior to his business career he lectured at California State University, Fullerton for five years.

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Amanda Ruback is the Managing Director for AIG’s Chicago Region geography, including Illinois and Wisconsin. In this role, she is responsible for AIG’s execution in the marketplace with our brokers and clients across retail- and wholesale-distributed products (e.g., AIG and Lexington), including direct management of the Distribution team. Prior to starting this role, she spent her prior four years as Managing Director for the AIG Dallas Region leading the northern Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas geographies.

As a ~20 year industry veteran, Amanda’s experience prior to AIG includes both on the broker and client side. In her broker roles, she spent time with Lockton Companies in Kansas City, New York, Dallas, and Chicago, most recently leading their Chicago-based Risk Management focus, as well as Frank Crystal (now Alliant) in New York. As a client, Amanda was Global Risk Manager for Starwood Capital Group in Greenwich, CT, and Senior Treasury Risk Manager with PepsiCo in Purchase, NY. Her technical experience in those roles included leadership and execution of complex global risk finance, private equity / mergers & acquisition, and operational change management.

Amanda is an avid supporter of DEI initiatives, as well as coaching and developing talent for the industry. She is moving back to Chicago from Dallas with her husband, Eric, and their two boys, Sebastian (9) and Brooks (7).

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Based in Chicago, Bryant oversees the Midwest Region for Burns & Wilcox.  The offices under his leadership include Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis

Bryant joined Burns and Wilcox in 2014 as a Property Broker. Prior to Burns and Wilcox, Bryant worked in various roles at Liberty Mutual, Aon and Willis

Bryant has a Bachelor of Economics from Michigan State University where he was also captain of the Swim Team. Bryant is an avid golfer, tennis and paddle player and has two boys ‚ Brooks and Teddy with his wife Julie.

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Darcy has been in the insurance and technology spaces for nearly three decades.  Initially part of TeamApplied from 1986 – 1993, Darcy rejoined the company in 2004. As a 25-year veteran with Applied, Darcy has held leadership roles in Customer Education, Product Management, and Product Strategy. She lead a design team responsible for the build-out and launch of Applied Epic ^®, the world’s premium broker management system used daily in four countries by over 160,000 insurance professionals. As Vice President, Education Services, Darcy was responsible for reimaging the organization’s customer training program and led the charge in ensuring successful end-user training with Applied’s largest customers.  Prior to coming back to Applied, she spent 11 years helping insurance carriers such as CNA, American Family Insurance, Allstate, and Lincoln National Corporation solve big data challenges.

Today, Darcy is leveraging her skills in leadership, customer success, learning & development, consulting, product management, and sales to drive success with some of Applied’s largest, and most strategic customers. 

Darcy sits on the board of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation’s Midwest Division and The Big ‘I’’sInvest Program. A graduate of Purdue University with a B.S. in Systems Analysis and Design, she lives in Chicago with her husband and two sons and enjoys water and snow skiing, traveling, food, and being around great people.

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