The International Association of Claim Professionals (IACP) hosted its Annual U.S. Regional Conference on Thursday, June 1st at the Union League Club in Midtown Manhattan. The conference was co-chaired by Edward Quinn, President, and Catherine Kalaydjian, IACP Director Corporate Development and IACP Past President, working closely with other committee members, Marc Karnell, Chuck Kroh, Corinne Kruse, John LaCava, Frank Nicoletti, and Rich Traub. The conference was again well attended by well over 100 participants and supported by a cast of industry leading professionals.
The Keynote speaker featured Dante Alighieri Disparte, Founder and CEO, Risk Cooperative, highlighting the instrumental role that our industry can provide in dealing with the evolving world of risk. The discussion of the convergence of man-made and natural risks and how the industry can more boldly address the concept of resilience, through innovation at all levels, using analytics and creativity to deal with the known and unknowns, like pandemics such as Zika and Ebola as well as the major power outage on the Eastern seaboard, was thought provoking.
The introductory speaker featured, Mark Dombroff, Partner with Dentons U.S., who riveted the audience with gripping stories and videos of several aviation disasters that he has worked on, clearly demonstrating successful strategies he has applied to reach positive resolutions for his clients; Carl Hedde, Head of Risk Accumulations, Munich Re America, brought needed focus to the impressive results of as a result of improvements in fortified construction; Tracey Haley, AVP and Director, Surety & Financial Claims at Zurich N.A., provided an insightful perspective on the tripartite nature of Surety Claims, and the associated complications in their resolution. The afternoon program led off with a timely panel discussion on the increasing frequency and volatility of Securities Class Actions, moderated by Heather Fox, General Counsel, ARC Excess and Surplus and panel members, Peter Critchell, VP, D&O Financial Lines Claims at AIG and Laurence Rosen of The Rosen Law Firm; followed by Christopher Grant McDaniel, of Deloitte Consulting and Digital Security on the power of BlockChain and Jonathan Nguyen-Duy, VP at Fortinet, who challenged the audience to recognize the constant exposures, occurring on a daily basis related to cyber-crime and importance of diligent cyber security.