Barbara Bufkin, Senior Advisor, AmWINS Access

Barbara's four decades in the insurance and reinsurance industry have spanned leadership roles encompassing operational and strategic responsibilities, including business origination and product development, underwriting, claims, risk management/corporate governance and ceded and assumed reinsurance, while fostering a culture of innovation, mentorship, and diverse talent. 

Throughout the past six years, Barbara has focused her career at the intersection of distribution, underwriting, technology and capital in specialty businesses. Barbara currently serves as a Senior Advisor at AmWINS Access. She previously held leadership roles at Hamilton USA, Guy Carpenter, Argo Group and Swiss Re.

As current Chair of the International Board of Governors of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) and President of the Association of Professional Insurance Women (APIW), Barbara has been directly engaged in the global and national Women in Insurance Conference series. Concurrently, she advocates for the value of the insurance industry as a career of choice in her role as Co-President and Board of Trustee of Gamma Iota Sigma (GIS) and as a keynote speaker on The Power of Purpose in various insurance industry forums. In these initiatives, Barbara has been driving the Big Tent of culture, inclusion, innovation, sponsorship, mentoring talent and the power of networks.  

In 2019, Barbara was inducted into Insurance Business America’s Hall of Fame.

Liz Kramer is the President, E&S for Munich Re Specialty Insurance, Munich Re’s primary specialty insurance operation focused primarily on property, casualty and specialty lines.

Liz brings expertise in leading underwriting divisions in addition to specialty insurance from her previous roles at global re/insurance organizations. Prior to joining Munich Re Specialty Insurance, Kramer served as Senior Vice President, Head Technical Underwriting – Alternative Markets, at Zurich N.A. Prior to that role, Liz led Technical Underwriting for all Casualty lines across North America. From 1993 to 2017, Liz held a variety of roles at Gen Re, most recently as North America Treaty Strategy Manager and P&C Line Of Business Product Manager.

Liz received her MBA in International Business in 2000 from McGill University’s 2-year MBA Japan program in Tokyo, Japan, and her BA in Economics in 1990 from State University of New York in Binghamton. She has earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) designations.

Associate Director
Katie School of Insurance
Campus Box 5490
Normal, IL 61790

Debbie Babcock administers special projects for the Katie School of Insurance at Illinois State University including Lloyd's of London programs, Insurance Executive Forum, Katie School Golf Classic, Katie School Scholarship Program, international internships and Katie School alumni events. She is advisor to the Alpha Kappa Chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma. 

Ms. Babcock received a B.S. from the University of Illinois and is a current board member of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF)-Midwest Division and the Association of Professional Insurance Women; past board member of the Spencer Educational Foundation, American Risk and Insurance Association(ARIA) and the Mid-IL Chapter of RIMS; and a current member of the Association of Lloyd’s Brokers,  the Insurance Supper Club, Dive-In, the Chicago RIMS Chapter, PLUS and ARIA. She was honored as the 2018 IICF Trailblazer of the Year and with the ARIA President’s Award.

Vanessa Contreras is Senior Vice President and US Casualty Team Leader at SCOR Reinsurance in Chicago, Illinois.  In her current role she is responsible for managing the strategic direction, profitability, and client relationships for Scor’s US Casualty portfolio.  Vanessa held the role of Senior Vice President and Deputy Team Leader for Professional Lines prior to being promoted to her current role in January of 2022.  She began her career as a Risk Analyst at Munich Re, later becoming an Underwriter in Princeton, NJ. Prior to Munich Re, she worked for State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, IL.

Vanessa holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Risk Management and Insurance from The Katie School of Insurance at Illinois State University. She holds a CPCU and ARe, and is working towards her RPLU. Vanessa served on The Reinsurance Under 40s Board for six years and is also an active member of the APIW, PLUS, and the ISC Group. She has successfully completed the LAMP program though PLUS and the ASPIRE Leadership Program through SCOR. In 2015, Vanessa was included in Intelligent Insurer's list of 40 Rising Stars Under 35.  In 2020, Vanessa was selected by Insurance Business America as a Rising Star in Insurance.  Most recently, Vanessa was honored as the 2022 Young Leader of the Year by The Katie School of Insurance at Illinois State.

Ashley Emanuel is a Vice President on the US Treaty Casualty team at Everest. She is currently based in Everest’s Stamford, Connecticut office. In Ashley’s current role at Everest, she underwrites all lines of casualty business ranging from D&O to Umbrella/Excess portfolios. She is also a dedicated mentor within the Everest organization where she actively engages and guides early talent through her participation on various internal panel discussions. She is also a participant in Everest’s Reinsurance Associate Program where she recently supported and guided an associate through their 6-month rotation within the Treaty Casualty unit. In addition to her professional responsibilities, Ashley serves as the DEI representative for the Stamford Connecticut office where she champions initiatives that foster an inclusive and equitable workplace.

Ashley began her career at Broome Cooperative Insurance Company located in Binghamton, NY. At BCIC she managed the Commercial Lines portfolio which included both property and casualty exposures for BOPs, CPPs and Artisan Contractors. Before entering the reinsurance space, she also worked at Chubb on the Private Non-Profit Professional Lines team which enabled her to broaden her casualty knowledge base. After completing her MBA from Penn State, she made the move to reinsurance and has held underwriting positions at AXA XL and Odyssey Re before joining Everest in 2021.

Connie is a growth-minded executive and leader with over 25 years of international insurance
leadership experience. She has enthusiastically led primary casualty, excess casualty, energy,
environmental, life science and products recall businesses.

With an entrepreneurial focus, Connie’s strength is building businesses from the ground up as
well as reforming and nurturing existing businesses. Her relentless focus on increased
profitability and growth has resulted in sustainable and scalable builds. Working with and
building diverse teams and encouraging engagement and evolution, Connie builds more
collaborative and ultimately stronger units creating opportunities for superior business relevancy
and individual development. As President of Everest Specialty Casualty, she formed the
strategic, financial and cultural development of the business while engaging and supporting the
broader Everest Group in a variety of ways. Key among those were roles as Chair of the Global
Casualty Board, Executive Sponsor of the Early Career Program and member of the DEI
Selection Committee. Her focus on client engagement has helped her build a formidable
reputation as a fair partner who finds the right answer in difficult situations.

Connie is Chief Casualty Officer at DUAL North America. Her responsibilities including leading
the $1B of casualty business that is written annually in a variety of businesses including
Commercial Automobile, Cyber, Energy, M & A, Financial Lines, Worker’s Compensation, and
our specialized Logistics and Crane & Rigging operations. With a focus on long-terms,
sustainable partnerships, her daily focus is on creating enduring businesses supporting carrier
partners and the DUAL NA platform.

Connie is also an engaged leader in Women In America, a professional development and
mentoring program whose goal it is to enable promising female executives to fulfill their highest
potential and move the needle on increasing the proportion of women as CEO’s, in the C-suite,
board rooms and other prominent leadership roles. Additionally, in 2018 Connie began her fouryear
tenure as Finance Director of the New York City Chapter of the LPGA Amateurs Golf
Association, a national group committed to supporting women to learn and participate in golf.
An active participant in mentoring and career development, Connie is always open to spending
time with people interested in finding their unique career path.

Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer
Marsh McLennan Agency
300 Cherapa Place, Suite 601
Sioux Falls, SD 57103

Kira Kimball serves as the national Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer for Marsh McLennan Agency, where she provides strategic and tactical leadership to advance efforts to attract and celebrate diverse perspectives while promoting and protecting a level playing field for all colleagues. Creating a workplace culture where everyone can be their authentic selves, an environment that fosters a strong sense of belonging, and a business strategy that harnesses the power of diversity are her energy drivers.

As a committed business leader in her community of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Kira serves on the board of directors for Southeast Tech Foundation, Levitt at The Falls, Sioux Falls Development Foundation, 100 Women Who Care Sioux Falls, Sioux Empire Women Connect, Sioux Empire United Way & Pathways to Inclusive & Equitable Workplaces, a nonprofit she founded and the national board of the Association of Professional Insurance Women. Kira is a member of the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce Leadership Sioux Falls Executive Committee, volunteers as a Sioux Empire United Way Impact Team member and as an EmBe women’s leadership program mentor, greatly adding to the purpose with which she lives her life. Kira is the first person in both SD & ND to earn the National Diversity Council Certified Diversity Professional designation and she is a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory. Kira was recognized in Sioux Falls Woman and received an EmBe Tribute to Women Community Services Award for her abounding passion for diversity, equity & inclusion.

Prior to Kira’s sixteen years in the insurance industry, she spent a decade in higher education teaching, advising and counseling students at Purdue University and The Ohio State University with a focus on leadership & organizational development, career exploration and diversity equity & inclusion. Kira studied English and philosophy at Minnesota State University Moorhead as an undergraduate and received graduate degrees in both counseling & development and English at Purdue. Passionately believing everyone’s self-esteem and potential are worth supporting, Kira commits to living this belief both in and outside the workplace.

Drawing on her 28 years of industry experience, Tanja leads the Global Risk Management Team of experts to ensure clients are provided innovative, cost- effective solutions and value-added services domestically and globally. Tanja also collaborates with client executives and insurer partners to develop new national and international business. She has extensive M&A and captive experience in a variety of industries.

Before joining Hylant, she was a Director of international clients at Willis and Marsh. Tanja conducted her job in Geneva, Switzerland during 2013-15. She handled large and mid-sized clients’ foreign property, liability, captive and environmental programs. Earlier she worked at CNA, Chicago,
where she held underwriting and business development positions. She began her career with Swiss Life in 1996 and was stationed in Brussels and Paris.
 
Tanja is a frequent speaker on insurance issues like M&A, compliance, captives, claims management, program structure and cultural differences. She has also spoken on the state of the market at RIMS regional chapters such as Chicago Risk Forum, Ohio, Pittsburgh and Denver, ALB (Association of Lloyds’ Brokers), TMAC (Treasury Manager's Association of Chicago) and AFP (Association of Financial Professionals). She currently represents Hylant on the Association of Lloyd's Broker's (ALB)
Board, the Chicago Association of Insurance Professional Women (APIW) and RIMS Chicago and has a passion for promoting inclusion and diversity within the insurance industry.

Lori is a Senior Director in the Strategic Client Engagement Leader group at WTW. She has over 35 years of diversified experience in risk management and insurance. From 2005 to 2008 Lori was the Senior Risk Manager at Fannie Mae Housing and Community Development and responsible for risk and insurance oversight of their entire multifamily portfolio, including rewriting the insurance guide after Hurricane Katrina. From 1998 to 2004, she was part of a startup group that created the first end-to-end insurance quoting engine on the Internet.

Lori is a member of the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS). She served on the RIMS Board of Directors from 2011-2015. From 2008 – 2010, she served on the RIMS New York Chapter Board of Directors and as an active member of RIMS External Affairs Committee, participated in local, state and federal discussions on insurance and risk management. She worked with the office of Senator Schumer (D-NY) in the writing of the definition of a Qualified Risk Manager in the surplus lines legislation. She lobbied Capitol Hill during reauthorizations of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Lori returned to the RIMS New York Chapter Board of Directors in 2018 and currently serves as their Chapter President. Lori is a former member of the Spencer Foundation Board of Directors where she served on the Scholarship Committee and Chair of the Risk Manager on Campus (RMOC) Committee. She is a frequent participant, moderator and panelist in industry conferences and has been quoted in industry publications such as Business Insurance, Zywave and more.

Lori earned the Bachelor of Science in Business from California State University at Northridge. She holds the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) designation. Lori was honored by Business Insurance in 2015 as one of their Women to Watch. In 2022, she was honored by RIMS with the Ron Judd "Heart of RIMS" award.

President
The Beaumont Group, Inc.
990 Cedar Bridge Avenue, Suite B7, PMB 210
Brick, NJ 08723-4147