President and CEO, NCCI
At NCCI, Donnell leads and oversees the delivery of the company’s core services, including gathering data, analyzing industry trends, and preparing objective insurance rate and loss cost recommendations for the workers compensation industry. These activities—together with NCCI’s research, analytical services and tools, and overall commitment to excellence—help to foster a healthy workers compensation system.
An accomplished executive leader, Donnell has over three decades of industry experience specializing in property and casualty insurance/reinsurance in both global and domestic U.S. leadership roles. Immediately prior to joining NCCI in December 2015, he was the president of Swiss Re’s Property and Casualty Reinsurance business.
Donnell joined Swiss Re following its acquisition of GE Insurance Solutions in June 2006. During his tenure with GE, he served as chief marketing officer, global casualty leader, and president of specialty commercial lines.
Donnell received a bachelor’s degree in management and labor relations from Colorado State University and completed the Kellogg Executive Program at Northwestern University. He holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation.
Prior to entering public service, Huff spent more than a decade in executive positions with leading global insurers and reinsurers.
A former practicing attorney, Huff's knowledge of the insurance industry is global in scope, spanning the United States, Bermuda, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Asia markets. Huff brings to the table a keen understanding of the regulatory, legal, financial and operational challenges that insurance and reinsurance companies face.
Huff earned his J.D. from Washington University School of Law and holds a M.B.A. from St. Louis University and a B.S.B.A. from Southeast Missouri State University.
Prior to joining FEMA, Kaniewski was vice president for global resilience at AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe risk modeling and consulting services firm. He was also a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber & Homeland Security, where he contributed thought leadership on homeland security and emergency management topics.
Earlier, Kaniewski served as the mission area director for resilience and emergency preparedness/response at a federally funded research and development center supporting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Kaniewski was also vice president for Homeland Security and deputy director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at the George Washington University. In the George W. Bush Administration, he served as special assistant to the President for Homeland Security and as senior director for Response Policy. Kaniewski has also held positions at FEMA, the Congressional Fire Services Institute, and on Capitol Hill. He was previously a member of the District of Columbia Homeland Security Commission and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Kaniewski holds a bachelor of science degree in emergency medical services from George Washington University, a master of arts degree in national security studies from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and a Ph.D. in public policy and administration from George Washington University.
CEO, Insurance Information Institute
Sean Kevelighan joined the Insurance Information Institute as chief executive officer in August 2016. Previously, he was group head of public affairs for Zurich Insurance Group where he oversaw Government and Industry Affairs as well as Corporate Responsibility. He joined Zurich in May 2013 as head of Government and Industry Affairs for North America, with responsibility for driving the public policy agenda in the region. Prior to that, he worked at Citigroup, Inc., as head of strategic communications for its global consumer banking business, and for Zurich, as head of group media relations in North America.
Mayor, City of New Orleans (2010 to 2018)
On February 6, 2010, Landrieu was elected mayor of New Orleans, inheriting the problems of a city stalled by post-Katrina issues, on the brink of bankruptcy, with a high murder rate and a police department under federal investigation. Landrieu immediately created a diverse, citizen-led transition committee to engage thousands at public meetings, hired a consulting firm to identify opportunities for transformational change and instituted a deputy mayor system to establish clearer command and control at City Hall. Making public safety a top priority, he reformed the police department and implemented a cutting-edge murder-reduction strategy called NOLA for Life, which led to a nearly 20 percent decrease in the city’s murder rate. Under Landrieu’s leadership, New Orleans has rebounded and become one of the nation’s great comeback stories.
McChrystal retired from the military in 2010. He now serves on the board of directors for JetBlue Airways. McChrystal is the chair of Service Year Alliance, a project of Be the Change and the Aspen Institute, which envisions a future in which a service year is a cultural expectation and common opportunity for every young American. He is also a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches a popular course on leadership.
McChrystal co-founded the McChrystal Group in 2010, with the mission is to deliver innovative leadership solutions to organizations which help them transform and succeed in challenging and dynamic environments.
Nutter currently serves on the advisory board of the OECD’s International Network for the Financial Management of Large Scale Disasters, the RAND Center on Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation, and the Carl H. Lindner III Center for Insurance and Risk Management board of directors. He also serves on the editorial panel of Intelligent Insurer magazine. He has recently served on the advisory board of the Center for Health and the Global Environment, an adjunct to the Harvard University School of Public Health, Council of the American Meteorological Society, and the board of the University Center for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of universities managing the National Center for Atmospheric Research sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
President and CEO, Providence Mutual
Sean Ringsted isexecutive vice president, chief digital officer and chief risk officer for Chubb Group. Ringsted leads Chubb’s digital efforts aimed at transforming the company into a digitally integrated organization. He is also responsible for the continued development and implementation of Chubb’s risk management strategy, risk management framework and related processes across the company.
Ringsted has 25 years of experience in the insurance industry. In February 2017, he was appointed Chief Digital Officer. He has served as the company’s chief risk officer since 2008, prior to ACE’s acquisition of Chubb in 2016. Ringsted was named executive vice president, ACE Group, in March 2014. Ringsted’s previous leadership roles at the company include serving as chief actuary from 2004 to 2017; executive vice president and chief risk officer for ACE Tempest Re from 2002 to 2004; and senior vice president and chief actuary for ACE Tempest Re from 1998 to 2002. Prior to ACE, Ringsted was a consultant at Tillinghast-Towers Perrin.
Ringsted holds a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry from Bristol University and a doctorate in biochemistry from Oxford University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (FIA).
John W. Rollins, FCAS, MAAA
Actuary, Milliman
John W. Rollins (FCAS, MAAA) heads the property/casualty practice in Milliman’s Tampa office and joined the firm in 2018. Rollins specializes in consulting engagements related to catastrophe-exposed property and flood insurance, serving the entire value chain from point-of-sale underwriting, to product and form development, competitive analysis of products and rates, ratemaking and capital allocation, reinsurance design and marketing and insurance-linked securities structuring and issuance.
Previously Rollins served as chief risk officer of three coastal property insurers, including Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Rollins has designed and placed complex ceded reinsurance programs, including the sponsorship of the largest catastrophe bond ever issued and recently designed a granular flood insurance rating plan for Florida insurers. Rollins testified to the U.S. House Financial Services Committee in 2010 and participated in a workshop in 2013 that focused on catastrophe models and principles of actuarially sound rates for flood insurance. He has authored several actuarial research papers, op-eds and articles and regularly presents on topics such as catastrophe modeling for actuarial and property insurance purposes.
Rollins received his B.A. in mathematics from Duke University and his M.A. in economics from the University of Florida.
William Ross
Chief Executive Officer, Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation
In September 2004, Bill Ross joined the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation as chief executive officer and is responsible for the overall operation and strategic direction of the Foundation. Ross 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. Ross 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.
President and CEO, American Property Casualty Insurance Association
David A. Sampson is the president and CEO of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCI). He held the same title with the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) prior to its merger with the American Insurance Association (AIA) on January 1, 2019.
Sampson first joined PCI in 2007 and established the organization as a recognized thought leader and highly respected advocacy voice for the property casualty industry.
Sampson is also the president of the Independent Statistical Service (ISS), one of the industry’s largest and most trusted statistical agents. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. He also is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “Committee of 100.”
Before joining PCI, Sampson served in the George W. Bush Administration in two presidential-appointed and Senate-confirmed positions. From 2005 to 2007, he served as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In this position, he was a member of President Bush’s Management Council.
Previously, Sampson served in the Governor George W. Bush Administration as Chair of the Texas Council on Workforce and Economic Competitiveness and Vice Chair of the Texas Strategic Economic Development Planning Commission. He also led the Arlington, Texas Chamber of Commerce as its President and CEO.
Managing Director, Global Insurance Practice, J.D. Power
A native of Kashmir, South Asia, Wani survived the devastation of major disasters that impacted his family and community, providing the inspiration that fuels his commitment to building global resilience. Recognizing the inadequacy of traditional disaster solutions, Wani and his team at One Concern are using artificial intelligence to revolutionize the world’s understanding of natural phenomena sciences, thereby enabling both government and the private sector to better prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters.
Wani holds a graduate degree in structural engineering, with a focus on seismic engineering, from Stanford University. Before attending Stanford, Wani graduated top of his class at the National Institute of Technology, India, earning a gold medal award for distinction. Before moving to California, Wani performed structural design and risk analysis for critical infrastructure for the Central Government of India.
Watkins has more than 35 years of experience in the insurance industry and has held a range of underwriting, client management and leadership positions in the United States and Europe at Chubb, Johnson & Higgins, Marsh and HRH.
Watkins received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and has completed an executive leadership program at The Wharton School. He’s a member of the Board of Overseers at St. John’s University’s School of Risk Management and is on the boards of the Insurance Information Institute and Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (NY/Northeast Division).
With more than 50% of Lloyd’s global premium in 2017, the US and Canada are Lloyd’s largest market for insurance (E&S in the US) and reinsurance. In addition to market development, Lloyd’s colleagues in North America provide media relations and regulatory affairs support to the syndicates and operational oversight of the licensed platforms in Illinois, Kentucky and the USVI.
Director, The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy; Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution
President, US P&C Regional and National, Swiss Reinsurance America Corporation
Wolfe holds a B.S. in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland and a M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is a licensed professional engineer and a chartered property and casualty underwriter.
Roy Wright joined IBHS in 2018 with more than 20 years of experience in insurance, risk management, mitigation, and resilience planning. Convinced that the continuing cycle of human suffering that strikes families and communities in the wake of severe weather can be broken, Wright leads a team of scientists and risk communicators who deliver strategies to build safer and stronger homes and businesses. IBHS’ real-world impact enables the insurance industry and affected property owners to prevent avoidable losses.