An agenda built through deep collaboration with our community to ensure every session delivers substance over soundbites. You’ll hear from true subject matter leaders via candid case studies, collaborative roundtables, and varied panel discussions —providing clarity on what’s driving success across the marketing landscape.
The Women in Insurance meet-up returns for 2026 with fresh energy and purpose. Expect candid conversations, actionable insights, and new perspectives to help you drive progress in your role and across the industry. Open to all attendees committed to supporting and advancing women in insurance; change starts when we come together.
Alycia Slyck, SVP & Global Actuary, Aflac
Margaret Resce Milkint, Global Insurance Practice Leader, Diversified Search Group
- Establish a shared data-to-decisions engines that delivers across the enterprise to unlock speed, accuracy, and insight at scale
- Create a winning culture that rewards speed and bold moves so the organization can pivot ahead of disruption and seize opportunities before competitors do
- Build partnerships that extend capability and scale without adding complexity or cost, ensuring flexibility and resilience in a volatile market
Simon Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, Markel Insurance
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- Create companywide resilience supported by real-time data and integrated platforms that absorbs climate, cyber and economic shock without slowing transformation momentum
- Build operational capacity that scales under pressure, so product launches, rate changes and AI initiatives go ahead even in volatile conditions
- Design coverage frameworks that evolves as quickly as new risks emerge, keeping customers confident and protected
Tirath Desai, Insurance Core Transformation and Digital Leader, PwC
Laura McKenzie, Director, Insurance Core Transformation, Pwc
- Upgrade customer journeys by layering modern web interface and portals that on top of existing systems without putting legacy stability at risk
- Deliver change in small, controlled increments to prevent outages or rollbacks and keep disruption to stakeholders to a minimum
- Streamline high-friction processes to cut cost to serve and free teams from manual work by reducing case confusion and improving trust case confusion to reduce cost and improve trust case confusion to reduce cost and improve trust
Laura Marzi, Chief Marketing Officer, Employee Benefits, The Hartford
Guru Vasudeva, SVP Chief Technology Officer, Property & Casualty, Nationwide
Erik VanBramer, SVP Head of Customer & Industry Relations, Federal Reserve Banks
Laurie Koumoundouros, VP, Client Solutions, Paymentus
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
Join the conversation. In these small, high-impact groups, you’ll sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the previous session’s speakers: industry leaders who just shared their biggest insights. Bring your toughest questions, pressure-test your priorities, and leave with practical answers you can act on tomorrow. This isn’t networking, it’s your direct line to the people shaping the future.
As AI mandates shift toward building Operational Resilience, what does 'operational success' actually look like for your business this fiscal year?
What is currently standing between the live data your teams have and the autonomous decisions your business needs to make today?
If you could fix one thing about how your data, technology, and business teams collaborate to build trust in AI, what would change first?
Dominic Sartorio, VP of Product Marketing, Denodo
Moderator: Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
- Create trust signals across the entire lifecycle with fast updates, clear explanations, and predictable experiences that cut complaints and lift retention
- Use parametric insurance or "micro-coverage" to keep customers in the ecosystem when traditional comprehensive policies become too expensive
- Simplify distribution by meeting customers where they are, through embedded partners, ecosystems, and low-friction digital channels
Lucy Pilko, Chief Executive Officer, AXA XL of Americas
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- As AI mandates shift toward building Operational Resilience, what does 'operational success' actually look like for your business this fiscal year?
- What is currently standing between the live data your teams have and the autonomous decisions your business needs to make today?
- If you could fix one thing about how your data, technology, and business teams collaborate to build trust in AI, what would change first?
- Create companywide resilience supported by real-time data and integrated platforms that absorbs climate, cyber and economic shock without slowing transformation momentum
- Build operational capacity that scales under pressure, so product launches, rate changes and AI initiatives go ahead even in volatile conditions
- Design coverage frameworks that evolves as quickly as new risks emerge, keeping customers confident and protected
GenPact
Watch live as industry leaders go head-to-head on one of insurance's most pressing questions: Why does rising cost feel like shrinking value? Is the problem pricing, transparency, outdated tech, or broken customer experience? Expect bold arguments, sharp rebuttals, and a battle for the audience's vote as leaders defend their vision and fight to prove which solution truly belongs in insurance's future.
Lloyd Nelson, SVP, Head of U.S. Digital Assets, Howden
Sean Harper, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Kin Insurance
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
• Where are the biggest bottlenecks in your underwriting workflow, and is your data giving you a complete picture of risk?
• How are you leveraging alternative data to assess high-risk segments, and what's preventing you from acting on that insight faster?
• What does profitable growth in high-risk markets look like in the next 2-3 years, and what role will analytics and automation play in getting you there?
John Nader, MBA, SVP Core Personal Lines, Verisk
Joe Wodark, VP Personal Auto Underwriting, Verisk
- Assign clear ownership from day one so architecture, data and delivery stay aligned, and projects avoid the delays and misfires
- Set decision pathways that move at the pace of the business, with defined escalation points and integration calls
- Embed tech leadership early in strategy and product planning so decisions translate into faster releases and real innovation momentum
Paul Ziska, VP Claims, Coterie Insurance
- Identify product overlaps and outdated features to design a simpler, more customer friendly portfolio
- Speed up turnaround and strengthen customer trust by redesigning underwriting and claims journeys to remove unnecessary processes
- Implement modular product structures that allow for easy customization without adding operational complexity
Bob Jurgensmeeir, Chief Executive Officer, Ameritas
Troy Thompson, Chief Insurance Officer, Ethos
Moderator: Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
These sessions are designed to cut through the AI hype to examine what genuinely changed once AI was implemented across the business. What went well, what went badly and what did leaders learn for next time?
14:15-14:25
Applied AI: What Actually Changed?
Suzanne Grover, VP Underwriting & New Business, Coastal Wealth
14:25-14:35
Self-Improving AI Agents, Live: From Claims and Cost Recovery to Client Retention
Nirmitee Shah, Head of Financial and Professional Services, Scale AI
14:40-14:50
Climate Risk: Pricing with Real World Data
- Define hard payback timelines by measuring cycle-time reductions (12-18 months max) so AI investments deliver returns before the next wave of technology makes them obsolete
- Track real-time performance metrics using live dashboards to identify when an AI model is underperforming and needs to be replaced or upgraded saving you time and investment
- Create a joint AI–tech governance group that accelerates approvals and guarantees compliance allowing team to innovate within guardrails
Grady Behrens, Head of Global Product Marketing, Shift Technology
Barrett Callaghan, Head of Global Markets & Customer Success, Shift Technology
- Diversify distribution through digital direct-to-consumer, broker networks, and agile MGAs to capture new and underserved markets
- Scale across channels without scaling headcount by streamlining distribution from submission to post-bind
- Free agents and brokers to focus on relationships and complex decisions by removing the manual workflows that slow them down
Jamie Cuffe, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, PACE
- If tech leaders aren’t in the room when strategy is set, what’s the real cost and how fast does it hit?
- Where do most carriers fail at human–AI collaboration?
- Where do you draw the line between automation and human judgment and how do you make that decision under pressure?
Paul Ziska, VP Claims, Coterie Insurance
Grady Behrens, Head of Global Product Marketing, Shift Technology
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- If you could restart, what would you do in the first 90 days to simplify the offerings and expand reach?
- What partners worked best for embedded distribution?
- What rules did you use to decide: retire, merge, or keep a product/feature?
Bob Jurgensmeeir, Chief Executive Officer, Ameritas
Troy Thompson, Chief Insurance Officer, Ethos
Jamie Cuffe, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, PACE
Moderator: Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
- Separate real financial impact from time wasting activity by using disciplined measurement and deliver CFO-ready evidence of value
- Avoid ROI killers by addressing blind spots like dirty data, runaway cloud costs, and compliance risks before they derail performance
- Leave with a 90-day roadmap or tech‑leadership alignment, shared risk‑cost framing, and outcome‑driven initiatives
Laura Boettcher, Chief Operating Officer, Hippo
Benjamin Shobert, SVP Clinical Data & Enabling Technology, UnitedHealth Group
Adam Fischer, Chief Operating Officer, Clearcover
Puneet Kohli, President, Application Modernization, Rocket Software
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- Set a single enterprise risk–return mandate that ties growth ambition to margin discipline codify risk appetite, target returns, so every market move compounds value
- Unite risk, product, underwriting, and customer behind one plan with shared metrics and ownership turning four functions into one system
- Make the offer clear and transparent so customers buy and stay in tough markets
Susan Ghalili, Chief Underwriting Officer, Pacific Life
Owen Williams, Group Chief Information Officer, Ascot
Peter McMurtrie, Partner, Insurance Vertical, West Monroe
Moderator: Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
- Explore why organisations can't outsource data security and how the gap between the value of data and control of its security creates hidden risk
- Understand why cloud security alone, isn't enough and why it is essential as data, vendors and platforms become increasingly interconnected
- Learn how businesses are shifting from panic to preparation and what building full-spectrum resilience looks like in practice
Marcello Antonucci, Global Cyber & Tech Claims Leader, Beazley
- Redesign moments that break trust first (billing shocks, non-renewals, claim status silence) so complaints fall even when prices climb
- Set a gold service standard across claims and servicing so customers feel control during volatility
- Use plain language, proactive updates and decision transparency so customers understand what's happening and why
Andrew Leeds, Chief Claims Officer, Plymouth Rock Home Assurance Corporation
- Gain clarity on how to turn cloud from a silent cost drain into a controllable, predictable engine that protects budgets and strengthens transformation momentum
- Walk away with a proven model for stabilising cloud environments so teams deliver faster, ship cleaner releases and avoid outages caused by architectural drift
- Unlock innovation capacity with disciplined cloud governance, freeing resources for AI, new products and customer facing improvements
Halcyon
- Set dynamic pricing and appetite rules that counter falling premiums and rising loss costs so you protect margin and avoid unprofitable business
- Identify and exit underperforming segments so you free capital to deploy into markets where you can still win
- Align risk and product assumptions across teams so everyone acts on one shared reality that drives profitable decisions
Matthew Lehman, Industry Principal, Financial Services, Ring Central
- When budgets tighten and threats escalate, where should leaders draw the line between “moving fast” and “protecting the core”?
- When cloud chaos and cyber pressure stall delivery, what discipline gets engineering, security, and ops moving again?
- How do you get teams to see cost, security, and speed pulling in the same direction?
Marcello Antonucci, Global Cyber & Tech Claims Leader, Beazley
Halcyon
Moderator: Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
- Where do teams disagree most and what’s the real signal beneath the noise?
- Looking ahead, what move demands courage rather than consensus?
- What tough call ended up freeing people up, even if no one wanted to make it at the time?
Andrew Leeds, Chief Claims Officer, Plymouth Rock Home Assurance Corporation
Ring Central
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
A fast-paced session where tech innovators show cutting edge solutions to a panel of industry leaders (Sharks). Designed to spotlight new ideas and innovative solutions, this session gives you a front-row seat to emerging technologies, new partnerships and practical tools that could transform your business. You’ll leave with inspiration, insights and real ideas worth exploring.
- Test solutions against real insurance complexity, not generic enterprise promises
- Challenge claims around “AI-ready” and “cloud-native” with operational and economic reality
- Separate tools that genuinely accelerate outcomes from those that add noise and risk
Harpreet Kaur, Team Lead & AI Platform Consultant, Google Cloud
Tim Spader, Scouting Analyst – Scouting & Trends Team, State Farm Innovation Group | Ventures
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- Redesign how you price and share risk to stay ahead of escalating climate threats
- Identify coverage gaps and build new products by mapping shifting risks and co‑creating solutions that drive greater resilience
- Invest in loss prevention initiatives and risk mitigation partnerships to support policyholders and reduce their exposure to catastrophic events
Ipsita Ranjan, Senior Allianz Risk Consulting Canada Zone Team Leader, Allianz Commercial
Patty Kuderer, Commissioner, Washington State Insurance Commissioner
Sarah Robson, President & CEO, Marsh Canada
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
After a high-energy Day 1, keep the momentum going at our official Future of Insurance Networking Drinks! Join us for an evening of celebration, connection, and conversation with the brightest minds in insurance. Expect great music, refreshing drinks, and plenty of opportunities to unwind and spark new partnerships in a vibrant, social setting. Don’t miss the buzz - this is where the real networking happens!
Gen Z is rewriting the rules of leadership. In this high-energy, interactive session, discover what drives the next generation and why traditional approaches fall short. Walk away with proven strategies to design career paths that retain top talent, build effective feedback loops, and turn fresh ideas into measurable impact.
Amy Cooper, Founder & CEO, RISE
• Examine why the carriers and MGAs pulling ahead in AI are winning on data quality and conFtext — not model selection
• Align data enrichment, governance, and infrastructure with your AI strategy before gaps undermine model performance and defensibility
• Pressure-test your organization's readiness to scale AI and build a competitive moat that no model upgrade can replicate
Daniel Tatro, Senior Director, Global Solutions Architecture, Precisely
Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
- Examine why insurers are shifting from large-scale transformation to modular, incremental modernization that delivers faster value
- Apply agentic AI and orchestration to enhance workflows while preserving core systems, driving near-term value and funding future AI investments
- Explore real-world use cases and leave with clear, actionable steps to deliver measurable value within 90 days
Jenna Colman, Global Offering Director, Assure Smart Apps, DXC Insurance Software & BPS
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
• Uncover where your own processes would break under a 90-day forcing function like a new state regulation, an acquisition, or a mandate to operationalize AI
• Pressure-test your readiness against peers by surfacing the gaps between carriers who adapt in weeks and those stuck in 18-month rework cycles
• Leave with the principles that make redesign repeatable across states, systems, and lines of business
Venkatesh Padmanabhan (CP), Senior Executive, Data & AI Transformation, Accenture
Peter Vaccarella, VP, Pre-Sales, Camunda
Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
• Transform industry-wide skepticism into competitive differentiation through clear, governed data practices in product design and customer-facing communication
• Capture purchase intent by positioning insurance at the contextual moments when customers recognize protective value; rather than viewing coverage as an obligation
• Build lasting customer relationships through education initiatives that explain coverage scope, exclusions, and value delivery in genuinely accessible language
Lane Larsen, Founder & CEO, Clean Claims
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
Pick a pin that matches your role: Strategic & Operational Leaders, Tech & AI Champions, Product & Risk Trailblazers, Customer Experts and connect with peers who share your world. During the break, swap ideas on what kept you up at night in 2025 and the bold move you’re making in 2026. Walk away with fresh tactics, real-world benchmarks, and connections that matter.
- How Tuio built and launched insurance distribution inside ChatGPT, from regulatory approval through to real time quoting within a conversational interface
- Build trust and relevance in an AI mediated world, where insurers compete not for clicks or keywords, but for presence, clarity, and credibility inside intelligent conversational platforms
- Reach customers at the moment of intent, when they are already asking questions and seeking guidance, turning conversation into a natural entry point for insurance discovery
Juan Garcia, Founder, Tuio
This session is being moderated by a Reuters journalist under the Reuters Trust Principles
- Identify the impact of external investors on settlement durations and develop industry-wide strategies to push for transparency in funding
- Create a roadmap for carrier executives to work with regulators and legislators to modernize the legal framework surrounding liability
- Develop strategic communication plans to shift public and jury perception of the insurance industry to help curb emotive jury awards
Allen Kirsh, Head of Claims Judicial & Legislative Affairs, Zurich
Taylor Corbitt, SVP Deputy General Counsel & Head of Global Litigation, Allstate
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- Move beyond frontend chatbots and embed AI in core decision workflows where accuracy, speed, and trust intersect
- Implement real-time monitoring for bias, hallucination, and regulatory compliance
- Create a “oneask experience” by streamlining documentation and evidence gathering across underwriting, servicing, and claims
- Identify the work that blocks tech adoption and drains capacity and free teams to focus on delivering real progress
- Protect the roles that hold the business steady during change so critical operations stay stable and customers experience continuity even as you modernize
- Give teams the clarity and ownership needed to move change forward to make decisions happen faster and accountability clear
- In a true “everything hits at once” moment, what is the first system, process, or assumption that breaks?
- When a real-world signal triggers: water rising, wind escalating, vehicles moving into danger what stops that insight from becoming action in time?
- If you could rebuild your NatCat response from scratch using today’s signals and today’s technology, what’s the one irreversible change you would make?
Juan Garcia, Founder, Tuio
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- When your people are drowning in too much work and not enough time, what’s the one thing you stop first to give them room to breathe?
- When teams pull in different directions, what’s the simplest move that brings everyone back to the same page?
- What’s the one behaviour leaders fall into under pressure that makes everything worse?
Allen Kirsh, Head of Claims Judicial & Legislative Affairs, Zurich
Taylor Corbitt, SVP Deputy General Counsel & Head of Global Litigation, Allstate
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- Set AI systems to have clear handover points, ensuring complex and sensitive tasks are re-routed to humans smoothly
- Redefine roles so humans focus on judgement and empathy while AI handles speed and scale
- Equip managers with tools to continuously fine-tune human-AI teamwork and boost long term performance
Carolyn Banks, Global Surety, Chief Operating Officer, Liberty Mutual
Chris Lassalle, VP, Total Rewards, CSAA
Ravi Prasad, SVP Data, Digital & AI, Guardian Life
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- Decide what investment to cut, not just what to build so you free up capital, talent and speed to compete where it matters most
- Rewrite your talent playbook before the market does it for you to attract employees who move fast, retrain teams who can't, and reward smart bets over safe ones
- Build distribution models that adapt faster than the market shifts so you reach customers through the channels they trust
Georgett Nicholas, Chief executive Officer, American Life
John Chu, Chief Executive Officer, Bamboo Insurance
Terrance Williams, President & CEO, Trustage
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- Establish a shared data-to-decisions engines that delivers across the enterprise to unlock speed, accuracy, and insight at scale
- Create a winning culture that rewards speed and bold moves so the organization can pivot ahead of disruption and seize opportunities before competitors do
- Build partnerships that extend capability and scale without adding complexity or cost, ensuring flexibility and resilience in a volatile market
Simon Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, Markel Insurance
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- Create companywide resilience supported by real-time data and integrated platforms that absorbs climate, cyber and economic shock without slowing transformation momentum
- Build operational capacity that scales under pressure, so product launches, rate changes and AI initiatives go ahead even in volatile conditions
- Design coverage frameworks that evolves as quickly as new risks emerge, keeping customers confident and protected
Tirath Desai, Insurance Core Transformation and Digital Leader, PwC
Laura McKenzie, Director, Insurance Core Transformation, PwC
- Upgrade customer journeys by layering modern web interface and portals that on top of existing systems without putting legacy stability at risk
- Deliver change in small, controlled increments to prevent outages or rollbacks and keep disruption to stakeholders to a minimum
- Streamline high-friction processes to cut cost to serve and free teams from manual work by reducing case confusion and improving trust case confusion to reduce cost and improve trust case confusion to reduce cost and improve trust
Laura Marzi, Chief Marketing Officer, Employee Benefits, The Hartford
Guru Vasudeva, SVP Chief Technology Officer, Property & Casualty, Nationwide
Erik VanBramer, SVP Head of Customer & Industry Relations, Federal Reserve Banks
Laurie Koumoundouros, VP, Client Solutions, Paymentus
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- Create trust signals across the entire lifecycle with fast updates, clear explanations, and predictable experiences that cut complaints and lift retention
- Use parametric insurance or "micro-coverage" to keep customers in the ecosystem when traditional comprehensive policies become too expensive
- Simplify distribution by meeting customers where they are, through embedded partners, ecosystems, and low-friction digital channels
Lucy Pilko, Chief Executive Officer, AXA XL of Americas
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- Create companywide resilience supported by real-time data and integrated platforms that absorbs climate, cyber and economic shock without slowing transformation momentum
- Build operational capacity that scales under pressure, so product launches, rate changes and AI initiatives go ahead even in volatile conditions
- Design coverage frameworks that evolves as quickly as new risks emerge, keeping customers confident and protected
GenPact
Watch live as industry leaders go head-to-head on one of insurance's most pressing questions: Why does rising cost feel like shrinking value? Is the problem pricing, transparency, outdated tech, or broken customer experience? Expect bold arguments, sharp rebuttals, and a battle for the audience's vote as leaders defend their vision and fight to prove which solution truly belongs in insurance's future.
Lloyd Nelson, SVP, Head of U.S. Digital Assets, Howden
Sean Harper, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Kin Insurance
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- Assign clear ownership from day one so architecture, data and delivery stay aligned, and projects avoid the delays and misfires
- Set decision pathways that move at the pace of the business, with defined escalation points and integration calls
- Embed tech leadership early in strategy and product planning so decisions translate into faster releases and real innovation momentum
Paul Ziska, VP Claims, Coterie Insurance
- Define hard payback timelines by measuring cycle-time reductions (12-18 months max) so AI investments deliver returns before the next wave of technology makes them obsolete
- Track real-time performance metrics using live dashboards to identify when an AI model is underperforming and needs to be replaced or upgraded saving you time and investment
- Create a joint AI–tech governance group that accelerates approvals and guarantees compliance allowing team to innovate within guardrails
Grady Behrens, Head of Global Product Marketing, Shift Technology
Barrett Callaghan, Head of Global Markets & Customer Success, Shift Technology
- If tech leaders aren’t in the room when strategy is set, what’s the real cost and how fast does it hit?
- Where do most carriers fail at human–AI collaboration?
- Where do you draw the line between automation and human judgment and how do you make that decision under pressure?
Paul Ziska, VP Claims, Coterie Insurance
Grady Behrens, Head of Global Product Marketing, Shift Technology
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- Separate real financial impact from time wasting activity by using disciplined measurement and deliver CFO-ready evidence of value
- Avoid ROI killers by addressing blind spots like dirty data, runaway cloud costs, and compliance risks before they derail performance
- Leave with a 90-day roadmap or tech‑leadership alignment, shared risk‑cost framing, and outcome‑driven initiatives
Laura Boettcher, Chief Operating Officer, Hippo
Benjamin Shobert, SVP Clinical Data & Enabling Technology, UnitedHealth Group
Adam Fischer, Chief Operating Officer, Clearcover
Puneet Kohli, President, Application Modernization, Rocket Software
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- Explore why organisations can't outsource data security and how the gap between the value of data and control of its security creates hidden risk
- Understand why cloud security alone, isn't enough and why it is essential as data, vendors and platforms become increasingly interconnected
- Learn how businesses are shifting from panic to preparation and what building full-spectrum resilience looks like in practice
Marcello Antonucci, Global Cyber & Tech Claims Leader, Beazley
- Gain clarity on how to turn cloud from a silent cost drain into a controllable, predictable engine that protects budgets and strengthens transformation momentum
- Walk away with a proven model for stabilising cloud environments so teams deliver faster, ship cleaner releases and avoid outages caused by architectural drift
- Unlock innovation capacity with disciplined cloud governance, freeing resources for AI, new products and customer facing improvements
Halcyon
- When budgets tighten and threats escalate, where should leaders draw the line between “moving fast” and “protecting the core”?
- When cloud chaos and cyber pressure stall delivery, what discipline gets engineering, security, and ops moving again?
- How do you get teams to see cost, security, and speed pulling in the same direction?
Marcello Antonucci, Global Cyber & Tech Claims Leader, Beazley
Halcyon
Moderator: Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
A fast-paced session where tech innovators show cutting edge solutions to a panel of industry leaders (Sharks). Designed to spotlight new ideas and innovative solutions, this session gives you a front-row seat to emerging technologies, new partnerships and practical tools that could transform your business. You’ll leave with inspiration, insights and real ideas worth exploring.
- Test solutions against real insurance complexity, not generic enterprise promises
- Challenge claims around “AI-ready” and “cloud-native” with operational and economic reality
- Separate tools that genuinely accelerate outcomes from those that add noise and risk
Harpreet Kaur, Team Lead & AI Platform Consultant, Google Cloud
Tim Spader, Scouting Analyst – Scouting & Trends Team, State Farm Innovation Group | Ventures
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- How Tuio built and launched insurance distribution inside ChatGPT, from regulatory approval through to real time quoting within a conversational interface
- Build trust and relevance in an AI mediated world, where insurers compete not for clicks or keywords, but for presence, clarity, and credibility inside intelligent conversational platforms
- Reach customers at the moment of intent, when they are already asking questions and seeking guidance, turning conversation into a natural entry point for insurance discovery
Juan Garcia, Founder, Tuio
This session is being moderated by a Reuters journalist under the Reuters Trust Principles
- Move beyond frontend chatbots and embed AI in core decision workflows where accuracy, speed, and trust intersect
- Implement real-time monitoring for bias, hallucination, and regulatory compliance
- Create a “oneask experience” by streamlining documentation and evidence gathering across underwriting, servicing, and claims
- In a true “everything hits at once” moment, what is the first system, process, or assumption that breaks?
- When a real-world signal triggers: water rising, wind escalating, vehicles moving into danger what stops that insight from becoming action in time?
- If you could rebuild your NatCat response from scratch using today’s signals and today’s technology, what’s the one irreversible change you would make?
Juan Garcia, Founder, Tuio
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- Set AI systems to have clear handover points, ensuring complex and sensitive tasks are re-routed to humans smoothly
- Redefine roles so humans focus on judgement and empathy while AI handles speed and scale
- Equip managers with tools to continuously fine-tune human-AI teamwork and boost long term performance
Carolyn Banks, Global Surety, Chief Operating Officer, Liberty Mutual
Chris Lassalle, VP, Total Rewards, CSAA
Ravi Prasad, SVP Data, Digital & AI, Guardian Life
Moderator: Bryan Falchuk, President & CEO, PLRB
- Identify product overlaps and outdated features to design a simpler, more customer friendly portfolio
- Speed up turnaround and strengthen customer trust by redesigning underwriting and claims journeys to remove unnecessary processes
- Implement modular product structures that allow for easy customization without adding operational complexity
Bob Jurgensmeeir, Chief Executive Officer, Ameritas
Troy Thompson, Chief Insurance Officer, Ethos
Moderator: Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
- Diversify distribution through digital direct-to-consumer, broker networks, and agile MGAs to capture new and underserved markets
- Scale across channels without scaling headcount by streamlining distribution from submission to post-bind
- Free agents and brokers to focus on relationships and complex decisions by removing the manual workflows that slow them down
Jamie Cuffe, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, PACE
- If you could restart, what would you do in the first 90 days to simplify the offerings and expand reach?
- What partners worked best for embedded distribution?
- What rules did you use to decide: retire, merge, or keep a product/feature?
Bob Jurgensmeeir, Chief Executive Officer, Ameritas
Troy Thompson, Chief Insurance Officer, Ethos
Jamie Cuffe, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, PACE
Moderator: Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
- Set a single enterprise risk–return mandate that ties growth ambition to margin discipline codify risk appetite, target returns, so every market move compounds value
- Unite risk, product, underwriting, and customer behind one plan with shared metrics and ownership turning four functions into one system
- Make the offer clear and transparent so customers buy and stay in tough markets
Susan Ghalili, Chief Underwriting Officer, Pacific Life
Owen Williams, Group Chief Information Officer, Ascot
Peter McMurtrie, Partner, Insurance Vertical, West Monroe
Moderator: Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
- Redesign moments that break trust first (billing shocks, non-renewals, claim status silence) so complaints fall even when prices climb
- Set a gold service standard across claims and servicing so customers feel control during volatility
- Use plain language, proactive updates and decision transparency so customers understand what's happening and why
Andrew Leeds, Chief Claims Officer, Plymouth Rock Home Assurance Corporation
- Set dynamic pricing and appetite rules that counter falling premiums and rising loss costs so you protect margin and avoid unprofitable business
- Identify and exit underperforming segments so you free capital to deploy into markets where you can still win
- Align risk and product assumptions across teams so everyone acts on one shared reality that drives profitable decisions
Matthew Lehman, Industry Principal, Financial Services, Ring Central
- Where do teams disagree most and what’s the real signal beneath the noise?
- Looking ahead, what move demands courage rather than consensus?
- What tough call ended up freeing people up, even if no one wanted to make it at the time?
Andrew Leeds, Chief Claims Officer, Plymouth Rock Home Assurance Corporation
Ring Central
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- Redesign how you price and share risk to stay ahead of escalating climate threats
- Identify coverage gaps and build new products by mapping shifting risks and co‑creating solutions that drive greater resilience
- Invest in loss prevention initiatives and risk mitigation partnerships to support policyholders and reduce their exposure to catastrophic events
Ipsita Ranjan, Senior Allianz Risk Consulting Canada Zone Team Leader, Allianz Commercial
Patty Kuderer, Commissioner, Washington State Insurance Commissioner
Sarah Robson, President & CEO, Marsh Canada
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- Identify the impact of external investors on settlement durations and develop industry-wide strategies to push for transparency in funding
- Create a roadmap for carrier executives to work with regulators and legislators to modernize the legal framework surrounding liability
- Develop strategic communication plans to shift public and jury perception of the insurance industry to help curb emotive jury awards
Allen Kirsh, Head of Claims Judicial & Legislative Affairs, Zurich
Taylor Corbitt, SVP Deputy General Counsel & Head of Global Litigation, Allstate
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- Identify the work that blocks tech adoption and drains capacity and free teams to focus on delivering real progress
- Protect the roles that hold the business steady during change so critical operations stay stable and customers experience continuity even as you modernize
- Give teams the clarity and ownership needed to move change forward to make decisions happen faster and accountability clear
- When your people are drowning in too much work and not enough time, what’s the one thing you stop first to give them room to breathe?
- When teams pull in different directions, what’s the simplest move that brings everyone back to the same page?
- What’s the one behaviour leaders fall into under pressure that makes everything worse?
Allen Kirsh, Head of Claims Judicial & Legislative Affairs, Zurich
Taylor Corbitt, SVP Deputy General Counsel & Head of Global Litigation, Allstate
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
- Decide what investment to cut, not just what to build so you free up capital, talent and speed to compete where it matters most
- Rewrite your talent playbook before the market does it for you to attract employees who move fast, retrain teams who can't, and reward smart bets over safe ones
- Build distribution models that adapt faster than the market shifts so you reach customers through the channels they trust
Georgett Nicholas, Chief executive Officer, American Life
John Chu, Chief Executive Officer, Bamboo Insurance
Terrance Williams, President & CEO, Trustage
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
The Women in Insurance meet-up returns for 2026 with fresh energy and purpose. Expect candid conversations, actionable insights, and new perspectives to help you drive progress in your role and across the industry. Open to all attendees committed to supporting and advancing women in insurance; change starts when we come together.
Alycia Slyck, SVP & Global Actuary, Aflac
Margaret Resce Milkint, Global Insurance Practice Leader, Diversified Search Group
Join the conversation. In these small, high-impact groups, you’ll sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the previous session’s speakers: industry leaders who just shared their biggest insights. Bring your toughest questions, pressure-test your priorities, and leave with practical answers you can act on tomorrow. This isn’t networking, it’s your direct line to the people shaping the future.
As AI mandates shift toward building Operational Resilience, what does 'operational success' actually look like for your business this fiscal year?
What is currently standing between the live data your teams have and the autonomous decisions your business needs to make today?
If you could fix one thing about how your data, technology, and business teams collaborate to build trust in AI, what would change first?
Dominic Sartorio, VP of Product Marketing, Denodo
Moderator: Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
- As AI mandates shift toward building Operational Resilience, what does 'operational success' actually look like for your business this fiscal year?
- What is currently standing between the live data your teams have and the autonomous decisions your business needs to make today?
- If you could fix one thing about how your data, technology, and business teams collaborate to build trust in AI, what would change first?
• Where are the biggest bottlenecks in your underwriting workflow, and is your data giving you a complete picture of risk?
• How are you leveraging alternative data to assess high-risk segments, and what's preventing you from acting on that insight faster?
• What does profitable growth in high-risk markets look like in the next 2-3 years, and what role will analytics and automation play in getting you there?
John Nader, MBA, SVP Core Personal Lines, Verisk
Joe Wodark, VP Personal Auto Underwriting, Verisk
These sessions are designed to cut through the AI hype to examine what genuinely changed once AI was implemented across the business. What went well, what went badly and what did leaders learn for next time?
14:15-14:25
Applied AI: What Actually Changed?
Suzanne Grover, VP Underwriting & New Business, Coastal Wealth
14:25-14:35
Self-Improving AI Agents, Live: From Claims and Cost Recovery to Client Retention
Nirmitee Shah, Head of Financial and Professional Services, Scale AI
14:40-14:50
Climate Risk: Pricing with Real World Data
Gen Z is rewriting the rules of leadership. In this high-energy, interactive session, discover what drives the next generation and why traditional approaches fall short. Walk away with proven strategies to design career paths that retain top talent, build effective feedback loops, and turn fresh ideas into measurable impact.
Amy Cooper, Founder & CEO, RISE
- Reframe cloud investment away from cost-reduction narratives toward speed, resilience, and experimentation capability
- Align finance and technology teams on subscription and usage-based economics before cost concerns derail transformation
- Pressure-test early cloud and SaaS decisions to avoid mis-scoped architectures that underdeliver and overcommit
Daniel Tatro, Senior Director, Global Solutions Architecture, Precisely
- Examine why insurers are shifting from large-scale transformation to modular, incremental modernization that delivers faster value
- Apply agentic AI and orchestration to enhance workflows while preserving core systems, driving near-term value and funding future AI investments
- Explore real-world use cases and leave with clear, actionable steps to deliver measurable value within 90 days
Jenna Colman, Global Offering Director, Assure Smart Apps, DXC Insurance Software & BPS
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
• Uncover where your own processes would break under a 90-day forcing function like a new state regulation, an acquisition, or a mandate to operationalize AI
• Pressure-test your readiness against peers by surfacing the gaps between carriers who adapt in weeks and those stuck in 18-month rework cycles
• Leave with the principles that make redesign repeatable across states, systems, and lines of business
Venkatesh Padmanabhan (CP), Senior Executive, Data & AI Transformation, Accenture
Peter Vaccarella, VP, Pre-Sales, Camunda
Chris Frankland, Founder, Insurtech360
• Transform industry-wide skepticism into competitive differentiation through clear, governed data practices in product design and customer-facing communication
• Capture purchase intent by positioning insurance at the contextual moments when customers recognize protective value; rather than viewing coverage as an obligation
• Build lasting customer relationships through education initiatives that explain coverage scope, exclusions, and value delivery in genuinely accessible language
Lane Larsen, Founder & CEO, Clean Claims
Moderator: Vinita Jajware-Beatty, President & Board Chair, Toronto Insurance Women’s Association
