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Page 1: MINNEAPOLIS CONVENTION CENTER MINNEAPOLIS, MN …€¦ · MINNEAPOLIS CONVENTION CENTER MINNEAPOLIS, MN IASA DAILY NEWS Wednesday, June 6, 2007 PAGE 3 WEDNESDAY 6/6 9:30 a.m. –

DAILYNEWSDAILYNEWS

M I N N E A P O L I S C O N V E N T I O N C E N T E R � M I N N E A P O L I S , M N � W W W . I A S A . O R G

WEDNESDAY

June 6, 2007

IN THIS EDITIONTop Executives Enjoy Roundtables ...........................................................................................................................................................3Schedule at a Glance .............................................................................................................................................................................................3Young Teaches How to Be a Better Manager Through Communication .........................................................4Insurers Learn Pros, Cons (But Mostly Pros) of Outsourcing ......................................................................................6Town Hall Explores Solutions for Effective IT in the Corporate Landscape..................................................8Veteran Attendees Embrace Changes and Benefi ts Through the Years ......................................................10The Conference at a Glance ........................................................................................................................................................................12Meet John Bauer: Next President of IASA ..................................................................................................................................142007 IASA Calendar of Events ....................................................................................................................................................................14

� Rommy Blum of MedRisk holds the new-vendor award.� Hyland Software captured the large-booth award for the second year in a row. Staci Nightingale proudly displays the winner’s plaque.

� QAS received the small-booth award. (left to right) John Gustafson, Jaime Reynolds, and Owen BonDurant.

� Scott Kluge, Kathleen Bolton, and Kevin Ledgister (in blue shirts) of WAUSAU accept the medium-booth award.

By Robert Regis Hyle

A lthough last year’s Best of Show Award was not entirely official, Hyland Software once again

captured the fancy of IASA attendees and judges at this year’s business show and was one of four vendors honored Tuesday for noteworthy booth space.

In addition to Hyland, which won the large-space award, the medium-sized booth award went to WAUSAU, the small-booth award was presented to QAS – An Experian Company, and the award for best booth among new ven-dors at the show was given to MedRisk.

This is the first year for an organized competition to honor the vendors, according to IASA volunteer Craig Lowenthal, who ran the contest. The idea for the competition grew from the impression Hyland made last year when the vendor debuted its sports bar theme. IASA decided to honor Hyland informally last year, and this year the contest was formalized. Attendees were invited to make their selections for all but the newcomer award on Sunday night at the opening of the exhibit hall, and those votes were combined with those from a panel of IASA judges to determine the winners. The judges alone decided on the new-comer award.

The Hyland booth has been one of the popular spots on the showroom

Vendors Honored for Imaginative Displays

floor. “The impact has been tremen-dous,” said Mike Discenzo, creative director for Hyland. “Everyone comes by our booth.”

Hyland uses the display about four

times a year, and Tim Tallaksen, director of insurance solutions for Hyland, con-tends there is a buzz created whenever the company breaks it out. “It’s usually the anchor of the business floor,” he said.

WAUSAU has a few continuing themes with its displays for the 12 to 15 shows the company visits annually, but Kathleen Botton, event coordinator for WAUSAU, gives much of the credit for this year’s prize to the exhibit host coordinator Dercy, which WAUSAU contracted with. “We told [Dercy] what we wanted, and they put it together for us,” said Botton.

WAUSAU typically uses ginger-colored carpet and stained wood for its exhibit space, explained Botton. With

IASA visiting the Land of 10,000 Lakes this year, the WAUSAU space was turned into a boat dock with a fishing theme.

QAS program specialist Jaime Reynolds was excited to win in the small-space category because she personally designed the display. In put-ting the booth together, she felt it was important to have a demo station along the aisle with a laptop and an overhead monitor to capture the attention of the attendees.

QAS does business in four dif-ferent industries, so the company dis-plays at about 25 shows a year. “Since

Best of Show, continued on page 6 �

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M I N N E A P O L I S C O N V E N T I O N C E N T E R � M I N N E A P O L I S , M N � W W W . I A S A . O R G

Wednesday, June 6, 2007 � PAGE 3IASA DAILY NEWS

WEDNESDAY 6/6

9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.: Career Skills Development Super Session

9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.: Technical Sessions

SCHEDULE � At a Glance

Top Executives Enjoy Roundtables

� Michael Macelhiney of Blackrock addresses the attendees at the Chief Investment Officers Roundtable.

� Paul Brehm of Guy Carpenter leads the enterprise risk management discussion at the

Chief Financial Officers Roundtable.

� AT&T’s Mirelle Gotsis discusses technology trends at the Chief

Information Officers Roundtable.

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PAGE 4 � Wednesday, June 6, 2007

M I N N E A P O L I S C O N V E N T I O N C E N T E R � M I N N E A P O L I S , M N � W W W . I A S A . O R G

IASA DAILY NEWS

By Regina Marie Glick

R emember the last time the person you were talking to kept looking past you, at the people behind you?

Or kept checking his watch? Or his BlackBerry? Remember your mild perturbation at the unhappy realiza-tion your listener was less than wholly interested in what you had to say? Stephen Young, founder of Insight Education Systems, does. And he knows the kind of large-scale impact minor slights such as these can have on workplace morale and long-term employee retention. In his keynote presentation leading off the program on Wednesday, June 6, he will reveal the small verbal and nonverbal, con-scious and unconscious indiscretions that communicate disinterest, disre-spect, and disre-gard to colleagues and employees.

“I want people to walk away with an understanding that what we denote is not as important as what we con-note,” Young says.

And that is the essence of his wide-ly praised seminar, “MicroInequities: The Power of Small.” Although the term microineq-uities has been around since the early 1970s, Young crystallizes it into an easy-to-comprehend discussion of lim-iting miscommunications, particularly between managers and workers.

Getting Signals StraightThe seminar, which he has given

to audiences across the country, will explore the ways in which people send messages and signals to one another. He seeks to provide applicable les-sons in improving the accuracy of the signals people send to their colleagues, with specific attention paid to cross-cultural interactions.

So far, 10 percent of all Fortune500 companies, including Intel, IBM,

and Coca-Cola, have incorporated Young’s seminars into their philoso-phy. Merck, another company that has implemented his ideas, found 52 percent of employees had used Young’s insights to improve a problem relation-ship in their work environment.

“People report consistently this enabled them to address situations in the workplace where they really felt excluded,” Young says. “Managers have chosen to change their communication styles to incorporate our philosophy.”

Steve Meziere, president of Life of America Insurance Company and president of IASA for the 2006-2007 year, comments he asked Young to speak at the conference because of the widespread applicability of his advice. “He’s very interesting because we all talk to people, give speeches, etc.,” he

says, “and, when you start thinking about it, you realize you may not always communicate what you mean.”

Young is a former senior vice president and chief diversity officer at JPMorgan Chase. In that capacity, he oversaw the firm’s diversity strategy worldwide. During his tenure, the firm earned many awards related to its diversity improve-

ment initiatives. These included the Catalyst Award, Fortune magazine’sTop 50 Companies for Minorities Award, and the Best Companies Award from Working Mother magazine. DiversityInc magazine also named JPMorgan Chase the number-one company for diversity while it was under his leadership.

Before his time at JPMorgan Chase, Young was vice president for diversity with Merrill Lynch’s Private Client Division. Additionally, he has served as the regional human resources director for Xerox’s nine-state midwest-ern region. He was a staff member at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Management, a member of the

Young Teaches How to Be a Better Manager Through Communication

diversity committee for the United Way of America, and the former chairman of the Securities Industry Association’s diversity committee. He currently is on the advisory board to the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Wall Street Project.

The BeginningThe concept of microinequities

originated in 1973 with Mary Rowe, PhD, cur-rently the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ombudsperson and adjunct professor of negotiation and conflict management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. When she joined the university in 1973 to address policy-level problems of gender and racial inequality, she began to notice the sig-nificant impact that subtle social cues and climates would have on the morale of the ethnically diverse work force. She began to research the verbal and nonverbal ways in which people send messages each day—an average of 2,000 to 4,000 signals daily per person—and developed the foundation for the lessons Young has popularized in recent years.

Young became inter-ested in microinequities because of their potential to reduce some of the lingering, ungovernable ways in which people are discriminated against in the workplace: interpersonal snubs and social missteps. While government has made a great deal of progress legislating equal access to opportunities, he has said, equalizing the social climate of the workplace has been much trickier, and subtle slights have largely escaped the long arm of the law. “We’ve done a great job of managing the elephants while the ants walk by,” Young told O magazine in 2005.

Role PlayingWhen he delivers his presentation

on microinequities, Young tries to keep the audience as involved as possible.

One exercise he sometimes employs to drive home his points and inject a little theater into his sessions involves role playing. He divides the room into pairs and asks half of the crowd to play the role of speaker and the other half of listener. The speakers are supposed to talk generally about their careers: What they do, where they do it, etc. At first,

the listeners are instructed to appear attentive and interested in the speaker by sitting upright, making eye contact, nodding.

But after a few minutes, Young cues the listeners to change their demeanors to appear as uninterested as possible by checking their watches, fidgeting, slouching, yawn-ing—doing anything short of leaving the room. The impact on the speakers is immediate and surpris-ing. The speakers begin to stammer, ramble, and lose their trains of thought, despite the fact they know they are only participating in an exercise.

O magazine quoted an administrator who attended one of Young’s talks as say-ing: “I can see what this would do in an interview situation. If someone isn’t listening, the candidate

might start babbling and seem like an idiot. And that person may have been someone of value.”

Young says he has his audience members go through these exercises so they can experience firsthand the impact other people’s reactions have on their performance.

He adds he wants his audience to realize only direct and clear com-munication can improve performance. When a manager rolls his eyes at a misguided worker, he only demoralizes him but does nothing to address the problem.

“Most of us believe words convey the essence of what we mean,” Young said in 2005. “But words play a very small role in telling others our true opinions of them.” �

“I want peo-ple to walk

away with an understand-

ing that what we denote is not as impor-tant as what we connote.”

— Stephen Young, Insight Education

Systems

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PAGE 6 � Wednesday, June 6, 2007

M I N N E A P O L I S C O N V E N T I O N C E N T E R � M I N N E A P O L I S , M N � W W W . I A S A . O R G

IASA DAILY NEWS

� Robert Burke of Unitrin Kemper Auto and Home spoke at Tuesday’s session on outsourcing.

By Robert Regis Hyle

I f an insurance carrier is not outsourcing some of its busi-ness processes or IT functions today, the company better have

a good explanation for why not. At least that’s the view of Celent senior analyst Donald Light, who led an education session Tuesday morning called “Outsourcing—Pros, Cons, and Winning Strategies.”

Joining Light on the panel were Greg Powers, vice president of sales/business development for Innovation First Notice, and Robert Burke, director of claims technolo-gy/best practices for Unitrin Kemper Auto and Home.

Light discussed the importance of finding the right outsourcing fit for insurance carriers and presented information from a Celent survey that showed third-party administrators maintain a 60 percent share of the outsourcing market, with ITO and BPO vendors sharing the other 40 percent. “TPAs are the old, established form of outsourcing, but they should not be ignored as a possibility for car-riers,” he said.

Light explained there is signifi-cant BPO activity for core insurance services today with the potential for even more. He also feels the prop-erty/casualty segment is the better fit for BPO opportunities due to the transactional nature of the business. BPO deals are limited in scope, Light reported, with 43 percent of all deals analyzed in the Celent survey valued under $1 million.

In his advice for insurers, Light exhorted insurers to make a serious commitment to both cost savings and process improvement but warned, “Unless you feel you can improve efficiencies and customer advantage, [outsourcing] is really not worth it.”

Powers listed the business drivers for BPO: operational cost reduction; speed to implementation; lower upfront capital investment; and vendor investments/maturity of offerings. He pointed out the exper-tise of BPO outsourcers is growing in the P&C market, and coupled with deeper experience carriers have gained in managing outside resourc-es, insurers can gain a valuable asset with outsourcers.

Unitrin Kemper turned to Innovation First Notice to handle the initial contact between customer and carrier. Burke reported 86 percent of first contact between the two sides comes when a claim is reported.

The claim intake is “the launching point where we start best practices,” said Burke. “It’s the first opportunity to positively impact claim adjudica-

Insurers Learn Pros, Cons (But Mostly Pros) of Outsourcing

tion and lay the foundation for future claim processing.” Unitrin Kemper’s prior model did not address new and emerging technologies, the changing perceptions of customers, and competi-tive developments. “We struggled with staffing and technology in the claims environment,” he indicated.

There were three goals Unitrin Kemper hoped to gain control over in the claims intake process with Innovation First Notice: expenses, losses, and cycle time. “We needed effective management of incurred expenses—internally and exter-

nally—for all aspects of the claims intake process,” said Burke. “We wanted to promote a streamlined method of loss reporting to allow for early intervention and initiation of the adjusting process to mitigate loss-dollar expenditure. We also needed to obtain accurate data to assist in starting the investigation process as soon as possible. Customers want things settled quickly. They don’t want to tell the same thing to mul-tiple people.”

Communication is an important issue. Innovation First Notice operates three call centers—two in the U.S. and one in Canada. Burke explained when a customer speaking a language other than English calls in, that customer is immediately transferred to an appro-priate service rep.

“That’s one reason we encourage potential customers to do their due diligence,” noted Powers. “You need to check out everything, including who is answering the calls.”

Faster reporting of the claims has improved significantly for the carrier, according to Burke.

By reducing lag time, expenses involved with services such as car rentals or hotel rooms for displaced claimants have been reduced for Unitrin Kemper. Another benefit, he remarked, is in the event of a catastrophe, the carrier doesn’t have to worry about increasing staff to handle the calls.

In the future, Burke concluded he will look to enhance manage-ment reporting skills and the ability to take claims using internal staff on the Innovation First Notice platform, known as ClaimCapture. �

we use it in a lot of places we had to make it customizable,” said Reynolds. “We wanted it to be modern and scal-able. Typically our booth space runs between 10 by 10 [feet] or 10 by 20 [feet].”

MedRisk had a magical pres-ence for its first IASA Business Show. While attending another conference, members of the MedRisk team became

enamored with magician David Harris and contracted with Harris to attend the IASA show on their behalf.

Harris dazzles between 18 and 20 attendees at a time with magic and humor and then leads them into the discussion of workers’ compensation solutions, according to Jodi Golia, marketing coordinator for MedRisk. “It really breaks the ice and has given us some great leads,” said Golia. “We’ve been real pleased with the show.” �

� Best of Show continued from page 1

Market Share by Vendor Type

TPAs60%

ITO/BPO Vendors40%

Source: Celent

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M I N N E A P O L I S C O N V E N T I O N C E N T E R � M I N N E A P O L I S , M N � W W W . I A S A . O R G

IASA DAILY NEWS

By Michael P. Voelker

L ike any discipline within an insurance company, IT needs to be an integral part of busi-ness strategy and an enabler

of achieving business goals. However, dealing with ongoing challenges involv-ing both staff and technology can make it difficult for IT departments to oper-ate most effectively and respond quick-ly to business needs, which change at an ever-increasing pace.

Panelists and attendees will examine these challenges and oth-ers during the “IT Town Hall: The Evolving IT Landscape” at the 2007 IASA Educational Conference on Wednesday, June 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. They also will explore real-world solutions and examine the role technology should and will play in their organizations going forward.

“Insurers realize the IT organization is a cru-cial part of the business,” explains panel moderator Rod Travers, senior vice president of technology at Robert E. Nolan Company. “We therefore will focus on how insurers can maximize the strategic role of IT, how IT and business can work together most effectively, and how IT departments can develop into collaborative, cooperative, and thought-leading organizations.”

Participating in the discussion will be four panelists from a wide range of insurance backgrounds: Stan Dowd, vice president of IT and the corporate project office at Colonial Supplemental Insurance; Craig Lowenthal, senior vice president and CIO of New York Marine and General Insurance Company; Ara Trembly, senior editor of technology for National Underwriter; and Rick Hoehne, leader in IBM’s Insurance Business Solutions.

Staffing Struggles In its focus on organizational

issues that enable IT to support effec-tively business operations and strategy, the session will target several key chal-lenges faced by insurers. One of these is talent management. Dowd, who first joined Colonial in 1984, has seen the IT staffing situation change over the years and has felt its impact on his need to prepare for the future of IT.

“Attracting and retaining tal-ent in an IT organization, the aging demographics of employees, and the decrease in computer science profes-sionals are all things Colonial has to deal with and I know my colleagues at other insurers have to address, as well,” says Dowd.

Hoehne believes the changing demographics, in particu-lar, will have far-reaching consequences for the future of IT. “It’s a societal change that impacts not just IT but all areas of the indus-try. We need to ensure we are doing the right things to attract new talent,” he asserts. Prior to joining IBM, Hoehne had held senior positions within the insurance industry in the areas of operations, claims, and IT and had founded a software company focused on claims administration and risk management.

In addition to recruit-ment challenges, an aging work force also has implications for future staffing needs as well as an insurer’s ability to maintain and update its application portfolio. “The retirement of staff presents an acute management challenge for us and most companies in determining how to replace the countless years of knowledge that are lost when staff members retire,” says Lowenthal, who brings more than 18 years of insurance and IT management experience to the panel.

Dowd believes in order to respond to the growing staffing challenge, insurers need to identify “creative” ways to ensure they have a pool of talent and skill sets available, including partnerships, internships, and co-ops. “It’s critical we deal with the situation proactively,” he contends.

Legacy ChallengesAs IT talent leaves

companies, particu-larly through retirement, insurers’ struggles with legacy systems are exac-erbated—a topic likely to be tackled in the session. “Knowledge is locked up not only in staff but in the hard-coded processes performed by legacy applications,” Lowenthal indicates. “Extracting that institutionalized knowl-edge is a key enabler to getting IT to respond to the business.”

That extraction is being facilitated by approaches including Web services technologies, which also are allowing insurers to target mainte-nance cost issues. “We are spending way too much money keeping legacy systems ticking and the lights on,” Hoehne contends. “Taking costs out of maintenance is a key way of free-ing up funds for strategic projects that increase competitiveness.”

Equally important, insurers are using Web services not just to target cost issues but to allow IT to respond more quickly to business needs by transforming legacy applications into componentized systems that can be extended and reused. “The business side is very interested in any ability to perform rapid changes and itera-tions—anything IT can do to shorten the time to bring products to market and lower the barriers of entry into the marketplace,” Hoehne points out.

Legacy MindsetAnother legacy issue

IT departments must solve is what could be termed the “legacy mindset.” In order for IT truly to be a strategic partner to business, the culture of IT must encompass an understanding of the business. The panel will discuss this issue and effective strategies for IT-business alignment.

“IT still tends to see things through a technical perspective,” Lowenthal remarks. “The challenge is how to get technical people into the shoes of the underwriter or the claims representative and, thereby, to create technol-ogies that are effective and adopted by the user com-munity. Genuinely under-standing the business is a tough thing for IT.”

Yet being able to make these types of organizational changes, encompassing both people and technology, is critical because the demands of the business on IT only will increase in coming months and years. “The business understands the power of information and how it can change busi-

ness,” Hoehne comments. “The busi-ness is asking for more—more infor-mation, more technical capabilities, new techniques. IT departments will distinguish themselves by how quickly they will be able to provide these capabilities and to quench the thirst for information the business has.”

Finally, one point all panelists agree on is IT must take an active role in establishing its value to the busi-ness. “IT must do everything it can to ensure it is viewed as a strategic partner to the business, and the work IT does is seen as an investment, not just a cost of doing business,” Dowd concludes. �

Town Hall Explores Solutions for Effective IT in the Corporate Landscape

“Attracting and retain-ing talent in an IT orga-

nization, the aging demo-graphics of employees,

and the decrease in

computer science pro-

fessionals are all things Colonial has

to deal with.”

— Stan Dowd, vice president of IT,

Colonial Supplemental Insurance

“The retire-ment of staff presents an acute man-

agement challenge for us and most companies

in determin-ing how to replace the countless years of

knowledge that are lost when staff members retire.”

— Craig Lowenthal, senior vice president and CIO of New York Marine and General Insurance Company

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IASA DAILY NEWS

Veteran Attendees Embrace Changes And Benefits Through the YearsBy Regina Marie Glick

P icture this: In 1928, the presidential election pit-ted Republican Herbert Hoover against Democrat

Alfred E. Smith. With the Depression a year away, the ’20s continued to roar. Prohibition unsuccessfully tried to keep the country dry. The good times rolled and also happened to include a perhaps lesser known but noteworthy event: the very first annual IASA Educational Conference & Business Show. But just like everything else in these past 79 years, the IASA event has seen its share of change.

It’s a safe bet no conference-goers today remember the early days. However, attendees in 2007 expect to learn about statutory changes and new software systems and to pick up tips for developing their careers. Attendees who have participated in the conference over the last couple of decades recall the conference wasn’t always the large event it is now. They remember a time when it was very different from what newer attendees are familiar with.

“Of course it is so much more sophisti-cated,” says Bill Hampton, president of Colonial Life Insurance Company of Texas. “As far as the infor-mation that is provided, it’s so much more now than it used to be.”

And after 41 years of pretty regular attendance, Hampton should know what he is talking about. “Back in those days, most of the exhibits were physi-cal equipment—IBM and so forth were shown,” he continues. “It really has progressed over the years very well.”

Seasoned attendees remark they have noticed changes to many aspects of

the conference and agree the exhibitors are much more likely to offer industry-tailored software packages than in the past.

Solutions for Insurers “I think in the old days [of the

conference] you had vendors [that sell to many industries] that would sell to insurance,” says Jerry M. Dabels, assis-tant treasurer for Vanliner Insurance Company. “They’d sell to retailing, manufacturing, or whatever, but now we see more zeroing in just for insur-ance. They’ve either tailored their prod-uct or developed new products only

for the insurance industry, which is very helpful. We are unique and different.”

Michael J. Doody, second vice president, statu-tory reporting, for Traveler’s Company, has attended the annual conference since 1991 and echoes Dabels’ sentiment. “The focus is very much software and systems and things of that nature because of how things have changed in general,” he says. “I’m just amazed at the proliferation of the different slices of software [available]—peo-ple have their collections software, payable software, tax software, investment systems, general ledger packages.”

Dabels, who has been attending the conference for more than a decade, points out by bringing in a greater number of exhibitors that specialize in insurance tech-nologies, the industry has moved forward with adopt-ing new technologies.

“Insurance probably is one of the worst industries as far as change; in other words, changing company systems. That’s all differ-ent over the last 10 years,” Dabels says. “And I think IASA has played an impor-tant part in that by bring-ing in exhibitors that have

done a very good job zeroing in on the insurance industry.”

A Good Deal of EducationThe most valuable part of the

conference for Dabels has been the educational sessions that “[keep] you current on current events and, for whatever you pay, probably are the cheapest one-time event in which you can get caught up on every facet of the insurance industry. And the speakers are very good. They zero in, and there is such a range of different topics you can pick from.”

Roundtable discussions for chief financial officers, chief information officers, and chief investment officers provide upper management members with something of direct value to their own careers. And other professional development sessions help younger, less advanced members to gain valuable skills they need to progress, as well, the veterans observe.

“The career development part of IASA has been very helpful,” Doody affirms. “I’ve had a couple of people who recently were promoted to supervisors and managers, and I’ve put them in those tracks, and they’ve learned to deal with their staff and with upper management. So, that’s been very helpful.”

Quality NetworkingBut even with these important

changes, the veterans agree one benefit that has stayed the same has kept them coming back year after year, and that benefit has been the quality of the net-working opportunities.

“The reason I send people to it, including myself, is you want to keep that networking up,” Dabels says.

Hampton concurs: “To me, IASA is a relationship situation. Of course, you get all the technical information. And for any question you have, there’s an answer there somewhere. But for me, it’s the relationships and the friends I have made over the years. A lot of them you see only once a year, but still it’s very strong.”

Also leaving a strong impression was one of last year’s keynote speakers. “I really enjoyed Rudy Giuliani,” Doody says. “I have to say I liked what he said because I kind of lean toward his spec-trum politically, but I also liked how he said it. I enjoyed it very much.”

Doody, Dabels, and Hampton all were looking forward to hearing Colin Powell speak. Dabels says he was look-ing forward to his presentation “just to get his read on the world and how that can affect not only us at home but abroad, too.”

In addition to having had high expectations for Powell’s speech, Hampton indicates he also is look-ing forward to President-Elect John Bauer’s term. “John’s going to be a good president. He’s very conscientious, and I think he’ll do a good job,” Hampton asserts. He assesses the job of outgoing president Steve Meziere as “top-notch.”

Finally, the veteran IASA attendees offer some advice to rookie members. “I think the biggest thing that can help in the career of a rookie is getting involved in IASA whether it’s at the local, regional, or the national level,” Dabels concludes, “because you’ll get back four times whatever you put in as far as networking and education.” �

“The focus is very much software and

systems and things of that nature because of

how things have changed in general.”

— Michael J. Doody, second vice president, statutory reporting, for

Traveler’s Company

“Insurance probably is one of the worst industries as far as

change; in other words, changing company systems. That’s all different over the

last 10 years.”

— Jerry M. Dabels, assistant treasurer for

Vanliner Insurance Company

“To me, IASA is a

relationship situation. Of course, you get all the technical

information. And for any

question you have, there’s an answer

there some-where. But for me, it’s

the relation-ships and the friends I have

made over the years.”

— Bill Hampton, president of

Colonial Life Insurance Company of Texas

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PAGE 12 � Wednesday, June 6, 2007

M I N N E A P O L I S C O N V E N T I O N C E N T E R � M I N N E A P O L I S , M N � W W W . I A S A . O R G

IASA DAILY NEWS

The Conference at a Glance

Photos for IASA Daily Newsprovided by Tom Gregory,

Universal Convention Photography, Inc.

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PAGE 14 � Wednesday, June 6, 2007

M I N N E A P O L I S C O N V E N T I O N C E N T E R � M I N N E A P O L I S , M N � W W W . I A S A . O R G

IASA DAILY NEWS

By Regina Marie Glick

IASA President-Elect John Bauer, who has been involved with the organi-zation for more than a decade, recently shared thoughts on the insurance industry and his vision for the future of IASA during his term, which will run from July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008. Bauer is the direc-tor, financial reporting for the corporate controller’s office, at Prudential Financial. He outlined his three main objectives for IASA for the coming year: increasing vol-unteerism of members with-in the association, continuing to strengthen the national association’s financial support of local and regional chapters, and improving the educational offerings presented by the association.

Question: What are your plans to increase volunteerism?

Bauer: We’ve got a healthy volun-teer base, but I think we can enhance it even further. One of the greatest ways we have had success in increas-ing volunteerism has been through working with the chapters. We’ve got 28 chapters all over the U.S. The chapters always have been a segue into volunteering at the national level. I would like to formalize the pro-cesses of obtaining and developing new volunteers. [At the previous Pacific Northwest meeting,] I just asked peo-ple to volunteer, and it worked, but I think if we had a formal process—and we’ve got a strong, healthy finance structure—we can move it forward.

Question: What kind of an impact has strengthening national IASA’s financial support of local and regional chapters had on the association so far?

Bauer: I think that support and that interaction with national IASA really has enhanced the chapters’ growth over the past few years.

Question: How do you hope to improve the educational offerings of the association?

Meet John Bauer:Next President of IASA

� John Bauer, IASA President-Elect

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Contributing WritersRegina Marie GlickMichael P. Voelker

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July 26-27 Texas Chapter Meeting—Austin, TX Aug. 23-24 Carolina Chapter Meeting—Myrtle Beach, SCSept. 7-9 IASA Planning Meeting—Las Vegas, NVSept. 9-11 SW Regional Meeting—Las Vegas, NVSept. 19 Audit Committee Seminar—Grapevine, TXSept. 20-21 Michigan Chapter MeetingSept. 25 Wisconsin Fall Chapter Meeting—Madison, WISept. 26-27 Central States Regional Conference—Bloomington, ILOct. 19 Mid-Atlantic Fall Chapter Meeting—Newark, DE

IASA 2007 � Calendar of Events

Bauer: We’re a lot more than just an annual conference now. We’re also text-books and roundtables and Webinars and distance learning. We continually are looking at new offerings. Some of

the things I think we’d like to focus on educationally would be SOX vs. statutory, which is coming into play in 2010, also with the whole risk focus examination pro-cess. So, anything that’s up and coming over the next five years, I think is fair game to evaluate.

Question: What do you believe are the major challenges and trends

in the industry that will shape the coming year?

Bauer: The regulatory environment always is a challenge. The optional federal charter still is being looked at. Right now, the states regulate insur-ance. But what potentially could hap-pen in Washington is any portions of the insurance industry [could be] regulated by the federal government vs. state government. I think that issue is there and will continue to be there.

One of the issues the industry has to face is the whole question of risk. This is across the board for IT, vendors, and the life and property/casualty insurance industry. You’ve got to have stringent requirements for reporting and securing your accountability.

And another focus for the indus-try is preparing people for retirement. There’s a real issue over the next 20

years: Do people have enough money to save and be available for retirement, and how can companies help them reach those goals?

Question: What are the big chal-lenges facing IASA?

Bauer: I think the future looks really good. I think we need to continue to be nimble. We need to evolve constantly with changes in the industry. For example, in terms of the challenges to the industry, I think we need to stay on top of them to be able to educate all of our members before those issues really become major for the members.

The other challenge is with the consolidation in the industry. Obviously with all the consolidation in the industry and the acquisition and merger activity, our membership base has dropped a little. Not much, but again, the challenge will be going to companies to make sure they under-stand the value IASA can give to their employees in terms of knowledge, lead-ership, confidence, and networking.

Question: What is the value IASA brings to the insurance industry?

Bauer: The importance of the orga-nization is having a place to go for education either informally or formally. Just education and knowledge and net-working and being able to understand new issues—we can provide an edu-cational framework for that. And also having a network of people whom you can ask technical questions—on either an accounting or IT level. �

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