2024 Reinsurance Seminar Speaker Bios
2024 Reinsurance Seminar Speaker Bios
ANDREW BORIS
Andrew Boris is Executive Vice President and CEO of AmericanAg®. Andrew began his career as an insurance agent and went on to practice law in Chicago, Illinois, focusing on a broad range of complex insurance and reinsurance issues on a national and international basis. He joined AmericanAg® in 2014 as General Counsel and Secretary and assumed his current role in 2022.
Andrew is a regular speaker on insurance coverage and reinsurance topics at national conferences. He has authored hundreds of articles, with pieces appearing in National Underwriter, Global Reinsurance, Insurance Journal, Journal of Reinsurance, Journal of Insurance, and RISE (CPCU Reinsurance Committee newsletter), along with a chapter in the book Insurance Law (published by the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education). He has also served as an adjunct professor at DePaul University College of Law, teaching classes in advanced legal writing and pre-trial litigation skills.
Andrew earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Boston College. He also graduated with honors from the DePaul University College of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review and Order of the Coif. He holds the Associate in Insurance Data Analytics (AIDA), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Associate in General Insurance (AINS), and Associate in Insurance Services (AIS) designations.
LORIE GRAHAM
Lorie Graham, CPCU, ARe, ARM, AIAF, ALCM, ARP, ARC, AIM, is Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer at AmericanAg®. In this role, she is responsible for leadership, innovation, governance, and management of the company’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program and also oversees the Corporate Services area, including corporate risk, research and product development, underwriting, and marketing.
Lorie has over 30 years of experience in underwriting, risk management, and research. She joined AmericanAg® in 2008 as a Casualty Underwriting Manager and went on to serve in numerous other leadership positions at the company. She assumed her current role in 2021. Lorie is a frequent presenter at insurance industry events on ERM and emerging trends. She currently serves as Chair of the RIMS Strategic Enterprise Risk Management Council and Director of the IASA ERM Committee.
Lorie holds numerous industry designations, including Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Associate in Insurance Accounting and Finance (AIAF), Associate in Loss Control Management (ALCM), and Associate in Research and Planning (ARP), among others.
SCOTT APPLEQUIST
Scott Applequist, FCAS, MAAA, is an Actuary and the Property/Casualty Product Leader at AmericanAg®. In his role, he is responsible for pricing, quoting, and administering various property and casualty treaties for the Farm Bureau® insurance companies, along with monitoring the profitability of those products. In addition, he provides actuarial support to AmericanAg®’s ceded reinsurance department and works with Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR) for both AmericanAg® and the Farm Bureau® companies.
Scott began his career as a personal lines underwriter for Safeco Insurance. He went on to serve as an actuary for Zurich North America for nearly nine years before joining AmericanAg® in 2011.
Scott earned a Bachelor of Science degree in math and physics from North Park University in Chicago. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).
SHARIQ SHAFI
Shariq Shafi, JD, is the Director of Reinsurance Underwriting at AmericanAg®. In this role, he is responsible for leading the underwriting team; managing and monitoring all aspects of reinsurance underwriting; and advancing the department’s in-house capabilities and resources, for the benefit of its Farm Bureau® insurance company clients.
Shariq joined AmericanAg® as an Underwriting Manager in 2020. He began his career practicing law in Chicago before joining Zurich Insurance as a Litigation Management Attorney. He then transitioned to a role as a Foreign Casualty Underwriter. Shariq went on to serve at HDI Global Insurance Company as a Controlled Master Program Casualty Underwriter, as the sole Field Underwriter at AmTrust North America’s Chicago office, and as Senior Underwriter at QBE North America’s Financial Institutions Vertical.
Shariq holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Juris Doctor degree from The John Marshall Law School.
KATIE SHOOK
Katie Shook is a Vice President and Account Executive at AmericanAg®. In this role, she collaborates with clients, business partners, and other AmericanAg® team members to develop and deliver customized reinsurance solutions that span the entirety of a client’s property/casualty and catastrophe coverage needs.
Katie joined AmericanAg® in 2012 as a Catastrophe Modeling Analyst. Later, as Catastrophe Modeling Manager, she led the modeling teams that provided reinsurance placement and pricing support for the company’s various portfolios. She transitioned to the Farm Bureau® Client Relations team in 2023 and was promoted to her current role in January 2024.
Katie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Science from Cornell University and a Master of Science degree in Natural Resources from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She also holds the Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) designation.
MARC MOLIK
Marc Molik, FCAS, MAAA, is an Actuary at AmericanAg®. In his role, he is responsible for pricing, quoting, and administering various property and casualty treaties for the Farm Bureau® insurance companies. He also provides pricing and reinsurance treaty support for the AmericanAg® Farm Pollution, Cyber, and Home & Farm Pool products; performs pricing analysis for select large non-cat treaties; monitors casualty trends; and maintains non-cat pricing tools.
Marc began his career at CNA and joined AmericanAg® in 2014. Over his 17 years in the property/casualty insurance industry, he has provided actuarial support for both standard and specialty lines of business and has served in a wide variety of roles, encompassing reinsurance pricing, commercial lines pricing, and loss reserving.
Marc earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in actuarial science, risk management, and insurance from the University of WisconsinMadison. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).
DAWN SCHULZE
Dawn Schulze, FCAS, MAAA, is an Actuary and Catastrophe Product Leader at AmericanAg®. In this role, she leads and manages the administration of AmericanAg®’s catastrophe reinsurance products for its Farm Bureau® insurance company clients through pricing, quoting, and monitoring the profitability of those products. She also provides catastrophe analytics support for reinsurance optimization and risk adjusted layer change projects, and works with the company’s portfolio management tool.
Dawn began her career at Mercer Consulting setting Medicare and Medicaid rates. She went on to serve for five and a half years at Zurich North America in various roles, including Property Pricing Actuary, Reserving Actuary, and Middle Market Commercial Business Unit Actuary. She joined AmericanAg® in 2012 as a Catastrophe Pricing Actuary and assumed her current position in 2020.
Dawn graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics with a minor in mathematics. She is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).
ROB FURIA
Rob Furia, FCAS, MAAA, is an Actuary at AmericanAg®. In this role, he provides reinsurance analytics and solutions to assist in the placement of catastrophe reinsurance for Farm Bureau® insurance company clients. He also works to analyze and price catastrophe reinsurance risk assumed by AmericanAg®.
Rob began his career as an actuarial analyst at Cincinnati Insurance. He then transitioned to the role of actuary at Cincinnati Re, where he spent seven years pricing treaty reinsurance transactions and assisting in managing assumed risk. He joined AmericanAg® in 2023.
Rob earned a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science at Bowling Green State University. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).
ROB DOWNS
Rob Downs, FCAS, MAAA, is the Senior Actuarial Manager, Pricing and Analytics, at AmericanAg®. In this role, he is responsible for leading actuarial analytics services, conducting pricing model research and development, providing pricing support, and collaborating with other AmericanAg® team members to develop innovative reinsurance solutions for Farm Bureau® insurance company clients.
Rob began his career at Allstate, where he completed rotational actuarial assignments in reserving, commercial pricing, and reinsurance pricing. He then worked in the treaty pricing department at SCOR Re for six years and went on to serve as a regional actuary for Swiss Re before returning to SCOR in the role of Pricing Vice President and Actuary. He joined AmericanAg® in 2003.
Rob earned a Bachelor of Science degree in actuarial science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).
MICHAEL KNUTH
Michael Knuth is the Director of Catastrophe Modeling and Exposure Management at AmericanAg®. In this role, he leads the teams that develop, deploy, and coordinate exposure management tools and services for Farm Bureau® insurance company clients; provide catastrophe portfolio management support to the company and its clients; and support clients in their catastrophe risk management.
Michael began his career as a Catastrophe Modeling Analyst at RLI and went on to serve as a Catastrophe Actuarial Analyst at Aon Benfield. He joined the AmericanAg® Catastrophe Modeling team in 2013 and has been instrumental in the development of CatWriterr®, the AmericanAg® Portfolio Management Tool, and the company’s ESRI platform. He transitioned to his current role in 2023.
Michael graduated from Bradley University with a Bachelor of Science degree in actuarial science.
KAITLIN REISS
Kaitlin Reiss, CEEM, ARe, is the Catastrophe Modeling Manager at AmericanAg®. In this role, she leads the team that supports Farm Bureau® insurance company clients in their catastrophe risk management, through modeling of portfolios for reinsurance placement, regulatory support, model change management, and other types of assistance and analysis.
Kaitlin came to AmericanAg® from Verisk, where she led a team that supported US primary insurers in utilizing catastrophe models. She also trained new insurance clients on modeling software, supported a probabilistic cyber model, and served on a product development team for yearly software enhancements.
Kaitlin earned a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science, with minors in mathematics and statistics, from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. She holds the Certified Extreme Event Modeler and Associate in Reinsurance designations and is currently pursuing the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation.
SARAH HALL
Sarah Hall, CEEM, is the Reinsurance Modeling Manager at AmericanAg®. In this role, she is responsible for the management, completion, and overall quality of modeling services for the company’s Broker Assumed contracts and works closely with the actuarial team to complete the corporate rollup.
Sarah joined AmericanAg® in 2018 as a Catastrophe Modeling and Exposure Assistant and was promoted to her current role in 2023.
Sarah earned a bachelor’s degree in meteorology from Northern Illinois University. She holds the Verisk Certified Extreme Event Modeler designation.
RUSS DUNNE
Russ Dunne is the Director of Reinsurance Strategy and Placement and AmericanAg®. In this role, he advises Farm Bureau® insurance company clients on reinsurance placements and purchases reinsurance to protect the AmericanAg® balance sheet. He also serves as a subject matter resource for the Farm Bureau® Client Relations, Actuarial, Contracts, Accounting/Claims, and Information Systems teams at AmericanAg®.
Russ began his career at Guy Carpenter (formerly John B. Collins Associates, Inc.), where he worked as a Reinsurance Accounting and Claims Analyst. Later, he transitioned to reinsurance broking at Howden Tiger, with a focus on regional and national catastrophe-exposed business. As part of his role, he served as a broker on AmericanAg® corporate catastrophe retro purchases for nine years. Russ was promoted to Partner at Howden Tiger in 2020 and joined AmericanAg® in June 2023.
Russ graduated from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance.
PHIL JAGIELO
Phil Jagielo is the Catastrophe Analytics Manager at AmericanAg®. In this role, he is responsible for the coordination of client projects related to exposure management, event response, and hazard research, plus the management of related applications such as CatWriter®, Event Impact Alerts, and the ESRI ArcGIS Enterprise Portal.
Phil began his career as an Inside Catastrophe Claims Adjuster at Allstate and went on to serve as a Catastrophe Modeling Analytics Consultant at CNA. He joined AmericanAg® in 2015 as a Catastrophe Analytics Analyst. In 2020, he transitioned the role of Catastrophe Pricing and Analytics Analyst, responsible for supporting catastrophe underwriting submission development, catastrophe pricing analysis, and reinsurance analytical services. He assumed his current position in 2023.
Phil earned a Bachelor of Science degree in meteorology from Northern Illinois University (NIU) and currently serves on the External Advisory Committee for NIU’s Department of Geographic and Atmospheric Sciences.
STEFAN BOES
Stefan Boes is a Catastrophe Analytics Analyst at AmericanAg®. In this role, he is responsible for producing event response analyses for Farm Bureau® insurance company clients; mapping potentially affected exposures and policies following severe weather or catastrophe events; and assisting with other exposure management projects.
Prior to joining AmericanAg® in 2020, Stefan served as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Specialist for the city of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
Stefan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder; a graduate certificate in Geographic Information Analysis from Northern Illinois University; and a Master of Science in geoscience with a concentration in applied meteorology from Mississippi State University.
DENISE MORIN
Denise Morin, CPCU, ARe, is the Senior Manager, Claims Operations at AmericanAg®. In this role, she is responsible for managing workers’ compensation reinsurance claims; providing oversight of all property and casualty reinsurance claims for several Farm Bureau® insurance company clients; and managing the Claim Operations team to ensure timely and client-focused service.
Denise joined AmericanAg® in 2011, after serving in positions that included Senior Claim Consultant at Allstate Insurance, Assistant Vice President at SCOR, and Senior Reinsurance Claim Manager at Lumbermens Mutual (Kemper Mutual), a role in which she led the management of the reinsurance treaty team.
Denise graduated from Bradley University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in finance. She holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) designations.
ANDY MARTIN
Andy Martin, CPCU, ARe, AIC, is the Senior Vice President, Farm Bureau® Client Relations, at AmericanAg®. In this role, he leads the team that collaborates with clients, business partners, and other AmericanAg® departments to develop and deliver customized reinsurance solutions that span the entirety of a client’s property/casualty and catastrophe coverage needs.
Andy worked at COUNTRY Financial for over 15 years in various roles in commercial/agribusiness underwriting management, field claims, and field underwriting. He joined AmericanAg® in 2014 as a Casualty Treaty Underwriting Manager and was appointed Vice President of Claims in 2016. He then transitioned to the Farm Bureau® Client Relations team in 2019 and assumed his current role in 2023.
Andy graduated from Illinois State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance. He holds various designations, including Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe), and Associate in Claims (AIC).
MEREDITH WILLIAMS
Meredith Williams is Senior Vice President, Reinsurance Strategy & Placement, at AmericanAg®. In this role, he is responsible for managing all outward reinsurance placements, monitoring reinsurer counterparty credit risk, and advising on new reinsurance product solutions for clients.
Meredith has extensive experience in reinsurance evaluations and negotiations, primary occurrence and aggregate exposure risk management, and insurance regulation. He began his career in the Illinois Receivership Office, then went on to coordinate reinsurance operations for Old Republic Insurance Company. Later, at Zurich American Insurance Company, Meredith was responsible for the development, placement, and management of all treaty programs for commercial lines property, casualty, and specialty lines. As a Partner at TigerRisk Partners, he brokered current client accounts and served on their new client production team. He joined AmericanAg® in 2016 and assumed his current role in 2023.
Meredith graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Science degree in actuarial science.