Scott Applequist, AmericanAg™
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 the AmericanAg™ Reinsurance Strategy & Placement 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.
Andrew Boris, AmericanAg™
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.
Mitchell Dean, Guy Carpenter
Mitchell Dean is a Senior Vice President at Guy Carpenter with 17 years of experience as a reinsurance broker, and nearly a decade with AmericanAg™ and the Farm Bureau® companies. He serves as a strategic leader for the AmericanAg™ catastrophe reinsurance placements, managing a team of seasoned brokers through the reinsurance placement process and value-added services that Guy Carpenter affords it client base. In addition to his work with AmericanAg™, Mitchell is involved with Guy Carpenter’s Regional & Mutual Segment and Workers’ Compensation Center of Excellence and services a variety of clients in these sectors. Mitchell graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science degree in business management.
Andrew Ealy, Canopius
Andrew started his insurance career in 1993 as a trainee motor underwriter. In 1995, he joined CNA Re as an underwriting assistant and progressed through the ranks, working on US, international, and retrocession business. Andrew moved to Hannover Re in 2001 before joining the broking community, firstly with Carvill (now part of Willis) and latterly Guy Carpenter, working with local, regional, and global clients. In 2010, he joined Canopius and in 2020 was promoted to Head of Property Treaty.
Lorie Graham, AmericanAg™
Lorie Graham, CPCU, ARe, ARM, AIAF, ALCM, ARP, ARC, AIM, is Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer at AmericanAg™. Lorie has over 30 years of experience in underwriting, risk management, and research. She 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.
Ben Hodge, TransRe
Ben joined TransRe in 2015 with a focus on U.S. Regional and Florida Cat XOL business. In addition to traditional underwriting responsibilities, he is involved with other initiatives such as TransRe’s 3rd party capital partnerships with Pillar and Integral, leading the development of internal pricing tools, and developing parametric product(s) with New Paradigm.
Prior to joining TransRe, he was based in Bermuda as an underwriter for AQR Re (2014-15), and Amlin (2011-2014). Prior to becoming an underwriter, he was a reinsurance broker with Aon Benfield, based in Chicago (2005-2011).
Derek Keating, Lockton Re
Derek joined Lockton in October 2019. With over 40 years’ experience in the reinsurance business, his expertise spans both Property and Casualty, where he has been involved in the design and placement of programs for some of the largest (re)insurance companies in the US. In recent years his focus has been on North American Property Treaty.
Derek started his reinsurance career with the Lloyd’s Broker Ellinger Heath Western, where he became an Associate Partner, before EHW was sold to the Benfield Group in 1995. He spent the next 14 years at Benfield, before taking up a position as Executive Director at Towers Watson Reinsurance Brokers Ltd., becoming a Partner at JLT Re following the acquisition of TWRB by JLT in 2013.
Andy Martin, AmericanAg™
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™ team members to develop and deliver customized reinsurance solutions. 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.
Kaitlin Reiss, AmericanAg™
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 portfolio modeling, regulatory support, model change management, and other types of assistance. Kaitlin came to AmericanAg™ from Verisk, where she led a team that supported US primary insurers in utilizing catastrophe models. Kaitlin earned a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science, with minors in mathematics and statistics, from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
Jeffrey Schmidt, Guy Carpenter
Joining Guy Carpenter in the fall of 2018, Jeff works as a meteorologist supporting and advising clients on atmospheric and natural catastrophe risks. Jeff sits within the North America Peril Advisory team, a subset of the Global Model Solutions and Advisory group.
Jeff is the acting product manager for Guy Carpenter’s proprietary severe thunderstorm and winter storm offerings and also focuses on North America event response. Before Guy Carpenter, Jeff worked as a research scientist at Chubb, where he led the company’s global event response effort and researched modeled and nonmodeled peril risk.
Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology from Penn State University and has received the Associate in Reinsurance (ARe) and Certified Specialist in Catastrophe Risk (CSCR) designation.
Dawn Schulze, AmericanAg™
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; 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 and went on to serve for five and a half years at Zurich North America in various actuarial roles. She joined AmericanAg™ in 2012 and assumed her current position in 2020. Dawn graduated from the University of Arizona with a BA in economics with a minor in mathematics.
Susan Steinhoff, Hamilton Group
Susan Steinhoff has over 20 years of experience in the reinsurance industry and currently serves as Senior Vice President, Head of Property Reinsurance at Hamilton Re. She joined Hamilton Re in 2014 from ACE (now Chubb) Tempest Re Bermuda where she was Senior Vice President, Underwriter, in the company’s US Property Catastrophe department. Her responsibilities at ACE Tempest Re included underwriting US property catastrophe reinsurance and oversight of the company’s catastrophe modeling team. Susan had previously served as Senior Vice President, Underwriter, in ACE Tempest Re’s International Property Catastrophe department.
Susan joined ACE Tempest Re Bermuda in 2005 from ACE Financial Solutions International, where her primary responsibilities included underwriting international property cat reinsurance and worldwide property cat retrocessional risks on a structured basis.
Prior to joining ACE, Susan served as Assistant Actuary for XL Re Ltd in Bermuda and Actuarial Analyst for Royal & SunAlliance in the US.
Susan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.
Meredith Williams, AmericanAg™
Andrew started his insurance career in 1993 as a trainee motor underwriter. In 1995, he joined CNA Re as an underwriting assistant and progressed through the ranks, working on US, international, and retrocession business. Andrew moved to Hannover Re in 2001 before joining the broking community, firstly with Carvill (now part of Willis) and latterly Guy Carpenter, working with local, regional, and global clients. In 2010, he joined Canopius and in 2020 was promoted to Head of Property Treaty.