SPEAKERS

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Andrea Coleman is the WCIRB Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. As COO, Andrea Coleman assists in leading the strategic vision and planning of the WCIRB. She serves as the senior leader of the finance, human resources, marketing and educational functions. Previously, Andrea served as managing director, Northwest region at AIG, responsible for overall field leadership and production in the region. She has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience. 

 

John Dennis is currently premium audit manager with AmTrust Group. John has been associated with the industry since 1985 as a vendor auditor, starting and operating his own "fee company" in NY before switching to the carrier side. John has worked for Cigna, Royal Insurance, where he was promoted to Audit Specialist, Maryland Casualty, Zurich, and the technical services department of AIG. Joining Guarantee Insurance as a manager in 2012, John was prompted to regional manager, East Coast Manager, and then to Director of Premium Audit. Guarantee evolved to Patriot Insurance where John was promoted to AVP, VP, and ultimately being named President of Patriot Audit Services once the parent company went public. John has been involved in every facet of audit including M&A. John served on the PAAS WC and GL/Auto subcommittees in the early 90's. Being involved with NSIPA from the late 80's until today and always available to serve the industry, John has presented at the local, regional and national levels of NSIPA and is a past President of NISPA as well as a Betty Gerdes recipient.

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Dominic Dugo, retired Chief Deputy District Attorney from San Diego, California, is the DELTA GROUP Fraud Division Vice-President. Dominic advises Delta and its clients on the effective strategies to investigate insurance fraud, including providing valuable training on various fraud topics. Dominic spent 33 years as a prosecutor in San Diego with 27 years prosecuting and then supervising the insurance fraud program. Under his leadership, San Diego has been recognized as having one of the best insurance fraud prosecutorial offices in the country. After graduating in the top 5% of his law school class at De Paul University in Chicago, Dominic moved to California. He worked 2 years to as an attorney for Justice Charles Hamlin of the California Court of Appeal. Thereafter, he joined the District Attorney's Office. Dominic established San Diego's Workers' Compensation Premium Fraud (1996) and Medical and Legal Insurance Fraud (2005) Task Forces. Both of these were the first of their kind. He also authored several articles on insurance fraud including premium fraud. Dominic's success resulted in several awards. In 2016, he received the "Edwin L. Miller Lifetime Achievement Award" from the San Diego District Attorney's Association. In 2010, Llorente Investigations named him their Nationwide Insurance Fraud Prosecutor of the Year. Previously, in 1999, he was named Insurance Fraud Prosecutor of the Year by the International Association of Special Investigation Units for Southern California. Dominic also was awarded a Certificate of Recognition from the FBI and a Commanding Officer's Citation from the San Diego Police Department. Dominic has taught numerous classes throughout the country on how to investigate and prosecute insurance fraud including premium fraud. He also spearheaded and designed in San Diego one of the most successful anti-insurance fraud outreach programs in the country. Prior to retiring from the DA's Office in September 2019, Dominic served as Co-Chair of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud out of Washington, D.C. for 3 years. Dominic also serves as a law enforcement advisor to the California Labor Commissioner and is Co-Chair of the Coalition's Nationwide Workers' Compensation Fraud Task Force.

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Mike Engell is currently the West Region Director for Work Comp Underwriting for ICW Group, with oversight over CA and NV operations. He began his career in 2009 in the actuarial field and has held various underwriting positions throughout CA since then. Mike was promoted to Regional Director in 2021 and currently has oversight over a region that writes close to a billion dollars in direct written premium. Engell is a graduate of California State University - Sacramento, with a degree in Finance/Insurance & Risk Management.

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Kevin Green is a consultant in the filings and research department at NCCI. In this role, he serves as an expert resource for the filings and research staff and supports senior management in the WC Operations division. He is also a key member for several ongoing projects at NCCI. He previously served as the manager of the filings and research department at NCCI. He began his insurance career in 1984, with his early years spent in claims and loss control. In 1986, he moved into the premium audit function, working in a variety of field and management positions for several carriers, before joining NCCI in 2011. He has a BA in fine arts from The University of Maryland (Baltimore County). He is also a past president of the Insurance Auditors Association of Maryland. During his spare time, he enjoys spending time with family, camping, and rooting for the Orioles and Ravens. 

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Nick Holdridge is an Associate Vice President - Western States for AFIRM. Nick is also currently the VP of Governance for NSIPA, and will be President Elect for 2023-2024.  Nick has been in the Industry for more than 15 years. Starting out performing premium audit. Three years into his career, he moved onto the quality review team where he established skills for quality and timeliness. Over the next few years he moved into a management role within Afirm, managing the physical operations on the east coast and phone center operations. Nick is currently the operations AVP of Afirm over the West coast operations. Nick has a passion for premium audit and enjoys the challenges of the industry.

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Paul Kim is the Managing Director of the Classification & Test Audit Department and Contact Center and has been with the WCIRB since 2016.  Before working at the WCIRB, Paul spent the majority of his career working on the carrier side at several national carriers with a primary focus on CA Workers Comp.

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Carrie Kosnik is the Associate Director of the Classification and Test Audit department (CTA). She has been with the WCIRB since 2010 in several roles, including Field Representative in Southern California, Classification Research Analyst, Quality Assurance Director and Business Process Specialist. Currently, Carrie and her team work on proposing regulatory changes to the Uniform Statistical Reporting Plan based on classification studies, which help maintain the integrity of the Standard Classification System. Carrie and her team also provide training to internal CTA field staff, as well as to external customers, perform quality review of WCIRB classification inspection reports to ensure accuracy and consistency and improve CTA’s business processes.  

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Salina Lau is currently a Field Support Mentor for Lowry & Associates, responsible for training and mentoring all physical, virtual and phone auditors. She has been associated with the industry for approximately 20 years. She has held several positions throughout her career including reviewer, physical auditor, supervisor and manager of Premium Audit. She is a graduate of Cal State Northridge with a degree in Business.

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Bill Mudge is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the WCIRB, which he joined as CEO in 2011 following a 30-year career in the California insurance industry. At the WCIRB, Bill has led a historic transformation of the company to become a leader in research and analytics as well as in the development of customer-valued products and services that are integral to a healthy workers’ compensation system. Prior to joining the WCIRB, Bill held insurance company roles that included founding CEO of CompWest Insurance Company, CEO of Golden Eagle Insurance Company and Chief Underwriting Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Industrial Indemnity. Bill has also held roles as Insurance Consulting Partner at both PriceWaterhouseCoopers and IBM. He began his insurance career in Risk Management for the Boeing Company in 1981.  

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Kay Payer is the owner and founder of Expert Audit Services, an independent auditing firm based in Los Angeles. Kay has over 35 years of premium audit experience “in the trenches”, having worked for all sides – as an independent auditor, a carrier auditor, and as a policyholder advocate. Ms. Payer is know as a detail-oriented audit specialist, adept at uncovering exposures that many auditors miss. A strong proponent of reviewing the detail behind summary records, Kay believes strongly in the basic standards of audit - sample, test and substantiate. Whether fulfilling regulatory audits, assisting in dispute resolution, auditing records seized in fraud investigations or offering expert opinion, she applies the rules “by the book” and shows the details necessary to “take it to the bank” (or court).

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Richard Pope heads the Premium Audit Department at SteadPoint. He assures that all statutory premium audit requirements are met and that our insureds are being charged the correct amount of earned premium. Rick started with SteadPoint in September 2023. He was previously the AVP of Premium Audit for Union Standard (a Berkley Company) and the Regional Premium Audit Manager – Western U. S. for Berkley Premium Audit Services (a Berkley Services Unit). He graduated from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, LA. Rick is an active speaker on a variety of commercial insurance topics including underwriting, premium audit, and communications. He has presented for the National Society of Premium Auditors, the Premium Audit Advisory Service, the Arkansas Homebuilders Association, the Tennessee IAA, the Arkansas Bar Association, as well as others. In 2020, Rick received The Eugene D. Bowers Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Premium Auditors.

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Henry H Reese III is currently the Premium Audit manager at NJM Insurance Company, which writes commercial insurance in NJ, NY, PA, DE, CT, and MD. He joined the insurance industry in 2000 and spent most of his career in underwriting, training, and supervisory roles before transitioning to Premium Audit in 2013. He has overseen NJM’s Premium Auditing department since 2015. He served as co-Vice President of the Insurance Auditors Association of New Jersey from 2016-2023. Henry assisted The Institutes with updating the APA course material in 2021-2022 and is featured in two introductory videos for APA 321. Henry also holds the CPCU, AINS, AIS, AIC, API, and APA designations and is a licensed producer in six states.

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Mike Warner is the Director of Premium Audit for Builders Insurance Group in Atlanta, GA and is responsible for the premium audit functions.  He began his audit career in 1993 as a premium auditor for Equifax Commercial Specialists before working his way up to a branch manager for Overland Solutions.  Mike also worked for AIG and Essential Premium Audit Solutions prior to joining Builders Insurance Group in 2008. He is a graduate of Columbia International University, Columbia, South Carolina.

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Troy Welch is currently a VP of Premium Audit with Lowry & Associates, Inc., managing field operations in CA, AZ & NM. He manages a field staff of approximately 94 auditors in the tristate area. He also works closely with the administrative team who supports auditors in this region as well as those who perform customer service with carrier clients for Lowry as a whole. He had joined Lowry in January 2008 after having previously worked with another vendor, Overland Solutions where he had started as an auditor in 2000 before being promoted into management in 2004 where he managed the states of AZ, NM and Southern Nevada. Troy enjoys engaging both clients and auditors in our industry in an effort to ensure clients needs are met while also ensuring auditors are fulfilled in their roles as they grow in our industry. When not working, Troy enjoys spending time with his wife and family. He has a blended family with 6 adult children and 6 grandchildren. He enjoys football and is a season ticketholder for both the Arizona Cardinals and the NAZ Wranglers, an arena football team for whom his youngest son is an employee of the front office. 

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Phuong Vo has been in Workers Compensation Premium Audit for over 24 years, most of which as a field auditor doing California physical audits. In 2021, Phuong expanded her audit horizon to NCCI states, General Liability, and Inland Marine. Phuong is a UCSD graduate and long-time local resident in beautiful San Diego. She currently serves as the Manager of Internal Premium Audit at Copperpoint Insurance Companies.