SPEAKERS

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Lauren Andrist has been in the Insurance industry for approximately 40 years.  She spent the first two decades on the Agency side where she learned the business and serviced accounts.  For the last 20 years, she has been in the premium audit world, and has occupied several positions including Auditor, Supervisor, Audit Manager, and Account Executive.   

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Susan Benson has been with Arch Insurance Group for the last 17 years, currently as the AVP of Premium Audit.  Susan has been in the Premium Audit industry for over 35 years starting her career out of college as a Premium Auditor for Hawkeye Security Insurance Company in Des Moines, Iowa.  Susan holds bachelor's degrees in Business Administration and Political Science from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL.  She has held the offices of Secretary and Vice President for IAAW (West Region) 2020 –2024, and has been on the NSIPA Conference planning committee for the last two NSIPA conferences.   

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Andy Boese is the Associate Vice President of Quality Assurance at Afirm.  He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Robert Morris University and an MBA from Lewis University.  He is currently pursuing his APA and CIPA insurance designations.    Andy has been in the premium audit industry since 2000, primarily on the vendor side of the industry, holding various positions including Quality Control Reviewer, Premium Auditor, Branch Manager, and AVP.   His current responsibilities are focused on the technical components of premium audits, specifically regarding the quality and content of the audit reports.  He also acts as a liaison between Afirm and their third-party software partner.

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David Christensen is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and began his career in the premium audit industry as a field auditor with Vallance and Associates in 1991. During his 27 year career, David has been active in nearly every discipline within the premium audit profession including premium audit review, training and management. David moved to Baton Rouge area in 2000 and the unique culture and people of Louisiana captivated him making this area home. Professionally, David has a passion for the next generation and enjoys developing and mentoring those who are entering the industry and considers that the most rewarding part of his career. In 2011, David and his business partner took on their great challenge when they founded ZOOM Audits. Together they have taken their foresight and vision to change the premium audit industry with their innovative audit solutions! Outside of work David enjoys running, beach volleyball and listening to local original music.

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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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Jason Fox is currently the Vice President of Premium Audit for CopperPoint Insurance Companies. He has been in Premium Audit for 20 years, starting as a premium auditor in Southern California. Jason spent his first 10 years in the field as a premium auditor and has been in premium audit leadership for the last 14 years.

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Dave Guman is the Vice President of Premium Audit at Arch Insurance, where he has worked for the past 6 years.  Dave got his start in Premium Audit in 1988, after graduating from Bloomsburg University, where he began his career as a field auditor with Liberty Mutual.  He has since also worked at Everest National, and Coaction (formerly known as ProSight), all in Premium Audit.  When Dave was still in the field as an auditor, he was cross-trained in several other disciplines, and has performed Loss Auditing (Claims), Litigation Auditing, and low complexity Loss Control surveys.  Dave has been married for 33 years and has 3 daughters, ages 29, 20, and 19.  When he is not at work, he enjoys golf, basketball, cycling and spending time with his family.  He recently crossed off a bucket-list item by going sky diving with one of his daughters.  Dave has served on the Planning Committee of PAAS (the Premium Audit Advisory Service), and is a member of the National Society for Insurance Premium Auditors.

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Nick Holdridge is an Associate Vice President - Western States for AFIRM. Nick is also currently the NSIPA President Elect.  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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Verne Houston is a Regional Premium Audit Manager at EMC Insurance, responsible for coaching and supporting a team of Field Premium Auditors. Having over 15 years' experience in Premium Audit, Verne conducted physical audits of varying complexity in the majority of states across the country before moving into supervisory roles with EMC. Verne is passionate about customer experience related to premium audit, acting as a Customer Experience Advocate at EMC and having obtained certification in 'Leading with Customer Obsession' from customer experience consulting firm Forrester. He obtained the APA designation in 2015 and currently serves on the board of the Insurance Auditor Association of Iowa as well as on the NSIPA Education Committee. 

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Jackie Jaskot is the Vice President of Premium Audit at EXL Services, bringing 18 years of experience in the premium audit industry. She began her career in October of 2006 as a Physical Field Auditor, where she also provided expertise in Loss Control. Throughout her time at EXL, Jackie has worked on both the Loss Control and Audit sides, demonstrating field expertise and team leadership. She has held management roles in both Loss Control and Premium Audit, and currently oversees Field/Remote Operations for multiple Strategic Business Units. Jackie holds a Degree in Accounting with a specialization in Job Cost Construction accounting, and prior to joining EXL, she served as a Controller for various construction companies.  She has 2 grown child and 3 grandchildren which keep her busy in her spare time.

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Haley Kennedy is the current President for NSIPA. She has been active in the local and regional chapters since 2012 and was formally the social media chair for NSIPA, President of the Rocky Mountain chapter and President of the former IAAW. Haley has over 15 years of experience in the premium audit industry as a phone auditor, physical auditor and manager. Currently, Haley is the dispute resolution support specialist for Copperpoint Insurance.

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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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Josie McCain is currently VP of Premium Audit at Dual North America. She has worked in the insurance industry for over 32 years, maintains a Commercial Property and Casualty Brokers license, and successfully owned and operated a Fee Audit business for 8 years. Josie is a graduate of San Diego State University and enjoys spending time with her family. She loves being "dance mom" at her daughter's Irish dance competitions and is also a new foster dog mom to "Minnie", a beautiful German Shepherd.

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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 should be a familiar face to all but the newbies in attendance as she’s been in our industry for 37 years. She’s been a regular member at local, regional, and national auditors’ associations. She’s earned her APA, CIPA and CPCU designations and continues to attend and present on a variety of topics. One might say she is passionate about Premium Audit. Her 37-year career includes performing audits as both a vendor and carrier auditor. She’s often served as a designated expert and consultant in matters relating to classification assignments, premium basis, and calculation of premium. Her experience also includes substantial experience and interface with cases containing fraud allegations and she is also contracted as an independent knowledgeable third party to assist in disputes relating to classifications, premium calculation, and employment status as it relates to Insurance Policies – both as an advocate for policyholders and Insurance Carriers. In addition to sharing her knowledge and experience with staff and colleagues, Kay's other passions include spending time with her two granddaughters - after being raised with three brothers and having two sons, she's especially enjoying the company of these giggly little girls. Following the old adage of work hard, play hard, Kay also enjoys hiking, backpacking, cycling and dancing to live music.

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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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Joan Rubash is the AVP of Premium Audit overseeing the field auditors for the CA and SW regions. Joan has been with Copperpoint Insurance for 8 years and in the premium audit for 30 years. Her passion is to train up the next generation of premium auditors who will perform best-in-class quality audits.

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Adrianne Sessions has more than 20 years of experience in insurance and education and has been an advocate for training and mentoring in the claims and premium audit space. She has earned her AIC and was an accomplished Senior Multi-Line Property and Casualty Claims Adjuster. After several years on the vendor side as a premium auditor and field mentor with Lowry & Associates, she has had the opportunity to help build new premium audit departments with excess and surplus line carriers James River Insurance and now currently with Argo Insurance. Adrianne also serves on the board of directors for NSIPA as our education committee chair.

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Ryan Squatrito is the Premium Audit Technical Service and Operations Manager at Starr Insurance.  With 19 years of experience in the premium audit industry Ryan began his career in 2005 as a Physical Field Auditor and held various audit management roles throughout his career.  In his current role he oversees Premium Audit Quality, Process Development, Data Analysis and Reporting.

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Winnie Tso is an experienced administrator overseeing the Test Audit Program at WCIRB (Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California). With a background in insurance and compliance, Winnie manages the program's strategic direction, ensuring accurate and fair evaluations of insurers' audit processes. Her responsibilities include liaising with industry stakeholders, developing best practice protocols, and analyzing data to share with the industry. She fosters collaborative relationships within the insurance community, leveraging her expertise to support accurate premium assessments.

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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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Amanda Woodard-Hebert, currently a Sr. Premium Auditor with Old Republic Risk Management, has been a part of Old Republic for 4 years. Amanda has been in the audit industry for 19 years, starting as a field auditor for OSI, now EXL, and then moving to US Reports, now Afirm, where she became a Sr. Premium Auditor, Field Supervisor, and West Region Training Manager. Amanda initially started her career in the accounting field, where she stayed for over ten years. Amanda has a bachelor's degree in accounting and her APA designation, Comp Essentials, and received the Joan Lambert Award for Auditor of the Year in 2022. She has held the office of President for CIAMA (Cal Chapter Chair) 2020–2024 and the offices of Vice President and President IAAW (West Region Chair) 2021 –2024, and has been on the NSIPA Conference planning committee for Orlando and San Diego.

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Veruschka Zachtshinsky is a Disputes Consultant with NCCI Holdings Inc. Veruschka is responsible for helping policyholders resolve disputes regarding the application of NCCI manual rules, with their workers’ compensation carrier. Prior to joining NCCI in 2001, Veruschka was an independent insurance agent and property and casualty underwriter in the Mid-Atlantic Region. She graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a bachelor’s in business administration and earned her CPCU in 2015. Veruschka also serves as a volunteer leader with the CPCU Society.

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