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Code, Compliance, Catastrophe & Capital:

The Future of Insurance in the Age of AI

June 12th, 2025 at the offices of Frost Brown Todd

By Invitation Only

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Overview

RMEF will be joined by international leaders in the areas of risk management, insurance regulation, legislation, distribution, business resilience, education, claims adjustment, law, insurance technology, and related governmental agencies and industries in interactive discussions around the concerns with and promise of AI and the rapid expansion of generative AI. Always with an overarching theme of ethical implementations and use, we will discuss and debate what we all hope will work to the benefit of people, businesses, institutions, and economies.

Our Host

The Artificial Intelligence Event is hosted by Dr. Ann Hofmann, the Great American Insurance Group Chair and Academic Director at the Lindner Center for Insurance & Risk Management at the University of Cincinnati.

Academic Partners

In addition to our host, Professor Annette Hofmann of the University of Cincinnati, Academic Guests include Professor Chris Gassman, J.D. of the University of Pittsburgh, speaking on Business Resilience and artificial intelligence, and distinguished guest Professor M. Martin Boyer, Ph.D. of the finance and insurance schools at HEC Montréal (Université de Montréal).

Keynote Inspirational Address

(Sponsored by The St Baldricks Foundation...Curing Children's Cancers)

The keynote address will be offered by Dr. Sam Volchenboum, in partnership with the St Baldick's Foundation, who are conquering kids' cancer. Dr. Volchenboum is helping cure cancers. He is a professor of pediatrics and the associate chief research informatics officer for the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Chicago. He is the Associate Dean of Masters Programs, and he designed and launched the UChicago Master’s in Biomedical Informatics. His clinical specialty is pediatric hematology / oncology, caring for kids with cancer and blood diseases. His research group includes the University of Chicago’s Data for the Common Good (D4CG), dedicated to building communities, platforms, and ecosystems that maximize the potential of data to drive discovery and improve human health. D4CG’s flagship project, the Pediatric Cancer Data Commons is dedicated to liberating and democratizing international data for pediatric malignancies. He is the director of the Informatics Core for the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), and he is director of the UChicago Clinical Informatics fellowship program.

Speakers/Panelists

Participating thought leaders include:

Our Host, Dr. Annette Hofmann Ph.D. of the University of Cincinnati and Co-Chairperson of RMEF
Dr. Hofmann is the Great American Insurance Group Chairholder, and Director of the Lindner Center for Insurance and Risk Management with the University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business. She previously served as the Robert F. Corroon Chair in Risk Economics at the Maurice R. Greenberg School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science at St. John's University in New York City. She is a member of the Board of the American Risk and Insurance Association and Editor-in-Chief of the Risk Management and Insurance Review, a peer-reviewed academic journal with a focus on current risk and insurance topics.
Dr. Chris Gassman J.D. of the University of Pittsburgh and Co-Chairperson of RMEF
Dr. Gassman of the University of Pittsburgh is an entrepreneur and innovator with decades of experience driving resilient value creation via businesses. With a belief in servant leadership, he specializes in dream fulfillment through the broad fields of ecosystem valuation and services, idea commercialization, sales funnel creation, with all the change leadership involved. Dr. Gassman’s endeavors have added top-line and bottom-line value to United Nations Agencies, Fortune-500 companies, start-ups, and all types of businesses and institutions in between. He has created science-based targets (SBTi) that include a focus on supply chain; helped start four entrepreneurship incubators; created a climate transition action plan for the leading U.S. foodservice company; and helped align values and investments and goals for a leading U.S. charity as well as hundreds of senior professionals. Chris' goal for the next five years is to generate over $1T USD in revenue by helping energize a resilient domestic and global economy.

Paul Kneuer, Partner & Board Member, Stonybrook Capital
Mr. Kneuer has forty years of experience as an underwriter, broker, actuary and corporate director. He joined Stonybrook Capital in June, 2020 after retiring from Everest Re. At Everest, he led the Structured Reinsurance practice in the US and London, and supported corporate development activities including the launch of a Lloyd's operation and a life reinsurance platform.
Prior to Everest, Paul was a broker and actuary at Holborn Corporation in NYC, serving as head of reinsurance strategy and analytics, also leading the rating agency advisory practice. Earlier, he was the national casualty underwriting leader and pricing actuary at Continental Insurance, now CNA. Mr. Kneuer earned his MBA from Columbia University with honors, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Notre Dame University, also with honors. He has continued his education in the insurance industry achieving the prestigious credential of Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, as well as holding designations from the Insurance Institute of America and being a member of the Economics Club of NY.
Chris Burnside, Partner, Frost Brown Todd
A member of Frost Brown Todd’s litigation department for over thirty years, Chris Burnside has practiced law in over fifteen jurisdictions across the U.S., garnering major wins at the regional and national level in high-profile cases. In addition to learned guidance as a front-line litigator, he is equally adept at unique strategies that have not been tried before to resolve cases in favor of his clients, mastering complex technical details underlying matters and regularly providing fresh perspectives along with focused representation. In his insurance and tort practice, Chris has litigated hundreds of actions involving insurance coverage, extra contractual damages, bad faith, and insurance software, including several major class actions. In addition to his trial work, Chris assists with fraud investigations, and provides strategic training to clients to protect against, and increase the likelihood of success, should litigation ever be necessary. He was instrumental in starting the Firm’s information management and electronic discovery team and chaired Frost Brown Todd’s e-discovery litigation review group. Chris previously defended two large insurance companies in the Colossus litigation filed in Arkansas nearly two decades ago against Computer Sciences Corporation and over 500 insurance companies. So, his interests and experiences with artificial intelligence spans multiple decades. Today, with current sentiments towards bad faith and nuclear verdicts, Chris often finds himself defending the industry and asking people to consider if the world economy could even function without insurance.
Jaymin Kim, MPhil, Managing Director of Emerging Technologies, Marsh
Jaymin is Managing Director, Emerging Technologies at Marsh, where she leads work globally assessing whether there are new risks surfacing in correspondence with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, mixed reality, blockchain, and digital assets. She is a highly sought-after keynote speaker on these topics. In her role at Marsh, she helps Fortune 100 companies understand, manage, and transfer risks that arise with the convergence of new and existing technologies, and advises them on navigating opportunities. Based in Canada, Jaymin is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University, and has also earned a MPhil in innovation, strategy and organization from the University of Cambridge.
Erol Kantar, Head of Insurance Enablement, Lazarus AI
Erol is an insurance executive with more than three decades of experience in the U.S. and international P&C market. He has held a breadth of leadership roles including at an insurer, an independent adjusting company, and a third-party administrator, and has additionally created effective solutions for brokers and distribution. His wide-ranging experience has afforded him a comprehensive view of the industry’s tactical landscape from distribution to front-line operations, underwriting and claims management, as well as strategic oversight. A groundbreaking and proven leader, Erol is currently is focusing his capabilities and vision on the integration of artificial intelligence solutions into insurers' underwriting and claims processes, helping them innovate transformative technology. In addition to his professional responsibilities, Erol actively participates in several industry organizations including the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, the International Association of Claims Professionals, the Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association, and the Property & Liability Resource Bureau.
Charlie Kingdollar, Emerging Issues Officer (retired), General Reinsurance Corp
Mr. Kingdollar has over 35 years of experience in the reinsurance sector with a major international leader, affording him a universal view of issues and opportunities around the world. Due to his inquisitive and forward looking nature, and another life-long learner, for many decades he has particularly focused on global emerging risks, looking at impacts on the insurance industry, businesses, economies, and society as a whole. Charlie has spoken often on rising issues in risk and risk management, including using tools like reinsurance to temper their effects. Audiences say that each time they have had the opportunity to hear Charlie’s captivating presentations, they come away with new information and perspectives. He causes insurance professionals to expand and deepen their thinking about the many perils and hazards that increasingly shape the industry.
Donna Biondich, CPCU, Claims Process Lead, Reserv
Ms. Biondich is a highly experienced and passionate insurance executive with a proven record of success at start-ups and mature international companies spearheading P&C claims operations and strategically and ethically managing claims operation as a profit center. Her strong business acumen has helped her promote a culture of customer-centric claims handling while navigating the spectrum of and maintaining compliance with U.S. state claim adjustment laws. Like the rest of our speakers, Donna is a servant leader who encourages and has successfully managed diverse opinions in the workforce, possessing strategic thinking and vision with the additional ability to tactically implement. Being a continuous learner, she is also embracing AI.
John Morey, SVP-CMO, Sunlight Solutions
Founded a decade ago, Sunlight Solutions has emerged as technological architects who enjoy the challenges of structure and innovation globally. Sunlight now has offices on four continents, and a software suite that is multi-tiered and truly international, supporting over 30 languages and currencies. The functionality of the configurable software suite is second to none, and the cost and speed of deployment is breaking long-held paradigms about large insurance technology projects. Sunlight has already released products involving early stage and generative AI, and shares RMEF's strong beliefs about the best ways to deploy such intelligence, carefully balancing business and societal goals. John is an ethical leader spearheading Sunlight's expansion globally in the P&C insurance market.
George Femmer, CEO, Drone Institute
Hailing from the great state of Louisiana, George is a drone pilot fortunate to train professional drone teams for Fortune 500 companies and various departments of the U.S. DOD and DOTD. His entrepreneurial nature is further emerging, bringing a breadth of vision and critical ethics to the field of technology. As CEO of Drone Institute, he leads a team providing innovative data collection and AI/ML-driven analytics. Drone Institute has developed proprietary workflows that transform high-resolution aerial imagery into actionable insights enabling faster, safer, and more objective decision-making across the risk management and insurance fields. George and the Team believe strongly in producing highly competent pilots deploying aerial technology, precisely delivering actionable insights that drive efficiency and safety across critical processes and infrastructures, and solving emerging challenges across diverse industries. They continuously develop and enhance new technologies and solutions around safety, connectivity, and operational performance, making the world more resilient.
Jason Sewer, CEO, Drone Strategic Partners
Mr. Sewer is another visionary, serial entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer of a claim adjusting firm, an estimating business, and his latest passion - Drone Strategic Partners. At DSP he brings high energy and decades of insurance experience for major international insurers to this latest venture, a risk management start-up specializing in automated security solutions with a very wide range of industry and institutional applications. Drones and robots keep humans out of harm’s way, augmenting capabilities while helping save property, lives, lawsuits, and aspirations; often at a time when such things are the most vulnerable. In addition to being dedicated to protecting people, playing college basketball as a forward for Brown University helped form and solidify Jason's firm belief in educating future generations in competition and the right way to win, especially the next generations of human and artificial intelligence.
P. David Herring, CEO, WriteLoss
Mr. Herring is the founder of WriteLoss Inc., an estimator for property insurance claims including construction and reconstruction, as well as estimating the efficacy of loss mitigation. He also serves as an ethical loss consultant/expert witness/appraiser/umpire in the property insurance area involved in first party and third party construction defect claims. Having decades of experience in project estimation, sales, and negotiation, Mr. Herring, his Team and his extended "Claims Tribe" have spent their lives supporting insurance policyholders via winning estimations, evaluations and negotiations exceeding $6.5B USD. David is presently working on an artificial intelligence platform to reduce frictional insurance costs for claim processing, negotiation and litigation that will further benefit the policyholder and the insurance industry.
Professor Jeffrey A. Shaffer, University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business
Professor Shaffer is the Director of the Applied AI Lab and the Kirk and Jacki Perry Professor of Analytics and Assistant Professor-Educator at the University of Cincinnati in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business. He is an active speaker on the topics of data visualization, data analytics, artificial intelligence, generative AI, and Tableau, and has also taught data visualization at the KPMG Advisory University, for the University of Cincinnati Center for Business Analytics, and many Fortune 500 companies. He previously served as the Chief Operating Officer at Unifund and Recovery Decision Science. Jeffrey is the author of "The Big Book of Dashboards" and his visualization "Beautiful Trash" was highly regarded and described as one of the truly creative infographic design examples by Column Five Media. He is also the co-host of Chart Chat, awarded a Data Literacy Award for the "Most Interesting Data Podcast".

Distinguished Guests

Melissa Loudon, BBA, LSSBB, DASM, St Baldricks Foundation...Conquering Childhood Cancers
Melissa leverages technology to improve the internal processes and data of organizations. Most recently she worked on Salesforce and CRM Analytics integration and optimization using agile methodologies, and holds certifications as a Disciplined Agile Scrum Master (DASM) and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSS BB). Her skills in project management, business development, data analytics, fundraising, continuous improvement, change management and event management have helped organizations achieve strategic goals by gaining insights and efficiencies. She also has an extensive background in hospital, medical practice and business management in functional areas that include data management and analysis, marketing, EMR implementation and interface projects. Most importantly to the founders of RMEF, Melissa is the mother of a childhood cancer survivor, and she is a shavee, and now a volunteer with the St Baldrick’s Foundation, giving up her hair and her time helping to cure cancers, with an emphasis on the under-funded childhood cancer field. Love ya, Melissa, and all you stand for and all you stand with!

Dr. Martin Boyer, Ph.d, HEC Montréal (Université de Montréal)
Dr. Boyer is Professor of Finance at HEC Montréal, and President of the Faculty Assembly. He is also President of EMBEC Inc., consultants in economics and sustainable finance, and is a recognized expert witness. Dr. Boyer has extensive teaching experience including Sauder (UBC), Cornell, Wharton (U. Penn), Rotman (U of T), and St. Gallen. Martin has supervised over 150 graduate students, and is a major proponent and promoter of the enormous contributions of students from around the world not only to the university experience of learning but also the urban fabric of Montreal and Quebec society. He has expertise in insurance, especially cyber, and pension plans, including defined benefit pension funds and their priority in the event of the bankruptcy of the promoter. He also acts as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Risk and Insurance. A prolific writer, Martin has published over a dozen op-eds in popular media and nearly 100 articles in scientific and professional journals.

PARTNERSHIPS

The St Baldrick's Charitable Foundation

...Conquering Kids' Cancer

Worldwide, a child is diagnosed every 2 minutes. In the 1950s, almost all kids diagnosed with cancer died. Because of research, today about 90% of kids with the most common type of cancer will live. But for many other types, progress has been limited, and for some kids there is still little hope for a cure. The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer and donor powered charity committed to supporting the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives.The St. Baldrick's Foundation funds the most promising cancer research just for kids. St. Baldrick's is the top charitable funder of childhood cancer research grants in the U.S. and around the world. Each year, thousands of volunteers worldwide organize fundraisers, such as our signature head-shaving events, to raise money to support life-saving childhood cancer research. St. Baldrick's events are the largest volunteer-powered fundraising opportunity benefiting pediatric cancer research.

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Sponsorship/Partnership opportunities are still available for an individual event or the RMEF Series.

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