Wheaton, Ill., March 27, 2009—Five property/casualty insurance executives have been selected to appear on an executive panel at the upcoming "Main Event" conference of the American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS).

AAIS is a national insurance advisory organization that develops standardized policy forms and rating information used by more than 600 property/casualty insurers throughout the U.S. Its 2009 Main Event executive conference is April 26-28 in Half Moon Bay, Calif.; information is available at www.AAISonline.com.

The executive panel discussion is scheduled for Monday morning, April 27. The five executives named to the panel are:

·         Stuart Henderson, president and CEO, Western National Insurance Group, Edina, Minn.;

·         Judy Jackson, president and CEO, NLC Insurance Companies, Norwich, Conn.;

·         Andre Krutainis, vice president and product officer, Harleysville Insurance, Harleysville, Pa.;

·         Chester "Chet" Szczepanski, vice president and chief actuary, Donegal Insurance Group, Marietta, Pa.; and

·         Richard Zick, president and CEO, Utica First Ins. Co., Utica, N.Y.

The executive panel will respond to issues raised in the opening conference presentations by Howard Mills, former New York state insurance superintendent, now an advisor for Deloitte LLP, and Lamont Boyd, insurance product manager for Fair Isaac Corporation, the leading developer of credit-based insurance scores and other predictive methodologies.

Other speakers scheduled to address the Main Event are:

·         Gerald Finley, a senior vice president for Munich Re America, who will speak on emerging underwriting exposures;

·         Mark B. Gorman, an independent consultant who will share results from his survey research into what carriers are doing to implement predictive analytics; and

·         James Barber, of Information Builders, who will speak on the IT engineering and workforce development needed to achieve "data mastery" in an organization.

AAIS staff will also address the meeting. Deborah Summerlin, AAIS vice president of insurance lines, and Greg Jaynes, chief actuary, will describe how AAIS is incorporating multivariate analysis, catastrophe modeling, predictive analytics, and other techniques to expand the number of price points in its rating plans.

Other AAIS staff will lead roundtable discussion groups on topic areas as follows:

·         Executive: Paul Baiocchi, AAIS president;

·         Inland Marine: Robert Guevara, vice president of inland marine;

·         Personal Lines: Susan Luecke, assistant vice president of personal lines; and

·         Farm & Ag: Sherry Taylor, manager of farm and agribusiness.