Profiles in Risk

Brian Baughman, CPCU, ARM - ESOP Evangelist and VP of Sales at The Hartwell Corporation. We chat about why it makes sense for agencies to adopt an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and what the advantages are. All employees are automatically owners after roughly a year. This aligns incentives in a way virtually impossible in other types of ownership structures. A very interesting conversation! Brian Baughman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-baughman-cpcu-arm/The Hartwell Corporation: https://www.thehartwellcorp.com/Video Version: https://youtu.be/Zwb2At9v-ak

Tony chats with Chris Merideth, Candidate for Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner.Chris Merideth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-merideth-a6b4a255/Video Version: https://youtu.be/xrTdfGMQ4TQ

David Serna Perez, Account Executive at LivePerson, they are an AI native company that has developed two AI agent assistant for the underwriter. They are mainly focused on MGA and underwriting teams. One is focused on MGA underwriting teams and the other one is focused on reinsurance brokers and underwriters. A great conversation with an experienced AI practitioner who really gets insurance.David Serna Perez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-serna-perez-42825689/LivePerson: https://www.liveperson.com/Video Version: https://youtu.be/hkgQBYYpob4

Tony chats with Daniel Palacios, Co-Founder and CRO at Sytrex, they are an AI native company that has developed two AI Agents assistants for underwriters. They are mainly focused on helping MGA underwriting teams, basically co-pilots for insurance and reinsurance operations. They place underwriters in the center and take away the manual and boring repetitive work.Daniel Palacios: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielpalaciossales/Sytrex: https://www.sytrex.io/Video Version: https://youtu.be/894J0dwi7O8

Tony chats with Charles Merritt, Co-Founder and CEO at Buddy, the insurance gateway for people who build software. They help product teams and developers that are being tasked with integrating insurance APIs and help accelerate distribution of digital insurance products.Charles Merritt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmerritt/Charles first appearance on Profiles in Risk Ep. 298: https://youtu.be/IWI1zxTT6nM?si=yzwTpPQlDLtDFeKpBuddy: https://www.buddy.insure/teamVideo Version: https://youtu.be/jGAp09-Vhyw

Tony chats with Bill Martin, President & CEO at Plymouth Rock Home Assurance in a friendly debate about the merits of remote vs a full return-to-the-office (RTO).Bill Martin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billmartiniv/

Tony chats with Nadav Interstein, VP of Marketing at Swifter.io, they started as a low-code no-code platform but they have now shifted and have aggressively focused on AI. Now they have created a software development life cycle tool that uses agentic AI to generate the entire software development life cycle process going from project definition all the way through wireframe, processes, actual code in the language you want, automated testing, and deployment. A to Z AI powered creation of enterprise level software for front-end.Nadav Interstein: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadav-interstein-45118615/Swifter.io: https://Swifter.ioVideo Version: https://youtu.be/S0lqfKwJniY

Tony chats with Mary Rossi, President at Rossi Claims Training Academy. Mary is a 35 year veteran of the claims world, with extensive experience both carrier claims and running an IA firm. She's now offering training for claims adjuster for both new and experienced adjusters. The teaching is focused around case studies.Mary Rossi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-rossi-b8a3648a/Rossi Claims Training Academy: https://rossiclaimservices.com/claims-academy-enrollment/Video Version: https://youtu.be/7XGxVnA9l0s

Tony chats with Nima Ashtari, Founder and CEO at Manifold, they help insurance in the auto space use video analytics for telematics. From dash cams to telematics devices they can help you digest all of it. Essentially they are an aggregation and analysis tool for underwriting and claims. A very interesting company with a very interesting back story. A must listen to episode if you're into auto insurance.Nima Ashtari: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nima-ashtari/Manifold: https://www.manifold.autos/Video Version: https://youtu.be/zeghwnMskHg

Tony chats with Michael Ley, Director of Network Relationships at Hawksoft, they are the third largest Agency Management System (AMS) with a passionate group of users. (For High Ds: Actual content starts at about minute 8.) I had heard about Hawksoft every once in a while and it was awesome to finally hear the story direct from them. What an interesting company! What started as an app writer because of bad handwriting, grew to be a full fledged AMS. They're still family owned and every agency that uses is part of the family. Michael Ley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/realmichaelley/Hawksoft: https://www.hawksoft.comVideo Version: https://youtu.be/Y1nc-PR_J90