R. Benedikt Sander
President & CEO, Preferred Mutual Insurance Company
Benedikt started his career at McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm, where he supported national and international high-tech, media and telecom clients. He later held multiple leadership roles at Liberty Mutual, based in Boston, MA including Vice President, Agency Relationship Management, Senior Vice President Underwriting and Strategy, and Senior Vice President Product Management.
Prior to his appointment in 2022 as President and CEO, Benedikt served as the Executive Vice President of Insurance Operations where he was responsible for building the vision for and driving execution within underwriting and sales/distribution for Preferred Mutual.
Benedikt holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and an M.Phil in Economic Theory & Econometrics from the University of Cambridge in the UK. Benedikt also holds multiple insurance designations including CPCU, AAI, AU, API and AIC.
Don Polczynski
MS AgencyCFO™ Partner & President
With over 20 years dedicated experience as an independent insurance agency CFO, Don is truly one of the leading experts in insurance agency financial management. As AgencyCFO™ President and Custom Financial Officer, Don uses this expertise for agencies’ CEOs and leaders to ensure they have a clear financial strategy for growth, retention, profit and ultimately agency value. Leading the way as architect and innovator of the AgencyCFO Financial Model and Toolbox™, Don has developed a program that fills a financial gap the majority of agencies don’t even realize they have! While there are virtual and fractional CFO's available in the world, the AgencyCFO™ program is uniquely developed for independent insurance agencies. Simply put - Don speaks the language and has assembled an expert team of industry insiders who are the missing piece of your agency’s financial core.
Roe Polczynski, MBA
AgencyCFO™ Founding Partner & Executive Advisor
True financial excellence can't be achieved without organizational excellence. That's where Roe steps in as the Executive Advisor for AgencyCFO™’s Leadership Guidance! Current clients have benefited from her expertise in organizational development for strategic planning, team development initiatives, senior leadership mentoring, and sales coaching. She works on ensuring the agency has the right people in the right seats, has a culture that will ensure high client and employee retention. She works 1:1 with the team to create a vibrant sales culture and an amazing customer experience.
Claudia St. John
President, Workplace Advisors
Claudia is the President of The Workplace AdvisorsTM, a leading HR consulting firm; an SPHR and SHRM Senior Certified Professional bringing deep expertise in workplace engagement, employee development, and communication to the stage; a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst sharing data-backed insights to help businesses grow; and the Author of Transforming Teams
A comprehensive book for businesses who want to improve collaboration and build trust.
Sydney Roe
Director, Agency Marketing
Because of her roots in a family-run independent insurance agency, Syd Roe has spent the last decade championing the advancement of Insurtech as a competitive edge for the channel. She partnered in the growth of the first independent agency social network, helping agencies across the country embrace digital marketing through her storytelling. She, then, successfully brought a behavioral analytics platform to market in just 2 years after joining a seed stage startup. Currently, she runs the Agency Marketing team for a leading tech provider and is laser-focused on bringing the voice of the agent to every product discussion.
When she's not thinking about advancing Insurtech, she's probably running, biking or swimming in training for her next Ironman.
Margeaux Giles
CEO, Irys Insurtech
As Chief Executive Officer of Irys Insurtech, Margeaux has more than 15 years of executive experience in operations and digital transformation for the insurance and finance space.
Named Insurtech Woman CEO of the Year, Top 20 Insurtech provider of 2022, Forbes Technology Council member, and regular Forbes.com contributor, Margeaux is not only passionate about injecting cutting-edge tech into insurance, she's proactive in changing the landscape for women as well.
Margeaux is a founding member of InsureWomen and InsureEquality, Network Liaison of the Central Florida network of the Association of Professional Insurance Women, as well as a member of the UCONN Fintech Masters Program Advisory Board and newly appointed Chair of the Insurance Agency Owners Alliance Tech Council.
David Gritz
Co-founder, InsurTech Fund
David is a venture capitalist, InsurTech community leader, and InsurTech advisor. He has been a featured speaker at conferences including InsureTech Connect, InsurTech Insights, DigIn, and Reuters Future of Insurance.
David serves as the Managing Director of InsurTech Fund and InsurTech NY. InsurTech NY is the largest InsurTech community in North America. It helps insurers connect to high-potential startups through a Global InsurTech Competition, a growth-stage accelerator, and an MGA Lab.
Previously, David served as the Director of Innovation for the Silicon Valley Insurance Accelerator (SVIA) and co-founded Zero, a behavioral safety-focused InsurTech acquired by EverestRe. He holds a J.D. from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law and business and industrial engineering degrees from Lehigh University.
Jaime Foran
Director of Learning and Development Solutions, New Level Partners
Jaime's professional background is a blend of technical sales, software and business skills training, marketing and education. She has extensive experience in curriculum design and facilitation for small, medium and enterprise customers.
Jaime's instructional design talent is at an advanced level. She curates content and develops classroom programs, all user and trainer materials, remote learning curriculum, online learning course and gamified learning objects.
Jaime's technical skills include procurement and architecture of learning management systems along with e-merchant front-end websites. She develops highly interactive e-learning courses that focus on engaging the learner, using various tools.
Jaime earned a BBA from Baylor University in Computer Information Systems and Human Resource Management. She was raised in Upstate NY and currently resides in Pennsylvania.
Nancy Langton
Co-Founder, New Level Partners
Nancy Langton, a founding partner of New Level Partners, LLC, is an educator and a business professional with over 25 years of experience within the insurance industry in the areas of learning and development, human resources leadership and operations.
Problem solving energizes Nancy. She thrives on leveraging her extensive insurance industry experience, along with a life-long passion for learning management and instructional design and delivery, to collaborate with executives and learning professionals in fulfilling their visions and needs. Combining new hire programs, existing staff development and production efficiency initiatives with innovative learning solutions that meet unique business objectives, are just a few examples of Nancy's capabilities.
Prior to cofounding New Level Partners in 2001, Nancy directed Human Resources and Training teams for several brokerages and top-tiered insurance carriers. She has successfully lead recruitment and strategic staffing of all levels and implemented numerous education initiatives.
Nancy has trained thousands of individuals within the property and casualty insurance industry. Her specialty areas include Introduction to Insurance, Personal Insurance, High Net Worth Personal Lines, Employee Benefits, Leadership, Service and Sales. She provides guidance to “new to industry" talent up to all leadership levels. Nancy has provided educational services to global organizations. She has also developed and collaborated with subject matter experts on several Financial Management programs for a national construction financial management association.
Nancy earned her BS in Comprehensive Business Education and MA in Training and Development from the College of New Jersey. She has volunteered on non-profit boards and within training associations.