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2009 Speakers The speaker line-up will be posted as soon as details are confirmed. 2008 Speakers Ed Adams, Risk Manager Brian J. Caveney, MD, JD, MPH Connie Deuser Julia E. Dixon, Esq., Attorney Dennis Downing, President Delphine D. Goines, Workers' Compensation Claims Manager/Supervisor S. McKinley Gray, Esq., Member Bruce A. Hamilton, Esq., Partner Matt Harbin, Esq., Attorney Jason P. Haritos, Environmental Safety and Health Manager Diane Harrington, RN, BS, COHN-S, HR Workers' Compensation Specialist Carol S. Harris, RN, BSN, COHN-S/CM, Occupational Health Nurse Robert E. Hill, President John Hughes, ARM Rod Jennings, Workers’ Compensation Manager Barbara J. Kohler, MS, CRC, LPC, Vocational Consultant Karen Mastroianni, MPH, COHN-S, FAAOHN, Safety and Health Strategist Kathy H. McPhail, RMPE, Risk Manager Amy L. Pfeiffer, Esq., Member Barbara Pollock, MS, CRC, LPC, Sr. Vocational Case Manager Brigit Rutledge, Representative Doug Ryan, FCAS, MAAA, Consulting Actuary Jessica C. Smythe, Esq., Attorney Carla Stevens, RN, Human Resources Director Erin Taylor, Esq., Member Sandy Threatt, Human Resources Specialist, Workers' Comp Jim Toole, FSA, MAAA, Managing Director, Life & Health Ed Adams Ed Adams is the Lead Financial Specialist for Corporate Insurance at Progress Energy. He is responsible for the property/casualty insurance program of the Fortune 250 company that provides electricity to over 3 million customers in three states. Ed was previously Risk Manager of The Pantry, Inc., Executive Underwriter with Credit Suisse, Insurance Consultant for Golden Corral Corporation, and Senior Underwriter with The USF&G Group. He received the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation in 1985. Ed has a bachelor's degree in Business Administration (Risk Management) from UNC-G, and a MBA from Elon University, where he was honored as the Most Outstanding Student. Brian J. Caveney, MD, JD, MPH Brian J. Caveney, MD, JD, MPH, serves on the faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC. He provides clinical medical services both at Duke and at several onsite industrial settings, and provides workers' compensation and disability case management and consulting for several private companies in the Research Triangle Park area. He is the Corporate Medical Director of Talecris Biotherapeutics, Inc. and is the Onsite Occupational Physician for AW North Carolina. Dr. Caveney holds a North Carolina Medical License and is Board Certified in Occupational & Environmental Medicine, as well as being a Certified Medical Review Officer. Dr. Caveney also holds his Law License, and is a member of the American Bar Association, the North Carolina Bar Association's Workers' Compensation Section. Julia E. Dixon, Esq. Julia Dixon is an attorney in the Raleigh office of Hedrick Gardner Kincheloe & Garofalo, LLP as part of the workers' compensation practice group. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a Member of the North Carolina State Bar Association, the Wake County Bar Association, and the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys. Since 1956, Hedrick Gardner Kincheloe & Garofalo, L.L.P. has built a strong tradition of representing business and industry with our comprehensive litigation services. With offices in Charlotte, Raleigh, and Wilmington, North Carolina; and Columbia, South Carolina, Hedrick Gardner is one of the largest litigation and dispute management firms in the Carolinas. Hedrick Gardner's workers' compensation attorneys represent employers, carriers, self-insureds, and guaranty associations. The firm handles every aspect of the workers' compensation process, from inception though mediation, hearings, and the appellate process. North Carolina's diverse economy and rapidly evolving law present many challenges to employers and carriers in defending workers' compensation claims. The firm's seasoned practice group leads the way in implementation and education in all aspects of the Workers' Compensation Act. Dennis Downing Dennis Downing is CEO and Founder of Future Industrial Technologies (F.I.T.), an international organization with the goal of reducing workers' compensation costs through effective injury prevention protocols. For over 11 years he has worked with companies large and small across America. Through the practical applications of BACKSAFE® and SITTINGSAFE® employees around the world have benefited from reduced injuries and improved quality of life, while companies have enjoyed lower work comp costs and increased employee morale. Delphine D. Goines Delphine is a Claim's Manager/Supervisor at Duke University where she oversee the self-insured, self-administered workers' compensation program for 34,000 employees within the University, Health System, and Beaufort, North Carolina, marine staff. She has 24 years of workers' compensation adjusting experience. She came to Duke University in 2001 as a Senior Claim Adjuster. In 2004, Delphine became the Claims Manager/Supervisor of the self-insured, self-administered workers' compensation program. Delphine is a 2005 recipient of the Presidential Award for the overall major workers' compensation changes made regarding the Duke University and Health System. She is a licensed adjuster with the North Carolina Insurance Commission with certification in AIC and ARM, and is a Workers' Compensation Law Specialist. Delphine sits on the Board of Directors' Claims Committee for the North Carolina Self-Insurance Security Association. S. McKinley Gray, III, Esq. Mr. Gray is leader of the Labor and Employment Section at Ward and Smith. His practice experience encompasses various areas of employment-related litigation. Mr. Gray advises clients and litigates cases involving all forms of employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, and breach of employment contracts from small start-up companies to Fortune 500 corporations. Mr. Gray is a frequent lecturer on employment discrimination, workplace retaliation, workers' compensation and wage and hour law issues. Mr. Gray has been rated by his peers as being "preeminent" in his respective fields of law and serves in leadership roles with various legal and civic organizations. He is a former president of the Craven County Bar Association and a former two-term president of the Board of Directors for the United Way of Coastal Carolina. Mr. Gray received his J.D. (magna cum laude) from Campbell University. He is a member of the American Bar Association (Labor and Employment Law and Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Sessions), the Craven County Bar Association, and the North Carolina Bar Association (Labor and Employment Law, Litigation, and Young Lawyer Sections). He is admitted to practice in all state courts in North Carolina, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States District Court for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of North Carolina. Bruce A. Hamilton, Esq. Bruce Hamilton received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Tulane University in 1983 and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1986. Bruce joined the firm in 1991 and has been a partner since 1995. He devotes the vast majority of his practice to defending employers, third-party administrators, self-insured groups and insurance carriers in workers' compensation cases before the North Carolina Industrial Commission, North Carolina Court of Appeals and North Carolina Supreme Court. Bruce is a frequent lecturer on North Carolina workers' compensation law, including papers and lectures he has presented at the annual meetings of the North Carolina Bar Association Workers' Compensation Section in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005. At the request of the North Carolina Industrial Commission, he has also presented papers and lectured at its annual workers' compensation education programs in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In addition, Bruce has lectured about workers' compensation law at continuing legal education programs produced by Wake Forest University, the North Carolina Institute of Government and the Lorman Institute. Bruce served on the North Carolina Bar Association Workers' Compensation Council from 2001 to 2004, has been selected by his peers for listing in the 2001 through 2006 editions of The Best Lawyers in America, and was chosen to appear in the 2006 and 2007 editions of North Carolina Super Lawyers in the field of Workers' Compensation. Matt Harbin, Esq. Mr. Harbin graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a B.A. in History and Philosophy with honors in 1997, and was admitted to UNC-Chapel Hill's Law School that same year. While in law school, he was involved with several pro-bono projects and a member of the moot court team. He earned his J.D. in 2000 from Carolina. After earning his law degree, Mr. Harbin began working for a small law firm in Raleigh representing injured workers in their workers' compensation claims and workers in Wage and Hour Claims. In 2001, Mr. Harbin was fortunate to have had an opportunity to work for the North Carolina Industrial Commission as a Special Deputy Commissioner. At the Commission, he decided whether injured workers should continue to receive benefits and decided disputes about their medical treatment. He also reviewed settlement agreements and entered Orders approving them when they complied with North Carolina Workers' Compensation law. Mr. Harbin began working at the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin in February of 2003. In his current position, he does workers' compensation exclusively. He became a Board Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation in 2006. Jason P. Haritos Jason P. Haritos is the Environmental, Health and Safety Manager for John Deere Turf Care in Raleigh, North Carolina. In this position, he is responsible for industrial hygiene and Turf Care's comprehensive ergonomics program, as well as managing safety and health issues. He is the Turf care Business Continuity Process Coordinator, and the Deere Production System Environmental Element Lane Leader. Mr. Haritos also served as the Team Leader for John Deere's Enterprise Pandemic Working Team to develop the pandemic response procedures for Deere facilities worldwide. Mr. Haritos has a MS in Environmental Health from ECU, a Manager of Environmental Safety and Health Certificate from NCSU, and is a Six Sigma Green Belt. Prior to joining John Deere Turf Care, Mr. Haritos was a Senior Industrial Hygienist and Safety Officer for the North Carolina Department of Labor where he conducted industrial hygiene and safety audits for both general industry facilities and construction sites. In his position at the DOL, he conducted audits addressing chemical safety, personal protection equipment, hearing conservation, ergonomics, fall protection, control of hazardous energy, confined space entry, machine guarding, electrical safety, life safety, process safety management, and materials handling devices. Diane Harrington, RN, BS, COHN-S Diane is a Senior HR Benefits Specialist at Progress Energy. Currently, she oversees the workers' compensation programs, insured and self-insured, for the company's subsidiaries in five states. She came to CP&L in 1994 as an occupational health nurse contractor in corporate health and safety and continued as an employee with the formation of Progress Energy in 2001. In 1998, Diane began oversight of the utility's self-insured workers' compensation program. With the transformation into Progress Energy, her oversight broadened to include Black Lung, Longshore and Harbor Workers, and Jones Act programs. Diane is a 1974 diploma graduate from Lenoir Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Kinston, NC, where she was the recipient of the Margaret McCarty Award. As a Registered Nurse, Diane has twelve years of experience in long term care-eight as Director of Nursing and four years of experience in dialysis-first as Staff/Patient Teaching Coordinator and then as Head Nurse. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Health Care Administration from St. Joseph's College in Standish, Maine in 1995. In 1997, Diane was certified as an Occupational Health Nurse Specialist. She is a member of the American Occupational Health Nurses Association. Diane sits on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Self-Insurance Security Association and on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Association of Self-Insurers. Carol S. Harris, RN, BSN, COHN-S/CM Carol has worked as a registered nurse in North Carolina for 42 years with over 25 of those years in occupational health. Although she has worked in the hospital setting as well as with an international reinsurance brokerage, her passion is occupational health. For the past nine years she has worked in the occupational health department at Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington. It is through a contract relationship between ARMC and Replacements, Ltd., that she has been the OHN for six years at Replacements, Ltd. Carol earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from UNC-G. She holds national certifications as a Certified Occupational Nurse-Specialist, Certified Case Manager, National Safety Council CPR and First Aid Instructor, and Certified Occupational Hearing Conservationist. She serves as Secretary for the North Carolina Association of Occupational Health Nurses, is President Elect for the Triad Chapter of North Carolina Association of Occupational Health Nurses, and has recently become a member of the Marketing Committee for the Great 100 of North Carolina. Robert E. Hill Robert E. Hill, President, started his investigative career as a Special Agent with the Office of Special Investigations. During his thirteen years of federal service, he performed in a variety of field level and regional managerial positions in various worldwide assignments. Mr. Hill served on the US Secret Service Protection Teams for the President and Vice President of the United States of America and Foreign Heads of State. He has also served as Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Metropolitan Area Joint Drug Enforcement Team. He is a member of the International Criminal and Counter Intelligence Surveillance Team. He attended the FBI National Academy, Quantico, VA. Mr. Hill has investigated a wide variety of cases including: arson, murder, rape, international smuggling, contract fraud and embezzlement. He established Carolina Investigative Services, Inc in August 1991. Mr. Hill has conducted thousands of workers' compensation and liability insurance investigations and is actively involved in the prosecution of workers' compensation cases involving criminal fraud. John Hughes, ARM John Hughes is Director of Risk Management for Alex Lee, Inc. Alex Lee is a holding company for three southeastern food/warehousing companies including Merchants Distributors, Inc. (MDI), a wholesale food and merchandise distributor; Lowes Food Stores, Inc. ( Lowes Foods), a supermarket operator; Institution Food House, Inc. (IFH), a food service distributor. John has primary responsibility for developing and implementing risk management programs involving loss and accident prevention, claim and litigation management, risk transfer and risk financing for both traditional and alternative programs. With 30 years of experience in the risk management field, John worked in the compressed, liquefied, and medical gas business and spent a portion of his career as the Risk Manager for the world's largest retail photography company. John earned an Associate Degree in Accounting in 1973 and completed the Associate in Risk Management, ARM in 1981. As a member of the Carolinas Chapter of RIMS, John has served in almost every capacity, including Chapter President, twice. He has served six different terms as RIMS Delegate and chaired numerous committees. John is currently serving his second term on the National Board of Directors. Additionally, at the national level, he worked on the Membership and Chapter Services Committee for three years and then volunteered for the Conference Programming Committee (CPC), and was Chairman of the 1997-1998 CPC for the San Diego Conference. John was, as the By-Laws allowed, able to serve a combined total of 10 years on the CPC. Rod Jennings, JD Rod Jennings is the Workers' Compensation Manager at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's Fayetteville plant. He obtained a BA in Political Science from Niagara University in 1988, and a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University in 1991. He was a practicing workers' compensation attorney for thirteen years specializing in the defense of self-insured employers, before becoming a full time risk management consultant. He has lectured extensively on employer "best practices" for risk identification and mitigation, cost reduction strategies, fraud, return to work issues, gross absenteeism and controlling workers' compensation costs. He joined Goodyear in 2007 bringing seventeen years of experience in the workers' compensation self-insurance industry. Barbara J. Kohler, MS, CRC, LPC Barbara earned a Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She has provided vocational services as a vocational rehabilitation consultant since 1995, and has served both the public and private sector. She has additional experience in personnel benefits administration including long and short term disability and workers' compensation. Barbara has experience providing a wide array of vocational case management services, expert testimony, Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, and assessments for litigation purposes. Barbara is a member of IARPS (International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals) as well as LPCANC (Licensed Professional Counselors Association of North Carolina). Karen Mastroianni, MPH, COHN-S, FAAOHN Karen Mastroianni works with Dimensions in Occupational Health & Safety to provide sensible solutions to companies seeking to foster a socially responsible workplace that supports and promotes employee safety, health and well-being. Her consultations and contract services include best practice development for health and safety programs. Along with a B.S. Degree in Nursing from the University of Akron and a Masters in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she is also a Certified Occupational Nurse Specialist and a doctoral student at NC State University with a focus on adult learning and organizational development. Prior to her position with Dimensions, she served on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, and also served as the Occupational Health and Safety Coordinator at Kayser-Roth Hosiery in Creedmoor, North Carolina. Ms. Mastroianni is a published writer, including co-author of the book, Occupational Health Nursing Guidelines for Primary Clinical Conditions now in the third edition, as well as articles for the Journal of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses. She has been a well -received speaker for over fifteen years on occupational health topics including safety and wellness strategy, and managing workers' compensation costs. Ms. Mastroianni serves as the Chair of the CE Advisory Committee of the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center, and has served as co-chair for the Education Committee of the North Carolina Association of Occupational Health Nurses. She is an active member of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN) at the National, State, and Local levels, the American Nurses Association, and the National Wellness Association. She has served on several Committees for AAOHN and other community organizations. Kathy H. McPhail, RMPE Kathy H. McPhail is a Certified Risk Manager for Public Entities from the Insurance Institute of America. She supervises a proactive Risk Management program for the City of Fayetteville, North Carolina. A career public servant, Kathy first served as Safety Director and now serves as the Risk Management Director for the City. Kathy earned her B.A. in Business Administration and an A.A.S. in Public Administration. She completed the Municipal Government Course with UNC Chapel Hill, Institute of Government. She is a board member and former chairperson of the Safety & Health Council of NC. Kathy is a member and past president of the NC Public Risk Management Association. She also serves on the Public Administration Advisory Board of Fayetteville Technical Community College. Kathy is also a past president of the NC Association of Local Governmental Safety Officials. As Director of Risk Management for the City of Fayetteville, Kathy's oversight includes: (1) the Property & Liability Insurance Program; (2) Reinsurance Programs; (3) Workers' Compensation Program; (4) Employee Safety Program; and (5) Occupational Health & Wellness Program. Amy L. Pfeiffer, Esq. Amy Pfeiffer graduated magna cum laude from North Carolina State University in 1988. Ms. Pfeiffer attended Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC, and graduated in 2001. Following law school, Ms. Pfeiffer began her legal career in North Carolina by serving as a law clerk for the Honorable John B. Lewis, Jr. of the North Carolina Court of Appeals for the calendar year January through December 1992. After a short stint as a legislative assistant for the NC Academy of Trial Lawyers, Ms. Pfeiffer became involved in NC workers' compensation law in 1993 when she joined the North Carolina Industrial Commission, eventually being named a Deputy Commissioner. Ms. Pfeiffer worked as a Deputy Commissioner through 2003, during which time she heard hundreds of cases and filed Opinions & Awards on these cases. Ms. Pfeiffer left the Industrial Commission in 2003 and went to work for a year for a plaintiffs' workers' compensation firm. In 2004, she went to Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog, LLP where she now represents defendants in workers' compensation cases. Barbara Pollock, MS, CRC, LPC Barbara earned a Bachelor's degree from Skidmore College, majoring in Sociology. She then received a Master's Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1991. She has worked in the private sector since 1991 specializing in vocational rehabilitation. Barbara initially worked for a private sector company in Virginia and then transferred to North Carolina in 1995 to open an office for them. During this time she worked as a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC), Certified Case Manager (CCM) and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) providing medical and vocational services for her clients. She is also an expert in vocational testimony. F. Douglas Ryan, FCAS, MAAA Doug Ryan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts in Theoretical Mathematics. Doug developed the mathematics curriculum for a joint program between Asheville City and Buncombe County school districts and Blue Ridge Mental Health Center designed for behaviorally handicapped junior high and high school students before pursuing an advanced degree. He received a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from North Carolina State University in 1994 with concentration in Probability Theory and a minor in Statistics. Doug began his actuarial career in 1994 with Liberty Mutual Insurance Group in Boston as an Actuarial Analyst. He worked in both the Commercial Lines Pricing and Research & Development areas, reviewing rate adequacy and preparing rate filings for all major commercial lines, designing account level profitability reports for regional contracting risks, developing Workers' Compensation deductible products for various states, streamlining and automating existing PC and mainframe software tools and participating directly with a reinsurance pooling project designed to reduce divisional need to seek external reinsurance coverage. In 1997, Doug joined GMAC Insurance Personal Lines in Winston-Salem, North Carolina as a Senior Analyst-Personal Lines Pricing. While at GMAC, he became Supervisor-Actuarial Data Management unit, where his responsibilities included: directly supervising 2 Senior Analysts, designing and instructing training sessions for data access/analysis tools and techniques specifically geared for the Actuarial unit, participating directly in testing and selecting the corporate data mining and data access tools, overseeing the design and maintenance of new databases and existing database sources used by the pricing and reserving units, developing stop-gap data gathering techniques to circumvent data flow problems during the integration of enterprise systems after several mergers, and improving inter-departmental communication by jointly designing methodologies and procedures to efficiently automate data sources maintenance and updating. Concurrent with his responsibilities as data manager, Doug also wore the hat of Project Manager in the Product Development area where he was charged with updating, streamlining and implementing a modeling process for VIN based symbol and model year/vehicle age relativity curves based on enterprise loss experience and market analysis comparison. In December of 2000, he joined MBA Actuaries, Inc. as a consulting actuary in their Winston-Salem, North Carolina office. Doug currently provides actuarial and risk management expertise to a variety of clients in all areas of property and casualty actuarial and insurance work, with particular focus on Workers Compensation and Commercial Lines. Current responsibilities include: loss reserve analyses and issuance of Statements of Actuarial Opinion; feasibility and retention studies for self-insurance plans/pools/captives; pro-forma financial projections and valuations for company formation, expansion and mergers/acquisitions; audit support requiring actuarial expertise or opinions; rate analyses and filings; and expert reviews of proposed government crop insurance programs. Doug is currently serving on the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) Committee on the Theory of Risk and on the CAS/SOA Committee on Academic Relations, and is a member of the CAS Tail Factor Working Party. Jessica C. Smythe, Esq. Jessica C. Smythe is an attorney in the Raleigh office of Wilson & Ratledge, PLLC. She practices exclusively in the area of workers' compensation defense working primarily for self-insured employers. Ms. Smythe appears regularly before the North Carolina Industrial Commission and the Full Commission and speaks frequently to insurance companies and employers on North Carolina workers' compensation law, good safety practices and accident investigations. Ms. Smythe received her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Meredith College and a Juris Doctor from Campbell University. While at Campbell, Ms. Smythe was awarded Best Oral Advocate in the National Moot Court Competition and was a quarterfinalist in the National Trial Competition. Carla Stevens, RN Carla is the Human Resources Director of Occupational Health for WakeMed Health & Hospitals. Carla oversees the operations of Occupational Health providing services to 8000 employees, 1200+ Medical Staff, and 900+ Volunteers who are assigned to 26 different locations. WakeMed is self-insured for workers' compensation and their program includes an aggressive early return to work program. Carla graduated from St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing, Huntington W.VA. in 1983. She started her nursing career at Duke University Medical Center and has been employed with WakeMed since 1984 where she started as a staff nurse in the Emergency Department. In 1993 Carla began to supervise Occupational Health growing the department from one nurse to what is now a department of 8 employees with offices at two WakeMed facilities, WakeMed Raleigh and WakeMed Cary. Carla is a member of the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Health Care. As a Board Member for the North Carolina Self-Insurance Security Association she sits on the Claims Committee and the Audit/Investment Committee. Erin Taylor Erin Taylor handles workers' compensation matters for employers and carriers for the Raleigh office of Cranfill, Sumner & Hartzog, LLP. She has handled matters at all levels of litigation including mediations, hearings at the Deputy Commissioner and Full Commission levels, and the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. Ms. Taylor is experienced in handling all kinds of injuries and illnesses, including injury by accident, repetitive trauma, occupational disease, chemical exposure, and psychological claims. Ms. Taylor has obtained favorable results for defendants at mediations and in litigation before the Industrial Commission. She frequently participates in seminars before carriers and employers on multiple topics including return-to-work, Medicare, case law updates, and requirements under the N.C. Workers' Compensation Act. Ms. Taylor is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association (Workers' Compensation Section), the Wake County Bar Association, the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys, the American Bar Association, and the Defense Research Institute. Sandy E. Threatt Sandy began his working with Cannon Mills Company in 1982 and continued through the merger and creation of Fieldcrest Cannon in the 1990s. Both companies were self-insured and he managed the corporate workers' compensation program for five states (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama). He spent a total of 17 years with the textile industry. For the past nine years he has been with Moses Cone Health system in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is the Corporate Workers' Comp Specialist. Moses Cone is a self-insured health care system. Sandy has been active with the North Carolina Association of Self-Insurers since 1994 and is currently the Vice President of the organization. He is a member of the NC Industrial Commission Chairman's Advisory Council, a member of the advisory council for the Workers' Compensation Research Institute, and is a certified superior court mediator. Jim Toole, FSA, MAAA Jim Toole spent two years in Princeton University's engineering program before graduating cum laude from Wake Forest University in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. He began his actuarial career at Integon Insurance Company in Winston-Salem before joining MetLife in their New York City office. With an eye toward international markets, he joined Tillinghast-Towers Perrin's Mexico City office where he lived and worked for two years before moving to Milliman Global. During his years at Milliman Global, he helped establish the Latin America practice as the leading provider of merger and acquisition services in the region. Mr. Toole has over 20 years of management and technical experience in the insurance industry. He has worked in various lines of business including life (individual and group), health, and P&C. Individual life product experience includes term, whole life, universal life, variable universal life, and COLI, as well as a variety of health riders and stand alone products. Mr. Toole's health experience spans Small Group, MEWA, HSA, and specialty products from the product development, filing, financial reporting, and regulatory perspectives. Health policy interests include community benefit for non-profit hospitals, health impact assessments and medical demography. Mr. Toole has worked with a broad range of distribution channels including career agency, brokerage, independent, bancassurance, and direct marketing as well as an assortment of individually tailored "designer" deals. His project background includes experience analysis, product development, cash flow testing, budgeting, loss reserving, mergers and acquisitions (both appraisals and due diligence), bancassurance (product, financial, and strategic analysis), financial process re-engineering, and demutualization. Mr. Toole is a frequent speaker at industry meetings, seminars, and universities in the United States and Latin America. He has written and/or edited numerous publications in the industry. "Actuarial Considerations in Insurance M&A: An International Perspective" was published by the SOA in 2003 and included on the Course 8 Finance exam syllabus. He was co-editor of the textbook "Insurance Industry Mergers and Acquisitions", published by the SOA in spring 2005. He is lead researcher on the SOA research project to analyze the potential impact of a pandemic on the U.S. life and health insurance industries. Mr. Toole joined the firm in October of 2002 in the capacity of Managing Director of the Life and Health division and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Winston-Salem office. Locally, Mr. Toole is a member of the Forsyth County Infant Mortality Reduction Coalition and the Downtown Rotary Club. He is vice-president of the Slow Food Piedmont Triad convivium and a board member of the Winston-Salem Children's Theater.
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