Insurance Insider US Honors 2020

Dominic Addesso

Barbara Bufkin

Barbara's four decades in the insurance and reinsurance industry have spanned executive leadership roles on a global platform encompassing operational and strategic responsibilities including business and product development, underwriting, claims, risk management/corporate governance and ceded and assumed reinsurance, while fostering a culture of innovation, mentorship, sponsorship and diverse talent.

Throughout the past six years, Barbara has focused her career at the intersection of distribution, underwriting, technology and capital, originating and fostering strategic partnerships, speed to market in SME and specialty products with top tier distribution and technology providers. 

With her extensive reinsurance background, Barbara has aligned and optimized portfolios relative to capital, risk and volatility. 

Barbara Bufkin was one of the founding members of the US leadership team of Hamilton USA, joining the company at its launch in September 2014, in a first of its kind InsureTech startup, reporting to the CEO. In her role on the Executive Steering Committee, she was instrumental in the strategic design, organizational structure, final business plan, and launch of Attune, a technology-enabled small business platform with joint venture partners AIG and Two Sigma.

Charles M. Chamness

Chuck Chamness is president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, the largest U.S. property/casualty insurance trade association with more than 1,400 member companies. The association supports regional and local mutual insurance companies on main streets across America and many of the country’s largest national insurers. NAMIC member companies write $268 billion in annual premiums. Our members account for 59 percent of homeowners, 46 percent of automobile, and 29 percent of the business insurance markets. Through its advocacy programs NAMIC promotes public policy solutions that benefit member companies and the policyholders they serve and foster greater understanding and recognition of the unique alignment of interests between management and policyholders of mutual companies.

Chamness serves as board chairman of NAMICO, a $55 million asset professional liability insurance company owned by the association and its members.  In 2016, he concluded his three-year term as board chairman of the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, an organization that funds more pediatric cancer research grants than any other organization except the U.S. government.  During his time as chairman, the organization raised more than $100 million.  Chamness also serves as a board member of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Association Committee of 100 and the Indiana University Foundation Board of Associates.

Ken Crerar 

Ken Crerar is the President/CEO of The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, a DC-based trade association representing the top 200 commercial insurance brokerages in the world.

Crerar first joined The Council in 1987 as chief lobbyist and director of its political action committee. He was named president in 1992. Since then, he has built the organization into the leading representative of the most successful commercial insurance and employee benefits intermediaries across the globe.

Under Crerar’s leadership, The Council created Leader’s Edge magazine, an award-winning publication written exclusively for brokers; launched The Council Academy, which provides unique talent development resources to Council member firms; established The Council Foundation, a non-profit which assists in attracting and developing the brokerage workforce of the future; and formed various executive-level peer groups. He was also instrumental in The Council’s efforts to create The World Federation of Insurance Intermediaries. Headquartered in Brussels, WFII is a non-profit international organization representing associations of insurance intermediaries from around the world. In addition, The Council is home to the largest political action committee in the insurance industry, topping $1.5 million. In 2013, Crerar was named one of the industry’s top 100 “Game Changers.”

Crerar’s achievements and interests extend well beyond insurance. He is a founder and current member of The Monumental Leadership Group, a member of The Economic Club of Washington, DC, and chairman and owner of Rogers Collection, a 25-year-old importer of best-in-class specialty food products.

John Huff 

John Huff serves as Chief Executive of the Association of Bermuda Insurers & Reinsurers (ABIR).  ABIR represents the public-policy, advocacy and educational interests of Bermuda’s leading international  insurers and reinsurers that protect consumers around the world.  With headquarters and operations in Bermuda and with operating subsidiaries in the United States and Europe, ABIR member companies do business in more than 150 countries, employ nearly 53,000 people and write over $100 billion annually in gross written premium.   

Huff has more than 25 years of experience in the Insurance sector, most recently as the 2016 president of the U.S. National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and as director of the Missouri Department of Insurance, a position he held for eight years.  He was the first insurance regulator to serve on the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council, created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. 

Prior to entering public service, John spent more than a decade in executive positions with leading global insurers and reinsurers. 

Dinos Iordanou 

Constantine Iordanou is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arch Capital Group Inc. [Retired September 2019]. Prior to joining Arch as one of its founders, Mr. Iordanou served in various capacities for Zurich Financial Services and its affiliates, including as Senior Executive Vice President of group operations and business development, President of American Specialities, and Chief Executive Officer of Zurich American and Chief Executive Officer of Zurich North America. Prior to joining Zurich, he served as President of the commercial casualty division of the Berkshire Hathaway Group, Chief Executive Officer of national liability and CEO of Columbia Insurance Company. He started his career with American International Group where he served as Senior Vice President of American House Insurance Company and also became a member of the C.V.Starr partnership.Mr. Iordanou currently serves as a director of Verisk Analytics and he is the Vice Chairman of NIPD Genetics.

During his 42 years in the Insurance business, he has held leadership positions with industry associations serving as the past Chairman of the American Insurance Association (AIA) and as Chairman of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR).

In recognition of his leadership he received the 1999 Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In 2016, Fortune Magazine named Mr. Iordanou as one of the top 50 business persons of the year (#46) and Institutional Investor named him the best insurance industry Mid Cap CEO in 2017. Additionally, he was named the Insurance Leader of the Year by St. John’s University School of Risk Management and received the lifetime achievement award from Reaction Magazine in 2017.

Mr. Iordanou is married to Marianne and they have three children and two grandchildren. Mr. and Mrs. Iordanou have dedicated their charitable activities to education, serving as trustees at the Holy Child Academy, Our Lady of Mercy Academy, Roosevelt University, the College of Insurance, and more recently Marco Island Academy, a public charter school.

As an ethnic Greek Cypriot, Mr. Iordanou was a founding member and one of seven lifetime trustees of the Pancyprian Association of America, established in 1975. He is also a founding member of FAITH, a charitable organization dedicated to the advancement of Greek Americans through education.

He holds an Aerospace Engineering degree from New York University.

Bruce Kelly 

Sean Kevelighan

Sean Kevelighan joined the Insurance Information Institute as President and Chief Executive Officer in 2016.  Previously, he was Group Head of Public Affairs for Zurich Insurance Group where he oversaw Government and Industry Affairs as well as Corporate Responsibility.  He joined Zurich in May 2013 as Head of Government and Industry Affairs for North America, with responsibility for driving the public policy agenda in the region. Prior to that, he worked at Citigroup, Inc., as Head of Strategic Communications for its Global Consumer Banking business, and for Zurich, as Head of Group Media Relations in North America.

He has served in various public sector posts in Washington, D.C. As a political appointee in the administration of President George W. Bush, he served first in the Department of Treasury as a spokesperson for economic issues, and eventually became Senior Advisor for the Office of Tax Policy. He was also the Press Secretary for the White House Office of Management and Budget. Additionally, he worked on Capitol Hill, serving on the staff of members of Congress; most notably as Legislative Director for Representative Bob Schaffer of Colorado. Sean's private sector experience in Washington, D.C. included positions at public affairs firms such as Edelman and Hill & Knowlton.

He advised numerous multinational and FORTUNE 100 corporate clients on policy issue management programs, corporate reputation campaigns and crisis communications. Sean is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder. He and his wife Annik have three children. He is an avid enthusiast of exercise and outdoors, participating regularly in running events as well as the occasional triathlon.

Frank Nutter 

​Mr. Nutter currently serves on the Advisory Board of the OECD’s International Network for the Financial Management of Large Scale Disasters, the RAND Center on Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation, and the Carl H. Lindner III Center for Insurance and Risk Management Advisory Board.   He also serves on the Editorial Panel of Intelligent Insurer magazine.  He has recently served on the Advisory Board of the Center for Health and the Global Environment, an adjunct to the Harvard University School of Public Health, Council of the American Meteorological Society, and the Board of the University Center for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of universities managing the National Center for Atmospheric Research sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and the Worker’s Compensation Research Institute, the Board of Overseers of the Institute for Civil Justice, a subsidiary of the Rand Corporation and on the Board of the Bermuda Institute for Ocean Sciences.

Mr. Nutter has a Juris Doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Cincinnati. Mr. Nutter was an officer in the U.S. Navy and is a Vietnam veteran.  He competed in the 2019 Senior Olympics in cycling. 

Sean Tarbuck 
Hank has more than 35 years of experience in the insurance industry and has held a range of underwriting, client management and leadership positions in the United States and Europe at Chubb, Johnson & Higgins, Marsh and HRH. 

Hank received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley and has completed an executive leadership program at The Wharton School.  He’s a member of the Board of Overseers at St. John’s University’s School of Risk Management and is on the boards of the Insurance Information Institute and Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (NY/Northeast Division).

With more than 55% of Lloyd’s global premium in 2018, the Americas region is Lloyd’s largest market for insurance (E&S in the US) and reinsurance. In addition to market development, Lloyd’s colleagues in the Americas provide media relations and regulatory support to the managing agents / syndicates and operational oversight of the licensed platforms in Illinois, Kentucky, the USVI and our Lineage system in Montreal.

Hank Watkins
Hank is responsible for Lloyd’s market development activities in the US, Canada and Latin America. From offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfort KY, New York, Montreal, Toronto, Bogota, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro, Lloyd’s is actively engaged in educational and marketing outreach to retail, wholesale and reinsurance intermediaries, risk managers, managing general agents, risk management programs at colleges & universities and other stakeholders in the Lloyd’s market. 

Hank has more than 35 years of experience in the insurance industry and has held a range of underwriting, client management and leadership positions in the United States and Europe at Chubb, Johnson & Higgins, Marsh and HRH. 

Hank received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley and has completed an executive leadership program at The Wharton School.  He’s a member of the Board of Overseers at St. John’s University’s School of Risk Management and is on the boards of the Insurance Information Institute and Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (NY/Northeast Division).

With more than 55% of Lloyd’s global premium in 2018, the Americas region is Lloyd’s largest market for insurance (E&S in the US) and reinsurance. In addition to market development, Lloyd’s colleagues in the Americas provide media relations and regulatory support to the managing agents / syndicates and operational oversight of the licensed platforms in Illinois, Kentucky, the USVI and our Lineage system in Montreal.