Speakers

Taylor Rhodes

Chief Executive Officer
Applied Systems

Taylor Rhodes, Chief Executive Officer, leads Team Applied and is responsible for the company’s overall strategy and operational execution. Rhodes joined Applied in 2019 after serving as chief executive officer of SMS Assist, the leading cloud-based software platform for multi-site property management. Previously, he was CEO of Rackspace, where he led the Company’s growth from a cloud pioneer to an industry leader with more than two billion dollars in revenue, while establishing the company as a mainstay on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®. Prior to Rackspace, he served as a leader in enterprise, financial and corporate strategy roles at Electronic Data Systems Corporation. Mr. Rhodes is a former United States Marine Corps infantry officer and holds a MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves on the board of directors for Applied, Zenoss and Liquid Web, LLC.

Nigel Walsh

Managing Director – Insurance, Financial Services
Google Cloud

Nigel is the Managing Director for Insurance at Google Cloud, responsible for leading the firms approach to Insurance, leveraging the best in market capability from Google’s Cloud proposition, addressing mission critical Insurance challenges, from claims and underwriting to leveraging our AI and ML know-how, driving better business outcomes.  Nigel also works with the broader Alphabet companies to bring their experience and insights to partner with our existing insurance customers.

Prior to this, Nigel was a Partner in Deloitte Digital where he led on a number of areas for the firm including Global Future of Insurance and InsurTech.  He has contributed to a number of books on insurance and technology including The InsurTech Book and the AI Books published by Wiley. He also co-authored a report on the Sharing Economy and the opportunity for Insurers for Lloyds of London.  He has a background in end to end technology transformation from core systems through to digital transformation initiatives including helping clients to identify and launch new products to market and establish new businesses from scratch, for insurers and more recently non insurers.

You can find Nigel talking about Insurance regularly online as Co Host for InsurTech Insiders Podcast – here, through his articles and PoV on LinkedIn here, or regular conversation on all things Insurance & InsurTech on Twitter here.

Matt Masiello

Chief Executive Officer
SIAA

Matt Masiello has responsibility for executive management of the largest alliance of independent insurance agencies in the United States and its related companies, providing leadership to senior executives of SIAA and Master Agencies across the country. His nearly 30 years of experience at SIAA and SAN Group (SIAA’s original and largest Master Agency operating across the Northeast) have instilled in him the skills, knowledge, and expertise to lead both companies, as well as providing strategic vision and leadership for their futures. Matt has become a subject matter expert in the field of insurance and agency development and is a frequent contributor to many industry publications, including Insurance Journal, Property Casualty 360, National Underwriter Magazine, PIA Magazine, Independent Agent and The Standard. He is a frequent presenter at a variety of insurance conventions, meetings and events, podcast guest, and author of Insurance Agency 4.0.

Bryan Falchuk

Founder and Managing Partner
Insurance Evolution Partners

Bryan Falchuk is the Founder and Managing Partner of Insurance Evolution Partners, which advises carriers and their partners on how to navigate an evolving industry facing disruption and change. Bryan spent 20 years in the insurance industry, including serving as Head of Claims for Hiscox USA and leading Growth for insurtech communications solution, Hi Marley. Bryan has also held leadership roles in corporate strategy, operations and distribution at carriers like Liberty Mutual and Beazley. He was a consultant in McKinsey & Company’s insurance practice, and is on the advisory boards of several startups focused on the insurance industry.

Bryan is a best-selling author and public speaker, including several TEDx Talks. His best-selling book series, The Future of Insurance: From Disruption to Evolution, shares case studies of legacy and startup carriers overcoming the barriers to change we all face in the industry to innovate to help Insurance move forward and evolve.

J. Craig Jones

Agency Principal
Yennie & Jones Insurance
Pleasant Hill, MO

Craig Jones, CIC is the President of Yennie & Jones Insurance Services, Inc. a former paratrooper and a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve where he served as a Military Intelligence Officer.

Jones’ is celebrating his 30th anniversary in the insurance industry, his 22nd year as an agency principal and his 11th as Mutual Insurance Company Director. He and his wife Lori operate his family’s Independent Insurance Agency in Pleasant Hill, MO as the fourth-generation family owners.

Steve Shoultz

Priority Risk Management
Fishers, IN

Steve began his career in 1983 with Liberty Mutual in Phoenix, AZ. A few years later he became a sales manager in the Tucson office and later transferred to Indianapolis. In 1993, the entrepreneurial spirit sunk in and Steve began to prepare to open an independent agency. The journey to independence took 12 years. Over the next 12 years he met with marketing representatives from various insurance companies, each requesting a new requirement in order to obtain a contract. As he met each requirement, they continued to move the goalposts. He had virtually given up on opening his own independent agency until he stumbled upon the Quantum Club.

The Quantum Club was a membership group of Agency Owners designed to help agency owners grow their business. At a quarterly meeting, Steve finally met a marketing representative willing to take the risk of appointing a scratch agent. On August 1, 2005, Priority Risk Management opened its doors with one contract.

It was a struggle to write business and obtain contracts for the next 7 years. In 2012, Priority Risk Management joined Underwriters Alliance of Indiana and the growth increased exponentially. What started as a one man operation has now grown to 7 full time and one part time employee. Priority Risk Management is licensed in 6 different states. The two main reasons for its success are the affiliation with Underwriters Alliance of Indiana combined with the extensive use of technology.

Rui Silva

StateChoice Insurance
West Hartford, CT

Rui Silva is the Principal/Director of Business Development at StateChoice Insurance. He has over 20 years of insurance experience, including management, loss prevention, technologies, and asset management. He is a Veteran of the US Airforce, where he obtained a Business Management degree from Air University – CCAF. Rui enjoys reading, cycling, travel, and exploring new technologies and ways to improve the agency and customer service.

Grayson Thompson

Mission Insurance
Dublin, OH

Grayson is an owner of Mission Insurance Agency, located in Dublin, OH. He has been in the insurance industry for 12 years, starting as a sales agent/telemarketing rep for an Allstate Agency. He quickly transitioned to agency ownership with Farmers Insurance for eight years, before starting Mission Insurance Agency with the purpose of changing the way insurance has been viewed in the marketplace. The agency was developed based on 100% referrals with a unique proposition to their referral partners, giving them a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Mission Insurance agency believes in taking time to build relationships and is constantly innovating their process.

Jeff Holmes

Chief Operating Officer
SIAA

Jeff has responsibility for the day-to-day operational management of the largest alliance of independent insurance agencies in the United States, ensuring processes and procedures are executed in an effective manner to support 48 Master Agencies and thousands of Independent Insurance Agency Members across the continental United States.

He oversees SIAA team managers to ensure that SIAA is positioned to meet the overall needs of internal and external customers – continually evaluating, developing, and executing plans and projects needed to achieve business goals. Working closely with all stakeholders, he is aligning staffing and strategies for success while maintaining the quality and efficiencies of SIAA.

As a senior insurance professional, he has over 22 years of management, marketing, underwriting, training, sales, claims management and risk evaluation experience. Jeff has been published in several publications, including The Standard and Property & Casualty 360.

Ron Shroyer

VP of Sales – North America
Aureus Analytics

Ron is a former producer turned InsurTech sales leader. He is currently the VP of Sales at Aureus Analytics and prior to that was a part of the RiskMatch sales team that was acquired by Vertafore. He has leveraged 16+ years’ experience in technology and insurance to help independent agencies and carriers invest in and adopt better ways to manage and grow their business. He spends his spare with his wife and two kids, grinding away at the gym and playing golf.

Bobbie Collies

Vice President, Strategic Distribution
Grange Insurance / Integrity Insurance

Bobbie Collies is an insurance junkie that comes from an extensive background in commercial underwriting and property and casualty insurance carrier leadership. She is the AVP, Strategic Distribution at Grange Insurance. She is a passionate servant leader who loves to help drive strategy and execution. She has successfully led many project teams in underwriting, distribution, technology and user experiences for organizations.

Bobbie is a champion for innovation, customer experience and a change agent. Some might describe her as a “intrapreneur,” always looking for ways to improve the organizations she works with by bringing new ideas to the table, and more importantly, seeing those ideas come to life.

Outside of work, Bobbie is a mom, an avid Wisconsin Badger fan, a runner, a fisherwoman (in that order) and is active in coaching and playing sports. Bobbie’s team members would say she’s the person in the (virtual 😉) room who you will want to connect with, as her energy and thought leadership will certainly, capture your attention.

Jason Keck

Chief Executive Officer
Broker Buddha

Jason Keck is a seasoned technology entrepreneur, bringing 20 years of experience across digital and mobile to the insurance industry. Before founding Broker Buddha, he led business development teams at industry unicorns, including Shazam and Tumblr. A Harvard graduate with a degree in Computer Science, Jason also worked at Accenture and Nextel prior to building innovative brands and gaining success in the startup world

Shannon Chatman

Marketing Coach
Liberty Mutual Insurance / Safeco Insurance Company

Shannon started her career with Safeco in 1997. Over the last 23 years, she has gained knowledge and experience to fulfill agent marketing needs. She is excited to continue to share the tips and tricks with agents to gain the return on their marketing investment with digital and relationship marketing.

Christine and Mark Bailey

Agency Principals
Bailey Family Insurance

Mark & Christine Bailey opened Bailey Family Insurance in early 2017, after combining Mark’s military and insurance career with Christine’s marketing and business management experience. Located in Springfield, IL BFI focuses on Home, Auto, Commercial, Life, and Landlords, and their team of 6 fulfills their mission of “Loving the Community through Protection and Education”. The Bailey’s have always been forward-thinking when it comes to agency technology, and in addition to winning several community awards, they were also voted Agency of the Future with SIAA. In addition to speaking at local and national conferences, The Bailey’s serve as CRM Consultants. They have a passion for helping people and are excited to share their best practices on building an online audience through social, videos, GMB, and keeping it with correct automation.

Torey Maerz

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Rocket Referrals

Torey co-founded Rocket Referrals with his brother, Carl Maerz, in 2013. Throughout his career, Torey has spent 20+ years building software and leading technology teams in a variety of businesses across a range of industries – from education to asset management.