NOLHGA’s 2025 Legal Seminar

Lindsay Crawford joined NOLHGA in October 2024 as Assistant Vice President, Insolvency Management. In her role, Crawford provides advice to NOLHGA task forces and member associations with respect to diverse financial issues involved with the insolvent company, policy owners, and with the requirements of guaranty associations. Her duties include active participation in the development of strategies to address payment of statutory benefits to policyholders of insolvent insurers and working to ensure the successful resolution of multi-state insurance insolvencies by providing financial and project management, including support to specific task forces. Additionally, she analyzes, develops, recommends, and executes strategic options in insolvencies including runoff scenarios, assumption reinsurance, captive solutions, and other creative options.

Crawford joined NOLHGA after 16 years at the Nebraska Department of Insurance with experience as a financial analyst and reinsurance specialist, with over 9 years leading and managing the Financial Regulation Division as Deputy Chief Examiner and, most recently, Chief Financial Regulator. In her roles as Deputy and Chief, she was responsible for financial analysis, financial examinations, holding company transactions, supervisory colleges, actuarial reviews, company licensing, and the collection of premium tax in one of the country’s largest domestic insurance markets.

In addition, Crawford had considerable experience in important financial regulation work at the NAIC, including Vice Chair of the Risk-Focused Surveillance Working Group, the Valuation of Securities Task Force, and Group Solvency Issues Working Group and a member of various other task forces and working groups, including the Financial Analysis Working Group (FAWG), Reinsurance Task Force, and Receivership and Insolvency Task Force.

Crawford holds a Bachelor of Science in Business–Accounting and Finance from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In addition, she is a Certified Financial Examiner (CFE) and is the current President of the Society of Financial Examiners (SOFE).

Joel Glover partners with clients to solve problems in the insurance industry—including all related regulatory, transactional litigation, and insolvency/receivership issues. Having worked in the insurance regulatory and insolvency field since he began practicing law in 1991, he has represented all types of insurance entities, life and health insurance guaranty associations, and receivers throughout the country.

Mr. Glover maintains strong relationships with guaranty associations, insurance industry regulators, and the insurance industry. He has served as task force counsel for NOLHGA on various multi-state insolvencies; represented several guaranty associations; and served as counsel to the Insurance Commissioners in Colorado, Hawaii, and Arizona in their capacities as liquidators of insolvent insurers.

Outside of his legal practice, Joel enjoys coaching youth basketball, hiking, biking, yoga, and tai chi.

Neal Higgins is a Partner in Eversheds Sutherland’s Washington office. As Co-Lead of the Congressional Investigations practice and a leader in the firm’s Cybersecurity and National Security teams, he represents clients before the United States Congress and Executive Branch agencies. He also advises on cyber incident response and prevention, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other innovative technologies.

Higgins has served in senior leadership positions at the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the United States Senate. He has extensive experience shaping and navigating law and policy, particularly relating to cybersecurity, national security, and digital innovation. He is a trusted adviser to the United States Government’s most senior leaders and has worked with large global enterprises to steer them through highly charged congressional investigations.

Prior to joining Eversheds Sutherland, Higgins served at the White House from 2021 to 2023 as the first Deputy National Cyber Director for National Cybersecurity. He joined the White House from the CIA, where he served as Director of Congressional Affairs, Deputy Chief of the WikiLeaks Task Force, and Associate Deputy Director of CIA for Digital Innovation. He also spent eight years on Capitol Hill as chief counsel to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, legislative director for Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, and a professional staff member with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Earlier in his career, Higgins was a member of the trial team prosecuting Slobodan Milosevic, as well as an associate with a Wall Street law firm. He is a graduate of Princeton University, Harvard Law School, and the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy.

Nathan Houdek has served as Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Wisconsin since his appointment by Governor Tony Evers in January 2022. He previously served as Deputy Commissioner of Insurance for three years under former Commissioner Mark Afable.

Commissioner Houdek serves as the state’s chief regulator of insurance and oversees the operations of the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. He is also Vice Chair of the state Group Insurance Board and a Board member of the Wisconsin Insurance Security Fund, the state’s guaranty fund.

As a member of the NAIC, Commissioner Houdek currently serves as Chair of the Financial Condition (E) Committee and as a member of the Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee, the International Insurance Relations (G) Committee, and various task forces and working groups. He is also Vice Chair of the Governance Committee of the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission.

Having spent over 20 years working in state legislative and regulatory affairs, Commissioner Houdek has extensive experience finding solutions to complex public policy and regulatory challenges across all lines of insurance. He has held several senior-level roles in the public and private sectors, including serving as a principal at one of Wisconsin’s largest public affairs and business consulting firms and as Chief of Staff to a former minority leader in the Wisconsin State Senate.

Commissioner Houdek grew up in northern Wisconsin and earned his BA and MBA degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Michael McDonald is Senior Counsel with NOLHGA. He is a member of the Global Bankers Insurance Group Task Force, the Security Advisory Committee, the MPC Executive Committee Model Plan of Operations Subgroup, and other groups, where he provides legal guidance to NOLHGA’s member guaranty associations.

Before joining NOLHGA in 2021, McDonald worked for the NAIC as Financial Policy and Legislative Counsel. He previously worked for the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Financial Officer as the Assistant General Counsel, and he served as Assistant Attorney General with the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. He has experience in various legal matters, including government relations, litigation, and transactional work.

McDonald received his undergraduate degree from Bucknell University and his law degree from The Catholic University of America.

Doug Ommen was appointed by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as Insurance Commissioner in January 2017, after serving as Interim Commissioner since December 2016. Ommen has a strong and varied public service background. His dedication and desire to serve the public began in seeking justice for victims of fraud in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, where as an Assistant Attorney General and then as Chief Counsel, he led the fight to protect consumers over the course of three decades.

Ommen served as Deputy Insurance Commissioner at the Iowa Insurance Division from August 2013 to December 2016. He also served in the Missouri Department of Insurance during 2005–2008, and as Missouri’s Insurance Director, he was instrumental for several key regulatory reforms.

Ommen obtained his law degree in 1985 from the Saint Louis University School of Law, and he is licensed to practice law in both Iowa and Missouri. Ommen and his wife, Sharon, have two married children and seven grandchildren.

In 2023, a reorganization of Iowa’s state agencies led to the creation of the Department of Insurance & Financial Services. Ommen has served as Director since the department's inception, managing the successful transition into a reorganized department. He oversees the coordination of the department’s regulatory efforts and also prioritizes the department’s educational outreach efforts to the public on insurance and financial issues.

Karen Petrou is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Federal Financial Analytics, Inc., a privately held company that since 1985 has provided analytical and advisory services on legislative, regulatory, and public-policy issues affecting financial services companies doing business in the U.S. and abroad.

Petrou is a frequent speaker on topics affecting the financial services industry. In addition to testifying before the U.S. Congress, she has spoken before the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Chicago; the European Central Bank; the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; the International Monetary Fund; the Clearing House; the Bank Policy Institute; the Institute of International Bankers; the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association; the Japanese Diet; and many other governmental, industry, and academic groups.

Petrou is the author of Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America. She has also authored numerous articles in publications such as the American Banker and the Financial Times, and she is frequently quoted as a bank policy expert in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Politico, the Hill, and other media outlets.

Prior to founding her own firm in 1985, Petrou worked in Washington as an officer at Bank of America, where she began her career in 1977. She is an honors graduate in Political Science from Wellesley College and also was a special student in an honors program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned an M.A. in that subject from the University of California at Berkeley and was a doctoral candidate there.

She has served on the Boards of banking organizations and now sits as a Director on the Board of the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, and she is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Foundation Fighting Blindness. In 2019, she and her late husband Basil were named “visionaries” by the Foundation Fighting Blindness and received the Berman award in 2022. These reflect the Petrous’ work not only for vision research, but also development of a new financial instrument that would provide billions for biomedical research in all diseases, disabilities, and disorders.

Sam Ramos is the Chief Legal Officer for Global Atlantic Financial Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of KKR. In addition to his responsibilities as Chief Legal Officer, Ramos serves on Global Atlantic’s Operating Committee, KKR’s Risk and Operations Committee, and the GA-KKR Regulatory Strategy Committee.

Ramos received his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University and his Master of Science degree in systems engineering from NYU Tandon School of Engineering. He was a practicing engineer prior to attending Hofstra Law School. He was a founding member of the Goldman Sachs Reinsurance Group, the predecessor to Global Atlantic Financial Group.

In addition to his work at Global Atlantic, Ramos serves on the Board of Trustees of Hofstra University; he is a member of the Finance Committee and serves as Vice Chair of its Audit Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Accion Opportunity Fund, where he is a member of the Finance and Risk Committees.

Stuart Teicher, Esq., is a professional legal educator who focuses on ethics law and writing instruction. A practicing lawyer for 30 years, his career is now dedicated to helping fellow lawyers survive the practice of law and thrive in the profession. Teicher teaches seminars, provides in-house training to law firms and legal departments, provides CLE instruction at law firm client events, and also gives keynote speeches at conventions and association meetings.

Teicher helps lawyers get better at what they do (and enjoy the process) through his entertaining and educational CLE “performances”. He speaks, teaches, and writes. Thomson Reuters published his book, Navigating the Legal Ethics of Social Media and Technology, and his most recent book is entitled How to Stop Hating the Law: A Path to Hope for Miserable Lawyers.

Teicher is a Supreme Court appointee to the New Jersey District Ethics Committee, where he investigates and prosecutes grievances filed against attorneys. He also served on the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics Fee Arbitration Committee. He is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law, where he teaches Professional Responsibility, and for 15 years he was an adjunct professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, where he taught undergraduate writing courses. He also taught both Professional Responsibility and Legal Writing at St. John’s University School of Law in New York City.

Todd Thakar serves as Executive Director of both the California Life & Health Insurance Guarantee Association and the Nevada Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association. His involvement with the guaranty system began in 1995 and includes more than a dozen years as Chair of the California and Alaska Boards and as a member of the Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii associations. His insolvency experience includes serving on the Penn Treaty Task Force and its PACA and Escalated Matters Committees. He also serves as Chair of the Northwestern National Insurance Company Task Force, and he is a member of the SHIP Task Force, among others.

Mt. Thakar has become a leader in leveraging technology to transform the California and Nevada guaranty associations into virtual offices and facilitating fully electronic assessment notices, collections, and reconciliation. His efforts to bring the Northwestern National Insurance Company claims processing in-house reduced administrative costs by more than 80%, and the electronic collection of $295 million for the Penn Treaty assessment generated $350,000 in additional interest for the California association.

During his tenure as Vice President Government Affairs with Prudential Financial, Mr. Thakar served as the face of Prudential to regulators and legislators in nine western states. Before joining Prudential, he practiced redevelopment and municipal finance law; worked in Washington, D.C. as Director (and Assistant Director) of Intergovernmental Affairs for U.S. Senator Pete Wilson (R-CA); served as a Schedule C appointee with the Reagan Administration at HUD; and began his career as the Marketing Director for a computer seminar company. He holds a law degree from the University of San Diego, a Masters of Public Administration from USC, and a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA.

With a heart for others, Mr. Thakar serves on the Board of Directors for Faith Alive USA, a nonprofit helping to provide free medical care to 300+ patients daily at the Faith Alive HIV/AIDS Hospital in Jos, Nigeria. He has taken more than 24 short-term international mission trips, including visiting Nigeria 14 times to volunteer at Faith Alive as well as trips to Nicaragua, Colombia, and Uganda. In addition to being dad to his four grown daughters, he mentors college-age interns at his church and has had 40 students live with him since 2012. He and his wife, Angie, mentor young couples and are working to bring fresh water to Nicaragua neighborhoods lacking access to clean water.

Katharine Wade became President of the National Organization of Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA) in August 2023. She is responsible for leading NOLHGA to fulfill its mission to support state guaranty associations in protecting policyholders in multi-state insolvencies and promoting the values and interests of the guaranty association system.

Wade is an insurance executive with more than 30 years of experience in insurance operations, compliance, public policy, and regulation. In her more than twenty-year career with Cigna, a Fortune 100 global insurer, she oversaw federal and state government affairs, public policy, and compliance for the health and group life and disability businesses.

After Cigna, she served nearly four years as Connecticut’s 32nd Insurance Commissioner, responsible for consumer protection and the regulation of an industry that generated $170 billion in written direct premium in one of the nation’s top insurance markets. As Commissioner, she chaired the Health and Managed Care (B) and International Insurance Relations (G) Committees and served on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). She represented the state insurance regulatory system in testimony before Congress. In addition, she served as a member of the Executive and Policy Development Committees of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and on the US Treasury Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance.

Prior to joining NOLHGA, as a Principal at Dunraven Strategies, Wade worked with large global insurers and start-ups to navigate regulatory complexity and understand how insurance markets work. Her work included launching companies and products, managing the risk of various regulatory issues, and providing strategic counsel on emerging business or regulatory issues.

Dan Watkins practices law in Lawrence, Kansas, serving regional and national clients in business matters and governmental affairs with a specialty in receivership proceedings involving financially troubled insurance companies. He has a Certified Insurance Resolutions Director designation by the International Association of Insurance Receivers and has managed numerous insurance receiverships over the past 25 years. Currently he serves as Special Deputy Receiver in two healthcare insurance company receiverships: CoOportunity Health (Iowa and Nebraska) and HealthyCT in Connecticut. He recently closed a Medical HMO receivership in the District of Columbia.

Watkins served in Kansas government prior to his private practice, as Chief of the Criminal Division in the Attorney General’s Office, Chief Counsel at the Kansas Department of Transportation, and as Chief of Staff to the Governor. He has chaired the Kansas Bioscience Authority and Kansas Development Finance Authority; served as Co-Chair of Economic Lifelines, a coalition of Kansans supporting transportation funding; and was a long-time member of the Board of the Mid-America MS Society. He has been active in civic affairs in Lawrence, chairing the Chamber of Commerce and community mental health organization Boards.

Watkins received his undergraduate degree in Mathematics from St. Mary of the Plains College in 1969 and his law degree from the University of Kansas in 1975. He served as a VISTA volunteer and project supervisor in Broward County, Florida, from 1969–1972.