NOLHGA’s 2025 Legal Seminar

CJ Alvarado is an award-winning brand strategist and marketing veteran helping brands take new ground. His work includes Grammy Award–winning products used by MTV, Pixar, Sky Walker Ranch, John Mayer, Alicia Keys, U2, and many more. He is a champion for new ideas and future-focused strategies.

Alvarado was recognized as a 40 Under 40 business leader, has built and sold businesses, and currently leads Bamboo Creative Inc., a brand strategy and digital agency in Sacramento serving clients such as History Channel, Stanford University, Yamaha, and more.

Kara Baysinger is a Partner in the Corporate & Financial Services Department and a member of the firm’s Insurance Transactional and Regulatory Practice Group. She serves as Co-Chair of Willkie’s Insurance Regulatory and Insurtech groups. She has vast experience representing national and international insurance and reinsurance companies, insurance-related service companies, Insurtech companies, and technology companies on a wide array of insurance regulatory, compliance, and strategic matters. She also advises clients on regulatory investigations and examinations (including multi-state examinations), innovation and digital transformation, licensing, transactional and M&A matters, reinsurance, cybersecurity, market conduct, sales practices, and product and market development issues.

Baysinger’s commitment is recognized by Chambers USA (2024), where a client described her as “my attorney of choice for insurance and regulatory matters.” She has been recognized as a leading practitioner since the inception of Chambers in both California and Nationwide for Insurance.

Baysinger began her career working in-house for insurance companies, where she led compliance, market conduct, product development, and government relations functions. She is also the co-author of Courageous Counsel: Conversations with Women General Counsel in the Fortune 500, a groundbreaking look at the paths of women into the ranks of General Counsel.

With a career spanning four decades, Vince Bodnar is an actuary with expertise covering all life insurance, annuity, health insurance, and managed care products. He recently moved into the role of CFO of The Plateau Group, which was acquired by the private equity firm Hoplon Capital three years ago.

Before joining the Plateau Group, Bodnar was a Senior Advisor at Alvarez & Marsal, where he focused on advising private equity clients to enter, scale, and expand investments in the insurance sector. This included sourcing deals, due diligence, and operational and product optimization for portfolio companies. Much of these efforts were focused on long-duration products, such as annuities, life insurance, long-term care, and offshore reinsurance.

Bodnar is also an expert in reinsurance transaction structuring and UK pension risk transfer. He is widely acknowledged as one of the country’s foremost experts in long-term care insurance.

The Honorable Harry Coker Jr was appointed by Governor Moore as Maryland’s Secretary of Commerce on February 5, 2025. At Commerce, the state’s primary economic development agency, Secretary Coker is focused on working collaboratively to help Maryland “Win the Decade” by developing and sustaining an equitable, robust, and competitive economy.

Secretary Coker is a retired Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) senior executive, former National Security Agency (NSA) senior executive, and career Naval Officer. He was previously America’s National Cyber Director, serving in the White House from 2023–2025.

While serving as Executive Director of the NSA, Secretary Coker directly supported the Director and Deputy Director in the strategic and day-to-day leadership of the Agency. During his service with the CIA, he was assigned to leadership positions in the Directorate of Digital Innovation, the Directorate of Science & Technology, and the Director’s Area.

Secretary Coker’s service to the nation has been recognized with the awarding of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Presidential Rank Award, the NSA Director’s Distinguished Service Medal, the Intelligence Community EEOD Outstanding Leadership Award, and the CIA’s Don Cryer Award for Diversity & Inclusion leadership.

Outside of the government, Secretary Coker has served as the President of the Central Intelligence Retirees Association (CIRA) and on the Boards of Directors of the US Naval Academy Foundation; the US Navy Memorial; and Dog Tag, Inc. He also served as an Operating Partner with C5 Capital; an Outside Director for JSI Telecom, Inc; on the Strategic Advisory Committee for Octasic, Inc.; on the Editorial Board of Studies in Intelligence; and on the Advisory Boards of Zeeam Government Solutions and Historic Ships in Baltimore. He also served as a Senior Fellow with Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security.

A long-time resident of Clinton, Maryland, Secretary Coker currently resides in Baltimore. He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School, and Georgetown University Law Center.

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).

Kim Cross received her J.D. from Drake University Law School in Des Moines and her undergraduate degree from Northwest Missouri State University. She has worked with the Iowa Insurance Division for approximately 30 years and currently serves as Deputy Commissioner, Supervision. She has held a variety of roles during her tenure at the Iowa Insurance Division, including Chief Examiner, Assistant Chief Examiner, Company Regulation Counsel, and Enforcement Attorney.

Clare Cushman is the author of numerous articles and books about the history of the Supreme Court, including Courtwatchers: Eyewitness Anecdotes in Supreme Court History; Table for Nine: Supreme Court Food Traditions and Recipes; and An Illustrated Guide to the Supreme Court. She is also the editor of The Supreme Court Justices; Illustrated Biographies and Supreme Court Decisions and Women’s Rights: Milestones to Equality. Cushman oversees the Supreme Court Historical Society’s print and media publishing program.

Dan Daveline is the Director of the Financial Regulatory Services Department at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). This department provides administrative and technical support services to the Financial Condition (E) Committee and its subsidiary task forces and working groups, including the maintenance of NAIC solvency systems and authoritative guidance on statutory accounting, reporting, risk-based capital, financial analysis, and financial examinations. He oversees the NAIC staff responsible for assisting the state regulators in these and other related financial solvency areas.

Daveline has served in various positions since joining the NAIC in 1998, including providing direct staff support for the Statutory Accounting Principles Working Group, the Blanks Working Group, the Financial Analysis Working Group, Group Solvency Issues Working Group, and many others. In doing so, he has helped regulators maintain the NAIC guidance produced by each of those groups.

Daveline’s experience includes over 22 years with the NAIC; 6 years in financial accounting and reporting for a life, health, and property/casualty company; and work as an auditor in the Kansas City office of Deloitte & Touche. He also spent one year with a property/casualty trade organization.

Daveline graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Eric Del Monaco has over 23 years of experience in fixed income and derivatives. He has served in executive positions at several financial institutions, where he provided oversight over a wide range of asset classes including, but not limited to, corporate bonds, preferreds, private placements, leveraged loans, commercial whole-loans, CLOs, CMBS, RMBS, esoteric ABS, credit derivatives, interest rate derivatives, equity derivatives, treasuries, and repos. In addition to providing oversight to the market-making activities in these products, he also oversaw their design, structuring, and placement. He also worked extensively with both rating agencies and regulatory bodies such as the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), National Futures Association (NFA), National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), and various state insurance and banking regulators.

Prior to founding EDM Research, Del Monaco served as Chief Risk Officer of American Life & Security (ALSC) from November 2020 until March 2022. In this role, he provided oversight for asset management, portfolio construction, reinsurance capacity, counterparty risk, and hedging, amongst other related responsibilities. As Chief Risk Officer, he developed the specifications for the investment and risk management infrastructure to evaluate company-level exposure to portfolio risks, including the required technology stack and oversight framework.

Prior to his role at ALSC, Del Monaco served as Head of Global Markets at Natixis CIB Americas, a global money-center bank headquartered in Paris, France. At Natixis, he was directly responsible for a business with over 140 employees and an over $30BN balance sheet; he served as a member of both the Global Markets and Americas committees. He was responsible for all front office risk related to markets activities across fixed income and equities and was the primary front office interface to regulatory stakeholders.

Throughout his career, Del Monaco worked extensively with some of the world’s largest life insurance companies on matters related to capital, balance sheet management, and investments. He spent six years at Nomura as a Managing Director and Head of Structuring, where he was responsible for structuring across all financial products in the Americas and served on the Nomura Americas Global Markets executive committee. Prior to Nomura, he ran Credit Structuring at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital in New York, where his specialties included credit derivatives, counterparty risk, and complex repackagings. He also spent five years as part of Citigroup’s European Credit businesses, working extensively with clients in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Del Monaco graduated in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Economics with honors from Tufts University. He serves on the Board of Trustees for the Country School in Easton, Maryland, and is an active member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He also serves on the Board of Safeware, Inc., a national leader in public preparedness, providing public safety products to municipalities and first responders for over 40 years.

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.

Hal Horwich has been involved in many major insurance insolvency and restructuring matters. He represented policyholders in Ambac and FGIC; the Maryland Insurance Department in ACA Financial Guaranty; guaranty association member companies in Penn Treaty/American Network, the second largest insurance insolvency in the history of the United States; and Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, the second largest medical malpractice insurer in New York.

Horwich was appointed by the insurance commissioner of the state of Connecticut as the Chairman of the Task Force on Insurance Company Runoff and Reorganization. He is also Chairman of the International Association of Insurance Receivers (IAIR) Publications Committee and Co-Chair of IAIR’s Subcommittee on insolvent Managed Care Organizations. He is a member of the NAIC committee on amendments to the Model Insurer Rehabilitation and Liquidation Act.

Before joining Morgan Lewis, Horwich was a Partner at another international law firm, where he was head of the firm’s insurance practice and a member of its financial restructuring group.

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.

Pat Hughes is a strategic advisor, public policy advocate and regulatory attorney for insurance industry clients across all product lines and services. Clients turn to him when important regulatory and public policy matters in various arenas—including state and federal agencies, the NAIC, legislatures, and international regulatory bodies—create challenges or opportunities for their businesses. Leading the insurance team’s regulatory and government affairs practice, he leverages a dynamic, multijurisdictional Faegre Drinker team that deploys proactive national and local regulatory and public policy strategies.

Hughes is a former senior insurance regulator and state government attorney. As chief legal counsel to the Office of the Governor in Illinois, he oversaw regulatory affairs and directed legal representation for 45 executive branch agencies and several hundred attorneys and outside counsel. He also served as General Counsel to the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which then included the Division of Insurance, and as Special Deputy Receiver and CEO with the Office of the Special Deputy, administering the receiverships of 47 companies. While with the state, he chaired NAIC working groups on critical issues, including Dodd-Frank implementation and complex receivership oversight.

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 Federal Reserve Board’s Insurance Policy Advisory Committee. He also 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 serves on the Board of Directors of Accion Opportunity Fund, where he is a member of the Finance and Risk Committees.

Don Roof has been in the field of insurance regulation for 30+ years. Prior to joining Examination Resources (ER) in 2013, he held the position of Director of Insurance & Financial Oversight with the Georgia Department of Insurance. As Division Director, he was responsible for financial and market conduct examinations, financial and market analysis, troubled company administration, mergers and acquisitions, holding company transactions, and company licensing. Prior to assuming the position of Division Director, he served as Georgia’s Chief Financial and Market Conduct Examiner.

Roof has been involved in numerous receiverships over the years and brings specialized experience and knowledge with the captive market. During his tenure with the Georgia Department, he appeared before the Georgia Legislature providing testimony on various bills, including Georgia’s Credit for Reinsurance law.

As Managing Director for ER, Roof’s main role is to continue to develop ER’s Receivership consulting services and assist with the continued growth in insurance regulatory consulting services. He oversees the management of large engagements and specialized projects and provides assistance with marketing initiatives. He received his B.B.A. in Risk Management and Insurance from the University of Georgia. He resides and works in Atlanta.

Justin Schrader is vice president, director of regulatory advisory services for Noble Consulting Services, Inc., KSM’s insurance regulatory consulting group. He has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience specializing in all related areas, including examinations, analysis, and corporate transactions that consist of reinsurance, acquisitions, investments, and regulatory actions. He has experience with insurer supervisions, receiverships, and liquidations. He is a well-respected leader amongst various states both nationally and internationally.

Prior to joining Noble in 2023, Schrader served as the Chief Financial Examiner for the Nebraska Department of Insurance.

Schrader is a member of the Society of Financial Examiners (SOFE), where he serves on the Board of Governors and is a former Executive Committee member and President. He also serves on the NAIC’s accreditation team. He previously served on various committees with the NAIC—as a member of the Nebraska Department of Insurance, he served as Vice Chair of the NAIC’s Risk-Focused Surveillance and Financial Analysis Working Groups and as Chair of the Group Solvency Issues and Macroprudential Working Groups. He also participated in the Peer Review Program.

Schrader served as a state representative for the International Association of Insurance Supervisors’ (IAIS) Financial Sector Assessment and Targeted Jurisdictional Assessment Programs and is a member of the Macroprudential Working Group.

Donald Sirois currently functions as the Executive Director of the Maine Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association and a member of the NAIC Accreditation Review Team. He has more than 30 years in the insurance industry, which includes experience as a regulator and in senior management positions with insurance companies.

His industry experience includes overseeing risk management and financial reporting as Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer with Patriot Insurance Company. He also served as Vice President of Internal Audit and Chief Compliance Officer with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maine, where his responsibilities included improving risk management and internal controls of the company. His regulatory experience includes supervising solvency regulation, including financial examinations, financial analysis, and supervision of troubled companies as Director of Financial Affairs and Solvency for the Maine Bureau of Insurance.

Sirois is a member of the Society of Financial Examiners and a member of the Maine Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Ethan Sonnichsen is the Chief Government Affairs Officer for the NAIC. He oversees the activities of the NAIC’s Washington, D.C.-based Executive Office and works with state insurance regulators to develop policy and advocacy strategies on state, federal, and international issues affecting all lines of insurance. In this capacity, he directly advises insurance Commissioners on federal and international strategy across all lines of insurance and brings his perspective and insights to domestic regulatory developments underway at the NAIC.

Sonnichsen coordinates the NAIC’s outreach to Congress, federal and international financial regulators, Governors, and state legislators and officials. He also serves as a primary liaison for the NAIC with the insurance industry and consumer stakeholders in Washington, D.C., and internationally.

Before joining the NAIC in February 2006, Sonnichsen worked on international risk management and financial reporting issues for the American Academy of Actuaries. He graduated from the University of Maryland’s University College with a B.S. in Management. He lives in Kensington, Maryland, with his wife and two children.

Jacob Stuckey is the Illinois Special Deputy Receiver, assisting the Director of the Illinois Department of Insurance in her statuary role as conservator, rehabilitator, and liquidator of financially impaired and insolvent insurance companies. He is currently appointed to manage the administration of 16 estates covering many different types of insurers. Stuckey represents Director Gillespie as Chair of the NAIC’s Receivership and Insolvency Task Force and as Co-Chair of the Receivership Financial Analysis Working Group.

Prior to joining the OSD, Stuckey served in various senior positions within and adjacent to the Illinois state government, including senior roles with the Department of Central Management Services, Office of Management and Budget, the Office of the State Treasurer, and the Illinois Finance Authority. He is also a veteran of the United States Army, with combat tours with the 82nd Airborne Division in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Stuckey received his Bachelor’s Degree in Politics and Government from Illinois State University and his MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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 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.

BIO TO COME

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.