University of Houston Downtown

College of Business INSURANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT CENTER

Spring 2015

AGENCIES Tim Brady, Vice Chair Chairman Brady Chapman Holland Gordy Bunch President & CEO The Woodlands Financial Group Kyle Dean President & CEO * Dean & Draper Insurance

Agency David de Roode, Partner Lockton Companies Anthony Gruppo Regional CEO-SW Hub Marsh & McLennan Agency * Bob Holloway Senior Vice President * USI Southwest Ken Hotchkiss Partner/Producer * Hotchkiss Insurance Agency

Jared Moore Exclusive Agent-Allstate Moore Insurance and Financial

Services Amanda J. Mount Asst. VP-National Healthcare

Practice Marsh Allen Wilson Senior Vice President * GEM Insurance Agencies WHOLESALERS Susan Howie VP—Human Resources HCC Insurance Holdings Scott Kilpatrick Business Development Director * Kilpatrick Companies, Ltd. Amy Leicht President * ISU * Vikki Robinson Broker R. T. Specialty Fred Steves Chairman * Myron Steves & Company Randy L. Doss Property Broker * CRC Insurance Services, Inc. ASSOCIATIONS Renee Stager Director of Education * Independent Insurance Agents of

Houston

CARRIERS Sharon Blake Regional Vice President–Houston * The Hartford Cindy Coleman Vice President Business Development Houston Region * AIG - Chartis Tom Fitzpatrick Senior Vice President Branch

Manager * Chubb Group of Insurance

Companies Mary Jane Fortin Executive VP & CFO * AIG Life & Retirement Pam Humphrey Senior Vice President ACE USA John Knox Chairman and CEO * SureTec Insurance Company A Scott Long Area Sales Manager

TransAmerica Employee Benefits Matthew Sasso, Chair Houston-Austin Branch Vice-

President CNA Insurance RISK MANAGERS Wayne Dauterive Director of Risk Management Metro National Corporation Ginny Penzell Risk Manager Memorial Resource Development Russ Taylor Owner Risk Management Tactix CONSULTANTS * Fred de Roode Chairman and CEO PPCLOAN Laura S. Hill President-Search Consultant The Hill Group Paul Z. Martin President PZM Education Strategies Irving Pozmantier President

* PozmantierWilliams Insurance

Consultants

* Founding Donor A UHD IRM Alumni

ADVISORY COUNCIL

For more information about the program go to: http://www.uhd.edu/irm, or contact Dr. Wendall Braniff at 713-226-5552 or braniffw@uhd.edu.

Tapping into the Talent Pipeline By 2020, the entire insurance industry will have 400,000 po-sitions to fill. About 120 academic programs exist worldwide offering courses, concentrations and majors in risk manage-ment and insurance. About 80 are located in the US. All of these programs need to grow to meet the future need for new talent. What can agencies and brokers do to support these programs and partner with them to recruit for their businesses?

Insurance and risk management curriculums are niche programs that are not generally well known in academia. Students typically do not enroll in insurance and risk man-agement courses or declare the major unless specifically recruited. Most niche pro-grams rely upon industry contributed funds to pay faculty salaries, student scholar-ships and costs to attend conferences, industry meetings and other events, so funding is critical to their growth and sustainability. Faculty in this field must engage students in events with industry professionals in order to promote their programs, recruit stu-dents, and meet industry professionals from whom they can raise funding for their programs, develop internships and learn about student career opportunities. This is not the traditional role of faculty at a university, and industry professionals need to facilitate this interaction.

Numerous insurance and risk management associations on national, state and local levels support and assist programs with this work. Agencies, brokerages, carriers and individuals provide annual funding and multi-year pledges to support program opera-tions. They also play a major role in creating university endowments to provide a sus-tainable body of funds for investment, the proceeds of which are used to create pro-gram chairs and professorships to fund faculty research and publication and other activities designated by the donor.

Industry individuals and groups can also form industry-owned foundations to support local programs. In the 1980’s the Texas Insurance Education Foundation raised funds from various independent insurance agent associations, then consolidated its funds with the Wortham Foundation to develop an insurance program and create a $1 mil-lion chair at the University of Texas. When the Texas legislature subsequently passed a statute requiring UT to admit the top 10% of students graduating from every high school in the state, affecting the insurance program’s ability to recruit students, the program was practically extinguished. As a result, UT has never met the industry’s goal to become a major producer of new talent for the industry. The TIEF was recent-ly revived by a group of independent agents and insurance company affiliates who now intend to maintain control over the body of its funds in order to sustain the foun-dation in perpetuity, while distributing contributions in support of insurance programs that are most successful in producing industry practitioners.

The Insurance Council of Texas Education Foundation is an industry-controlled foun-dation that provides scholarships and program funding for students to attend its an-nual symposium. Its board targets programs that demonstrate the ability to train stu-dents for careers in insurance, specifically for carriers. It also distributes an electronic resume book of scholarship recipients to its 500 member companies. The foundation’s directors assess programs and allocate their annual contributions toward programs that best support the foundation’s goals. Its board asks universities to provide infor-mation about their programs, students and industry career placement. (continued on page 3)

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Michael Fields Wendall Braniff Dean Director

College of Business Insurance & Risk Management Center

Wendall Braniff, JD

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INSURANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT CENTER

Spring 2015

ADVISORY COUNCIL

UHD’S Spencer Education Foundation Risk Manager in Residence, Roger Andrews, gave presentations to the Houston CPCU Society, Houston Chapter RIMS and met with IRM students and ΓΙΣ fraternity members while in Houston February 16-19. During his 33 year career, he drafted creation legislation and was the first risk manager for the State of Maine, managed property and casualty for a large food and drugstore chain and was di

Perhaps the most important yet daunting responsibility for the IRM Center’s Advi-sory Council is contributing and raising the Center’s annual operating revenues. Since its inception in 2009, $1,019,450 has been contributed and pledged by the Houston and Texas insurance industry to fund the Center’s faculty, operations and scholarships. We are all very proud to be a part of this landmark endeavor. In order to provide for the continued Roger Andrews, JD

SPENCER EDUCATION FOUNDATION Risk Manager in Residence Grant

success and sustainability of this valuable resource for developing new talent for Texas agencies, companies, wholesalers and other insurance industry affiliates, we must continuously look for perma-nent long-term financial resources. Some headway has been made through the development of the IRM Center Myron Steves Endow-ment, which will begin producing revenues for IRM program opera-tions in 2018. Private foundations managed and funded by compa-nies including CNA and AIG and industry associations including the Independent Insurance Agencies of Texas (IIAT), Insurance Council of Texas (ICT) and RIMS’ Spencer Foundation provide annual reve-nues to support the program and its activities and provide student scholarships. The newly-created Texas Insurance Education Founda-tion will add to these resources. Agencies, companies, wholesalers and other industry entities have made multiple-year gifts and pledg-es. These and its Advisory Council members continue to be the Cen-ter’s main revenue source. In order to maintain this significant contribution to development of new talent for our industry, I ask that every reader who benefits from this program, and everyone who hopes to benefit in the future consider making a contribution and pledge now. A pledge form is attached to this newsletter for your convenience and I thank you for your support in developing this valuable industry talent resource.

rector of risk management for a U.S. Navy shipbuilder. Roger was 2000-01 national president of RIMS and currently serves as chair of the Nominating Committee. He is a member of the board of directors and former Chairman of the Spencer Educational Foundation. He was the 1997 recipient of the Richard W. Bland Memorial Award and earned recognition as a recipient of RIMS’ highest honor, the Harry & Dorothy Goodell Award.

DEAN’S FOCUS GROUP UPDATE

Matt Sasso, Chair

Dean Mike Fields

Last fall’s Advisory Council meeting included a Focus Group session in which Rick Bondurant, serving as facilitator, led the group including Tim Brady, Laura Hill, Pam Humphrey, Amy Leicht, Scott Long, Matt Sasso, and Fred Steves in a brainstorming session aimed at identifying the knowledge, skills and abilities required for students and gradu-ates to obtain career positions within the industry. The group identified general writing, technical, verbal, critical thinking, ethics and substantive business and IRM knowledge and experience necessary to succeed in obtaining career positions as well as team building, collaboration, negotiation, influence, initiative etc. The team also suggest-ed tools including case analysis, role play and field trips. This semester, Drs. Braniff and Hurley prepared and presented their updated IRM curriculum with program and course learning objectives reflecting this industry leadership group’s input. These curriculum changes require ap-proval by the College of Business and UHD Curriculum committees and, if approved, will be effective in the 2015-16 academic year.

PARTNERING WITH THE IRM CENTER

If you’re interested in partnering with UHD to support its program and students, you can make an online gift at https://giving.uh.edu/uhdowntown/dtn_onlinegift1.asp . Be sure to designate your gift to the Insurance and Risk Management Center.

Advisory Council directors who also comprised the Dean’s

Focus Group included Amy Leicht, Pam Humphrey, Laura

Hill (front) Matt Sasso, Fred Steves, Tim Brady, Scott Long

and Group Facilitator Rick Bonderant. (back)

IRM CENTER SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS The UHD Insurance and Risk Management Center scholarships, funded by the IRM Center Advisory Council, are awarded to IRM majors who meet the academic scholarly qualifications. The fol-lowing students were awarded IRM scholarships for Fall 2014 total-ing $9,500:

Antonio Alejandre Saul Hernandez Zoraida Alviso Cory Lacy Malinda Beckham Jovana Lopez Shangchein Chiang Reem Marzooq Rachel Depue Matthew Maxwell Eloy Garza Sheryl Peavy

Ivan Udalov

2014 Fall awardees of a Bachelor in Business Administration De-gree with a major in insurance and risk management brought the total graduates since 2011 to 39.

(continued from page 1) Recently, the University of Houston-Downtown and the Universi-ty of Houston collaborated on a proposal to the Chartered Prop-erty Casualty Underwriters Society of Houston to create an an-nual budgeted scholarship to cover the cost for students to attend their meetings. The CPCU board created the Myron Ste-ves Scholarship fund. Instead of providing annual individual stu-dent scholarships, Houston CPCU Society now provides 65 insur-ance students from two universities access to its most valuable asset – its members – and gave CPCU members direct access to the developing talent pool. Other ideas for providing university insurance program support while giving industry practitioners access to the developing tal-ent pool include:

providing opportunities for universities to submit articles to association and company newsletters to recruit students and solicit internships and other support from the industry;

offering discounted student memberships in industry associ-ations; and

hosting insurance and risk management students at associa-tion conferences where students and members can interact.

While many of the above examples of industry/student interac-tion are Texas-specific, the ideas behind them are universal in scope. The more agent and broker associations, their members and other industry professionals support and are involved with university programs, the more contact they have with students and are able to tap into the developing talent pipeline for their human resource needs. Revised and reprinted from March 3, 2015 edition of Insurance Journal

In November, AIG hosted a Career Day for insurance and risk management students from both UHD and UH. UHD students participating in the event included Isabel Carvajal, Ali Nematpour, Beverly Huet, Irwin Morales, Juliet Cisneros, Zoraida Alviso, Ra-chel Depue and Ivan Udalov. The day’s events, arranged by Caryn Beelen, AIG’s HR Manager for the Dallas-Houston area, included an orientation by AIG Vice President for Sales and Marketing, Cindy Coleman, a speed-interviewing session with AIG team members to provide students with information about various job and team functions, lunch with AIG executives, and job shadowing.

AIG’s Cindy Coleman, Vice President for Sales and Marketing, and

Caryn Beelen, HR Manager for the Dallas-Houston area

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INSURANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT CENTER

Spring 2015

AIG CAREER DAY FALL 2014 GRADUATES

DIRECTOR’S REPORT (cont.)

IRM Center Director Wendall Braniff, J.D., 2014 Fall Graduates Stacy Massey, Isabel Carvajal and Justin Gonzalez, and Dr. Pamela Hurley

If you’re interested in tapping into this new industry talent pipeline, contact Dr. Wendall Braniff at braniffw@uhd.edu. To post either in-ternships or permanent positions on UHD’s Career Services website, go to: www.uhd.edu/jobs4gators.

TAPPING INTO THE PIPELINE

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INSURANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT CENTER

Spring 2015

STUDENTS VISIT TEXAS LEGISLATURE

MEET THE INDUSTRY

Dr. Wendall Braniff provided a guided capitol tour including view-ings and explanations of historical original oil paintings of Davy Crockett, the surrender of Santa Anna to Gen. Sam Houston at San Jacinto, the battle of the Alamo, and 19th-century Austin sculptor Elisabet Ney’s life-sized marble statutes of Sam Houston and Ste-phen F. Austin. It also included a history of the flags representing the six countries: France, Spain, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, Con-federate States and the United States of America under which Texas has been ruled and portraits of Texas governors in the rotunda. “Spending the day at the Capitol was very enriching and rewarding,” remarked online student and Dallas area resident, Matthew Max-well. “I learned quite a lot, and enjoyed my time there,” added Eloy Garza.

The IRM 3306 Legal and Political Aspects of IRM (CPCU 560) class participated in the IRM Center’s third biennial Legislative Day at the state capitol in Austin. They attended a morning briefing by Independent Insurance Agents of Texas’ govern-mental affairs team Lee Loftis and Amanda Miller, with input from IIAT board president, Pat Authur, director Bob Shepherd, insurance industry professionals and legislators Sen. Larry Tay-lor (R-Friendswood) and Rep. Doug Miller (R-New Branfels).

They adjourned to the House gallery where they were recog-nized from the House floor by Rep. Miller.

Students Jovana Lopez, Sheryl Peavy, Theresa Epstein, Eloy Garza, Matthew Maxwell and Ivan Udalov (front) Rachel Depue, Zoraida Alviso and Director Wendall Braniff.

The students also met with house and senate members and their staff, including Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston), Rep. Sarah Davis (R-West University Place), Erin Hornaday, Legisla-tive Aide to Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston) and House Insur-ance Committee members Rep. Paul Workman (R-Spicewood), and Matt Lemin, Aide to Rep. Hubert Vo (D-Alief), who both joined the students for further discussions at an outdoor barbeque luncheon hosted at IIAT’s headquarters.

The College of Business hosted its fourth annual Meet the Industry event in February, which featured a pre-event resume dash, a ple-nary session with a business leadership panel, niche sessions for the various business majors and a business career fair. Over 160 stu-dents participated in the event, 75 of which attended the IRM niche session. The insurance and risk management niche session panel included Moses Bedrossian, Regional Sales Manager for The Principal Finan-cial Group; Barb Drollinger, Vice president of Houston operations for Texas Mutual; Chase Foreman, Talent Acquisition Consultant for USI; Jeanne Jankowski, Head of Energy Verticle for Zurich Energy Casualty, and Anna Berry, Underwriter Associate for Risk Placement Services and a 2014 graduate of the UHD IRM program. The group provided a robust discussion on the insurance industry and how students can prepare for and access insurance industry careers. Brett Hobby, Director of the newly-created College of Business Ca-reer Development Center organized and hosted the event, which realized a 40% increase in student participation and 230% increase in employer registrations for the trade show over last year’s event.

UHD’s Gamma Iota Sigma members attended the 43rd Annual International Conference in Dallas in October hosted by the University of North Texas, where they learned the job functions of various posi-tions in the industry, resume develop-ment, social and interviewing skills, and met with industry representatives to learn Pamela Hurley, PhD

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INSURANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT CENTER

Spring 2015

about available internships and permanent positions and make valuable career contacts. The attendees included UHD GIS presi-dent Ali Nematpour, graduate Neelum Ashraf (‘14) and students Zoraida Alviso, Isabel Carvajal, Rachel Depue, Theresa Epstein, Cory Lacy and Jovana Lopez. Director Wendall Braniff and Dr. Pamela Hurley accompanied the students to the conference.

UHD GIS members with National GIS staffers Noel Codispoti, Sharia Floyd, and Grace Grant

Theresa Epstein, Cory Lacy, Zoraida Alvison, Ali Nematpour, Dr. Pamela Hurley, Neelum Ashraf, Isabel Carvajal, Director Wendall Braniff, Jo-vana Lopez and Rachel Depue.

The event culminated in a celebration at Texas Stadium where the group enjoyed a tour of the stadium facilities, a pitch, kick, punt competition on the field and a party complete with hip hop music and line dancing .

GAMMA IOTA SIGMA IIAH HOUSTON INSURANCE DAY

GIS members also participated in the Independent Insurance Agents of Houston’s annual Houston Insurance Day event at Mar-riott Houston Westchase, hosting a booth in the trade show where they recruited industry members for UHD and GIS.

Becky Dickson, Jovana Lopez, Cory Lacy (dressed in IIAH’s sports theme) , Theresa Epstein and Rachel Depue. The students also attended the luncheon with IIAH members and visited with students from Sabine Pass High School who are taking an insurance course sponsored by The National Alliance for Insur-ance Education and Research.

Sabine Pass School teacher Ashleigh Deslatte (left) and students Kiara Baker, Kayly Barragan, Karli Stelly and Bridget Rooberts (front row) with UHD insurance students Becky Dickson, Rachel Depue, Jovana Lopez and Theresa Epstein (back row). “It was wonderful to connect with high school students who know already that they want to make their careers in insurance and risk management,” stated Rachel Depue. “They asked the right ques-tions and understand that insurance career opportunities exist everywhere, in large urban as well as small communities,” added Jovana Lopez.

Date:

Wendall Braniff, J.D., Director

University of Houston Downtown

Insurance and Risk Management Center

One Main Street, Suite B-488

Houston, Texas 77002-1001

Dear Dr. Braniff:

Please accept our financial commitment of $____________ over ____ years for the operations fund of the Insurance and Risk

Management Center at UH-Downtown. This gift is made in consideration of additional gifts and pledges from our industry col-

leagues.

NAME:

TITLE:

COMPANY NAME:

ADDRESS:

CITY/STATE/ZIP:

OFFICE PHONE:

EMAIL:

PLEASE MAKE CHECK PAYABLE TO: “UH-DOWNTOWN – IRM CENTER”. FEDERAL TAX ID IS 74-6001399 ____ We request that the donor’s name NOT be disclosed

____ We request that the specific amount of contribution NOT be disclosed.

_______________________________________

Signature

Thank you for your support of UHD and

future Insurance and Risk Management professionals!

Contributions may also be made to the UHD IRM Center online at https://giving.uh.edu/uhdowntown/dtn_onlinegift1.asp by choosing “Please designate my gift to:” Insurance & Risk Management Center (chosen from the drop-down menu).

Academic Year Date Annual Payment Received or Due AMOUNT

2014-2015 Payment Due by August 30, 2015

2015-2016 Payment Due by August 30, 2016

2016-2017 Payment Due by August 30, 2017

2017-2018 Payment Due by August 30, 2018

2018-2019 Payment Due by August 30, 2019

TOTAL RECEIVED

TOTAL DUE

TOTAL PLEDGED

0

$