Leader's Edge

A discussion with Pamela Wheeler, Chief Diversity Officer at NFP.

In this episode we meet Pamela Wheeler, who shares stories about her early career in the sports industry working for the WNBA. Then Wheeler dives deep into why she traded in sports for insurance, and why its important to understand DE&I as a business imperative.

In this podcast sponsored by finance automation platform Ascend, we talk with Andrew Wynn, Ascend co-founder and CEO. In between conversations about digitization, integration and what good looks like, we discuss the nature of relationships, community and the thread between his time in the Peace Corps and insurance.

What kind of knowledge and benefits does a past minor league pitcher wish he had?

Slade Smith, Employee Benefits Specialist at Cobbs Allen shares stories about the early days of his career as a professional baseball player, drafted by the Detroit Tigers, and how he pivoted to working in the insurance industry after an injury.

The 33-year-old also shares his thoughts on what major trends the employee benefits space could see in the near future.

Will Democrats or Republicans flip or flop The House and Senate?

The Council’s SVP and VP of government affairs Joel Kopperud and Blaire Bartlett kicks off their Legislative Summit with a run down of today's hotbed of political issues.

They talk flipping the house and senate, regulatory issues in the healthcare space, reauthorizing tax cuts, PBM transparency and cannabis.

Keith Schuler, CEO of InterWest Insurance Services shares his background and brokerage history, industry issues, as well as his new focus as Council Board Chair.

art of our AXA XL sponsored podcast series, we talk with Lucy Pilko, CEO, Insurance in the Americas for AXA XL. Just a couple months into the role, Pilko talks about beginning the process of executing AXAL XL’s long and short term strategic visions. She discusses market opportunities and areas of challenge, and learning how to really use the data and technology we now have access to.

Wick shares what he learned from his short comings in brokerage relationships, and how that prompted him to start his own firm. He additionally talks about the importance of vulnerability, the process of change, being a community focused agency and acquisition strategy.

In this podcast sponsored by AXIS, we talk with Jay Hamilton, Global Head of Accident and Health Insurance at AXIS. He discusses the eclectic mix of product lines in accident and health, current lines of interest including employee benefits, pet insurance, and travel, among others. He also discusses market headwinds, the outlook for 2024, and aligning with market and client needs.

In this special podcast episode, the Leader’s Edge art team dissects work created by AI art generator Dall-E. Using our October cover story on artificial intelligence as the basis for our own AI experiment, we gave the same exact instructions to a human illustrator and the AI art generator tool, then compared the results and chose one for our October cover. This conversation is our post-mortem on the process. Contributors include Leader’s Edge creative director Brad Latham, associate art directors Raeanne Hytone and Ted Lopez, content specialist/AV producer Zach Ewell, editor in chief Sandy Laycox, and publisher Susan Rushford.

The Council’s SVP of government affairs Joel Kopperud interviews Congressman Pat Ryan (D-NY).

Son of an insurance agent, Rep. Ryan discusses his relationship with the insurance industry, the important issues impacting his constituents and global ramifications of national security. Additionally, the team shares exciting news on PBM reform.