Leader's Edge

Construction continues to reshape America's landscape, with demand growing for more efficient airports, improved hospitals, and larger sports complexes across the country.

In this episode, Jon Tellekamp, chief underwriting officer of construction for the Americas at AXA XL, joins the Leader’s Edge podcast to discuss how insurers are responding to the needs and risks of large scale modern day construction. We cover the biggest trends in what’s being built today, how rising costs are shaping underwriting and risk decisions, and the workforce and casualty exposures on the jobsite, before looking ahead to what Tellekamp sees on the horizon for the industry.

John Butler, cyber product lead for E-Risk, a Nationwide company, explores supply chain vulnerabilities, AI powered threat actors, and more.

From expanded attack surfaces and AI-powered threat actors to supply chain vulnerabilities and governance gaps, this conversation explores what businesses, brokers, and underwriters need to do to adapt to these evolving challenges.

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views of Nationwide.

In this episode of our personal lines podcast series, associate editor Chris Hann interviews Jack Butcher, Chairman and CEO of Vantage Insurance Partners. Butcher shares personal stories and reasons why he’s spent part of his career volunteering with fire and emergency rescue services, how his life of volunteering draws parallels to his career in insurance, lessons he’s learned from mentors, and so much more.

During the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum in May, the outgoing chair of The Council of Employee Benefits Executives (CEBE), Lisa Hawker, sat down with Kerry Finnegan, former senior partner at Mercer and also a past CEBE board chair, now a senior advisor at Oliver Wyman. CEBE is the executive committee that guides The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers government affairs team in benefits-related advocacy and policy decisions. 

The two discussed a range of topics, including the changing role of the benefits broker and the plan sponsor in an environment of increased fiduciary duty, talent and training in the AI era, and advice for new CEBE Chair Ken Olson, vice president of EB growth at BroadStreet Partners.

Eric Rentsch, Zywave’s chief product officer and head of emerging markets, talks with Leader’s Edge onsite at the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum.

The conversation centers around AI use in insurance industry operations and covers issues including embedding AI more effectively into existing workflows, roadblocks to implementation and strategies for overcoming them, how to measure AI ROI, and that recent industry uproar over AI being used in personal lines distribution. 

Speaking with Leader’s Edge onsite at the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum, Jon Trevisan, vice president and head of distribution for group insurance at Prudential, shares takeaways from Prudential’s recently published research in its Benefits and Beyond series.

The conversation covers employees’ financial strain and the trade-offs they make as a result, the effects on their mental and physical health, employers’ response, and the disconnect between employers’ and employees’ view of benefits value. 

Recorded live at The Council's Employee Benefits Leadership Forum, Leader's Edge Podcast Producer Zach Ewell sits down with Massimo Nini, SVP of Consulting, Underwriting, and Actuarial at AGA Benefit Solutions.

Nini maps out the Canadian healthcare landscape, by comparing and contrasting the American healthcare system with its northern neighbor. From the rise of GLP-1s to evolving healthcare legislation impacting the province of Alberta, this conversation dives deep into the trends reshaping the Canadian market.

A conversation with Dan Kueter, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Employer and Individual.

One of the most crucial topics discussed in healthcare coverage today is the challenge of affordability.

Diving right in, Dan Kueter discusses where employers are most focused in dealing with healthcare coverage affordability and how they see it affecting their workforces. Other issues like plan simplicity and transparency are also key ingredients for creating a more sustainable system for healthcare consumers, he says.  

Q&A with the Jessica Jung, President of Oswald.

As life grows increasingly complex, exemplified today by the risk and promise of artificial intelligence, it can be easy to become frozen with overthinking about the next steps, says author Daniel Pink. But sometimes life demands more action and less analysis, he believes.

Speaking to Leader’s Edge Editor in Chief Sandy Laycox and Podcast Producer Zach Ewell at The Council’s Operations Leadership Forum, Pink talks through different ways to approach our lives during this “fricking weird” state of the world. From figuring out how to stay motivated without false optimism, writing down the things we want to stop doing, or learning how to give better feedback, Pink shares useful and well-researched advice for daily life.