Dennis Chookaszian
Chairman
Dennis Chookaszian is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of CNA Insurance Companies. He served as CNA’s chairman and CEO from 1992 until 1999. He also served as chairman of the executive committee of CNA from 1999 to 2001 and of Agency Management Services, Inc. (AMS), a subsidiary of CNA. Dennis joined CNA in 1975 and served as chief financial officer until 1990 when he was named president. Prior to joining CNA, he was a management consultant with Deloitte for eight years working on various financial and systems related assignments.
Dennis is currently the chairman of FASAC (Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council) which provides guidance to the FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) on accounting matters. He has also been appointed to the Financial Crisis Advisory Group (FCAG), comprised of senior worldwide leaders with broad international experience in financial markets, to develop recommendations to address the financial reporting issues involved in the global economic crisis.
During his career, he has served as a director on the boards of ten publicly traded corporations and a number of private companies. In addition, he currently serves as a director of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the world’s largest derivatives exchange.
Dennis is a member of the national board of the Boy Scouts of America, a trustee of Northwestern University, a member of the advisory board of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and a member of the advisory board of Kellogg Graduate School of Management, . He is also a director of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and president of the Foundation for Health Enhancement.
Dennis has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago, and a master of science degree in economics from the London School of Economics. He is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter, a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Consultant as well as a member of the directors’ table of Beta Gamma Sigma, an honorary fraternity.
Jim Hackbarth
Jim Hackbarth is President and CEO of Assurex Global, the world's largest privately held risk management and commercial insurance brokerage group. He has more than 25 years experience across a spectrum of companies and industries.
He began his career at IBM as a sales representative and progressed to hold senior management positions with Price Waterhouse, Policy Management Systems and Agency Management Systems (AMS).
Prior to joining Assurex Global in 2003, Hackbarth was founder and CEO of Cornerstone Partners, Inc., a Columbus, Ohio-based high-tech consulting firm handling executive recruiting, venture capital activities, and acquisition due diligence.
He is a native of Columbus, Ohio and with his business career has lived in Atlanta, Boston and Chicago before relocating back to Columbus in 1992. He holds an MBA and BSBA from The Ohio State University.
William T. Hold, Ph.D., CIC, CPCU, CLU
Dr. Hold is cofounder and President of The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research, a national insurance and risk management education organization. In 1969, the Certified Insurance Counselors (CIC) designation program was developed as the initial offering of The National Alliance. Today, under Dr. Hold's leadership, The National Alliance is an umbrella organization under which exist research and educational programs geared primarily to insurance professionals and risk management professionals. More than 2,500 programs for over 142,000 participants are conducted across the nation, in Puerto Rico, and in Mexico per year. In addition to the CIC program, The National Alliance offers the Certified Insurance Service Representative (CISR), Certified Risk Manager (CRM) in English and Spanish, and Certified School Risk Manager (CSRM) designation programs. The CRM, CISR and CSRM courses are available in the classroom and online. A variety of specialty courses, including the Advantage Series and William T. Hold Seminars serve industry professionals at every level and in every job description. The James K. Ruble Seminars are premier education choices for CIC and CRM designees. The new Knowledge Alliance is an online resource for dues-paid members and subscribers that presents well researched work of national faculty, universities, and The Research Academy.
Dr. Hold has been a faculty member for the University of Wisconsin and the University of Texas. At UT, he was an Associate Professor responsible for the Insurance and Risk Management area within the Graduate School of Business. His writings have been published in insurance-related academic and trade journals, including the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the Insurance Law Journal, and the CPCU Annals. He is the author of several books on industry-related topics. Prior to founding CIC, he was the VP of the National Association of Independent Insurers and served as a consultant to organizations, including American and Texas Trial Lawyers Association, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Transportation, and Texas State Board of Insurance.
Dr. Hold completed his undergraduate studies at Florida State University; his master's degree in 1964 and his Ph.D. in 1967 from the University of Wisconsin. He has been named to the prestigious Insurance Newscast's annual list of the "100 Most Powerful People in the Insurance Industry" six years in a row. In 2011, he received the Dr. Henry C. Martin Award of Industry Achievement named after the founder of The Rough Notes Company. Dr. Hold has also been selected for induction into the Florida State University College of Business 2012 Hall of Fame.
Todd L. Young
Todd Young is the President, CEO and co-founder of ProspX. Under his leadership, ProspX has gone from inception to being the industry leader in SaaS-based solutions for managing multi-party sales processes in the commercial insurance industry. Prior to ProspX, Todd held executive positions at Marsh/Sedgwick and Summit Global Partners/USI Holdings where he led the opening of a branch office and established mentoring and practice group programs. Todd was a consistent winner of awards and recognition during his 11 years in the industry. Todd is the co-founder of The Grace Foundation of Texas, a community-based organization dedicated to helping provide healthcare, education, career training, and job placement to young adults who have survived homelessness. He is also on the executive committee of the Stephen McDaniel Memorial Foundation. Todd holds a Bachelor of Science from Texas Christian University.
Puru Agrawal
Puru Agrawal is the CTO, EVP of products and co-founder of ProspX and is responsible for delivering the software that’s at the heart of ProspX’s leading SaaS-based solution. Puru has over 15 years of operations, software development, and management experience at such organizations as BSG, Lincoln Life Insurance Company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Esurance.com, Allied Van Lines, Qwest Communications, and McKinsey.com. Prior to ProspX, Puru was the founder and CTO of Vincera Software which was later acquired by Smarte Solutions. Puru holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.
Martin Neath
Martin Neath, helped build Tivoli Systems, Inc. (now an IBM company), into a multi-billion dollar software and service operation. He joined Adams Capital Management in August 2001 as a General Partner. Martin was the seventh employee and first application engineer at Tivoli when he began his career there in 1990, after working at Texas Instruments for five years. While at Tivoli, Martin was responsible for product strategy and development, marketing, customer support, product services and information technology, and was extensively involved in sales and customer service. Tivoli went public in 1995 and was acquired by IBM a year later. Martin served as Executive Vice President of Tivoli overseeing much of the company's day-to-day operations, including five business units (engineering, corporate marketing, customer service, training and education, and office of the Chief Technology Officer) and North American sales. In 1998, he was named a member of the IBM Senior Management Group (SMG), a team of the top 300 executives from around the world charged with the overall responsibility for IBM's strategy and business execution. After retiring from IBM in 1999, Martin helped build several young emerging-growth technology companies in the Austin area. He is a director of several private companies.
Scott Mueller
Scott Mueller currently serves as a partner at TLW Investments in Oklahoma City with a broadly diversified investment portfolio, including investments in oil and gas exploration, healthcare, broadcasting, sports, and restaurants. Prior to joining TLW, Scott was vice president at Goldman Sachs. He began his professional career with Ford Dealer Computer Services. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for ProspX, Scott serves on the boards of Graymark Healthcare, Consero Global Solutions and The Grace Foundation. Scott earned his bachelor’s degree in General Business/Pre-law from The Honors College at Michigan State University and a Master in Business Administration in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin.
