Andy Martin, CPCU, ARe, AIC, is the Senior Vice President, Farm Bureau^® Client Relations, at AmericanAg®. In this role, he leads the team that collaborates with clients, business partners, and other AmericanAg® departments to develop and deliver customized reinsurance solutions that span the entirety of a client’s property/casualty and catastrophe coverage needs.

Andy worked at COUNTRY Financial for over 15 years in various roles in commercial/agribusiness underwriting management, field claims, and field underwriting. He joined AmericanAg® in 2014 as a Casualty Treaty Underwriting Manager and was appointed Vice President of Claims in 2016. He then transitioned to the Farm Bureau^® Client Relations team in 2019 and assumed his current role in 2023.

Andy graduated from Illinois State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in finance. He holds various designations, including Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe), and Associate in Claims (AIC).

Meredith Williams is Senior Vice President, Reinsurance Strategy & Placement, at AmericanAg®. In this role, he is responsible for managing all outward reinsurance placements, monitoring reinsurer counterparty credit risk, and advising on new reinsurance product solutions for clients.

Meredith has extensive experience in reinsurance evaluations and negotiations, primary occurrence and aggregate exposure risk management, and insurance regulation. He began his career in the Illinois Receivership Office, then went on to coordinate reinsurance operations for Old Republic Insurance Company. Later, at Zurich American Insurance Company, Meredith was responsible for the development, placement, and management of all treaty programs for commercial lines property, casualty, and specialty lines. As a Partner at TigerRisk Partners, he brokered current client accounts and served on their new client production team. He joined AmericanAg® in 2016 and assumed his current role in 2023.

Meredith graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Science degree in actuarial science.

As Managing Director and Institutional Consulting Director with Graystone Consulting, George has dedicated his entire career to serving the specialized needs of institutional clients. He is responsible for shaping strategic policy, combining his deep knowledge of the global financial markets with keen insights about upcoming market trends. These insights guide important decisions impacting portfolio optimization and investment manager selection. They also serve as the foundation of his highly anticipated capital markets webinars, which are presented quarterly to several hundred clients and industry insiders.

An education advocate, George has always been committed to advanced learning – for himself and his clients. An alumnus of North Illinois University, George earned the prestigious designation of Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA^®) from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in 1997. He attained the Alternative Investments Director designation in 2014. As a Consulting Group Associate, he pioneered the institutional consulting program in the firm’s Barrington, Illinois, branch. In 1990, he became a Consulting Group Director, focusing on key institutional relationships. He is also a member of the Investment Management Consultants Association and has served on the board and on the Best Practices committee of the Association of Professional Investment Consultants.

Lorie Graham, CPCU, ARe, ARM, AIAF, ALCM, ARP, ARC, AIM, is Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer at AmericanAg®. In this role, she is responsible for leadership, innovation, governance, and management of the company’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program and also oversees the Corporate Services area, including corporate risk, research and product development, underwriting, and marketing.

Lorie has over 30 years of experience in underwriting, risk management, and research. She joined AmericanAg® in 2008 as a Casualty Underwriting Manager and went on to serve in numerous other leadership positions at the company. She assumed her current role in 2021. Lorie is a frequent presenter at insurance industry events on ERM and emerging trends. She currently serves as Chair of the RIMS Strategic Enterprise Risk Management Council and Director of the IASA ERM Committee.

Lorie holds numerous industry designations, including Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Reinsurance (ARe), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Associate in Insurance Accounting and Finance (AIAF), Associate in Loss Control Management (ALCM), and Associate in Research and Planning (ARP), among others.

Scott Applequist, FCAS, MAAA, is an Actuary and the Property/Casualty Product Leader at AmericanAg®. In his role, he is responsible for pricing, quoting, and administering various property and casualty treaties for the Farm Bureau® insurance companies, along with monitoring the profitability of those products. In addition, he provides actuarial support to AmericanAg®’s ceded reinsurance department and works with Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR) for both AmericanAg® and the Farm Bureau^® companies.

Scott began his career as a personal lines underwriter for Safeco Insurance. He went on to serve as an actuary for Zurich North America for nearly nine years before joining AmericanAg® in 2011.

Scott earned a Bachelor of Science degree in math and physics from North Park University in Chicago. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).

Rob Downs, FCAS, MAAA, is the Senior Actuarial Manager, Pricing and Analytics, at AmericanAg®. In this role, he is responsible for leading actuarial analytics services, conducting pricing model research and development, providing pricing support, and collaborating with other AmericanAg® team members to develop innovative reinsurance solutions for Farm Bureau^® insurance company clients.

Rob began his career at Allstate, where he completed rotational actuarial assignments in reserving, commercial pricing, and reinsurance pricing. He then worked in the treaty pricing department at SCOR Re for six years and went on to serve as a regional actuary for Swiss Re before returning to SCOR in the role of Pricing Vice President and Actuary. He joined AmericanAg® in 2003.

Rob earned a Bachelor of Science degree in actuarial science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).

Rob Furia, FCAS, MAAA, is an Actuary at AmericanAg®. In this role, he provides reinsurance analytics and solutions to assist in the placement of catastrophe reinsurance for Farm Bureau^® insurance company clients. He also works to analyze and price catastrophe reinsurance risk assumed by AmericanAg®.

Rob began his career as an actuarial analyst at Cincinnati Insurance. He then transitioned to the role of actuary at Cincinnati Re, where he spent seven years pricing treaty reinsurance transactions and assisting in managing assumed risk. He joined AmericanAg® in 2023.

Rob earned a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science at Bowling Green State University. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).

Katie joined Hiscox Re in January of 2021 as a Senior Underwriter in the North American Property Treaty team.  Katie started her career in 2007 as a broker for Willis in London.  She returned back to Bermuda 3 years later to join Lancashire where she spent 6 years in an underwriting capacity covering both North American and International business before moving to PartnerRe.  At PartnerRe she spent 4 years as a Property Treaty Underwriter in the North American Treaty team before joining Hiscox.  In 2023 alongside her role in the North America team she also help in a retro capacity for Hiscox Re. Katie holds a BA in Business Management from Gettysburg College.

Tim joined Lockton in November 2019 after 6 years as a Partner at JLT Re. Prior to that, he was part of the North American Treaty reinsurance team at the Towers Watson and Denis M Clayton companies, the latter of which he began his career at in 2005 as a graduate trainee. Tim enjoys working on a broad range of business classes from Property to Workers Compensation and other Liability lines, and with a diverse portfolio of carriers and companies across North America. Tim is also an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

With two decades of experience as a reinsurance broker, Mitchell serves as the AmericanAg account executive at Guy Carpenter, managing a team of 18 brokers and assistants to serve the needs of the Farm Bureau client base. In addition to being a team leader and manager, he serves as a specialist in the Regional/Mutual segment at Guy Carpenter, with a proven track record of developing reinsurance solutions for property and casualty carriers.

Over the course of his career, Mitchell has designed and placed catastrophe, per risk, pro rata and aggregate reinsurance treaties.​ Mitchell has extensive knowledge and experience with all facets of the reinsurance placement process, with an emphasis on the development of capacity for large treaty placements and an analytics-driven approach to best tailor his clients’ reinsurance purchase with their stated risk tolerance.

​Mitchell graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts degree in business management.

Michael Knuth is the Director of Catastrophe Modeling and Exposure Management at AmericanAg®. In this role, he leads the teams that develop, deploy, and coordinate exposure management tools and services for Farm Bureau^® insurance company clients; provide catastrophe portfolio management support to the company and its clients; and support clients in their catastrophe risk management.

Michael began his career as a Catastrophe Modeling Analyst at RLI and went on to serve as a Catastrophe Actuarial Analyst at Aon Benfield. He joined the AmericanAg® Catastrophe Modeling team in 2013 and has been instrumental in the development of CatWriterr^®, the AmericanAg® Portfolio Management Tool, and the company’s ESRI platform. He transitioned to his current role in 2023.

Michael graduated from Bradley University with a Bachelor of Science degree in actuarial science.

Harsha has led a wide range of assignments to advise insurance clients on financial, product, and strategic initiatives. He has expertise in predictive modeling, primary pricing, and usage-based insurance solutions. He has supported the top 10 P&C insurers and several small and mid-sized carriers.

Harsha has assisted numerous clients in developing predictive models and subsequently refined rating and UW structures based on the modeling results. He has worked with carriers to establish price assessment environments that support dynamic scenario testing of alternative rating/UW schemes to measure various performance metrics (e.g., expected profitability, competitive position, dislocation).

Harsha has also developed hurricane territories and rating plans for a mid-sized Florida carrier using a blend of vendor model output and competitive analysis.