Laurie Branch
CFO, Iroquois Group

Laurie Branch is chief financial officer of The Iroquois Group, the nation's oldest and largest insurance network. Branch graduated Cum Laude from Dartmouth College. During her college years she competed nationally in rowing. She received a master's degree in business administration from the Tuck School, also at Dartmouth. Branch spent four years at Procter & Gamble in brand management, where she became a brand manager before deciding in 1984 to return to the family business that her father and brother had established seven years earlier.

Branch serves on a number of boards, including that of the Olean City School District and St. Bonaventure University.

Richard Connell
CIO and EVP, Selective Insurance

Richard F. Connell, executive vice president and chief information officer of Selective Insurance Group, Inc., has oversight of the company's technology strategy, automation system development and e-Business technology, data processing operations, and voice and data communications.

Before joining Selective in August 2000, Mr. Connell was chief technology officer for Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, where he was responsible for information technology direction and strategy, and architecture, platform, product and tool standards. He was also president of Liberty Mutual's software development subsidiary in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He previously worked for 23 years with Aetna Life and Casualty, where he held various information technology management positions both domestic and international.

Mr. Connell holds a B.S. in business administration from Central Connecticut State University. He has been active in industry groups, including the National Electronic Information Corporation (NEIC), Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), Society for Information management (SIM), and LOMA.

Michael Edwards
Executive Vice President of Information Technology,
American Skyline Insurance Company

Michael Edwards joined American Skyline Insurance Company in 1998 as Executive Vice President of Information Technology. Michael's unique combination of talents in Information Technology and Insurance has brought American Skyline Insurance Company to the forefront of the Insurance & Technology industry. Michael has over 20 years of IT experience and quickly rose to the top of the industry as IT Director for the Wall Street Journal where he oversaw the Dow Jones & Company's Washington D.C. Regional Offices. Michael was also Project Manager and Operations Manager for USF&G and The Hartford Insurance Company. A graduate of the University of Maryland National Leadership Institute and The Greater Baltimore Committee Leadership Program. Michael is an active church and community leader.

John Kellington
Chief Technology Officer,
Ohio Casualty Group

John Kellington is the senior vice president and chief technology officer for The Ohio Casualty Group, a $1.5 billion property and casualty company headquartered in Fairfield, Ohio. Previously, Kellington was the chief architect and principal for IBM Global Services' National Insurance Practice. He held many positions during his 18-year career at IBM, including senior architect, client server architect, systems engineer, and industrial engineer. As a consultant with IBM, he led many high profile legacy migration projects for many large insurance corporations. Kellington's expertise stems around component-based architectures, high-volume transactional web environments, policy administration systems, legacy migration strategies, and organizational concepts to achieve success in the new age environment.

Barbara Piehler
CIO and Senior Vice President,
The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.

Barbara Piehler is CIO and senior vice president, oversees the 950-person technology staff. Piehler, a certified public accountant by training, joined Northwestern Mutual from Arthur Young and the Stroh Brewing Co.

In the 20 years since she joined Northwestern Mutual, Piehler rose through the ranks, and found herself overseeing projects that increasingly involved deploying technology to address business issues. For instance, she helped bring in the company's first toll-free phone numbers. She went on to help develop case-management systems, then worked to improve the company's customer-service technology. Prior to being named CIO, she was vice president, information systems.