Leader's Edge
Established in 2004, Leader’s Edge is the award-winning content platform for The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, covering legal and legislative issues, international business and regulation, management trends and best practices, technology, and more. Leader’s Edge is written and recorded for large and mid-sized commercial insurance and employee benefit executives around the globe.
Episodes
In this episode, FIRST Insurance Funding Vice President of Business Solutions Nolan Steenberg goes deep on agency payment processing system integration.
Steenberg dives into detail around the current state of automation and the benefits agencies can reap when investing in integration. Later he shares what options suit different-size agencies.
FIRST Insurance Funding is not endorsing any specific payment service provider or m...
In this episode, Leader's Edge hosts its second conversation at The Council's Employee Benefits Leadership Forum, with Jochen Körner, CEO of Ecclesia Group, a Germany-based brokerage.
Körner dives into detail about the Krankenhausversorgungsverbesserungsgesetz, which is changing how the German hospital system operates and funds itself. Körner also shares how his family’s history of working at brokerages led to his career in...
“Nobody wins when the insurance company can’t afford to sell insurance and the homeowners can’t afford to buy insurance.”
In this episode of the Politics & Risk podcast, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) discusses the increasing pressure that wildfires are placing on insurance companies and their clients.
Westerman for years has been a chief champion of the Fix Our Forests Act, a biparti...
In this episode, Leader's Edge hosts a conversation at The Council's Employee Benefits Leadership Forum with Jonathan Hsieh, CEO of Pacific Prime Americas.
Hsieh shares how his background in law helped him break into insurance industry, how medical inflation and tariffs are impacting his clients, and what trends he’s watching in the benefits market.
A conversation onsite at The Council’s Employee Benefits Leadership Forum with Prudential’s John Trevisan, Head of Distribution for Group Insurance, and Mark Devine, Vice President, Head of Life, Absence & Disability Product.
Having recently surveyed employers and employees about modern benefits, Prudential gathered data on the disconnects between the two groups.
In addition to discussing the survey results, the conversa...
In this podcast, Scott Goodreau CEO of Brightstone Specialty Group, shares childhood stories of waking up at 3 a.m. to help his dad's canteen truck business, and how that informed his entrepreneurial nature.
Goodreau also dives into why higher education changed his life and how he started his company.
In this edition of our AXA XL podcast series, head of large commercial Donna Nadeau sits down with Leader’s Edge to talk about the latest on large-business risk.
Nadeau discusses how clients are dealing with the impacts of tariffs, potential supply chain disruptions, AI algorithm bias, and much more.
It’s been nearly five years since Leader's Edge began the Falling Into It podcast.
Our purpose is to interview up-and-coming insurance talent to find out why they chose this industry. These professionals have pivoted to insurance from careers on the fields of Major League Baseball and sailing the seas for the U.S. Coast Guard, to name just two.
In this episode, we’re going back to school. We meet two former teachers ...
In this episode, Kristina Talkowski, head of commercial lines, middle market for Nationwide, shares takeaways from a recent survey of small and medium sized businesses.
Among the range of risk management issues covered are economic concerns, supply chain disruptions, cyber threats and regulatory compliance issues. She also discusses gaps in risk preparedness for middle market businesses, industry opportunities, and more.
...A conversation with the president of McGohan Brabender. A native of Ashland, Ohio, Beth Ferrin shares how growing up in Amish country shaped her formative years, what it's like being the first female president of her firm, and the importance of advocacy in her role.
In this episode Leader's Edge talks with Matthew Scally and Grier Dienstag from McKinsey.
Both authors of “Investing in insurance: The value imperative,” discuss recent private investment trends in insurance. They also evaluate what made 2024 M&A unique, and share why they expect increased deal activity this year.
The BrokerTech Ventures 2025 Accelerator startups are putting artificial intelligence to work in new ways, rethinking back-office processes from telephony support to employee offboarding, says Accelerator Executive Director John Jackovin.
Talking to Leader’s Edge on the eve of the multiday, in-person BTV Mania, Jackovin shares insights on new areas of startup focus, investment trends, and what BTV startups and partners have...
A conversation with Ryan Specialty’s chief compliance and privacy officer and head of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In this episode, Michael Blackshear discusses how growing up in New York City shaped him, how his consistent pursuit of education informs his role, and finding out that his father was an undercover detective.
At the start of 2025 the AI industry and stock market were both blindsided.
By the end of Monday, Jan. 27, nearly $1 trillion in value had been wiped off the Nasdaq 100. U.S. tech companies that had invested billions of dollars in AI now faced new competition from DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup. Supposedly only costing $6 million to develop, and as intelligent as OpenAI’s reasoning models, the open-source application became...
In an interview conducted on-site at The Council's Insurance Leadership Forum last Fall, Leader's Edge spoke with Mike Krzyzewski, former head coach for Duke University men's basketball and the Team USA Olympics team.
Krzyzewski shares stories of leadership, talent, and rivalries with Editor-in-Chief Sandy Laycox, who attended the University of North Carolina, Duke’s primary rival. Although Krzyzewski is retired, the rivalr...
A conversation with the president of The Partners Group.
In this episode, Sarah Friend shares how and why she started her own podcast, the importance of community in retaining young professionals, and her philosophy on leadership.
While on assignment to cover the disproportionate impact of natural catastrophes on low-income families and small businesses, journalist Russ Banham was evacuated from his own Los Angeles home.
A Los Angeles County native, Banham himself was forced to evacuate his home with his family as the Eaton Fire edged toward his neighborhood in January. After the fire was contained, Russ was able to return to his neighborhood and ho...
In this episode, Council VP of Health Policy & Strategy Katie King sits down with Dave Kerrigan, founder and CEO of benefits solution aggregator BenefitPitch, to get his take on the trends driving brokers and employers to prioritize solutions that thread the needle on controlling costs and retaining employees.
From AI in benefits to the growth of individual coverage HRAs, Kerrigan discusses which solutions are top of mi...
In this episode we meet Benjamin Verlingue, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Adelaide Group.
Verlingue shares his story of becoming the 4th generation to run his family’s insurance business. He discusses what changes he wants to see during his time of leadership, and differences and misconceptions between U.S. and France.
In this podcast episode, we discuss women’s health and healthcare with chief medical officer Dr. Janet Choi and chief development officer Julie Stadlbauer from Progyny, a fertility, family building and women’s health benefits provider. From the history of exclusion in medical research, to the fragmented system and myriad point solutions now available, women’s healthcare requires expertise and navigation, the experts say. ...
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