SCOR INNOVATION PODCAST SCOR Innovation Podcast

SCOR Global Agile Coach Al Mele discusses the innovative mindset and the importance of courageous, open-minded collaboration within today's workplaces with Angela Bolduc, a Principal and Managing Director for the Milliman IntelliScript practice. This Life and Health episode of the SCOR Innovation Podcast explores why a culture of innovation requires employees feeling safe and unafraid to try new things, asking questions, and speaking their minds.
HOST:
Al Mele, CSPO, CSM
Senior Vice President, Global Agile Coach
SCOR.com 
 
Al started his career in Information Technology, where he worked as a software engineer in life insurance illustration software. He joined SCOR in September 1999 as a programmer/analyst working on reinsurance administration systems. As the Global Head of Agility for SCOR, Al is using his previous experience leading Underwriting Innovation teams in the US Life market to help the organization deliver predictably, efficiently, and transparently. Al is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) and Certified Scrum Master (CSM).
GUEST:
Angela Bolduc, MBA 
Principal and Managing Director
Milliman IntelliScript
rxhistories.com| milliman.com
 
Angela is a Principal and Managing Director for the IntelliScript practice. She has been with Milliman since 2007 and leads IntelliScript’s Relationship Management, Partnerships, Recruiting and Talent Management, IT and Operations teams. Angela gained her expertise by working with insurance carriers since 2001. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Vassar College and earned her MBA from Northeastern University. In her free time Angela loves spending time with her family and coaching youth field hockey.

In this episode, we welcome Michel Krenzer, Global Head of Energy, and Nicholas, a young 6th grader curious about his environment.  They were both recently featured on our series on “Hydrogen” which you can also find on the channel.
Today, Michel will have a conversation with Nicholas to try and debunk its negative views on plastics. They will also go over the basics and origins of plastics, while answering the question “What do diamonds and plastics have in common?”
Michel Krenzer has over 25 years experience in the insurance sector. After working for Foster Wheeler in Paris as a Chemical Engineer, he joined UAP Large Corporate Risks as a Loss Prevention Engineer. He then moved to Oil & Gas underwriting at Sorema in 1995.
He moved to London in 1999 to start up a facultative branch office for Sorema before joining SCOR in 2001. He started at SCOR UK as Senior Energy Underwriter and has had various managerial positions within the Large Corporate Risks division of SCOR Global P&C. 
He was appointed Onshore Energy Manager for Paris and London offices in 2009 and was then appointed Global Leader - Onshore Energy in 2018. He holds the position of Global Head of Energy since 2023.

TAL, Australia’s largest life insurer, offers life insurance, critical illness, total and permanent disability insurance, and income protection coverage. They are using SCOR’s VClaims solution, powered by technology partner Adviser Connect in Australia and New Zealand, to revolutionize their entire claims experience. Digitalization, automation, and simplification in their claims processes is helping eliminate human errors while enhancing the human touch across their life insurance portfolio with personalization, optimization and specification to each claimant’s unique journey and needs. Ryan Gailey interviews Jackie Pemberton in this episode.

BIOS: Jackie Pemberton is currently serving as the Process Improvement and Automation Manager at TAL for Life Insurance Claims. Having worked in Life insurance for 6 years, she has experience in all areas of claims, proudly identifying as a "claims nerd." Jackie is an active member of YALUCA demonstrating a passion for industry growth and development.
Ryan Gailey is a technical specialist and the claims automation lead at SCOR. He has more than 20 years of experience in life insurance, over 15 of those in leadership roles across technical, operations, learning, compliance, data, and change.
 

BIOS: Olivier Armengaud is a Senior Manager in the SCOR Life & Health Digital Solutions team. He joined SCOR in 2015 as Investor Relations before pivoting to Life & Health Ventures in 2021. Before joining SCOR, Olivier was an Associate at Brunswick, a leading strategic consultancy working on various M&A and IPO transactions. Olivier is a graduate from EDHEC Business School, Paris IX Dauphine and the University of Texas-Pan America (UTPA).
Amir Kaplan is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at ifeel. Over the years Amir led the company strategy, go-to market, fundraising and commercial activity to position ifeel as a leading solution for global brands in 26 countries.Prior to founding ifeel, Amir gained managerial experience as a combat commander in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and worked with publicly traded companies as a senior consultant at KPMG. Amir holds a certified public accountant certificate, studied economics and holds an MBA degree.Today Amir is leading ifeel's global strategy through partnerships with insurance companies, healthcare and employee benefit organizations around the world and is vocal about mental health and technology as the driver of a better future.In his private life Amir likes diving, surfing, skateboarding, motorbiking and traveling to new countries. He is a proud father of 2 kids and a dog. 

PODCAST SUMMARY:
During this second episode of our two-part series presented by SCOR’s U.S. Underwriting Solutions team, we introduce SCOR Monitoring & Acceleration Reporting Tool, or SMART. The SMART tool uses visualizations from our data analytics platform to provide rigorous monitoring of accelerated underwriting programs and to identify actions to improve programs quickly when needed. Moderator Michelle Spevak interviews James Atkins and Thomas Ballweg about SMART, its pricing implications, and its use as a benchmarking tool against peer companies and industry standards.
BIOS:
Michelle Spevak, Director, Underwriting Research, is responsible for assisting with proposals, answering client-related underwriting requests and monitoring accelerated underwriting programs. She advises the pricing process and works closely with SCOR’s Client Solutions teams. Michelle joined the company in 2015 in Underwriting. She obtained her bachelor of science degree in Business Administration from University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She is past president of the Nebraska Home Office Life Underwriting Association.
James Atkins, Vice President, Underwriting Data Innovation & AUW Analytics at SCOR, is based in Leawood, Kansas. James has 25 years of experience in the life insurance industry, having started his career working in customer service for Americo Life Insurance and later as a line underwriter for Transamerica in Kansas City. 
 
In 2002 he moved from the direct side into the reinsurance side where he underwrote complex and large face amount risks for Generali USA, Transamerica Reinsurance and SCOR. James later transitioned into an auditor role within SCOR, conducting both internal and client audits. 
 
James and his team are currently responsible for analysing and reporting on monitoring data obtained from the various accelerated underwriting programs that SCOR reinsures. James also served on the board of the Texas-Wide Underwriting Conference from 2015-2019. 
 
James earned a bachelor of arts degree in mass communication at the University of Missouri Kansas City. He is a Fellow, Association of Life Underwriters and Fellow, Life Management Office.
 
Thomas Ballweg, Assistant Vice President, AUW Analytics, analyzes accelerated underwriting reporting provided from clients to monitor program performance.
Prior to this since 2017, he assisted Underwriting management in performing various internal and external reporting, evaluating client change requests and completing the underwriting review on requests for proposals (RFPs).
Before joining the company in 2014, Thomas worked as an underwriter for a number of life insurance companies since 1996.
He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, having earned a bachelor's degree in actuarial science and mathematics.  He is a Fellow, Association of Life Underwriters and Fellow, Life Management Institute.

In this last episode of the three-part series entitled “Towards Carbon Neutrality: Offshore Wind" GQ, Lionel, and Xingang will discuss around the role of insurance in offshore wind and their different perspectives on the topic. In this episode, among other topics they will highlight the role of insurance in offshore wind farms, claims trend, and design defect.The first 2 parts of this series "Offshore Wind, the basics for the next generation” and “Offshore Wind Farms Market Conditions & Risk Exposures” are available on the channel and we encourage everyone to listen to them before this last part: it goes over the fundamentals and how the energy works and the key progress and development in this area in Europe, US & Asia. 
GQ Xu is New Energy Practice Head, based in London. After obtained PhD degree in Geotechnics in 2007 from University of Nottingham, GQ started his career as an offshore engineer with various companies with different roles, from offshore geotechnical engineer, senior project manager, principal engineer to head of renewable within a leading certification body. He has worked on various offshore wind farm projects worldwide, including offshore Europe, Taiwan, mainland China, Japan and USA. GQ joined SCOR’s London office in April 2019 as an offshore wind underwriter with responsibility for SCOR’s portfolio of offshore wind farms, and he has recently been promoted as New Energy Practice Head, with overall responsibility to grow SCOR’s portforlio in low carbon sector. He has been elected as co-chair for JRNC Offshore Wind Committee and also member of LMC Renewable Energy Committee, actively involved in drafting the latest insurance clauses for renewable energy.
Lionel Kpoze is a Senior Onshore Construction & Offshore Wind Uderwriter, based in Houston. Lionel graduated from ENSEM (Nancy, France) in 2002 with a Master’s Degree in Engineering specializing in Fluid Mechanics. He also holds a business management degree at IAE-Sorbonne Business School and has completed the Advanced Diploma of the Chartered Insurance Institute. Lionel has 10 years’ experience in the offshore industry first as  Field engineer (Schlumberger, Baker Hughes) on drilling rigs and then as Installation engineer (SAIPEM). He has worked in many places in Africa, the Middle East and the US. He joined SCOR in early 2012 as underwriter for the Energy entity. 
Xingang Zhang is Offshore Renewable Energy Underwriter, based in Singapore. He obtained PhD in engineering. He has over 14 years’ experience in offshore wind industry, worked within a global leading turbine OEM in different roles from offshore wind turbine R&D to project management, holding 100+ patents in wind, and author of three books in offshore wind engineering. Xingang joined SCOR Singapore office in 2021 as underwriter for offshore renewables.