Amplify Women
CICA’s Amplify Women™ initiative fosters education, influence and networking among women in the captive insurance industry.
Get InvolvedMore about Amplify Women
Educating, networking with and supporting women is extremely important to the captive industry.
Amplify Women focuses on representing women in educational and networking opportunities such as speaking at conferences, publishing articles, teaching and academic partnerships.
The committee chose the name “Amplify Women” to represent their efforts to address the gap in women leaders. Insurance industry studies show women make up over 60 percent of the work force in the industry, but when it comes to officers and other senior level positions those numbers drop below 20 percent.
Get involved with Amplify Women
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The Amplify Women Newsletter brings you news, insights and opportunities in the captive industry.
Participate in Amplify Women
Participation is open to anyone interested in helping us promote diversity and inclusion within our growing industry. We encourage you to join us in developing exciting topics and panels for presentations at international insurance events, creating and producing educational programs, hosting social and networking events, nominating and supporting members for industry awards and mentoring new generations to strengthen and expand the captive insurance industry.
Sign up below. We have a lot of exciting things going on, and we cannot wait for you to join us!
Amplify Women Honored in 2022 Power 50
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Amy Evans
Executive Vice President, Intercare HoldingsPower 50Amy Evans leads the Liability Division at Intercare Insurance Services. Amy started her career as a paralegal at the University of North Texas where she assisted the University’s General Counsel and State Attorney General’s Office with claims and litigation inherent to a public university and medical school. Amy began private practice in Houston where she was a first party insurance defense trial attorney concentrating on bad faith, coverage, arson and fraud litigation involving all lines of coverage. During this time, Amy developed invaluable experience interpreting and litigating coverage issues for captives, domestic carriers and Lloyd’s syndicates.
In 1999, Amy began to focus on the national oversight and management of claims and litigation on behalf of captives and self-insured entities. Amy most enjoys helping clients and their patients/customers navigate through difficult and often unanticipated situations. Helping develop creative solutions to challenging problems and easing the stress and angst facing her clients are the most rewarding aspects of Amy’s career so far. She has developed strong relationships with leading national counsel on both sides of the bar and focuses on bringing early and alternative options to her clients to achieve the most timely and financially favorable results possible.
At Intercare, Amy and the Liability Team offer clients custom tailored claims and risk support for all of their liability exposures and needs. Whether it is providing consulting services on commercially insured programs or serving as the client’s full service claims team for all areas of liability within self-insured and captive programs, Amy and Intercare’s Liability Team are working hard to employ creative solutions to protect their clients’ cultural and fiscal capital.
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Amy O’Brien
National Director, Alternative Risk Programs, Gallagher BassettPower 50Amy O’Brien heads up new business development for captives, programs, and alternative market claim outsourcing arrangements for Gallagher Bassett. She serves as the sales liaison to the captive program manager, insureds, carrier, and other stakeholders. She oversees the financial aspects of the property / casualty program including proposal process, pricing, and contract. Amy has over 25 years of experience in claims management and was named on the Captive Power 50 in 2021. She is based in the Chicago area.
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Anjanette Fowler
Managing Director of Insurance and Specialised Insurance, PNC Institutional Assets ManagementPower 50Anjanette Fowler is a Managing Director with PNC Institutional Asset Management and member of the Insurance & Specialized Industries Group which focuses on providing investment, custodial, and banking solutions to the captive insurance industry. She brings over 27 years of investment portfolio management experience for insurance companies, along with a valuable understanding of the financial complexities particular to our industry.
Anjanette is a frequent speaker at insurance and risk management conferences and is actively involved in supporting the industry through her involvement in numerous insurance associations and events, including the current chair of the Captive Insurance Companies Association’s Amplify Women Committee.
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Anne Marie Towle
Global Captive Solutions Leader, Hylant Global Captive SolutionsPower 50Industry Experience
A veteran of the captive insurance industry, Anne Marie Towle leads the Global Captive Solutions team at Hylant.
She has over 25 years of experience with diverse projects and has worked with captives and other alternative risk transfer vehicles in many key onshore and offshore domiciles. Prior to joining Hylant, Anne Marie was an Executive Vice President with JLT, and formerly a Senior Consultant with Willis Towers Watson for over 7 years. Anne Marie also spent time as a Senior Manager in public accounting and 10 years in taxation, where she provided consultancy services to captive owners.
Anne Marie managed client projects through feasibility and implementation processes in structuring captives and manage their accounting and tax compliance functions. Before that, for over 6 years, Anne Marie worked in private industry in the insurance tax departments of several Fortune 500 insurance and financial institution companies.
Industry Associations
Throughout her career, Anne Marie has been closely involved in captive insurance organizations at the local, state and national level. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA), Vice-Chair for the North Carolina Captive Insurance Association (NCCIA), and the International Center for Captive Insurance Education(ICCIE); the curriculum committee for ICCIE and an instructor for ICCIE courses; and the conference committees of the (2017 Chair) VCIA, Captive Insurance Companies Association(CICA), World Captive Forum (WCF) and the South Carolina Captive Insurance Association(SCCIA).
Education and Accreditations
Western Michigan University, B.B.A. Accountancy, Minor: International Business
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
Property & Casualty Brokerage License (PC License)
Professional Specialties
Anne Marie is honored to be named to the Captive Review Power 50 for the past 5 years and rising to #7 in 2020. In 2019, she was named to Business Insurance’s Women to Watch. In2021, she was named a Risk & Insurance Power Broker. Anne Marie is a requested frequent speaker and author on various captive insurance topics.
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Cherie Baker
Risk Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield MichiganPower 50 Captive OwnersCherie Baker has over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, various areas of focus include professional liability coverages, corporate claims, cyber risks and effective utilization of captive insurance companies. At BCBSM, Cherie works with business units at the parent and subsidiary level, in assessing the enterprise’s risks, informing internal business partners of available and potential risk mitigation, transfer and financing techniques and coordinating communications with BCBSM’s insurers and broker partners. She has also implemented technology-based solutions for managing risk.
Prior to joining BCBSM, Cherie worked with a global automotive manufacturer, establishing appropriate risk transfer, mitigation, and retention guidelines for global business units, streamlining claims process and creating a nationwide certificate review training program for business units and vendors.
Cherie has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, as well as an Associate in Risk Management, Certified Insurance Counselor, Certified Risk Manager and Associate in Captive Insurance designations. Cherie continues to look for educational opportunities both in the healthcare and corporate insurance spaces and is particularly interested in blockchain solutions for the insurance industry.
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Courtney Claflin
Executive Director of Captive Insurance Programs, University of CaliforniaHall of FameCourtney is the Executive Director of Captive Programs for the University of California, Office of the President. Current captives under his direction include Fiat Lux Risk and Insurance Company, a single parent captive and UC Health RRG, A Reciprocal Risk Retention Group. The University of California system consists of 10 University campuses, 5 academic health systems, and 3 national laboratories, incorporating over 240,000 students, 280,000 faculty and staff, $30 billion of annual revenues and more than 1.7 million alumni living and working around the world.
As Executive Director, his role is the development, implementation and management of the captives and all captive activities. This includes strategic planning and management of current captive programs and the formulation and development of new risk financing strategies utilizing captive insurance arrangements.
Previously, he spent 30 years in the insurance brokerage community as a direct writing agent, independent broker and ultimately a captive insurance practitioner. He is the principal architect of numerous single parent, group, health, micro and association captives and was named The 2016 Captive Professional of the Year at the Captive Review 2016 US Captive Services Awards. In addition, the captive insurance company he manages, Fiat Lux Risk and Insurance Company, was named the 2017Outstanding Captive Insurance Company of the Year by the captive insurance industries national association, CICA. In 2017, Risk and Insurance Magazine also recognized Mr. Claflin as one of their National Risk All Stars. Mr. Claflin is also a member of the faculty for the International Center for Captive Insurance Education which provides the captive insurance industries pre-eminent professional designation.
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Dan Towle
President, Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA)Power 50Mr. Towle has been President of CICA since April of 2017. Previously, he worked as the Director of Financial Services for the state of Vermont for 17 years. At Vermont he was the chief marketing and business development professional for the state’s captive insurance industry and was instrumental in its growth. During his tenure more than 500 captive insurance companies were licensed in Vermont.
CICA is the premier global, domicile-neutral captive insurance association. CICA brings together approximately 400 members from all sectors of the captive industry to network, share best practices and provide a unified voice on issues impacting the industry.
CICA works to protect the captive industry. CICA monitors emerging issues and regulatory changes in the U.S. and around the world. Together with its advocacy partners, CICA can proactively help mold laws and regulations affecting the captive industry. CICA was the 2018 US Captive Award Winner for “Industry Advocate”.
CICA champions development of the next generation of captive insurance professionals. Since becoming President, Towle has launched initiatives to educate students and young professionals on career opportunities in captive insurance and give captive leaders insights on how to make captive careers appealing to young professionals. Programs include a new mentorship program, a college essay contest for insurance and risk management students, and new opportunities for young professionals. He also encouraged the CICA Board to add academics to represent the needs of students and young professionals at a strategic level. Current academic board members are from the University of California and Temple University.
CICA annually hosts an international conference in the US and biennially co-hosts an international conference in Luxembourg. In 2018 CICA was proud to host students from Butler and Temple Universities and have them present on educational panels at the U.S. conference.
Towle is a frequent presenter at conferences throughout the U.S. and internationally. He is highly visible in international media and is viewed as an authority on captive insurance. He has been recognized for his contributions to the global captive insurance industry and was voted #10 in the 2018 British publication, Captive Review Magazine “Power 50” which recognizes the most influential individuals in the global captive insurance industry.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Center for Captive Insurance Education. He previously has served as an Advisory Board Member for World Captive Forum, Chaired the Risk & Insurance Management Society Exhibitor Advisory Committee and was active in various capacities with the Vermont Captive Insurance Association.
Prior to his role with the State of Vermont, he was a Business Development Officer at Vermont National Bank. During his 10-year tenure with the bank, he worked in various capacities including branch banking, corporate banking services, and served for a year on the bank’s prestigious corporate re-engineering team.
Towle is a graduate of the University of Vermont, has two children, two step-children and is married to Anne Marie Towle, who also works in the captive insurance industry.
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Deyna (Dan) Feng
Captive Program Manager, CumminsPower 50 Captive OwnersDeyna Feng is Captive Program Director with Cummins Inc. for over 4 years, managing one single parent captive – Dynamo Insurance Company, Inc. and running off programs of 3 offshore group captives. In March 2017 Deyna successfully lead the sale of ICDC, one group captive acquired during Cummins business development. Deyna also leads global risk mitigation projects and initiatives, including global loss engineering on Property and Business Continuity Planning (BCP) stress test. Before this role, Deyna Feng was based in Beijing, China for 4.5 years, responsible for Regional Risk Management in Asia Pacific, including insurance procurement, risk mitigation, and claim management.
Before joining Cummins, Deyna was one of the lead loss adjusters for Crawford China for 4 years, working with domestic and international insurance companies for large claims of all property and casualty lines, especially products liability and recall, and general liability claims for multinational five star hotel groups. Deyna also worked in other occupations of 2 other companies in China, relating to general management and B2B advertising for 5 years.
Deyna Feng holds a bachelor’s degree of Economic Law, and ACI designation certificate. Deyna participated in postgraduate study of Economic before relocating to the United States. In 2017 Deyna earned her 6 Sigma Green Belt and won the Finance Business Impact Award at Cummins. Deyna Feng volunteers with the RIMS International Council and now is chairing the council in 2019. Deyna is on the board of directors of the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA).
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Karen Hsi
Program Director of Fiat Lux Captive, University of CaliforniaPower 50 Captive OwnersKaren is the Program Manager of Captive Insurance Programs for the University of California, Office of the President. She plays an integral role in strategically planning and managing the current captive programs as well as formulating and designing new strategies to utilize the captive platform to more efficiently finance University risks. Current captives under management include Fiat Lux Risk and Insurance Company, a single parent captive, UC Health RRG, A Reciprocal Risk Retention Group, Eureka Insurance Co PCC, Eureka One IC, an Incorporated Cell Captive Insurance Company, and Sequoia, IC, an Incorporated Cell of Eureka Insurance Company, PCC. The University of California system consists of 10 University campuses, 5 academic health systems, and 3 national laboratories, incorporating over 350,000 students, 280,000 faculty and staff, $36 billion of annual revenues and more than 2 million alumni living and working around the world.
Karen is a proud alumna of the University of California, Berkeley. With over 9 years of career experience at the University of California, she is well versed in the risk management sector of higher education institutions, was named one of the 2018 and 2020 “Ones to Watch” by captive insurance publication Captive Review, and was awarded the captive insurance industries’ “Rising Star” award and the Business Insurance “Break Out” award.
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Mary Ellen Moriarty
Vice President for Property and Casualty, EIIAHall of FameMary Ellen Moriarty has been actively engaged in the insurance industry for over 30 years in positions within national insurance brokerages as well as commercial insurance carriers. She joined EIIA in 2002, as the Vice President for Property & Casualty, focusing her extensive insurance experience on the higher education industry group. Mary Ellen received a Bachelor of Science from Northern Illinois University, a MBA from DePaul University and a Masters of Pastoral Studies from Loyola University. She currently holds the Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), and Associate in Captive Insurance (AIC) designations.
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Molly Hentges
Account Executive, Carrier Practice, Gallagher BassettPower 50 Ones to WatchMolly Hentges joined Gallagher Bassett in 2017 as an account executive. Molly’s responsibilities include new business development for captives, programs, and alternative market claim outsourcing solutions. She is the sales liaison to all parties involved, including captive program managers, insureds, carriers, and other stakeholders. She oversees the financial aspects of property & casualty programs through the sale and implementation process, including proposal, pricing, and contract. Molly is a proud graduate of the University of Iowa. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Finance from the Tippie College of Business.
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Renea Louie
Chief Operations Officer, Pro GroupPower 50Renea Louie joined the Pro Group family of companies in 2005. She serves as Chief Operations Officer of Pro Group Captive Management Services. Mrs. Louie is an accomplished business professional with extensive experience and knowledge in the Alternative Risk Transfer industry. Pro Group, since 1995 is known as the premier administrator of self-insured groups for workers’ compensation and approved Captive Manager specializing in alternative risk transfer solutions for businesses of all sizes and types across the United States. Prior to joining Pro Group, she held top level roles in the high-tech industry.
Mrs. Louie has 29 years’ experience in senior management, operations, IT, marketing and administration. She is responsible for the day to day operations of the Pro Group companies. She oversees and manages marketing, underwriting, accounting, audit, risk management, client and regulator relations, client acquisition & retention, regulatory compliance and corporate communications and standards.
She is a respected industry leader and her experience includes procurement, management, and team oversight of complex national and global risk management clients using her authoritative experience in the feasibility, formation, licensing, and ongoing management for all forms and types of captives and Self-Insured Groups.
Mrs. Louie has served the industry as a Board member on the International Center for Captive Insurance Education (ICCIE) for 2 terms totaling 6 years and continues to serve on the marketing committee. She has served on numerous committees over the past 15 years and is a member of many state and national associations including Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Vermont, Tennessee and others and chairs several currently. She currently serves on the SIIA Federal subcommittee on regulation, the Western Region Association, Nevada Captive Industry Council/Secretary and Director and is an elected Director of the Captive Insurance Companies Association (CICA) in her third term, and 2 years ago was elected as an officer serving as the Secretary/Treasurer of the global organization.
She is an esteemed longtime member of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) and has been recognized and awarded for outstanding achievements in the industry and a recipient of the scholar award. She was also awarded the prestigious Fellow Status by ICCIE.
Her unique and wide range of skill sets and experience in the formation and ongoing operations of all types of captives and groups has enabled her to become an engaged leader in the industry in the last decade and is a frequent speaker and commentator at industry conferences and meetings. She holds degrees in Risk Management and in Insurance as well as an ACIT. Mrs. Louie is based at the Corporate Headquarters in Carson City, Nevada.
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Sandy Bigglestone
Director of Captive Insurance, State of VermontPower 50As Director of Captive Insurance, Sandy manages Vermont’s captive regulatory operations, licensing and monitoring the financial condition of captive insurers and risk retention groups domiciled in Vermont.
Sandy has 25 years of experience regulating captive insurance, and has served as a principal staff member to the Deputy Commissioner of Captive Insurance for the last 14 years.
Sandy is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Examiner, a Certified Public Manager with the State of Vermont, and earned an Associate Professional in Insurance Regulation designation from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
In 2018, Sandy was a recipient of the Women to Watch Award presented by Business Insurance for her leadership, expertise and accomplishments in the captive insurance industry.
The 2021 Captive Review Power 50, which recognizes the most influential professionals in the global captive insurance industry, named Sandy at #7.
What we do
CICA’s Amplify Women will focus on representing women in educational opportunities such as speaking at conferences, publishing articles, teaching and academic partnerships. They will also address opportunities for influence such as serving on captive association and industry boards. Developing in-person and online networking opportunities will be another core component of their efforts.
CICA Amplify Women Newsletter
In the April 2023 issue, Amplify Women Committee member Monica Birchmore reflects on her first CICA Conference experience. This edition also features recent news, kudos, upcoming events and opportunities.
Sign Up for the Amplify Women Newsletter
Efforts are now underway to expand the mentoring of women in the captive insurance industry, increase the participation of women in speaking roles, and inspire women to contribute articles for industry publications.”