2025 AGENDA

Dr. Michel Léonard, CBE, leads the Triple-I’s Economics and Analytics Department. He is responsible for providing analysis and insight on industry economics and business performance, as well as other forward-looking, data driven insurance insights.

Michel brings more than twenty years of insurance experience to Triple-I, including senior and leadership positions as Chief Economist for Trade Credit and Political Risk at Aon; Chief Economist at Jardine Lloyd Thompson; Chief Economist and Data Scientist at Alliant; and Chief Data Scientist at MaKro LLC. In these roles, he worked closely with underwriters, brokers and risk managers to model risk exposures for property-casualty and specialty lines such as credit, political risk, business interruption and cyber.

Michel also currently serves as adjunct faculty at New York University’s Economics Department. Previous academic appointments include Adjunct Faculty in NYU’s Center for Data Science and Adjunct Faculty at Columbia University’s Data Science Institute and Statistics Department. He was the recipient of a grant from the Spencer Educational Foundation to develop a course in data analytics for insurance. In these capacities, Michel provides a key link between the Triple-I, its Non-Resident Scholars and academia.

Michel holds a Bachelors of Arts from McGill University, a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard University, and a Masters of Arts and Doctorate of Philosophy in Political Economy from the University of Virginia, focusing on qualitative and quantitative risk modeling. He is a member of the Insurance Research Council Advisory Board.

Jon Ambos has spent the past 30+ years as a results-oriented operational leader and advisor with extensive project management and technology experience on the buy-side dealing with institutional asset managers, insurance asset managers, hedge funds, custodian banks, and vendors.  He employs creative, tactical, and strategic vision in delivering both small and large complex projects on time and within budget. Jon is currently the founder and COO of Bentley Road Group, LLC - a boutique buy-side consulting firm focused on providing and improving business strategy, operating model design, workflow review, efficiency/scale, vendor selection, and project management.  He previously was employed at Prosperity Life Insurance, Citigroup Asset Management (Including Travelers), Deutsche Asset Management, PwC, and KPMG. Jon holds an MBA in Finance from the Stern School of Business at NYU and a BBA in Accounting from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lynne brings deep cross-functional investment experience driving continuous improvement and scalable solutions for Life and P&C insurers.
 

Edward Kuczma, CFA is a seasoned investment professional with over 20 years of experience in portfolio management, client relationship management, and risk analysis. Mr. Kuczma currently serves as a Go-To-Market Senior Strategy Principal in Asset Management at SimCorp in New York. Edward’s career journey has equipped him with a deep understanding of global investment strategies, spanning various asset classes, market cycles, and geographic regions. Previously, Mr, Kuczma spent over seven years at BlackRock, where he excelled as a Portfolio Manager, overseeing long-only institutional and retail products, including Emerging Markets and ESG Funds. Before BlackRock, Mr Kuczma honed his analytical skills as a Senior Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley and Van Eck Global, where he focused on portfolio construction and risk management for mutual funds and developed investment strategies through intense utilization of macroeconomic analysis. Mr. Kuczma holds a Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in Finance and Management from Georgetown University and is a CFA Charterholder.

Pramit Mukherjee is a Managing Director, Insurance Client Solutions, for SLC Management. His role focuses on developing capital efficient investment solutions for insurers across structured finance, private credit and real estate mortgage investments.

Pramit has over 15 years of experience in asset management. Prior to joining the firm, he was Senior Director, Investments, at Legal and General America (L&G), and managed U.S. pension risk transfer (PRT) and protection portfolios. He led research on new asset classes and executed investment strategies and structuring across multiple regulatory jurisdictions and models, including Risk-Based Capital (RBC), Bermuda Solvency Capital Requirement (BCSR) and Solvency II. He has additional experience from major investment management firms including investment evaluation, due diligence and portfolio management across a variety of asset classes.

Pramit has a Master of Business Administration with distinction from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He graduated magna cum laude from the Indian Institute of Technology with a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering. He is also a Board member of the Fixed Income Investor Network by the Financial Times Live (FT Live). 

Joe LaFemina is a Director on the Solutions Management team. In this role he manages the strategy and business needs for the managed services solutions provided to asset and wealth management firms as well as organizational communication and reporting for the investment management segment. Prior to his current role, Joe was a Senior Relationship Manager on the Customer success team where he helped complex investment management clients maximize their investment in SS&C's suite of products and services. Joe joined SS&C 2015. He holds B.S. degrees in Marketing and Accounting from Syracuse University and an MBA from Babson College

Chris Mechem is Head of Institutional Insurance for Invesco. In this role, Chris leads the team responsible for engagement between insurance general accounts and Invesco’s variety of public and private investment capabilities.
 
Chris has been in the investment management industry for 19 years and spent the last 10 years with Invesco. Prior to his current role, Chris was an Insurance Relationship Manager with a focus on Life Insurance Companies’ sub-advised platforms and annuity products, and played a leading role in building out Invesco’s structured annuity index licensing business. Chris joined the organization in 2016 as an Investment Due Diligence analyst, responsible for growing and maintaining Invesco’s presence on Annuity and Wealth Management Platforms.
 
Chris graduated from Hamilton College in 2006, and is a CFA charterholder.

Peter Miller is Head of Client Investment Solutions for North America for the Invesco Solutions team, which develops and manages asset allocation strategies and comprehensive portfolio solutions across institutional and private client channels. In this role, he and his team leverage Invesco’s fundamental, systematic, and alternative strategies to deliver precise, tailored investment outcomes for our clients.
 
Mr. Miller joined Invesco in 2018. Prior to joining the firm, he served as a senior vice president with PIMCO's financial institutions group, where he focused on general account investments and risk-managed fund solutions for insurance clients. Mr. Miller previously spent nine years in variable annuity hedging and risk management, as well as insurance portfolio management and pension liability-driven investing, with The Hartford. He has been in the financial industry since 2001.
 
Mr. Miller earned a BS degree in actuarial science from the University of Nebraska. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) charterholder and a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA)

Blake Mock is a Managing Director on the Insurance Relationship Management team at Invesco, where he is responsible for engagement with insurance investment teams.
 
Blake has 15 years of experience working with insurance companies in different capacities. Prior to joining Invesco, Blake held fundraising roles at Pinnacle Trust Partners and Advantage Capital, focused on raising Insurance capital. Before the transition to fundraising, he covered insurance in investment banking at Barclays, investment banking and equity research at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and as a credit analyst at S&P. He began his career as an insurance broker with Marsh and McLennan.
 
Blake graduated from the University of Georgia in 2007 and is a CFA Charterholder.

Alejandra Grindal is the Chief Economist for Ned Davis Research Group. She is the primary person in charge of the firm’s global economic outlook, and is responsible for identifying global economic trends and themes, particularly as they relate to developments in equity, fixed income, commodity, and currency markets. In recent years, Alejandra has been particularly focused on global demographics and labor force trends, China’s economic transition, and Japan’s lost decade. She joined Ned Davis Research Group in 2006.
 
Alejandra is a member of the National Association for Business Economics, where she has been involved in various committees, such as the International Roundtable and the Business Conditions and Policy Surveys. She is a frequent speaker at professional and investment conferences. Her work has been quoted in national media, including Barron’s, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and TIME, and is a guest on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and TD Ameritrade Network.

Shawn Bengtson is Executive Vice President & Chief Risk Officer at WoodmenLife where she leads enterprise risk strategy and governance. Her career spans more than two decades at the organization, progressing from Securities Analyst to Chief Investment Officer before assuming her current role. Bengtson holds a Ph.D. in Business with concentrations in Finance, Investments, and Banking, as well as an M.S. in Actuarial Science and a B.S. in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her passion for arts and service was greatly influenced by her time at York University in York, Neb., where she earned an A.S. In addition, Shawn is a board member for Food Bank for the Heartland. Her leadership is marked by a deep commitment to financial stewardship, education, and community impact.

Lale is Head of Investment Strategy and Public Fixed Income at Swiss Re. In her role, she is responsible for the formulation of the overall investment strategy, including the definition of the baseline scenario and top-down investment strategy views across public and private asset classes and regions. Additionally, as Head Public Fixed Income, Lale is also responsible for steering the firm’s investments in global (public) fixed income markets. She is also the Global Executive Sponsor for Together With Pride, SwissRe's LGBTQI+ employee resource group. 

Lale comes to Swiss Re after spending three years as Senior Fund Manager and Head of Credit at J O Hambro Capital Management. Previously, she spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs in various leadership roles, where she invested across credit and equity markets. She started her career as a sell-side research analyst in 1999 at Goldman Sachs was named Managing Director in 2010. 

Lale earned a BA in Economics and Politics, cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College and currently serves on the Board of Trustees.

Todd M. Campbell is President and Chief Executive Officer of Builders Insurance, an A.M. Best “A” rated mutual captive company located in Atlanta, Georgia.  Builders is a super-regional insurer operating in 20+ states and its surplus lines carrier is licensed in 49 jurisdictions in America. Builders, with $360 million in surplus and $1.1 billion in assets under management, $245+mm in annual premium and 200 employees, has been an integral part of the Worker’s Compensation, General Liability and Commercial Insurance markets in the Southeast for 32 years.

Todd also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of Sagicor Life Insurance company, part of the Sagicor group, a 150-year-old insurer based in Barbados and Bermuda, and publicly traded on the Toronto Stock exchange. He also serves as chair of the Sagicor Investment and Risk board committee, with $5+ billion in assets under management.

Todd attended Appalachian State University as an undergraduate and received a law degree from Mercer University’s Woodruff School of Law in Georgia.

George Bory is the chief investment strategist for the Fixed Income team at Allspring Global Investments. In this role, he is responsible for partnering across the fixed income platform to help each team set investment strategies for our full range of products and collaborating with clients to identify appropriate investment strategies. George also acts as the key fixed income conduit for our marketing and distribution teams to directly market our fixed income capabilities to clients. He joined Allspring from its predecessor firm, Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM). Prior to WFAM, George served as head of fixed income research for Wells Fargo Securities and earlier served as the head of credit strategy. Before that, he was the global head of credit strategy for UBS Securities. Previous roles include working for J.P. Morgan Investment Management, where George held several positions, including senior global credit portfolio manager. He began his investment industry career in 1992 as a credit analyst for Fleet Financial Group. George earned a bachelor’s degree in economics, graduating cum laude, from Siena College and completed the London School of Economics’ General Course. He has earned the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation.

Michael Ori is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of Institutional Architects. He holds dual specializations in structuring institutional investments for insurance companies and banks along with the audit, design, implementation, administration and funding of executive benefit plans for Institutional Architects’ corporate clients.  
 
Michael spent the first 10 years of his career at a nationally recognized executive benefits consulting firm where he led the design and analytics team. His responsibilities included consulting with clients that ranged from small privately held companies to fortune 500 corporations on their executive retention programs and designing funding strategies that utilize corporate owned, bank owned and insurance company owned life insurance. 
 
Michael has also worked for Nationwide Financial and Lion Street Financial, both industry leaders in the corporate insurance space, in various sales executive and consulting roles. 
 
Michael holds a BS with honors in finance from the University of Florida.

Mr. Batsev is a General Partner at Imperial Fund. Previously, Dmitri was a Managing Director at Lazard Asset Management, where he worked from 2002 to 2025
With over two decades of investing experience across multiple market cycles, Dmitri has deep expertise in the financial services sector, including specialty finance and mortgages, banks, insurance, market structure, real estate, and fintech. In his most recent role, he oversaw Lazard’s investments in the financial services sector across the firm’s US-focused and Global strategies. While at Lazard, he also launched and co-managed a liquid alternative strategy, Lazard US Fundamental Long/Short.

Mr. Kloos is Chief Operating Officer for Cerberus’ Opportunities platform as well as a Senior Managing Director at Cerberus.

As Chief Operating Officer of Cerberus’ Asset Backed Opportunities platform, Mr. Kloos leads the creation and oversight of certain policies and procedures, coordinates legal oversight, and acts as a liaison for administrative matters between the platform and the broader Cerberus organization.  In addition, he is responsible for overseeing client-facing aspects of the Asset Backed Opportunities platform in an effort to maintain best-in-class relationship management and further innovate across fund legal, marketing, and investor relations.

In his prior role, Mr. Kloos previously served as Associate General Counsel of Cerberus, where he led the structuring, formation, and negotiation of Cerberus’ public and private investment vehicles, and provided legal oversight for Cerberus’ global marketing and fundraising efforts.

Prior to joining Cerberus in 2013, Mr. Kloos was an Associate in the Investment Management Group at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, where he focused on advising investment managers on fund- and compliance-related matters.

Mr. Kloos received his B.S. from Syracuse University, where he studied communications and graduated summa cum laude. He received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Mr. Kloos trains in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and various forms of grappling and serves as the Assistant Team Leader for USA Wrestling’s Greco-Roman National Team through the 2024 Olympic Games.

John Bradley is a former Vice President of Investments for the PRT business and Chief Investment Officer of the Bermuda and Cayman Reinsurance entities for F&G.  With over 30 years of experience, John has spent much of his career at Prudential in asset & liability management focused on a diverse set of insurance liabilities including Pension Risk Transfer, Term, and Indexed Universal.  John co-developed the pricing structure for the two largest US pension transactions – GM & Verizon.  John earned his B.A. in Economics from Rutgers University and his MBA from Columbia University.  He is a CFA Charterholder.

Ravi Malik is a seasoned Portfolio Manager who oversees the daily management of Convertible Investment portfolios while providing comprehensive equity and credit research within the Technology Sector. In addition to his portfolio management responsibilities, Ravi serves as a member of SSI’s Board of Directors. He brings nearly three decades of experience to SSI’s Convertible Team, having also contributed significantly to the Froley, Revy Convertible Team prior to its acquisition by SSI in 2009. Ravi works closely with the Chief Investment Officer, collaborating on the analysis of global and macroeconomic environments to develop strategies tailored to client mandates.
 
Before joining SSI, Ravi spent ten years in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and also served as Finance Commissioner to the Andaman Islands. Ravi holds an MBA in Finance from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Punjab University.

Alton R. Cogert, CFA, CPA, CAIA, FDP, CGMA, President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Cogert formed Strategic Asset Alliance in 1994.

Currently, Mr. Cogert is an Independent Member of American Fidelity Assurance Company's Investment Committee of the Board. Previously, he has served as a technical advisor to the NAIC Invested Assets Working Group. He is a former member of the Board of Directors and former chairman of the Investment Committee of the National Alliance of Life Companies.

Prior to SAA, Mr. Cogert accumulated more than 20 years of financial institution experience, including over 10 years experience in senior financial management. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a Certified Public Accountant, Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst and a Financial Data Professional Charterholder. Mr. Cogert holds a BS from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Southern California