OUR
JOURNEY
TOGETHER
E D I T I O N 14
We are
Vaccinated
and Hope You are Too
We are encouraged that all U.S. employees are now eligible for a vaccine and availability of vaccine appointments has significantly improved. The health and well-being of employees continues to be our priority and as such we encourage all employees to schedule an appointment for the COVID vaccine as soon as it is available to you.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html In our ongoing effort to maintain a safe work environment for employees returning to the office, we continue to monitor case trends, vaccination roll-out and our health and safety framework. In light of the new COVID variants of the Coronavirus and its spread, we will be starting to welcome back fully vaccinated employees into our offices. We have missed you and cannot wait for us to be together again!
Oni Mitchell (Berkley One) gets vaccinated!
KEY RISK
Welcomes Back Fully Vaccinated Employees
Welcome back Kathryn Johnson, Lee Huntley, Marie Stewart, Pat Janke, Sandra Robinson, William Robertson, Bryan Helton, Greg Tardy, Joe Abriola and Josh Evans
WRBC Welcomes Back Fully Vaccinated Employees WRBC brought in a Food Truck so colleagues could share lunch together outside
I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for ICE CREAM!
WRBC also brought in an Ice Cream Truck on Friday afternoon to celebrate everyone being back together
Welcome to Berkley VINCE MYERS
Please join Jared Abbey in welcoming Vince Myers to his team as Vice President of W. R. Berkley Corporation effective Monday, May 17th, 2021.
Vince received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Mathematics at The University of Kansas and his Master of Arts in Statistics at The University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining Berkley, Vince worked as Head of Third- Party Capital at AXIS Capital. Vince lives in Mamaroneck, NY with his wife, Emily, dog Callie and their cat Pepper. They are currently expecting their first child on June 27th. He has recently started to dabble in woodworking and built two Adirondack chairs for their yard (which have not yet collapsed). Vince is a huge Kansas City Sports fan and not yet ready to talk about the most recent Super Bowl (speaking of Collapsing).
Congratulations! BRAD LONDON
Brad joined W. R. Berkley in 2009 with two other colleagues to create Berkley Agribusiness. He has been in the commercial insurance industry for over 25 years. A majority of those years being with national carriers and 20 of them being in the Agribusiness and Food niches. He has held various roles in underwriting and operations and was most recently Chief Underwriting Officer. Brad was appointed President of Berkley Agribusiness March 8, 2021. He’s excited to get the opportunity to lead and continue to learn from such passionate and dedicated teams as those at Berkley Agribusiness and WRBC. Brad is a lifelong Midwesterner with roots in Iowa and Nebraska. He holds a B.B.A from Iowa State University as well as numerous professional designations and also serves as a mentor for the Global Insurance Accelerator. Brad and his wife Erin have been married for 25 years and live in Waukee, Iowa. They spend a majority of their time involved in just about any activity related to family, kids and dogs. Their son Shay (21) is a junior at the University of Iowa majoring in Engineering, daughter Emily (17) is a junior at Waukee High School, and son Cale (12) is a 6th grader. They recently added a new member to the family, a COVID rescue puppy named Hazel, after several great years with their senior rescue Enzo. When not at work, Brad enjoys sports, history of the world war eras, and is a saltwater reef aquarium hobbyist.
ADJUSTED Podcast: Season Two Coming June 7, 2021…ADJUSTED Season 2 brought to you by Berkley Industrial Comp! Thank all of our listeners, supporters, and guests who made season 1 great. We are excited to announce that ADJUSTED will continue for a second season with a new logo but the same mission: to disrupt the insurance industry and highlight the great work that is being done.
Learn more at www.berkindcomp.com/blog/
Find all ADJUSTED episodes at https://adjusted.buzzsprout.com/ or your favorite podcasting site. If you love us, don’t forget to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
What is SPARK! ?
Berkley recently launched our newest Innovation platform, SPARK! . SPARK! is an online, collaborative tool which allows users throughout the organization to share insights and ideas in a digital space. With the advent of SPARK!, we hope to provide a vehicle where the best ideas and outcomes can be surfaced and shared in real time by everyone in every part of the organization. SPARK! will help us in another way, as well, by not only collecting and disseminating ideas but by helping us manage, measure and move them along a spectrum ranging from incremental to evolutionary to game changing, leading eventually to the best outcomes. Our Innovation Journey has, since its inception, been one of “Innovation Through People,” and we hope that SPARK! will be another tool in our arsenal to engage each and every one of us in idea creation, experimentation, and the execution of our collective innovation efforts across the board. May the best ideas win.
SPARK! Across the Organization: Lessons Learned About Strategic Challenges
Groups across Berkley have been feeling the “spark” of Innovation over the past several months as they conduct their own strategic challenges to bring the best ideas to the surface. We spoke with four groups across the organization to find out what they have learned so far about conducting strategic challenges using SPARK!
UNION STANDARD How has SPARK! been received in your
What were the outcomes to your first strate-
community? We piloted the 24/7 challenge in
gic challenge? We had terrific engagement and,
September 2020 and to date we have had over
in the end, we chose 2 ideas to pursue. Now we
5600 visitors. SPARK! has helped our Innova-
have dedicated teams working on developing
tion Journey by democratizing the process.
and delivering actions that we can experiment
Everyone can easily access and navigate SPARK!
with and implement.
and be engaged by submitting, viewing and voting on ideas. It has empowered our staff and made our Journey more tangible and impactful.
What have you learned that you will do differently on your next strategic challenge? I would have spent more time conducting research and
What is your advice in setting up a strategic
framing the question. I learned too, from a fellow
challenge question? Do your research; Use
IC that they asked associates to run their
customer insights to help you frame the ques-
ideas by someone else before submitting it.
tion/challenge; Be specific (not broad or vague);
I think that is a terrific way to vet & expand
Use the right words (How might we….).
on an idea before it is submitted.
BERKLEY LIFE SCIENCES How has SPARK! been received in your com-
What were the outcomes to your first
munity? SPARK! ignited greater collaboration
strategic challenge? Creative growth
and prioritization on ideas. Ideas that were sim-
initiatives combining resources through
mering before now caught fire and momentum
multiple departments.
as they were built out in a cross functional team.
What have you learned that you will do
What is your advice in setting up a
differently on your next strategic challenge?
strategic challenge question? Leave time to
To focus our strategic challenge around
consolidate the ideas. This provides greater
a specific goal or current initiative of the
power to the votes and Pairwise.
company versus a broader goal like growth.
BERKLEY DEAN How has SPARK! been received in your
that if you are the challenge sponsor, it will be
community? SPARK! has been well received
an ongoing process that needs nourishment
within the Berkley Dean community. Our
each step of the way.
approach was to first focus on the Behaviors as they are the foundation for an innovative mindset. To keep Innovation front and center we hold a weekly team-wide meeting to discuss new ideas and to follow up on exiting ideas and experiments in the pipeline. What is your advice in setting up a strategic challenge question? Understand your audience. Communication is the key to any challenge and it is no different when setting up a strategic challenge. The challenge question should be aligned with the larger purpose of the business and explicit enough that the team members can understand clearly why this challenge was initiated. Understand and accept
What were the outcomes to your first strategic challenge? Berkley Dean has tailored the challenges to meet the needs of the investment department and the results have been impressive. There were many ideas that were implemented immediately and a few that are still in various stages of experimentation. What have you learned that you will do differently on your next strategic challenge? As I mentioned earlier communication, clarity of question and a sense of ownership from the idea sponsor are critical. There are acres of diamonds out there but they won’t mine themselves. Think big, define your idea/ question and keep moving forward.
BERKLEY INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS How has SPARK! been received in your
What were the outcomes to your first
community? People enjoy using SPARK!. It
strategic challenge? Our first strategic
allows us to make Innovation Ideation and Col-
challenge produced an active Experiment in our
laboration part of our daily contribution. SPARK!
Equine & Cattle business centered on active
allows us to better organize around a shared
risk management via IoT devices. Additionally,
process and a common language.
we participated in a Global Reinsurance
What is your advice in setting up a strategic challenge question? Strategic challenge ques-
Segment strategic challenge kicking-off a number of cross-company experiments.
tions should be collaborative, meaning multiple
What have you learned that you will do
people within the organization have provided
differently on your next strategic challenge?
input, or the question relates to the Company’s
In our next strategic challenge, we will have our
Strategic or Operating Plan. Framing the
Moderators consolidate similar ideas early and
challenge question in terms of “how might
often in the process. We will also better explore
we?” and providing enough narrative detail to
the use of tags to more efficiently group ideas.
further define the question is also important
Lastly, having a consistent process in place
in generating aligned ideas.
for Scorers to handle ideas following Scoring is paramount.
INTERNATIONAL Families Day
To celebrate International Families Day and the fact that AsiaPac is a teenager these days, they collected pictures of team members as teenagers
SHE SAID “YES”
Lisa Kilbreth’s (Acadia) daughter, Marissa, got engaged to her now fiancée, Ryan Bannon.
Crystal Pepkowski (Berkley Human Services) was finally able to celebrate the baptism of her little one
APRIL SHOWERS
Bring May Flowers
Theresa Escott (Berkley Mid-Atlantic Group) enjoys the azaleas in her yard Annette Abay-Abay (Berkley North Pacific) celebrates with a Spring Concert
TROUT FISHING
Dave Zimmerman (Berkley Industrial Comp) and his family went fishing at Tioga Country, PA on Pine Creek where they caught several types of trout
VOLUNTEER EFFORTS
Manpreet Dhaliwal (WRBC Services, Limited) is the President of Siri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara which is the largest Sikh temple in Europe and is also a registered charity in the UK (Charity No. 289430). This role is completely voluntary and takes up a significant amount of his free time outside of his normal working hours. Over the last 12 months, they have provided over 100,000 free meals to vulnerable members in the local community, those that are homeless, NHS staff and care home workers. When lorry drivers were stuck in the UK over the Christmas period due to border restrictions imposed by France, the Gurdwara (Sikh temple) provided thousands of free hot meals to stranded drivers. This was covered by national and international newspapers and TV channels. Click on these links to read articles in the independent, ladbible, and itv: https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2020-12-22/sikh-community-prepare-hot-mealsfor-stranded-lorry-drivers-on-m20 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-border-chaos-lorrydrivers-kent-sikh-meals-b1778160.html https://www.ladbible.com/news/uk-community-makes-3500-meals-for-strandedlorry-drivers-20201224
COVID OUTBREAK in India With the current COVID outbreak in India, Manpreeet set up a fundraising campaign to raise funds to purchase oxygen concentrators which will be flown to India and distributed to those struggling to access medical help. Due to the extremely high demand for oxygen concentrators, it was impossible to source these from the UK. After a number of challenges, they managed to source 150 machines from Poland and had them delivered to the UK. They have now been handed over to an international humanitarian charity called Khalsa Aid who will fly them over to India and distribute to those in need.
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/gravesend/news/kent-fundraisers-life-saving-help-for-india-247364/
CELEBRATING
All the MOMS in our Lives Lorelle Powell (Berkley Asset Protection), Jenny Rieger (Berkley Entertainment), Lauren Doerer (Berkley Aspire), Joe Smith (Berkley Human Services), and, Judy Kuduk (Berkley Risk) celebrate Mother’s Day with their families
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
Samantha Nodzak (Berkley Aspire) receives a heartfelt message from her son Ethan for Mother’s Day
Andrea Oye (Continental Western Group) celebrates her mom’s (Mary Ellen Sorenson) 86th Birthday— what a special Mother’s Day
MOTHERHOOD
“There is no role in life that is more essential than that of motherhood.” — (Elder M. Russell Ballard)
WE LOVE Our Moms
Mother’s Day is a day dedicated to expressing our love and gratitude to our Mothers
Joni Holland (Verus Underwriting Managers) and her two sons, Srila Bhattacharya (Berkley Insurance Asia) with her son Uddish, Tracey Hall (Berkley Life Sciences) and son Jack, Kim Rosson (Verus Underwriting Managers) and daughters Hayley and Lillie, and Elaine Holzhauer (Berkley Accident & Health) out for brunch with her family
GRANDMAS
Celebrate Mother’s Day Too
Dan Connal (Acadia) granddaughters Nuala and Maeve Pamela Holcomb (WRBC) granddaughter Kiara Sunny Gale (Intrepid Employers Casualty) spent Mother’s Day with her first grandbaby Tayden Mildred McPherson (Berkley Life Sciences) celebrated with her daughters and granddaughters Cindy Davis (Intrepid Employers Casualty) celebrated Mother’s Day with her grandson and his furry sister
CONTINENTAL
Western Group
CWG introduces their “Greater Giving Program”. CWG has a long history of supporting their communities and causes with hands-on service and fundraising activities. The past year has taught us many lessons, one of which is that it’s never been more important to bring associates together, and no matter if it is in person or from the space you are in, our Greater Giving Program allow them us to work together, as a team, to support a common cause. Giving back has become an important part of their culture, and they are excited to take our giving efforts to the next level. Pictured above is a group of people that participated in the JDRF event.
45th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY Joleen Cronin (Continental Western Group) and her husband celebrated their anniversary on May 15th. Congratulations to both of them!
BERKLEY LIFE SCIENCES BLS 2021 Spirit Week held the last week in April, plus a rousing tournament of Quiplash complete with a Tournament of Champions at Berkley Life Sciences!
Berkley One
Berkley One found a creative way to engage with some of their agents—a virtual, floral decorating class! Tin Can Studios shared a group photo of all the fabulous floral arrangements that were created
Berkley Regional Shared Services
During the month of May, Bruce Anderson had the opportunity for a work day with the Minnetonka High School Lacrosse team. The purpose was to clean up their local cemetery after a winter of high winds left tree limbs and debris behind. This was a very moving experience for all involved, as a fellow Lacrosse team mate is buried in this cemetery.
BERKLEY GRADS
We had some very motivated employees that earned their degrees; a special congratulations to our very own Berkley graduates! Brittney Kraus, CPCI, CIC, ASLI (Nautilus) received her Master of Science in Insurance Management from Boston University Brandon Koch (Verus Underwriting Managers) graduated in 2020 from Hampden Sydney College, but wasn’t able to walk until this year due to COVID Tamela Doyle (Union Standard) also receives her degree Justin Watts (Berkley Industrial Comp) received his Bachelor of Science Business Administration, Management Degree from Samford University in Birmingham, AL Kalyn Wells (Berkley Industrial Comp) received her Masters in Business Administration from Samford University in Birmingham, AL
Berkley Mid-Atlantic Group Chris Anderson’s twins, Cooper and Jackson, at pre-school graduation—maybe they will study insurance when they grow up!
KUDOS
To These GRADUATES
Monica Harmon (BOG) Monica Harmon’s son, Christopher Aucoin Harmon, graduating Summa Cum Laude from the University of Houston in History. Second Lieutenant—U.S. Army to be stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McCord in Washington State.
David Naughton (CWG) David’s daughter, Rebecca, graduated from ASU and will be going to work for FORD in a couple weeks as a mechanical engineer. She graduated Summa Cum Laude and has a bright future.
MORE
Graduate Spotlights
Kathie Theisen (BTU) Kathie’s oldest son just graduated from NDSU as a Physician’s Assistant and accepted a job at the Mayo Clinic as a Neurosurgery Physician’s Assistant. Way to go Alexander Lee, PA-C!
David Heger (Intrepid) David Heger’s son, Nicholas, graduated Summa Cum Laude from Iowa State University with a degree in Computer Engineering. Kudos to Nicholas!
2021
HIGH SCHOOL GRADS Congratulations to the sons and daughters of these employees
Angela Lozada Tamez (Berkley Entertainment), Tomeka Banks (BMAG), Renee Beasley (BMAG), Kelli Marshall (CWG), Chris Davila (Union Standard), Debby Gilliam’s (Union Standard)
CONGRATS!
Julie Stanko (WRBC) congratulations to Julie Stanko’s youngest son, Jordan, who graduated from High School this spring.
COLLEGE GRADUATES
Congratulations to the sons and daughters of Berkley employees
Kim Rosson (Verus Underwriting), Vic Bradley (Berkley Agribusiness), Dean Mandis (Midwest Employers), Dave LeBlanc (Acadia), and Mike Froehlich (Berkley North Pacific)
MORE College GRADS
Kevin Sullivan (Berkley One) Kevin’s son, Phillip, had his name up on the big screen
Andrea Stumpf (Berkley Agribusiness) Andrea’s daughter, Lexi, graduates with honors
BERKLEY
U.S. Group Wellness Program Do you have less than two minutes? Click here for a quick program demo. (You must be on the Berkley network or VPN connected to access)
STEP 1 Click here to log on to the wellness platform. Not registered yet? Click here to register. For further registration instructions, click here for the 2021 Program Highlights Flyer.
STEP 2 Once on the platform, access this button:
STEP 3 To earn the discount on the price you pay for Berkley medical insurance in 2022, complete the three program components listed: 1. 2. 3.
Complete the health assessment for 50 points, and Complete the Biometric Screening through an annual physical for 50 points, and Complete the Tobacco Certification (employee and if applicable, spouse) for 1 point.
You must earn 101 program points by 09/30/2021 in order to satisfy the program requirements. From the platform home page, hover over the Home menu tab > Click Rewards to view your status. NEED MORE INFO? Go to Workday > Benefits Application > External Links. Scroll to the bottom of the links list: •
The full 2021 Program Year details are accessible under ‘Wellness Program Year Details’ or by clicking here
•
Frequently Asked Questions are available under ‘Wellness Program FAQs’ or by clicking here
QUESTIONS / SUPPORT
• • • •
For a full program demonstration, click here (6 minutes viewing time) EMAIL: support@virginpulse.com PHONE: 888-671-9395—representative available 8am-9pm ET (M-F) ON-PLATFORM CHAT: representatives available 2am-9pm ET (M-F)
BERKLEY
INDUSTRIAL COMP
For their April Health Challenge, Berkley Industrial Comp held a “Bunny Hop around Easter Island” where their employees virtually walked around Easter Island.
Click on the map above to view their route: https://rise.articulate.com/share/9pjwlt3T3spdcCH2URbh5Cuw5MM-ezWM#/ Easter Island covers roughly 64 square miles in the South Pacific Ocean, and is located some 2,300 miles from Chile’s west coast and 2,500 miles east of Tahiti. Known as Rapa Nui to its earliest inhabitants, the island was christened Paaseiland, or Easter Island, by Dutch explorers in honor of the day of their arrival in 1722. It was annexed by Chile in the late 19th century and now maintains an economy based largely on tourism. Easter Island’s most dramatic claim to fame is an array of almost 900 giant stone figures that date back many centuries.
RETIRING
After 41 Years with Berkley
Gaye Kotrany (Berkley Regional Shared Services) retired at the end of May following a 41+ year run with the Berkley family. Her length of service ranks her as the 17th most tenured employee in the entire Berkley organization, which, is quite an accomplishment. Gaye started working at Union Standard Insurance Company in December of 1979. She recalls the days of MVR reports being prepared by hand using carbon paper for copies in contrast to the automated processes in place today. In addition to MVRs, Gaye prepared underwriting Line Cards and she also served as a backup switchboard operator, Casualty Rating Tech, and Assistant Underwriter before being hired into the USG IT Department in 2007. A few years later, Gaye transitioned into QA at Union Standard Insurance Group until transferring on to the Regional Shared Services IT QA unit in 2019. Gaye says her immediate retirement plans will be to relax at home and catch up on some reading by the pool. Following that, she has some home improvement projects she wants to tackle and then take some time to travel to visit family and friends. We wish Gaye much joy in her retirement years and thank her for her many years of services to Berkley.
Retirement Wishes for Gaye
BERKLEY Industrial Comp
In recognition of Workers’ Memorial Day on April 28th, BIN held a virtual silent auction and raised $3,384 for Kids Chance which WRBC will match. During the event, they heard from two Kids Chance recipients and played a Kids Chance/ Workers’ Memorial Day-themed trivia. They also had a virtual after-hours event to close out their fundraising
FUN SPRING ACTIVITIES
at Berkley Industrial Comp
Hope Remetta Blystone and her brother celebrate Sibling Day Evie Morris and her daughter celebrate Mother’s Day Luella Alcorn and her daughter enjoy Dr. Seuss Day together Cindy Housel’s family celebrates Mother’s Day
MORE
2021 GRADUATES Things are starting to get back to “normal”, but masks and outdoor graduation ceremonies are still signs of the lingering pandemic
Congratulations to the families of: Sindi Morrison, Ginny Brooks, Krista Kyle, Ella Minor, Bruce Anderson, Kathleen Johnson, Jody Miller, and Joe Gresia
BERKLEY
Technology Services
Congratulations 2021 graduates: Danika Vilmont’s daughter (Clare), Sondra Ashmore’s son (Drake), and Jenn Mignone’s daughter (Lexi)
Susan Weidemann and her team members, wearing purple on Friday, May 21st to help raise awareness for Lupus
Berkley Industrial Comp
Supports Autism Bringing awareness to Autism—Blue Town Hall Meeting
WRBC Supports
Stamford Boys & Girls Club WRBC participates in a 5K to support the Stamford Boys & Girls Club
WRBC Welcomes Back
Fully Vaccinated Employees
To kick off the second week of everyone being together in the office, the Greenwich team enjoyed tacos outside
COFFEE & PASTERIES
at the Headquarters It has been a smooth transition back to the office; with the pandemic winding down across the United States, we enjoy spending time with our colleagues