Collins, Watts to Headline 58th NAII Annual Meeting

Best-selling author and business guru Jim Collins and former Congressman and GOP leader J.C. Watts will be featured speakers at the National Association of Independent Insurers’ (NAII) 58th Annual Meeting, Nov. 9-12, 2003 in Atlanta.

In addition to these keynote addresses, participants will hear from a nationally-recognized economist, the conservative and liberal co-hosts of CNN’s Crossfire, and a panel of industry experts discussing efforts to revamp the nation’s judicial system.

Collins, author of the best seller From Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t, will highlight the general session on Monday, Nov. 10.

He is also the co-author of the best selling book, Built to Last and dozens of articles on successful business management techniques. Collins operates his own research and teaching management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado where directs new research projects and works with company senior executives and CEOs as a teacher of management techniques.

Watts, who for eight years served as a member of the House of Representatives from Oklahoma, will deliver the keynote address during the Tuesday general session.

Watts cemented his role as a rising star in the Republican Party with his powerful and inspiring speech at the Republican National Convention in 1996. Although he decided not to run for re-election in 2002, Watts is considered one of the rising stars of the GOP.

A panel of industry executives and tort reform experts will tackle the issue of reforming the nation’s legal system during the Wednesday general session. Robert Pike, Allstate Insurance Company’s executive vice president of administration, Gerald Cassidy, vice president of Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company, and Michael Hotra, director of legislation and communications for the American Tort Reform Association will explore how insurers and businesses can effectively advance legislation to rein in an out of control legal system.

Additional speakers include Dr. Gene Stanaland, known as “the Will Rogers of economics;” nationally known political commentators Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala; and Captain Scott O’Grady, war hero and author of Return with Honor, which chronicles his story of survival in hostile territory in Bosnia.

For more information, log onto: www.naii.org