Surplus Lines Association Launches Executive Leadership School

The National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices Ltd. (NAPSLO) is launching the NAPSLO Executive Leadership School, scheduled for Feb. 8-11, 2009, in Charlottesville, Va. The new school offers senior-level members the opportunity to learn leadership skills from top business professors at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

The Executive Leadership School is designed for members of NAPSLO and the American Association of Managing General Agents (AAMGA) with 15 years or more of industry experience and who are at the top or close to the top of their respective organizations. The curriculum is planned to broaden perspectives on important social, political and economic issues influencing the insurance industry, and enhance leadership skills so participants can more effectively manage change at the personal, team, and organizational levels.

“The Executive Leadership School goes beyond the market knowledge and insurance expertise that the specialty lines industry is known for,” said Gilbert Hine, president of McClelland & Hine Inc., and co-chair of the NAPSLO Education Committee. “The goal is to create highly professional leadership for the future of our industry, leaders who develop the enterprise perspective required to make winning choices about running their businesses in today’s complex environment.”

According to David Leonard, president of RSUI Group, Inc., and co-chair of the NAPSLO Education Committee, “This school is part of NAPSLO’s commitment to building talent in specialty lines insurance industry and provide educational opportunities to members at all levels of the industry.”

The faculty was selected from the Darden School faculty to provide a framework for future success in strategically managing, developing and leading organizations. Instructors at the school will be:

• Alan Beckenstein, Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan and has taught at the Darden School for 34 years in the areas of political economy, global competition, public policy, environmental management, and quantitative analysis.

• Alec Horniman, Professor of Business Administration and Senior Fellow, Olsson Center for Applied Ethics. Mr. Horniman is a consultant to industry in the area of organizational behavior.

• Sankaran Venkataraman, MasterCard Professor of Business Administration. He is a member of the Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Ethics area at Darden and teaches MBA and executive level courses in strategy, entrepreneurship, and ethics.

Source: NAPSLO