Leader's Edge

Hosted by A Council Platform - 868329

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258

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Established in 2004, Leader’s Edge is the award-winning content platform for The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, covering legal and legislative issues, international business and regulation, management trends and best practices, technology, and more. Leader’s Edge is written and recorded for large and mid-sized commercial insurance and employee benefit executives around the globe.

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August 31, 202616 min

Burning Parallels: Wildfire Risk on Both Sides of the Atlantic

In this episode, Leader's Edge speaks with Lance Malcolm, president of U.S. network solutions at Crawford & Co., about wildfire resilience in Europe and the United States. With wildfires scorching Spain and southern France this summer, and nearly 8 million acres burned in the United States to date in 2026, Malcolm draws parallels between the two regions’ exposure and building practices. He discusses decentralized U.S. building codes versus Europe’s national standards, shares why brokers should push clients to fortify their properties, and considers how fire response planning has evolved over the past several decades.

August 24, 202613 min

Personal Lines with Jennifer Hill

In this episode of our personal lines podcast series, associate editor Chris Hann interviews Jennifer Hill, Vice President and Operations Director at Harmon Dennis Bradshaw, a partner with Higginbotham. Hill shares how a college major switch from accounting to risk management set her on an unexpected path into insurance, stories from her formative years breaking into the industry in New York City, and so much more.

August 10, 202623 min

Addressing Affordability

The new chair of The Council of Employee Benefits Executives (CEBE), Kenneth Olson, joined The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers Vice President of Government Affairs Audra Jackson for a discussion during the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum. CEBE is the executive committee that guides The Council’s government affairs team in benefits-related advocacy and policy decisions. Olson, vice president of EB growth at brokerage BroadStreet Partners, discusses his priorities as CEBE chair, the “frustration and anger” over healthcare affordability and the complexity of change that would bring it in line, and the qualities he looks for in new industry talent.

August 3, 202620 min

Is the insurance industry ready for data integration?

Talking with Leader’s Edge at the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum, Dennis Gushue, ThreeFlow’s senior vice president of sales, discusses why he sees increased desire among carriers for data integration. He also dives into the AI experimentation he sees in the industry, how to spot pitfalls in that work, and weighing AI vendors.

July 27, 202615 min

Beyond Borders: Coverage For Digital Nomads

In this episode recorded live at The Council's Employee Benefits Leadership Forum, Leader's Edge Podcast Producer Zach Ewell sits down with Isabelle Moins of APRIL International to talk international health insurance. Moins maps out how historically insuring expats abroad has given way to a new class of digital nomads and remote employees, needing new benefit solutions. From simplified digital-first coverage to the risks of under-assessing employer needs abroad, this conversation dives deep into the trends reshaping corporate international health insurance.

July 20, 202619 min

Big Risks in Large Scale Construction

Construction continues to reshape America's landscape, with demand growing for more efficient airports, improved hospitals, and larger sports complexes across the country. In this episode, Jon Tellekamp, chief underwriting officer of construction for the Americas at AXA XL, joins the Leader’s Edge podcast to discuss how insurers are responding to the needs and risks of large scale modern day construction. We cover the biggest trends in what’s being built today, how rising costs are shaping underwriting and risk decisions, and the workforce and casualty exposures on the jobsite, before looking ahead to what Tellekamp sees on the horizon for the industry.

July 13, 202620 min

AI’s Expanding Cyber Threat

John Butler, cyber product lead for E-Risk, a Nationwide company, explores supply chain vulnerabilities, AI powered threat actors, and more. From expanded attack surfaces and AI-powered threat actors to supply chain vulnerabilities and governance gaps, this conversation explores what businesses, brokers, and underwriters need to do to adapt to these evolving challenges. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views of Nationwide.

July 6, 202612 min

Personal Lines with Jack Butcher

In this episode of our personal lines podcast series, associate editor Chris Hann interviews Jack Butcher, Chairman and CEO of Vantage Insurance Partners. Butcher shares personal stories and reasons why he’s spent part of his career volunteering with fire and emergency rescue services, how his life of volunteering draws parallels to his career in insurance, lessons he’s learned from mentors, and so much more.

June 29, 202616 min

Don’t Answer Their Question, Solve Their Problem

During the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum in May, the outgoing chair of The Council of Employee Benefits Executives (CEBE), Lisa Hawker, sat down with Kerry Finnegan, former senior partner at Mercer and also a past CEBE board chair, now a senior advisor at Oliver Wyman. CEBE is the executive committee that guides The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers government affairs team in benefits-related advocacy and policy decisions. The two discussed a range of topics, including the changing role of the benefits broker and the plan sponsor in an environment of increased fiduciary duty, talent and training in the AI era, and advice for new CEBE Chair Ken Olson, vice president of EB growth at BroadStreet Partners.

June 22, 202618 min

Insurance Talent Problem? There’s AI for That

Eric Rentsch, Zywave’s chief product officer and head of emerging markets, talks with Leader’s Edge onsite at the 2026 Employee Benefits Leadership Forum. The conversation centers around AI use in insurance industry operations and covers issues including embedding AI more effectively into existing workflows, roadblocks to implementation and strategies for overcoming them, how to measure AI ROI, and that recent industry uproar over AI being used in personal lines distribution.