Employers Direct Insurance Company, California's Workers' Comp Specialist

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MANAGEMENT TEAM

James E. Little, Chairman/President & CEO
Ronald A. Groden, Vice Chairman/Executive Vice President & CFO
Joseph A. Cardenas, Vice President/Chief Information Officer
June E. Duxler, Vice President/Human Resources & Administration
Douglas H. Helm, Vice President/Chief Marketing & Sales Officer
J. Hun Kim, Senior Vice President & Chief Actuary
Denise K. Richardson, Vice President/Controller
Joyce S. Schulman, Vice President/Claims
Jon P. Siglar, Jon P. Siglar, Vice President/Chief Sales & Field Services Officer
Karen A. Sterner, Vice President/Underwriting & Premium Audit
Mark E. Webb, Vice President/Governmental Relations

	James E. Little, Chairman/President & CEO Jim has more than 30 years of experience in the workers' compensation industry, and Employers Direct is his third start-up in workers' comp. From 1972 to 1979, he held several executive positions, including Chief Operating Officer for California at Employee Benefits Insurance Co., a workers' compensation direct writer. Jim co-founded Pacific Compensation Capital Corporation in 1979, the parent of Pacific Compensation Insurance Company, a California workers' compensation insurance company. Fremont Compensation Insurance Group acquired Pacific Comp in 1990, and Jim served as President and CEO of Fremont Comp from 1990 until his resignation in June of 1998. During Jim's tenure at Fremont Comp: Pre-tax earnings grew at an annual rate of 27% Invested assets increased 220% to $3.2 billion Gross premium climbed from approximately $300 million to $800 million, covering 45,000 employers in all 50 states Jim Little provides leadership and business advocacy for California and national regulatory and advisory boards: Appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve on the California Workers' Compensation Fraud Assessment Commission Member of the California Business Roundtable Former Chairman of the California Workers' Compensation Institute Served three terms on the Governing Board of the California Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) Former Board Member of: American Insurance Association; National Council for Compensation Insurance; Association of California Insurance Companies (ACIC); Chairman of the ACIC Workers' Compensation Committee during the California workers' compensation reform initiatives of 1993; Appointed by Governor Pete Wilson to two terms on the California Workers' Compensation Fraud Assessment Commission

	Ronald A. Groden, Vice Chairman/Executive Vice President & CFO Employers Direct is Ron's second start-up. He has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, most recently as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Fremont Compensation Insurance Group. During his tenure at Fremont, Ron played a key role in multiple acquisitions, including those of Casualty Insurance, Industrial Indemnity, and Unicare. He has also served on the Board of Governors of the California Insurance Guaranty Association and has an excellent relationship with that state's regulators. Ron earned a B.S. from Columbia University, an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

	Joseph A. Cardenas, Vice President/Chief Information Officer Joe is a computer scientist and systems software specialist who has led information technology for several leading insurance and high-technology corporations. He was part of the early team at Employers Direct at inception and left in April 2005 to join Salesforce as Senior Vice President and CIO. Prior to Employers Direct, Joe served four years as Vice President and CIO of Autodesk, Inc., the fourth largest PC software company in the world, where he consolidated disparate IT functional groups into a global IT organization while reducing the budget from $97 million to $57 million. Joe also served as Senior Vice President of Fremont Compensation Insurance Group from 1986-1992 and from 1996-1998, and was Vice President of Information Technology for Oracle Corporation from 1993-1996. He has also held information technology positions with Transamerica Insurance, NCR, Hyatt Hotels, and Wells Fargo Bank. He also founded Cardenas Associates, a consultancy with clients in retail, manufacturing, wholesale, insurance, and government.

	June E. Duxler, Vice President/Human Resources & Administration June has 23 years experience in Human Resources and Administration, all of which have been in the California workers' compensation industry. Prior to joining Employers Direct, she served as Regional Manager of Human Resources and Administration for Royal & SunAlliance/EBI Companies. June begin her career at Pacific Compensation Insurance Company as the Southern California Regional Human Resources Manager and was responsible for Human Resources and Administration for three division offices. June has also held similar positions with UniCare Insurance and Fremont Compensation Insurance.

	Douglas H. Helm, Vice President/Chief Marketing & Sales Officer Doug began his insurance career with CNA Insurance in 1965. He was one of the earliest employees of EBI Companies and served as its Executive Vice President/Sales and Marketing and was a member of its Board of Directors for 10 years. He was a co-founder of Pacific Compensation Insurance Company and is a 20-year veteran of the California workers' compensation industry. He enjoys an international business reputation as an innovator of "leading-edge" products and services and builder/manager of highly effective marketing and distribution organizations. As a consultant, he focused on developing sales distribution strategies for insurance company start-ups including Employers Direct Insurance Company, MGA ventures, vendors serving the auto finance and mortgage finance markets, data-aggregators, and Internet portals. He has worked on insurance-related development projects throughout the U.S. and internationally, including London, Moscow, Hong Kong, China, and The Cayman Islands. Doug was among the first to develop and apply Internet technologies to redefine distribution strategies for marketing personal lines insurance. As the Chief Executive Officer of the Property and Casualty Group of InsWeb Corporation, a leading insurance Internet portal, he led the development team that provided the first real-time interactive auto insurance quote to consumers via the Internet. He holds a J.D. from the Northwestern School of Law, Portland, Oregon, and is a member of the Oregon State Bar.

	J. Hun Kim, Senior Vice President and Chief Actuary Hun came to Employers Direct from Swiss Re Underwriters, where he served as Vice President and Actuary. For 11 years ending in 2001, he held a number of actuarial positions with Fremont Compensation Insurance Group, the last was Vice President and Actuary. In that position, he oversaw the company's actuarial functions, including strategic planning, loss reserving, pricing, financial planning, underwriting and systems support, statutory reporting, and related accounting and financial functions. From 1988 to 1990, Hun served as Financial Controller for Kimtron Corporation.

	Denise K. Richardson, Vice President/Controller Denise has 25 years of accounting and financial management experience, of which 19 years have been in the insurance industry. During the 11 years prior to joining Employers Direct, she held several management positions with Fremont Compensation Insurance Group, progressing from Director of Accounting to Vice President and Assistant Controller. From 1987 to 1991, Denise served as Assistant Controller of Transamerica Insurance Administrators, Inc. She began her accounting career in 1981 with Slawson Companies, Inc., a group of oil and gas producers based in Wichita, Kansas.

	Joyce S. Schulman, Vice President/Claims Joyce has 22 years experience in the workers’ compensation insurance industry and was a consultant providing audits, expert witness, training and insurance program evaluations, as well as best practices for the insurance industry when she joined Employers Direct. She started her career at SCIF in 1981. From 1983 to 1997, Joyce worked at Industrial Indemnity, and her last acting capacity was Managing Director of the California Region. From 1997 to 2001, Joyce served Fremont Compensation Insurance Company as Vice President in the Glendale Office and ultimately Vice President of Claims for the entire Western Region.

	Jon P. Siglar, Vice President/Chief Sales & Field Services Officer Jon joined Employers Direct as the Vice President of Loss Control in December of 2002, and built the department to suit the company’s and policyholders' risk management needs. He brings 17 years of insurance industry experience and three years of risk management experience from the private sector to Employers Direct. Currently, Jon leads the Sales, Marketing, and Field Services departments and is ultimately responsible for the marketing, acquisition, retention, and servicing of new and existing policyholders. Previously, Jon served as National Vice President of Accident Prevention for the General Business Segment at Royal & SunAlliance in Glendale, where he was a member of a nationwide team designed to research and develop new segments. His primary focus was to improve profitability through accident prevention services throughout the United States. In addition to his Associate in Risk Management designation, Jon’s experience also includes marketing, underwriting, and extensive loss control consulting with EBI Companies, Business Insurance Group, Unicare Insurance Company, and Pacific Rim Assurance Company.

	Karen A. Sterner, Vice President/Underwriting & Premium Audit Karen joined Employers Direct in 2006 and has over 35 years of experience in workers'compensation underwriting and premium audit. Previously, she was Vice President of Workers' Compensation for ARM of California/Contractors First for five years, where she was responsible for the workers' comp underwriting and premium audit departments. She also co-owned Gryphon Insurance Services for two years and worked as Vice President of Underwriting. Other prior employers were Superior National Insurance Group (Business Insurance Group), Cypress Insurance, Fremont Indemnity, Zenith Insurance, and Mission Insurance. Karen has a close relationship with the WCIRB, having served on the Classification & Rating Committee for many years, and is an expert on Experience Rating and Classifications. Karen is a licensed Property and Casualty Agent.

	Mark E. Webb, Vice President/Governmental Relations Mark joined Employers Direct in 2006 and works closely with workers' compensation regulators, policymakers, and advocates in the business community and organized labor to maintain the efficient operation of California's multi-billion dollar worker benefit system. He also provides current and prospective policyholders with the latest news on workers' comp issues. Previously, Mark was Assistant General Counsel for American International Companies (AIG) for four years, where he coordinated all lobbying activity on legislative and regulatory issues involving property and casualty, life and annuity, and consumer finance lines of business. He also served as Vice President, State Affairs, for the American Insurance Association (AIA) for four of his 10 years at AIA, where he led the advocacy and analysis of legislative and regulatory activities affecting the property and casualty insurance industry throughout the Western United States. In addition to being a member of the Arizona State Bar, Mark has been a lobbyist for insurance organizations and also a Deputy Director of the Arizona Department of Insurance. Mark serves on numerous advisory and legal committees for the California Division of Workers' Compensation, CWCI, CHSWC, WCRI, and the California Chamber of Commerce. Mark holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Arizona and a J.D. from the University of Arizona, College of Law. Read Mark's editorials and participate in Mark's Blog - click here to visit the Legislation Section.