Meeting Information

John Neal has over 20 years' experience in both personal and commercial lines insurance company operations with specific emphasis in the areas of risk management, risk analysis and risk financing. Within the Personal Lines market, John supported Farmers Insurance expansion into seven new Eastern states. Within Liberty Mutual's Commercial Market Lines, John was Manager of Analysis for Risk Management Solutions where he managed a team of twelve Risk Management Consultants responsible for supporting Liberty Mutual's Commercial Market Distribution and Service Management Department. John provided analytical support for consulting projects, risk financing design and structuring, finite (financial) insurance products, cost allocation projects, loss analysis, captive support, and industry benchmarking. Currently, John is the Risk and Operations Manager at Cleanetics, a design-build clean room specialist serving an array of industries.

John has also held positions as a Senior Risk Financing Analyst and Risk Management Consultant. Prior to entering the insurance and risk management field, John worked ten years in the pollution control and medical device industries as a chemical and manufacturing engineer, accountant, and financial manager.

John's academic background includes a BS from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his CRM designation in 2005 and has been a CRM National Faculty member for The National Alliance since 2005. Currently, John supports faculty development for both CIC and CRM curriculums and also serves as an educational consultant.

Craig Sietsema launched his career in the insurance world by designing policy booklets, bank checks and company forms for the Foremost Insurance Group in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He expanded this knowledge by joining the company's state filings department in 1993. While there he spent a total of 11 years working directly with the heart of the insurance product across 25 states: the policy contract, the rates and the rating rules for a wide variety of property and casualty products. This work, along with a year in marketing, familiarized him with product management, underwriting, claims, actuarial, advertising, sales, licensing and appointment, call center operations, regulatory affairs, data reporting and implementation management.

In 2005, Craig was promoted to spearhead development of Foremost's comprehensive compliance program, touching all aspects of company conduct in the marketplace and working directly with external state regulators who monitor that conduct. In 2010, he was again promoted to a director's role, providing direct support to the Farmers Chief Compliance Officer in Los Angeles, California. This role, further expanded his knowledge and expertise to include anti-money laundering, OFAC sanctions screening, resource acquisition and development, risk management, enterprise training and internal investigations. Craig now heads the compliance function for 5 Farmers business units: Specialty Lines (Foremost), Non-Standard Auto (Bristol West), Independent Agency Distribution, Excess & Surplus Lines and National Flood. He currently manages a team of 9 staff to provide compliance assurance to senior management for each of these business units.

Mr. Sietsema has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kendall College of Art and Design. He earned his CIC designation in 2005, and his CRM designation in 2012. He also earned his Market Conduct Management designation in 2008. He has attended National Alliance classes since 2000 and strongly advocates continuing education. He was a member of Toastmasters for about 10 years, which included service in several officer roles, and served as a church counselor, officer, teacher and leader for over 15 years.