Colleen Clarke is Vice President, Surety, Roanoke Trade Services, Inc. She focuses on the review and analysis of CBP policy including new issues from the perspective of the surety underwriting group as well as the client services team. She manages the Roanoke Trade independent agent unit for U.S. Customs bonds. In 2008 Ms. Clarke was appointed to the 11th term of the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) where she participates in several subcommittees. She serves as co-chair of the Surety Account Subcommittee within the Trade Support Network (TSN) and works closely with CBP as a representative on the Customs/Surety Executive Committee (C/SEC).

Michelle has been involved in the International Trade Segment of the Insurance Field since 1993 holding various roles throughout her career in both agency and company surety operations. From 2009 to 2019 Michelle served as Vice President of Surety for Navigators Management Company, Inc. (NMC). In April of 2019, Navigators became a Brand of The Hartford where Michelle managed the Customs and Logistics Surety Division until moving to her current role as Vice President of Customs Surety at Tokio Marine HCC in 2022

John Sheppard has been with C.A. Shea & Company, Inc. for over 22 years, and is currently the Vice President. He oversees the day to day operations of the bond department and is responsible for underwriting and dealing with Customs on both the local and executive levels.

Alana L. Porrazzo is a partner in the Phoenix, Arizona office of Jennings Haug Keleher McLeod LLP and licensed to practice in the state and federal courts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Louisiana. She is a co-chair of the FSLC Law Division Bankruptcy Subcommittee and a member of the Arizona State Bar Association Construction Section Executive counsel. Ms. Porrazzo’s practice emphasizes defending bond claims and bad faith allegations, litigating performance defaults, prosecuting subrogation and indemnity claims, and representing sureties in principal and indemnitor bankruptcies. She studied at Yale University (B.A., 2009) and Tulane University School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2016).

CHAD L. SCHEXNAYDER is a partner in the Phoenix office of Jennings Haug Keleher McLeod, LLP. For more than 38 years, his practice has focused principally on the surety and construction industry, representing builders, public and private owners, design professionals, suppliers, sureties and insurers. He represents clients before agencies, mediators, arbitrators, and in state and federal courts, including U.S. bankruptcy courts, throughout the country. He is a Past Chair of the Fidelity and Surety Law Committee of the American Bar Association, Tort & Insurance Practice Section.  Mr. Schexnayder is an editor and author in numerous industry publications, including Surety Aspects of Bankruptcy Law and Practice, American Bar Association (2021) (ed.), and Chapter 145 in the New Appleman on Insurance Law Library Edition.  He has spoken before the American College of Construction Lawyers, Surety Claims Institute, American Bar Association, Pearlman Association, Mid-South Commercial Law Institute, National Association of Surety Bond Producers, West Coast Casualty Construction Defect Seminar, the Surety and Fidelity Association of America, and the Arizona State Bar Construction Law Section on bankruptcy, surety and construction law subjects.  He is a cum laude graduate of Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and a cum laude graduate of Washington University at St. Louis.

Tiffany Harrod is a partner at Peckar & Abramson's Houston and Austin offices. With over 14 years of experience, she focuses on construction and commercial litigation, representing clients in matters such as contract negotiations, lien and bond issues, defect claims, non-payment claims, alternative dispute resolution, and arbitrations. She is the Immediate Past Chair of the Houston Bar Association Construction Law Section and is active in the State Bar of Texas.

Michael Keller currently holds the role of Home Office Underwriting Director at CNA Surety which entails handling both middle market clients on the West Coast and international reverse-flow surety clients across the Nation.  After attending the University of Washington, he has spent the past 12 years in the construction and surety industry with most of that time spent with CNA. He currently resides in the greater Seattle area. 

Ed is a Senior Vice President at American Global working with contractors both in the Greater New York region as well as firms with a national and global presence.  Ed brings over 30 years of legal and surety underwriting expertise providing strategic surety solutions to contractors throughout North America.   

Prior to joining American Global, Ed was a Senior Vice President and surety leader in Aon’s Construction Services Group.  Ed began his surety carrier with Chubb and spent over 20 years in various surety underwriting and legal roles, most recently as their Vice President and Regional Surety Manager and prior to that as their Surety General Counsel. Ed has regularly presented on various construction and legal topics related to surety to industry organizations including the Associated General Contractors and the ABA Fidelity and Surety Law Committee .Ed is a Vice Chair of the American Bar Association Fidelity and Surety Law Committee.

Ed’s expertise includes surety and other forms of performance security on projects including significant experience with alternative project delivery methods including public private partnerships (P3) and other large Design-Build procurements.  His client base is a mix of Regional, National and Global construction companies. Ed has been involved in providing surety solutions including P3 bonds with liquidity components on some of the largest P3 and Design Build RFP project procurements of the past decade in North America.  

Megan Mazzeffi is Surety Counsel at RLI Insurance Corp. She provides legal support to underwriting across all surety lines. Before joining RLI, Megan worked as Claims Counsel with Travelers and CNA where she managed complex surety performance and payment bond claims. Prior to moving in house, Megan practiced law in Chicago, focusing her practice on surety, construction and commercial litigation. Megan received her Juris Doctorate from University of Illinois, Chicago School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Political Science from Purdue University.

Sam is the Director-AsiaPac, Global Risk Claims at Liberty Mutual.  He  is a graduate of Stanford University (BA Economics) and Seattle University School of Law and has over 30 years of experience in commercial and surety law.  His current role with Liberty focuses on the administration and review of domestic an reverse flow claims for large international accounts, specifically for the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.  In his spare time he can be found performing on stage, traveling or flailing on a golf course, weather permitting.

Patrice is a managing director at CBIZ, co-leads CBIZ’s national ESOP practice and sits on CBIZ’s Fairness Opinion Committee.  Patrice specializes in advising shareholders of middle-market companies on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) transactions, fairness opinions and other consulting advisory services. In addition, Patrice has been instrumental in leading per previous firm’s (Marcum LLP) national ESOP practice. Patrice is on the Valuation Advisory Committee for the ESOP Association, speaks on various topics at national ESOP conferences and regularly publishes for both internal company-wide ESOP newsletters and outside publications.  Patrice also started her career working with construction companies as a surety underwriter in New York City. 

Wilson Denari is a Manager in the Valuation group. He has performed valuations of business interests for a variety of purposes including, but not limited to, employee stock ownership plans, gift & estate tax, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder buy-sell agreements, and healthcare transactions. Wilson primarily specializes in completing valuations for buy and sell-side ESOP transactions as well as annual valuation updates to ESOP trustees with existing ESOP clients. 

Prior to his current role, Mr. Denari performed valuations for the purposes listed above, in addition to financial due diligence services for buy and sell-side third party transactions, at a regional accounting and advisory firm located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Prior to appraising privately held businesses, Wilson served as an investment accounting supervisor for a global provider of investment processing, management, and operations solutions in Indianapolis. He also has experience providing assurance services in the financial services sector for a Big Four accounting firm in Indianapolis. 

Mr. Denari’s industry experience includes transportation services, professional services, construction, manufacturing, distribution, machinery/equipment repair and maintenance, market research services, and energy solutions providers. 

Ben is a Principal U.S. Economist with the Hartford’s Global Insights Center, where he focuses on macroeconomic and sectoral trends.

He covers topics that shape the business landscape, including inflation, the job market, interest rates, and construction activity.

Ben has almost two decades of professional experience across the corporate, consulting, and government sectors.

Before joining The Hartford, Ben was an economist at Visa where he covered trends in consumer spending, interest rates, and the credit card and banking sectors. He advised board members and executives and was a frequent speaker at client events.

Ben also held positions at the Bureau of Labor Statistics where he focused on long-term job market forecasting, and at a boutique consulting firm that analyzed the California economy.