Times SquareOn Tuesday and Wednesday this week, The D&O Diary was at the annual PLUS D&O Symposium at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square in New York. It was another successful conference — and indeed given the state of the D&O marketplace, there was certainly a lot to talk about this year.

 

I was honored to serve as a moderator of a one of the panels on the first day of the conference. The session was well-attended and the audience was attentive and fully engaged. It is always such a pleasure to be a part of this conference, which is always so well-organized. It is also great to be able to address such a significant segment of the D&O insurance industry.  We had an excellent group of panelists to address our sessionn topic, which was “Time for Another Round of Securities Litigation Reform?”

 

Here is our panel. From left to right, Jarrod Schlesinger of Chubb; me; Jeremy Lieberman of Pomerantz LLP; Sara Brody of Sidley Austin; and Sean Griffith of Fordham Law School. I was very grateful to have Sara, Jeremy and Lieberman, who are from outside of our industry but who were willing to take time to share their insights and expertise with us.

 

OK, because of the bright lights, this picture did not come out very well, but this is what it looks like from the stage at the Symposium. I took this picture at the end of our session.

 

One of the great things about this conference is seeing old friends, but an even better part about this conference is the opportunity to make new friends as well. I was particularly pleased to meet quite a number of people who told me that they read The D&O Diary. I was particularly gratified that some of the blog’s most enthusiastic readers are younger and newer members of the D&O insurance profession. Here are a few pictures of some of the people I was fortunate to meet at the Symposium.

 

With Jessica Centano of Arthur J. Gallagher in New York.

 

These two D&O insurance underwriters approached me the morning of the event’s first day to tell me that that they read The D&O Diary and that they had both traveled to the Symposium from Latin America. On the left of the picture is Juliana Canon. Juliana is based on Miami but her territory is Colombia. On the right side of the picture is Pamella Di Palma of Liberty International Underwriters. Pamella is based in São Paulo, Brazil. There were actually quite a number of attendees at the conference from outside the U.S.; not just, as you might expect, Canada, the U.K., and Bermuda, but also Spain, Germany, Israel, Slovenia, and Croatia, as well as Colombia and Brazil.

 

I met these two at the RT Reception on the evening of the first day. They approached me to tell me how much they enjoy reading The D&O Diary. On the left side of the picture is Brent Slotoroff of Lockton and on the right side of the picture is Tracy Sartorius of Argo Pro.

 

My congratulations to the PLUS Staff for another excellent Symposium.

 

For anyone thinking they might want to attend this event next year, you need to know that the event is moving to a different date in 2021. The event will take place at the same location, but on March 9th and 10th, 2021. You will want to make a note of the date change. Hope to see everyone again next year.