Gerard Elicks, President. Jerry was the first President of the NYMIR division of WRM. He is an attorney specializing in insurance law and brings his experience with workers' compensation, personal injury, employment practices, and related insurance matters. Jerry represented claimants before the NY State Workers' Compensation Board as a licensed representative from 1984 through 1988. A graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, he received his Juris Doctor for St. John's University, School of Law in 1987. He is admitted to practice law in New York.

Richard Hsia, Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Admitted to the New York State Bar and the Federal district and appellate courts, Richard is a member of the Federal Bar Council and American Bar, New York County Lawyers, and New York State Bar Associations. In addition to his work at WRM, he is a Partner in the law firm of Congdon, Flaherty, O’Callaghan, Reid, Donlon, Travis & Fishlinger. Richard joined WRM in 1995. Previously, he was the Deputy Superintendent of Insurance for the State of New York. His other experience also included private practice with the Wall Street law firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel, where he dealt with financial services, multinational commercial transactions, science and technology, and complex litigation. He was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar at Columbia Law School, which awarded his J.D. degree. Richard received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College. He serves as NYSIR Corporate Counsel, and is President of the Future Leadership Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation dedicated to enhancing the health and education of young people so they have the best chance to emerge as future leaders. Richard is a member of the New York Academy of Science and a David Rockefeller Fellow, and a Columbia University Seminars Associate on China/International Business.

Robert Bambino, CPCU, ARM Vice President - Risk Management. Bob is responsible for the coordination of risk management projects for all WRM clients. He has published several articles in national and state journals, and he has spoken before numerous groups on risk management and insurance related topics. Bob has also served as a consultant to the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, working on projects related to the CPCU program. Bob is an instructor at Hofstra University where he teaches insurance risk management courses in the University College for Continuing Education.

Hon. Lawrence J. Brennan Associate General Counsel - As a retired as Acting Justice of the New York State Supreme Court and an Adjunct Professor at St. John ’s University School of Law, Larry Brennan brings to his position of Associate General Counsel at Wright Risk Management an extensive background in the law and education.

Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court on January 1, 2005, Larry served for eight years in the Nassau Family Court. Previously, he was chief deputy county attorney for litigation and appeals with the Nassau County Attorney’s Office, the largest suburban municipal law office in the United States. Between 1993 and 1996, he argued 32 state and federal appeals. He also administered Nassau County’s alternative dispute resolution program and co-chaired its “American With Disabilities Act” compliance committee.

While in private practice as a civil trial lawyer from 1979 to 1987, he represented plaintiffs, defendants, and insurers in state and federal courts. Before practicing law, Larry was a special education teacher with the Nassau County Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

Since 1993, Larry has been an adjunct professor of law at the St. John’s University School of Law and at the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Touro Law Center, as well as a special professor of law at the Hofstra University School of Law.  In 1997, he received the “Award for Excellence in Teaching Trial Advocacy as an Adjunct Law Professor” from the Roscoe Pound Foundation in Washington, D.C., the nation’s premier judicial research center. Nominated by former Touro Law Center Dean Howard I. Glickstein, he was selected for this competitive award from candidates submitted by deans from among the 186 law schools throughout the United States. As a consequence of the award, he also became a lifetime Honorary Fellow of the foundation.

Larry is a graduate of the St. John’s University School of Law. He was awarded his M.S. in Special Education from Hofstra University and his B.S. in English from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Richard Calame, Vice President - Senior Claims Manager. Richard supervises administration and handling of property and casualty claims. This includes determination of coverage, reserve setting, litigation management, claims disposition, managerial reporting, and claims auditing. Included within his responsibilities is the management of the property, casualty, and professional liability claims for the NYSIR and NYMIR programs. These two programs include in excess of $40 million in reserves, processing 3,000 claims each year. Richard has over 20 years of Insurance experience and is a graduate of St. John's University.

John Congdon, Vice President - Director of Workers’ Compensation. John is responsible for the administration of WRM’s Workers’ Compensation Division, consisting of over 250 public sector clients generating in excess of $30 million in annual funding premiums. He has been employed with WRM for over 10 years. John has been instrumental in the formation and development of numerous self-funded group programs for the public sector; most notably, the New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal and the New York State Municipal Workers’ Compensation Alliance. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Adelphi University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Hartford.

Brian Custer, President - NYMIR Division of WRM. He is responsible for the administration and management of NYMIR. Brian has over 20 years of insurance underwriting and marketing experience. He has served as the New York State Manager for PENCO, a national underwriter of school and municipal programs, as an Account Executive for a large independent agency and as a Production Underwriter for the Hartford Insurance Group. Brian has extensive experience in the design and implementation of alternative market programs. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the State University of New York at Oswego and has earned the CIC designation.

Robert W. Elliott, Coordinator of Municipal Programs. Bob combines his banking and government experience to advise WRM on numerous projects relating to public sector liability and worker's compensation risk financing. He is the Mayor of Croton-on-Hudson, New York and a past President of the New York Conference of Mayors. He is a founding member and past President of the New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal and is also a founding Trustee of the New York Workers Compensation Alliance. Bob serves on numerous boards and organizations and has been appointed to several Task Forces by New York's Governor. He has a Masters in Business Administration from the George Washington University Graduate School of Government and Business.

Joan Fishlinger, Vice President - Information Technology. Joan has been with WRM since 1993. She is currently responsible for all hardware, network operations and application software development for WRM’s internal systems and those of the companies and pools it manages. Joan manages all analytical and technical staff that supports the organization. She develops, organizes and over sees all user-training programs. She serves on the Board of Directors of WRM. Joan attended Fordham University, Bronx, NY.

Kathleen Willett Forman, Director of Human Resources. Kathleen is responsible for developing and implementing human resources activities across the organization. Prior to joining WRM, she was active in the business side of the public sector, having served as Director of Purchasing for Nassau County and Commissioner of Finance for the Town of North Hempstead. Kathleen, an attorney, also has extensive experience in zoning law, having served on the North Hempstead Board of Zoning and Appeals and having held the position of Commissioner of Planning for the Town of North Hempstead. She holds a Jurist Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law, a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Bucknell University.

Douglas J. Hayden, Vice President, Corporate Development.  As the former Chief Executive Officer and Chief Legal Officer of the New York State Insurance Fund (NYSIF), Doug brings a wealth of experience on all aspects of insurance law to his role in developing opportunity for Wright Risk Management and expanding services to its clients.  Among his accomplishments, Doug developed the first state Compliance unit and has spoken widely at industry conferences on Sarbanes Oxley and its impact within the insurance industry.  He also testified before the New York State Senate Insurance Committee on the need for further workers’ compensation reform in New York State.  As General Attorney he was active in legislative reform within the insurance industry.

Doug is a frequent guest speaker for many notable insurance and law associations, such as the New York State Bar Association where he was Chair of the Torts, Insurance & Compensation Law Section and the American Association of State Compensation Insurance Funds where he was chair of the law committee, and has published several articles on the impact of Sarbanes Oxley as well as combating terrorism by the use of money laundering within the financial and insurance industry.  Doug sits on the board of directors of many prestigious organizations including the American Society of Workers’ Compensation Professionals, Insurance Federation of New York, Defense Association of New York and the Nassau County Magistrate Association.

A graduate of Hofstra University School of Law in 1988, Doug is admitted to the Bar in New York as well as the Eastern and Southern District courts.  He also is the elected Village Justice of the Village of Floral Park since 1999.

Dr. Gilbert Jacobson, Director of Special Projects and Client Communication. Gil brings over 25 years of school administration and management skills to WRM. He has served as an Assistant Superintendent of Schools in city, suburban, rural and regional school districts. He has been instrumental in bringing school districts together for property, casualty, workers' compensation, life and long term disability and served on the Board of Directors for both NYSIR and the Southern Westchester Workers' Compensation Consortium. He earned his Doctorate from Columbia University, a Professional Diploma and Master's Degree from Queens College and a Bachelor's Degree from the State University of New York at Fredonia. Gil was named as one of the top 100 Executive Educators in 1986 and received an Eagle Award for his contribution to the business profession in 1994.

Wayne Keebler, CPCU, ARE, Vice President - Underwriting. Wayne is responsible for the overall management of underwriting personnel, formulation and alignment of corporate underwriting strategies, and procurement and implementation of reinsurance for new and existing programs. His responsibilities include the underwriting management of the property, casualty, and professional liability lines of business for the MIRMA, NYSIR and NYMIR programs. Wayne is a graduate of Ithaca College and brings over 30 years of reinsurance and insurance expertise to Wright Risk Management.

Karen Mankowski, Senior Vice President - Administration, Wright Employee Services Company (WESCO). Karen is the senior manager at our Albany location. WESCO specializes in health benefit plan management and administration. This program includes SWSCHP, the State-Wide Schools Cooperative Health Plan, which provides comprehensive health benefits coverage and managed care for the staff and dependents of more than 20 school districts. Karen joined WRM in 1988 as a health benefits manager. Prior to joining WRM, she developed her expertise as an employee benefit specialist, working with public and private sector clients. Karen received a Bachelor of Science degree in Labor and Industrial Relations from LeMoyne College. She earned an Associates degree in marketing from Russell Sage Junior College.

William Marvin, Marketing Representative - NYBEST.  Bill joined WRM in 2004 to promote and market the NYBEST program.  He had spent the prior 15 years as a Benefits Consultant and a Benefits Broker for two private companies.  Bill also worked for three different insurance companies where he was involved in the underwriting aspects of various Benefits coverages.  He has been a licensed NYS insurance broker for the past 17 years and has guided clients from both coverage and budgetary perspectives.  Bill earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hartwick College.

Susan O’Rorke, AAI  Assistant Vice President & Director of Marketing - NYMIR.   Susan is responsible for implementation and oversight of state-wide marketing efforts for the NYMIR program.  Previously she was the regional marketing manager for NYMIR, NYSIR and the New York Municipal Workers’ Compensation Alliance. Susan’s 20+ years of insurance experience includes 15 years servicing public sector officials in school districts and municipalities. Susan holds a license in Property & Casualty and earned her Bachelor of Arts from MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois.

Steven E. Sims, Executive Vice President.  Steve has distinguished himself as an innovator and industry leader in the insurance field over the past twenty-five years.  His professional expertise and focus is in building programs with supporting departments within the field of property, casualty and professional liability including  mergers and acquisitions, underwriting, risk management, reinsurance, technical insurance marketing, and brokerage. 

Prior to Wright Risk, Steve was Executive Vice President of The Willis North American Programs Practice.  Preceding that, founded his third Managing General Agent (MGA) platform, Target Capital.  As co-founder he focused on acquiring and developing a group of  MGAs specializing in Professional Liability and other Specialty Lines.. 

He holds a Bachelor’s and Master Degree from The University of Alabama in Government and Business Administration.  He continued post-graduate studies at New York University’s Stern School from 1987 thru 1989 in Capital Syndication Finance and Accounting.

Albert Trotter, CPA Corporate Controller. Al is responsible for the accounting and financial management of Wright Risk Management and affiliated companies. He brings over 25 years of experience in financial reporting, accounting system design and implementation, auditing, budgeting and taxation to WRM. Al’s background in audit and tax was obtained with the national firm of McGladrey & Pullen. As Vice President and Manager of Strategic Planning for Washington Mutual, he has been instrumental in both the development and consolidation of numerous accounting operations. He received his Bachelors of Science degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton and attended Long Island University’s C.W. Post Campus, where he received his Masters of Science in Accounting.

Lisa Weber, Managing Claims Counsel, Professional Liability Claims. Lisa is an attorney who oversees Professional Liability Claims, such as employment discrimination, civil rights and law enforcement claims for the WRM’s property and casualty programs.  Lisa serves on WRM ’s Claims Committee, which oversees complex and high exposure claims, and also participates in risk management initiatives.  Prior to joining WRM, Lisa practiced insurance defense litigation in various practice areas. She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from St. John’s University and a JD from Hofstra University School of Law.

Paul Weinstein, AU, Vice President & Director of Marketing – NYSIR.    Paul is the Director of Marketing for the New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal (NYSIR) Program. He has been affiliated with NYSIR since 1991 in his role as NYSIR Underwriting Director. Paul ’s expertise in school insurance coverage and risk management in conjunction with his experience with school business administrators, reinsurers, state regulators, actuaries, auditors, appraisers and the brokerage community make him uniquely qualified to serve public and private schools and municipalities. Paul regularly coordinates with the underwriting, claims, and safety & risk management staff to provide essential support to client schools and their administrators.

Paul has also served as the Captive Program Coordinator and team leader with respect to PXC Inc., the captive insurance company for Paychex, Inc. based out of Rochester, NY.  

Paul holds a NY State Brokers License and is certified as an Associate in Underwriting by the Insurance Institute of America. His 20+ years of insurance experience included various positions with American International Group and CIGNA.  He is a graduate of State University of New York, College at Oneonta.