Vincent J. Armentano, vice president of workers' compensationclaims at St. Paul Travelers, has been named Claims' Professionalof the Year. The award, sponsored by New York-based Smith Mazure, aliability defense law firm that focuses on civil litigation, isgiven annually as the highlight of the opening general session atthe ACE-SCLA Conference. It recognizes overall excellence in theclaim-handling arena. Most often, the winner is a catalyst withinhis company, providing leadership initiatives that result in moreefficient claim handling.

Armentano helped transform workers' compensation claim servicesby integrating the claim and medical adjuster roles, increasingspecialization on claim activities, merging technology intoday-to-day claim functions for improved efficiency, and usingpredictive and knowledge management applications to improvepay-outs. In addition, he helped change the traditional adversarialrelationships between injured workers and physicians by engagingall constituents in the claim process in order to improve claimoutcomes.

He is the chairman of the Workers' Compensation ResearchInstitute and has written and spoken on emerging topics in claimmanagement. He received his Juris Doctorate from Western NewEngland College, is a member of the Connecticut Bar, holds an MBAin Management, and is a graduate of the Travelers FinancialDevelopment Program.