VCIA, CARFM Lose President Ventriss
Lisa M. Ventriss, president of the Vermont Captive Insurance Association, as well as the Coalition of Alternative Risk Funding Mechanisms, announced her resignation from both organizations, effective June 1.
Ms. Ventriss, president of the Burlington-based VCIA for five years, will take a new post as president of the Vermont Business Roundtable, a non-profit organization. "While I wasn't looking to leave my organization, this was an opportunity that I couldn't let pass by," Ms. Ventriss told National Underwriter.
Ms. Ventriss said she plans to bring "many of the lessons I've learned in this job to the Roundtable. There is no captive presence in the Roundtable today, but there should be. I hope I can make those introductions and bring that expertise to the membership."
Of her tenure at VCIA–established in 1985, and now the largest captive insurance association in the United States, with 255 member companies–she said she is happiest that the association "has grown in its professionalism and its stature within the industry."
This growth, she said, includes the professionalism of the staff, the "breadth and quality" of the programs offered, the "strength of its voice" on advocacy issues, and the association's ability to affect change.
She stressed that the group's accomplishments could not have been achieved without teamwork. "We've always had a tremendously supportive board of directors. They have done what they do well, which is to craft the vision and the philosophy of the association, and then they let me make it happen," she said.
Ms. Ventriss, newly-elected president of Minneapolis-based CARFM, an organization made up of alternative market associations, said she will relinquish that position as well. A new president most likely will be chosen from the organization's list of officers, she said.
Leonard Crouse, director of captive insurance for the Vermont Department of Banking and Securities, expressed surprise at the announcement. He said Ms. Ventriss is well-suited to her new position, however, and will "blow the captive horn wherever she goes. Her love and respect for what we do here has been phenomenal."
Under Ms. Ventriss' watch, he said, VCIA's annual conference has grown and Vermont's reputation as a domicile has expanded. "Financially, the organization is in great shape, and she's been a great asset to me and my department," he said.
"As regulators, we can't get into lobbying or marketing, and she's carried that banner well for the state of Vermont and our industry," Mr. Crouse explained.
Jean VanTol, chairman of VCIA and president of the Resort Hotel Insurance Company, a Vermont-based captive, said in a letter to the VCIA membership that "Lisas five-year tenure as VCIAs president has been a very productive and positive period in the associations history, and we are grateful for her many contributions. She will be a hard act to follow."
A search committee has been convened to identify a successor, with the goal of having a new president in place by June, according to the group.
As for this year's conference, scheduled for Aug. 13-15, Ms. Ventriss said she plans to attend in her new position. "I will probably gate-crash, and they'd better hand me a visitor's pass," she joked.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, April 15, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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