Thought Leadership Speakers Enhance May ACORD LOMA Forum Lineup

PEARL RIVER, N.Y. and ATLANTA, Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on a theme of thought leadership, the 2012 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum added two additional general session speakers to its lineup. Economist and author Ian Ayres and Orlando Magic Senior Vice President Pat Williams are both scheduled for the May event at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, FL.

"We're fortunate this year to have two great thought leaders, in addition to our keynote speaker Vivek Kundra, who will inspire attendees to do bigger and greater things for themselves and for the industry. Bringing in these speakers from outside our insurance world opens us up to a broad spectrum of ideas so we can all gain new insights and apply this knowledge to how we do business," said Jeff Hasty, Senior Vice President, LOMA.

Ian Ayres is a lawyer and economist, as well as the William K. Townsend Professor at Yale Law School, the Anne Urowsky Professorial Fellow in Law, and a Professor at Yale's School of Management. He is a columnist for Forbes magazine, writes for The New York Times Freakonomics blog, and has been a commentator on public radio's "Marketplace." The author of 11 books, including The New York Times best seller Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart. He believes that a new breed of decision makers is increasingly calling the shots and that these "Super Crunchers" are analyzing millions of bytes of information and gaining the ability to predict the future with staggeringly accurate results. In his presentation at the ACORD LOMA Forum, Ayres will highlight the benefits and risks of data analytics, who loses and who wins, and how super crunching can be used to help make better decisions.

Pat Williams, author and Senior Vice President of the Orlando Magic, will close the 2012 ACORD LOMA Forum. Known as one of America's top motivational, inspirational and humorous speakers, Williams is also the author of over 65 books, his most recent title being Coach Wooden: The 7 Principles that Shaped His Life and Will Change Yours. He co-founded the Magic in 1987 and helped lead them to the NBA finals in 1995 and 2009. In 1996, Pat was named as one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history by Beckett, a national publication. Williams is a renowned storyteller who shares experiences and knowledge he gained through his leadership experiences in sports and lessons learned as a father of 19 biological and adopted children.

"Inspiration comes from many places. Ayres and Williams bring Forum attendees two distinct perspectives, two unique backgrounds, and two diverse industry affiliations. What they do have in common is the ability to inspire thought and action and lead people to greater success," concluded Beth Grossman, Chief Learning Officer, ACORD.

The ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum is scheduled May 15-17, 2012,  at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida. For more information, visit the website at www.acordlomaforum.org.

About  ACORD:  ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) is a global, nonprofit standards development organization serving the insurance industry and related financial services industries. ACORD's mission is to facilitate the development of open consensus data standards and standard forms. ACORD members include hundreds of insurance and reinsurance companies, agents and brokers, software providers, and industry associations worldwide. ACORD works with these organizations towards a goal of improved data communication across diverse platforms through implementation of standards. ACORD maintains offices in New York and London.

About  LOMA:  Established in 1924, with more than 1,250 member companies in over 70 countries, LOMA is committed to a business partnership with its worldwide members in the insurance and financial services industry to improve their management and operations through quality employee development, research, information sharing, and related products and services.

http://www.acordlomaforum.org