SPEAKERS

After a storied 13 seasons as head coach of the Michigan State football program, Mark Dantonio announced his retirement on Feb. 4, 2020. Dantonio finished his career with a record of 114-57 in East Lansing, 132-74 in 16 seasons overall. During his time at the helm of the Spartan program, Dantonio compiled an impressive list of accomplishments including three Big Ten Championships, two victories in the Big Ten Championship Game, victories in the 2014 Rose Bowl and the 2015 Cotton Bowl, and an appearance in the 2015 College Football Playoff, finishing his career as the winningest football coach in Michigan State history.

Dantonio was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2024.

Beyond his record for most victories at MSU, Dantonio won more Big Ten Championships (three) and bowl games (six) than any other coach in school history, while also ranking first with 12 bowl appearances. His .639 (69-39) winning percentage in Big Ten games is a school record, while he stands tied for first in AP Top 25 finishes (seven) and second in Big Ten wins (69), home wins (67) and AP Top 25 wins (21).

Read full bio here.

Executive Vice President, Chief Economist and Director of Fixed Income Management, Commerce Bank

Scott is the chief economist and director of fixed income management for Commerce Trust.

He joined Commerce in 1993 and has investment responsibilities for over $24 billion in fixed income assets. Scott oversees all fixed income strategies for both Commerce Bank and Commerce Trust and directly manages the flagship Commerce Bond Fund and the Commerce Short-Term Government Fund.

Prior to joining Commerce Bank, Scott worked for the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Company (now Duke Power), Fifth Third Bank, and ARMCO, Inc. (now Cleveland Cliffs). Scott received his Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1986 and received his Master of Business Administration from Xavier University in 1988. He has been both a director and president of the Chartered Financial Analyst Society of St. Louis and is on the President's Advisory Council at Xavier University.

Client Executive, Hylant

As a Client Executive on Hylant’s Property & Casualty team, Ken helps clients in the construction, advanced manufacturing and assisted living industries mitigate, transfer, and reduce their property and casualty risk. He brings extensive experience in contractual liability review and works with both U.S. based and international companies. 

Ken is currently a member of CFMA Western Michigan, CFMA SW Michigan, ABC Excellence in Construction, ABC Safety Steering Committee and ASAM of West Michigan. In those organizations he has served as board member, program committee and membership. 

President & Chief Executive Officer, Michigan (CAOM)

Dave is the President and CEO of the Compensation Advisory Organization of Michigan (CAOM). He is a Fellow in the Casualty Actuarial Society with over 25 years of experience in the insurance industry. Prior to joining CAOM, he was the Director of Actuarial and Product Management at Frankenmuth Insurance, responsible for pricing and reserving their portfolio of Property and Casualty insurance products.

He served for 6+ years on the Michigan Catastrophic Claim Association Actuarial committee tasked with providing an annual assessment charge and claim reserve recommendation. Prior to entering the actuarial profession, he was an Aerospace Engineer with the Space Shuttle program in Houston for 12 years.

Sr. Vice-President & Chief Actuary, Michigan (CAOM)

Alan's work experience includes loss reserving, ratemaking and predictive analytics. He has 30+ years of broad exposure to many property and casualty lines of business, with special emphasis on commercial lines, including workers' compensation and medical malpractice.

His prior work experience includes pricing and reserving for personal and commercial lines, and development of a predictive model for a regional personal auto insurance company.

Cyber Practice Leader, Hylant

With extensive experience in the insurance industry, Alex is the Cyber Practice Leader and serves as a resource for all things cyber, technology, and media. Alex engages both clients and colleagues to assist in the placement of coverage, enhancing the understanding of cyber and emerging risk, and pre and post breach readiness through incident response planning. Alex takes a hands-on approach not only placing coverage with the correct carrier but making sure our clients know how to utilize the policy, how to prevent incidents, minimize payouts, and execute incident response plans come claim time. 

Alex currently holds a Life & Health license, P&C license, and a Cyber Risk Manager designation. He is currently a member of PLUS - Professional Liability Underwriting Society. 

Risk Advisor – Casualty Loss Control, Hylant

Beverlie has 20 years of experience in environmental, health and safety within automotive, food manufacturing, agriculture, education Japanese and Chinese companies and life sciences. She has directly reduced incident rates and improve communications, corrective action follow-up and employee engagement in the execution of safety programs throughout these industries. Coming from the client side has given Beverlie the unique viewpoint on how best to serve their needs through Hylant and its carriers. 

As a Risk Advisor, Beverlie partners with commercial clients in strategic casualty loss control by reviewing the client’s loss history and developing actionable objectives and goals to improve their program and systems. This is completed by determining risk root causes, brainstorming practical mitigation solutions, and sharing best practices to improve workplace safety culture. This process also includes reviewing current loss control systems to evaluate continuous improvement initiatives in an effort to increase workplace efficiency. 

Beverlie is currently involved with the American Society of Safety Professionals, Women in Safety Excellence and holds a position as a Michigan Safety Conference Division Chair. She is also part of the Boy Scouts of America as a Pack Treasurer and Advancement Coordinator. 

EVP & CFO, Granger Construction Company

Chris Duprey is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Granger Construction Company.  He joined the company in 2013 as Controller, and has progressed through various financial roles.  Chris is part of the leadership team at Granger, supervising the accounting and risk management functions, and providing financial oversight for the business. 

Prior to arriving at Granger, Chris was a Tax Manager at UHY Advisors, with a concentration of his client work in the construction industry.  He has registered status as a CPA in the state of Michigan.

Founder/Co-CEO, First Rule

Rhonda Huismann is the Founder and Co-CEO of newly formed First Rule, which combines construction contract training and a powerful ai contract review and lifecycle management solution built specifically for the construction industry.   Rhonda has over 28 years of focused experience in the construction industry, having spent the majority of her Career as part of the National Construction Practice of Crowe LLP. 

Rhonda specialized in audit, tax, and consulting, and was involved in creating a construction tax software which sparked her passion for bringing technology solutions to the construction industry.  Rhonda worked closely with a wide variety of contractors across the U.S. creating and delivering an AI-powered solution that makes contract management for construction easier than ever. Rhonda loves walking alongside construction industry veterans and those on the front line to identify pain points– and then problem-solve how technology can alleviate that pain.

Client Executive, Hylant

Derek specializes in alternative risk solutions for middle market and large market clients (50-5,000 employees). He helps his clients identify the risk management solutions that best fit their industry, culture, history, and risk tolerance. Derek has experience with large retentions, group captives, 831(b) captives, self-insured, and retrospective rating programs in addition to the traditional guaranteed cost placements. 

Partner, Warner, Norcross + Judd LLP

Justin Stemple is a partner with the Michigan law firm of Warner Norcross + Judd LLP. Justin focuses his practice on employee benefits law, with a special emphasis on ESOPs and routinely represents ESOP companies and ESOP Trustees from implementation of an ESOP, ongoing consulting, amendments, DOL audits, and termination of an ESOP or sale of an ESOP company. He currently serves as Chair of the firm’s Employee Benefits practice group, as a member of the Board of the Michigan Center for Employee Ownership, and on the Executive Committee of the Michigan Chapter of the ESOP Association.

Justin received his B.A. from Alma College and his J.D. from The College of William & Mary.

Founder/Director of Strategic Partnerships, First Rule

Victor is a forward-thinking CPA and one of the co-founders of First Rule, where he channels his passion for technology into developing AI-driven solutions that simplify contract management for the construction industry. With over a decade in public accounting, including a tenure as Partner at Crowe LLP, Victor has spent much of career at the intersection of innovation, people, and the construction industry.

In 2025, he joined First Rule Contract Manager as a co-founder, aiming to make complex contract processes more accessible and efficient for contractors. Victor's approach is rooted in the belief that technology should serve people, not the other way around.​

When he's not helping to revolutionize contract management, Victor is a devoted fan of University of Michigan sports and Detroit Lions football. He also enjoys working out and gaming, often finding that the discipline and strategy in these activities mirror the challenges of his professional endeavors.

Founder/Co-CEO, First Rule

Eliot is a teacher and a national public speaker, as well as being a seasoned (37 years and counting) and fairly cynical construction lawyer. In 2018, he founded First Rule Contract Training because he realized that teaching construction professionals how to avoid problems was vastly preferable to profiting off of those problems as a lawyer. In 2022, Eliot was engaged by Crowe, LLP, a national accounting and consulting firm, to teach construction law to its proprietary AI, which has now been relaunched as First Rule Contract Manager.  
  
In addition to his passion for teaching, Eliot is equally stalwart in his absolute refusal to shave until he is accepted by polite society.