By: Anthony D. Yager, Chapman and Cutler LLP
President 2019-2020
Happy Holidays to all! Before the holiday season kicks into high gear and a holiday food and drink coma wipes 2019 from my mind, I wanted to take a moment to reflect upon the College’s accomplishments in 2019 and look forward to 2020 for a moment.
First, I want to welcome you to our new website (assuming you are, in fact, reading this on our new website) and thank the Website and Social Media Committee for all of their hard work in putting the new website in place. I hope all of you will take advantage of the additional functionality and enjoy the vastly improved user experience. If you have additional suggestions, please don’t hesitate to pass them along to the committee, as they are always looking for ways to make the website more valuable to the College.
Once again both the 2019 Spring Forum and the Annual Meeting were rousing successes. The Spring Forum in Chicago, which was co-chaired by Jenna Jensen (Thrivent) and Kate Lindsay (Akin Gump), was inspired by the Golden Gavels movie theme. The cocktail party Thursday evening included music choices from some of Hollywood’s greatest films. Amazingly, Spring Forum attendance eclipsed the record set by the 2018 Spring Forum. The Annual Meeting in New York, co-chaired by Nicole Windsor (Chapman) and Alfredo Cantoral (PPM), took us back to the time when Grand Central Station was America’s hub of transportation. Our thanks go out to Jenna, Kate, Nicole and Alfredo and the many moderators and panelists who invested so much of their time and talent into making the conferences incredibly valuable and entertaining to the attendees. Also, a special thank you to our management team at Madeleine Crouch & Co., especially CJ Marchain and her team, for keeping our conferences running like clockwork.
At the 2019 Annual Meeting, we elected three new Trustees and said good-bye to others. New Trustees include Daniel Favero (Mayer Brown), Danielle Maksimow (Norton Rose) and Alfredo Cantoral (PPM). We gave special thanks to Maureen Cronin (New York Life), Matthew Gabrys (NML) and Tom O’Connor (Akin) for their years of service on the board. We also acknowledged Armando Gamboa (Prudential) as he rotated out of his role as President; although I am personally grateful that as past president Armando will remain a Trustee and we’ll have continued access to his wise counsel.
I’d be negligent if I didn’t mention the fantastic one-hour CLE programs hosted by the Education Committee throughout the year. In January, we learned about the Ultra Petroleum case and its effect on Make-Whole Amounts. We learned more about Aviation Finance in March and Cybersecurity in July. Kudos to the Education Committee and the presenters, as all of these events were well attended and informative. I look forward to what the Education Committee has in store for 2020.
The board will meet in February for its annual strategic planning session. One of the main agenda items will be ways to enhance the ACIC experience for our members. To that end, if you have suggestions or questions, please reach out to me or any of our other Trustees at your convenience. We always appreciate input from members of the College on how to enhance the ACIC experience.
Our 2020 Spring Forum will be co-chaired by Patti Boss (Voya) and Michael Robson (Greenberg). I thank them for enthusiastically jumping into the Spring Forum and I’m sure it will be a rocking good time. The Spring Forum will again be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago on April 16th and 17th. Keep an eye out for the save-the-date and hotel reservation information that should be coming your way in the very near future.
The success of the College over the years has been hte result of the many members who have donated their time and talents to support the activities of the College. Thanks to all of you who have participated in the various conferences, CLE events and our various committees (TPMC, Education, Development, Website and Social Media, Membership, Nominating and Communications). I encourage all members to get the most out of their ACIC experience by volunteering on a committee, speaking at a conference or presenting a CLE topic. You will learn more about the College, gain knowledge on a topic of interest and also meet more of your colleagues in the industry. I promise you it will be well worth your time.
