BREAKOUT SESSION: Evolution of Insurance Compliance Reviews and Technology

Laura Bushey

Vice President, Insurance, Berkadia

Laura Bushey is responsible for managing Berkadia’s global insurance servicing operations, including compliance monitoring and claims processing. Laura previously held asset management, client relations, and project management positions at Berkadia. Laura has a diverse knowledge of the various types of loans and servicing requirements across life companies, CMBS, commercial banks, private lenders, and agencies. Laura joined Berkadia and its predecessor companies in 2000 and have over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry.

Ashwin Agarwal

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Advocate Technologies

Ashwin Agarwal is the CEO and Co-Founder of Advocate Technologies, a modern insurance consulting company leveraging world-class insurance consultants and technology to improve the insurance review process for commercial lenders. Ashwin has over 15 years of experience serving as a Board Member on insurance and reinsurance companies, as the lead insurance investor at a multi-billion private equity fund, and as a Mergers & Acquisitions investment banker at Goldman Sachs. In his career he has been a part of $10 billion+ of financing transactions as an investor. In these roles Ashwin advised the CEO’s of multi-national insurance companies on strategy, new product launches, and financings. At Advocate, Ashwin leads a team of 60+ insurance experts and technologists providing insurance reviews to lenders across pre-closings and servicing. His team oversees tens of thousands of loan reviews a year across commercial real estate including Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, HUD, CMBS, Construction, Bridge and other private lenders. He also directly oversees the product strategy and development of Advocate’s insurance compliance technology automation/AI platform which reduces loan time to close by 50% and improves the operational efficiency of reviews by 5x, delivering significantly lower insurance operational costs and high quality to lenders compared to legacy solutions.

Jennifer Clements

Senior Risk Manager, MF Risk Management, Insurance, Fannie Mae Multifamily

Jennifer Clements is Senior Risk Manager with Fannie Mae. She oversees insurance compliance for Multifamily Risk Underwriting and Multifamily Risk Management on a portfolio of $477 billion and almost thirty thousand loans. Jennifer has been with Fannie Mae for 16 years. Jennifer was an insurance industry professional for over 20 years prior to joining Fannie Mae. Her insurance and risk management knowledge and experience developed over years as a commercial insurance underwriter with The Hartford Financial Services Group, and as Program Underwriting Manager for CNA’s Design One Architects and Engineers Program, during her tenure with Managing General Underwriter, Victor O. Schinnerer (Victor). Jennifer has a Bachelor of Science in International Business and Associate Degree in Business Management. She is licensed in Property and Casualty insurance.

Emily Rasmussen

President and Chief Operating Officer, Resilience Insurance Analytics

Emily Rasmussen serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Resilience Insurance Analytics, an insurance consulting firm specialized in advising the nation’s top commercial lenders, investment banks, investment trusts, and issuers of private credit on most of the market’s largest and most complex transactions. With a view across 8,000 deals a year spanning the Agency, Private label CMBS, SASB, CLO, construction, bridge and balance sheet spaces, Rasmussen offers broad and dynamic insight into evolving insurance coverage expectations across market sectors, as well as the challenges borrowers face in meeting them, and the realistic availability and acceptability of proposed alternatives to legacy lender insurance requirements. As President and COO, she and her experienced team are responsible for interfacing directly with commercial lenders, GSEs, rating agencies, master and special servicers, commercial borrowers, and insurance brokers, playing the role of ambassador, educator, and facilitator to each, with the ultimate goal of maintaining risk averse credit underwriting for lender clients. Prior to joining Resilience, Ms. Rasmussen spent seven years as a Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer at Harbor Group Consulting. While there, she applied her years spent as a CMBS closer to hone the transaction management skills of the insurance focused review team. Ms. Rasmusen holds a BA from Michigan State University and a JD from Villanova University school of Law. She is a member of the CREFC Women’s Network, the Chief network for women executive leaders, and a recent addition to the ASTM property resilience standards working group.

Paul Wooldridge

MF Asset Mgmt Dir, Freddie Mac Multifamily

Paul Wooldridge is the Director of the Multifamily Insurance Compliance Team where he is responsible for day-to-day insurance compliance issues affecting all groups within the Multifamily Division, as well as customer service. His responsibilities include setting and updating Freddie Mac Multifamily Credit Policy requirements for borrower insurance associated with Freddie Mac loans, tracking insurance industry trends relevant to Multifamily lending, and providing guidance and recommendations to the Division related to insurance issues affecting the lending industry. He is also a member of Freddie Mac risk management teams supporting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives and analyses of impacts of natural disasters and Climate Change on Freddie Mac’s portfolio.