Founder and Chairman of Insurance Marketing and Management Services (IMMS) and Group 500, George Nordhaus has spent his entire working career as an information provider to the insurance industry.

IMMS is North America’s premier provider of marketing and management information to independent insurance agencies.

Group 500 is an affiliation group of more than 100 large insurance agencies and brokerages, joined together to market special programs and products.

If there were one word to describe Mr. Nordhaus it would probably be “creative." As an association executive (running the Tennessee and Indiana IIABA insurance agents associations) and as a publisher (founding Insurors Press, IMMS and then Group 500), Mr. Nordhaus has created or published more than 200 books, services, and other informational products.

A pioneer in the field of communications, Mr. Nordhaus lists a number of "firsts" for the industry including:

• The IIAA Management Service.
• Excess and Surplus Lines Manual.
• Risk Management Manual.
• CPCU Study Questionnaires.
• CPCU on Tape.
• Agency Management on Tape.
• Insurance licensing manuals for more than 20 states.
• More than 300 individual cassette tape interviews.
• The Nordhaus Insurance Marketing System.
• Agency Marketing and Management on CD-ROM and the Web (http://www.imms.com/), world’s largest insurance agency informational Website.
• CompleteAuto (agency answer to autobytel, Autoweb, etc.).
• 2OrderDirect, only national direct order Web site for independent agencies.
• Over 100 online, permanent “Webinars” each year.

Along the way, Mr. Nordhaus found time to write eight books on insurance sales and marketing, author a weekly newsletter for 40 consecutive years, write columns and articles for practically every trade magazine, and appear as a speaker at more than 3,000 insurance conferences and conventions.

In the early l970s, he became one of the youngest “Names” (investors) in Lloyds of London. He later served as the Southern California/Nevada/Arizona and New Mexico Chairman for the Association of Lloyds Members.

Mr. Nordhaus was honored by the Boston Board of Fire Underwriters as “Insurance Person of the Year”; by the Insurance Marketing Communications Association as their annual Golden Torch Award Recipient; and served for many years as an Elector to the Insurance Hall of Fame.

VIRGINIA M. BATES has over twenty-five years of experience consulting with agencies and carriers as well as managing insurance operations for both a carrier and a large regional agency. She has a background in all property and casualty lines, experience as director of a country-wide underwriting school and direct involvement in many industry automated systems. As co-founder of VMB Associates Inc., she has worked with many agencies/brokerages on intelligent selection and use of technology, profitability, reducing E&O exposure, internal operations, marketing strategies, carrier relationships and successful use of technology. She speaks often on the evolving exposures and preventive strategies related to automation and electronic processing and documentation. She has conducted E&O audits and rehabilitation projects for agencies at the request of E&O carriers. She developed and produced the Vendor Comparison Workshops that have helped thousands of agencies determine their automation needs and options.

She is a certified E&O instructor and regularly creates and conducts educational programs for many state agents' associations, carriers and vendor groups. These programs encompass both technical subjects (such as personal and commercial risk management, direct and indirect property coverages, advanced workers comp coverages and rating, and umbrella coverages) and management subjects (such as E&O prevention, business planning, disaster recovery, profitable use of automation and procedures manual creation and implementation).

Virginia has consulted with the Rough Notes Company and is a frequent contributor and commentator in articles about a wide variety of subjects that appear in Rough Notes Magazine.

Virginia's educational background includes an honors degree from Swarthmore College and graduate work in management science. She is a licensed broker and licensed insurance adviser.

SOME SAMPLE REVIEW COMMENTS (from classes and consulting work):

• "Her positive attitude is always inspirational. Her knowledge of material is always enlightening. The industry should be proud to have her."

• "The Best!"

• "Virginia explains everything and she is able to keep it interesting."

• "Excellent - Good sense of humor."

• "Real life examples and time went by so fast."

• "Relaxed yet comprehensive" "She was fantastic."

• "I wish I had Virginia Bates for all my classes."

• "I look forward to Virginia Bates teaching seminars."

• “I love to have you in our office. Everything seems possible at the end of the day.”

To contact VMB Associates about consultation services or educational offerings to your agency, brokerage, or company: email Virginia Bates at vmbinc@aol.com or call her at 781-665-0623.

Donna Collins brings over thirteen years of Human Resources, Information Systems, and project management experience to IHS from several nationally known organizations.

As an Assistant Vice President of HR Information Technology at Putnam Investments, Donna utilized her project management expertise and extensive knowledge of PeopleSoft HRMS to develop, design and implement HR systems. At KPMG Consulting, she served in several HR roles, covering recruiting, benefits administration and employee relations. Donna pairs her exceptional organizational and quantitative skills with process re-engineering and issue-resolution to deliver results.

She holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Eastern Nazarene College, and an M.B.A. in Management/Human Resources from Suffolk University.

In her free time Donna enjoys spending time with her two young boys and husband. She has also worked in the health and fitness industry as a group fitness instructor for over seventeen years.