John Moccia
InnovationGuard
Principal, The Rollins Agency (Part of Brown & Brown of New York)
John is recognized as one of the pioneers in insurance for the technology and venture capital industries. He has designed innovative insurance and risk management programs for some of the most sophisticated and diverse high tech businesses over the past twenty years. These include businesses in digital and social media, medical technology, e-commerce, telecommunications and virtually every type of Internet-based business. As one of the earliest agents to focus on technology companies, he also had to adapt their coverages to cyber risks. Technology companies were the earliest adopters of cyber insurance so John is also a pioneer in that field.
John is a founder of TechAssure, an international association of brokers specializing in insuring technology companies and the companies that invest in them. He is past Chairman of the Board and current Board member of the organization. John has been instrumental in working with many industry trade associations including the ITAA and The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). He also developed the first ever insurance program for the NY Software Industry Association in 1997. He is responsible for managing the NVCA’s insurance program for members based in NY, NJ & CT.
Sylvia B. Menetre, CIC, ARM
Vice President, BB&T Insurance Services, Atlanta, GA
Sylvia serves as a Professional Liability Resource throughout the BB&T insurance agency footprint, primarily focusing on the Southeast. She works at a strategic level to develop a service plan to meet their business goals. Sylvia is able to work with the client to evaluate exposures to risk, discuss risk control/transfer options, market an appropriate insurance product and plays the key role in the presentation and explanation of critical details.
Sylvia works on a very wide range of vertical industries and account sizes. She has experience with virtually every type of cyber risk and recently placed a very large retail client during a period of great turbulence in the market due to the many retail cyber-attacks.
She has in excess of 25 years of experience in agency account management, production, marketing and corporate risk management. She has expertise and accomplished success in all lines of Property & Casualty including Professional and Executive lines such as E&O, D&O, EPL, & Fiduciary Liability. Sylvia also has her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a major in Risk Management and Insurance from the University of Georgia.
Douglas R. Jones, CPCU, ARM
Senior Vice President & Principal, Roach Howard Smith & Barton, Dallas, TX
Doug Jones leads Roach Howard Smith & Barton’s Technology, Life Sciences & Media (TLM) practice. Doug’s expertise includes highly targeted insurance products such as Directors & Officers, Errors & Omissions and Cyber Liability and he is frequently asked to speak on these topics.
Doug has many years of experience with all types of technology companies. He has worked with startups and publicly-traded companies as well. Since technology firms were the earliest adopters of cyber insurance, he is a pioneer in placing this coverage. He has made some of the largest placements and handled some of the most significant and complex claims.
Prior to joining the firm, Doug served as Executive Vice President at a Dallas-based insurance agency, where he headed the Technology and Directors & Officers Liability divisions. During his tenure there, he led the agency to elite status with technology insurance carriers and helped develop a national program through National Venture Capital Association that provided best-in-class management liability protection. He is a past Chairman of TechAssure the premier agency association dedicated to cutting-edge risk management solutions for technology companies.
Bruce Irvine
Vice President, Johnson and Bryan Agency, Atlanta, GA
Bruce is a dedicated risk management professional with over 34 years of commercial experience. Bruce has experience working in all sizes of insurance brokerages – small, regional and publicly-owned, international firms. The primary vertical market risks that he focuses on are education, real estate, hospitality, financial services, technology, food service, manufacturing, and non-profits, all of which have special cyber risk management needs.
He has a very long history of working with all types of technology companies. Many of his clients are involved in the most complex and cutting edge technologies. As such, many of these companies were early purchasers of cyber insurance and, therefore, Bruce became a pioneer in this field as well.
His long time experience working with technology companies has led him to write some of the very first cyber policies.
He is a graduate of Georgia State University with a degree in Risk Management.