Events

Sajjad Ahmed
VP, Product Management, Applied Systems

Sajjad is a seasoned product leader with over 30 years of experience in the enterprise software industry, currently serving as Vice President of Product Management at Applied Systems. He is currently focused on Enterprise capabilities in Epic, including the development of Epic Max, the insurance industry’s leading AI-powered automation platform. Throughout his distinguished career, he has led high-impact product teams at major technology companies including Elastic, Splunk, SAP, and Siebel Systems, driving key innovations in search technology, cloud-native microservices, and AI-driven platforms. Sajjad holds both a Master of Engineering and a BS with Distinction in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. Beyond his technical leadership, he is a published author of two science fiction novels, Dark Matter and Dark Energy, showcasing a unique blend of technical expertise and creative storytelling.

Laura Amedeo
Senior Director of Product Management, Applied Systems

Laura Amedeo is a Senior Director of Product Management at Applied Systems, where she leads data platform products including Dashboards, Data Lake, and Data Science Insights. With 18 years of product management experience in the insurance software industry, Laura brings deep expertise in building scalable, data-driven solutions. She is passionate about helping customers harness their data to become more informed, agile, and insight driven organizations.

Tara Butler
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Applied Systems

Amanda Crawford
Director of Operations, Compass Insurance

Amanda Crawford is the Director of Operations at Compass Insurance, where she specializes in agency structural organization, technology implementation, and fostering employee relations. With a background in both personal and commercial lines, Amanda brings nearly two decades of industry experience to her role. As Co-Leader of the EZLynx User Alliance, Amanda is passionate about empowering agencies to feel confident using the EZLynx platform, enabling them to grow and streamline their operations. She is also dedicated to cultivating a positive and collaborative community of EZLynx users who share knowledge and promote growth and learning.

Danielle DuFour
Operations Manager, NBT Insurance Agency

Danielle DuFour serves as an Operations Manager with over 14 years of experience in the insurance and financial services industry. Her work focuses on reporting, analytics, and operational process improvement across cross-functional teams. Danielle plays an active leadership role within the Large Agent Alliance (LAA), where she contributes to collaborative initiatives and industry discussions. Her approach emphasizes data-informed decision-making and continuous improvement, supporting organizations in enhancing efficiency and performance.

Cal Durland
Director, Agency Customer Success, Ivans

Cal Durland leads a team of insurance professionals who collaborate daily with independent agents to help broaden automation connections through agency management systems. She also leads AUGIE Group, working with industry leaders to identify opportunities to improve processes, technology, and efficiency across the independent agency distribution channel.

Jerry Fetty
CEO/Founder, SMART Services

Jerry Fetty is a cybersecurity and AI-focused technology leader who works with independent insurance agencies to reduce risk, protect sensitive data, and adopt AI responsibly. With 35 plus years in the technology industry, he partners with agency owners and teams to establish practical governance and technical foundations that enable safe automation and measurable productivity gains. A frequent speaker at insurance industry events nationwide, Jerry has delivered numerous classes and presentations for agency owners and teams, with a strong focus on practical AI adoption over the past year. His sessions emphasize real-world use cases, staff enablement, and security-first implementation. Jerry holds multiple certifications, including Microsoft, Cisco, and CompTIA, reflecting deep experience across identity and access, endpoint and email protection, network security, backup and recovery resilience, and incident response planning. He is known for a pragmatic, business-first approach that turns complex security and AI objectives into clear priorities and durable outcomes.

Shawn Francis
Customer Success Manager, Ivans

Shawn Francis is an experienced customer service, business development, and sales executive with more than 25 years of experience cultivating strong customer and partner relationships while driving new client acquisition. His expertise spans software, insurance, consulting, IT education, and online solutions.

Charles Frumerie
Principal UX Designer, Applied Systems

Charles is a Principal UX Designer at Applied Systems, where he conducts user research, designs solutions, and frames everything in the real context of the user. He’s passionate about understanding the user and meeting them where they are with easy, obvious value. Outside of work, Charles stays active with his amazing, goofy family and hiking/skiing the incredible mountains of Colorado.

Sara Gallagher
President, The Persimmon Group

Sara Gallagher is President of The Persimmon Group and a recognized expert in strategy execution, PMO leadership, and project portfolio management. For more than 15 years, she has helped organizations—from Fortune 500 companies to fast-moving startups—address the real barriers to execution. A frequent speaker, author, and instructor, Sara has contributed to PMI’s global standards and delivered international keynotes on strategy execution and organizational change.

Brenna Johnson
SVP, Product Management, Applied Systems

Brenna Johnson is passionate about leveraging technology to solve business problems for independent insurance agents. As Senior VP Product Management, she leads the EZLynx product team and is responsible for the overall strategy and direction of the EZLynx Platform. Under Brenna’s leadership, her team is passionate about their vision to help agencies become twice as productive. The method is rooted in a deep understanding of customer needs, informed by market and customer data. This approach has made EZLynx to be the fastest growing system in the market for over a decade. She and her products have received several industry honors including being named in Elite Women in Insurance and many other product awards. She leverages her M.B.A. in Strategic Management and B.A. in Communication and Marketing to bridge the gap between insurance and technology to drive innovation for her customers. Brenna’s favorite part of her job is hearing how the EZLynx products help agencies become more effective and drive growth.

Rajat Kongovi
SVP, Product Management, Applied Systems

Rajat is the SVP of Product for Commercial Lines at Applied, where he leads the innovation strategy for the commercial lines ecosystem. A seasoned executive with a track record of delivering transformative insurance and financial platforms, Rajat previously served as Chief Product Officer at Vouch Insurance. At Vouch, he built the company’s core underwriting, policy administration, and agency management systems from inception through the acquisition of its MGA by Hiscox. Prior to Vouch, Rajat was VP of Product at NerdWallet following the acquisition of a startup he founded. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, he leverages his deep background in technology and insurance to deliver AI-driven solutions that simplify processes and empower industry experts to focus on high-value “hero work.”

Matt Lane
SVP, Product Management, Applied Systems

Matt Lane is SVP of Product Management at Applied Systems, where he is responsible for Epic, CSR24, Epic Quotes Personal Lines, and Applied Marketing Automation. His background includes product leadership roles at Sabre Corporation and consulting experience at Bain & Company and Fiserv.

Brian Langerman
Chief Executive Officer, Applied Client Network

Brian Langerman is a business management executive with more than 20 years of technology experience across corporate, association, and technology communities. His expertise includes strategic marketing, operations management, channel management, change management, and the leadership of large-scale initiatives supporting the Applied Systems user community.

Paul Milano
Senior Manager, Product Management, Applied Systems

Paul is a Senior Product Manager at Applied, focused on improving core Epic workflow innovation and efficiency. He has over 10+ years of experience in leading product initiatives for SaaS companies and driving actionable strategies and efficiencies for customers. Currently he leads one of the top AI initiatives to help ensure Applied users spend less time on busy work and more on adding real value to their customers.

Chase Petrey
President, Applied Pay at Applied Systems

Chase Petrey is an accomplished executive and seasoned general manager with extensive experience in the enterprise software industry. As President of Applied Pay at Applied Systems, he leads the strategic direction and growth of Applied’s integrated digital payments platform.

Katarina Pregelj
GM, Underwriter Solutions, Applied Systems

Michael Rabinowitz
Product Manager, EZLynx

Michael Rabinowitz brings nearly 30 years of experience in serving and developing solutions for the independent insurance agent channel. He began his career as a commercial insurance agent before transitioning to insurtech in 2000, where he pioneered one of the earliest online commercial rating platforms. Over the years, Michael has designed insurance solutions for organizations such as Bolt Insurance, Liberty Mutual, The Hartford, Wells Fargo, American Express, LexisNexis, IIABA, and others. In his current role as Product Manager at EZLynx, he oversees commercial workflows within the EZLynx AMS and leads initiatives to transform the end-to-end commercial submission and application process.

Nash Qadri
VP, Product Management - Applied Pay

Nash is a highly experienced software product and engineering leader who thrives on every aspect of the creativity-fueled process—from customer discovery to the collaborative efforts of product management, execution, and delivery. He has a proven track record, having successfully built, led, and supported multifaceted teams in delivering both B2C and B2B mobile, web-based software, and hardware products that delight users. As the current Vice President of Product Management and Development, Nash takes the helm in guiding and leading the product and development teams for the Applied Pay and Financial Management products.

Amanda Recchia
Director, Product Management, Applied Systems

Amanda leads product strategy and vision for communications and workflow management domains in Epic. With more than 18 years of experience across a wide range of roles at Applied Systems she is dedicated to understanding and solving real-world challenges to improve workflow efficiency and elevate the service experience between agents and brokers, and their customers.

Ephie Risho
Director, UX, Applied Systems

Ephie is Director of UX at Applied Systems, leading user experience research and design across Commercial Lines, Ivans, extend Epic capabilities, and Europe. He brings a deep background in insurance and fintech, scaling UX at fast-moving companies with a focus on practical design that drives real business outcomes. When he’s not shaping enterprise UX, he’s writing fantasy novels—because world-building turns out to be great training for designing software. He lives in Montana with his wife and two teenagers, where “user research” often involves negotiating screen time, chores, and who gets the last slice of pizza.

Tammi Shapiro
SVP and GM, Benefits Solutions, Applied Systems

Tammi is the SVP and GM for Benefits Solutions at Applied where she leads product and GTM for the Benefits business. Tammi has built her career in enterprise software, with a deep focus in the broader financial services and technology space. Prior to joining Applied she was the global head of product for financial services at ServiceNow where she launched and led strategy and product management for the banking and insurance industries. Her prior experience includes roles at Fiserv, CashEdge, American Express and A.T. Kearney. She received her BA from Northwestern University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Catherine Shertenlieb
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Applied Systems

Catherine “Cap” Shertenlieb is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Applied Systems with more than 30 years of insurance industry experience. Her background spans product instruction, workflow consulting, solution consulting, and product marketing, helping agencies connect technology to real-world results.

Carla Spencer
FVP, Director, Employee Development, Alliant Insurance Services

Carla Spencer serves as Director of Employee Development at Alliant Insurance Services, bringing more than 20 years of insurance industry experience across learning and development, underwriting, marketing, and account management. She also serves on the Applied Client Network Board of Directors.

Lexie Tonelli
Head of Strategy & Operations, Fulcrum

Lexie leads Operations and Customer Success at Fulcrum, a vertical AI startup transforming how insurance brokerages scale through AI-driven workflows. She focuses on turning advanced technology into real operational impact, helping customers adopt tools that drive efficiency and lasting process improvement. Previously, Lexie spent the bulk of her career McKinsey in the Banking and Financial Services practice, leading large-scale operational transformations and technology implementations for financial institutions, with a focus on emerging technologies like AI. She holds an MBA from MIT and a B.S. in Math from Vanderbilt University.

Jason Wankovsky
Chief Revenue Officer, Rhodian Group

Jason Wankovsky is a seasoned sales leader with more than 20 years of experience delivering IT solutions and managed services that drive measurable business outcomes for organizations across the insurance industry.