Sebelius Elected NAIC President for 2001; Vaughan, Pickens Selected as Officers

Members of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners have elected regulators from Kansas, Iowa and Arkansas as the organization’s officers for 2001 during its Winter National Meeting in Boston.

“We are in the midst of an exciting transformation of the state regulatory process, focused on enhancing consumer protection and solvency oversight of companies. Our goal for 2001 is to focus on the development of enhanced consumer protections and anti-fraud protections and to work on the implementation of all of our initiatives,” NAIC President and Kansas Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius said.

Incoming NAIC President Sebelius was first elected Kansas Insurance Commissioner in 1994 and was re-elected in 1998. Prior to being elected Commissioner, Sebelius was a four-term legislator in the Kansas House of Representatives from Topeka, the state’s capital. Sebelius chairs the NAIC’s Health Insurance and Managed Care Committee, the Privacy Issues Working Group and the NAIC/HCFA Liaison Committee. She is the vice chair of the Internal Administration Subcommittee and the NAIC/Consumer Participation Board of Trustees. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Kansas and a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in Washington, D.C.

NAIC members today elected Terri Vaughan, the current secretary-treasurer and Iowa Insurance Commissioner, as vice president.

“In the past year that I have been an officer, we have worked hard to thwart the establishment of NARAB by implementing the Producer Licensing Model Act and coordinating with federal regulators. As vice president, I will continue working with members to advocate the adoption of the Producer Licensing Model by all the states so that state regulation can become an even stronger and more uniform system,” said NAIC Vice President and Iowa Insurance Commissioner Terri Vaughan.

Vaughan also serves as chair of the NAIC’s Coordinating with Federal Regulators Working Group, the NARAB Working Group and the Blanks Task Force. In September of 2000 she became president of the board of the National Insurance Producer Registry.

Vaughan was appointed commissioner of the Iowa Insurance Division in August of 1994. Prior to being appointed commissioner, she was the Director of the Insurance Center at Drake University. Previously, she served as a consultant with Tillinghast, A Towers Perin Company. Other previous academic assignments include working as an Assistant Professor of Economics and Finance at Baruch College of the City University of New York and as an Adjunct Professor at Temple University.

Vaughan has a B.B.A from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in Managerial Science and Applied Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of numerous articles on insurance and finance.

NAIC Members today elected Arkansas Commissioner Mike Pickens to serve as secretary-treasurer of the organization.

“I am honored to accept this position and look forward to serving with my fellow officers. Our toughest challenges as state regulators are now before us. State regulation is the best system, and I am committed to working with the rest of the members to make it more efficient and responsive to consumers,” said NAIC Secretary-Treasurer and Arkansas Commissioner Mike Pickens.

Pickens was appointed commissioner of the Arkansas Insurance Department in 1997 and has been re-appointed by his governor to serve another four years. He currently serves as the vice chair of the NAIC’s Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation Committee.

Prior to assuming the post of insurance commissioner, Pickens was a partner in the Little Rock law firm of Friday, Eldredge, and Clark where he practiced insurance defense litigation. He also maintained a small family law caseload while working at the firm. In his law practice, Pickens principally represented insurance companies and employers in personal injury and workers’ compensation cases. He graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in a pre-medicine curriculum. Pickens graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree.

Topics Legislation Education Kansas Iowa Universities