The International Insurance Society (IIS) has announced three candidates for the 2016 Insurance Hall of Fame: Donald Kramer, chairman and chief executive officer, ILS Capital Management; Jozef De Mey, chairman of the board, Ageas; Georges Dionne, Professor, Finance Department, HEC Montreal.

Kramer formed and led several successful property/casualty insurance and reinsurance companies over a 54 year span. In addition to being a leading innovator in investment banking research, he is well known for establishing new companies from the ground up, including NAC Re, Tempest Re and Ariel Re.

Kramer is currently chairman and principal owner of ILS Capital LLC and ILS Capital Limited which specializes in creating and managing investments in insurance-linked securities. His name has long been linked to the arts and the non-profit sectors as well.

De Mey‘s experience in the world of insurance span as time frame almost as long as Kramer’s—at more than 45 years. As Chairman of Ageas, he presided over transformation of the group towards an independent international insurance group during an unprecedented period of crisis following the breakup of Fortis in 2008. “The insurance business had to emerge from the remnants of a banking and insurance group that found itself at the epicenter of the financial crisis in 2008,” IIS said in the announcement, crediting him De May with crucial leadership in bringing about one of the greatest comebacks in financial history.

Dionne is a Professor of Finance and the Canada Research Chair in Risk Management at HEC Montréal, a French-language university offering management education and research, and the first business school established in Canada.

He was previously a visiting scholar in the Department of Risk Management and Insurance at Georgia State University and in the Economics Department at École Polytechnique in France.

Dionne has authored a number of books that are widely used in insurance Ph.D. programs around the world, including the “Handbook of Insurance.” He is also rated among top risk management researchers in the world—the recipient of numerous awards in recognition of his contributions to academia and to society.

IIS said that the 2016 Laureate will be announced in December and the award will be presented before an expected audience of more than 500 insurance leaders at the June 13 gala dinner in conjunction with the IIS Global Insurance Forum at the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore (June 12 – 15).

The Insurance Hall of Fame, administered by the IIS, was created in 1957 and today boasts over 100 Laureates from around the globe. The IIS mission is one of international collaboration.

The Insurance Hall of Fame award honors insurance standouts who have made a broad, encompassing and lasting contribution to the insurance industry and who are recognized by their peers as successful leaders, innovators and visionaries.

Nominees for the Insurance Hall of Fame are selected by the IIS Honors Committee, a body of senior insurance executives and academics, and voted on by the IIS membership by secret ballot which is tabulated and conducted by an independent auditing firm of Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Recent Laureates include Stephen Catlin of XL Group plc, Denis Kessler of SCOR, the late Robert Benmosche of AIG, Ikuo Uno of Nippon Life and Brian Duperreault of Hamilton Insurance Group.

Source: International Insurance Society