Paul C. Burke, CIC, CRM, LIA
Paul has been involved in the insurance industry for over thirty years.  The first ten years were spent as a producer before he purchased two agencies, founding Insurit Agency Incorporated in Fall River, Massachusetts.

He received his CIC designation in 1986, and has been teaching the Elite School, Basic Personal Auto, CISR classes and CIC Institutes ever since. He received his CRM designation in 2001.  Paul is a past member of the Board of Directors for the Fall River Insurance Agents Association, and MAIA. He served on the Board of Directors of the Fall River Chamber of Commerce, in 2007 he was the Chairman of the Board, and he was Chair of their legislative affairs committee for ten years. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the USS Massachusetts Memorial Comm. D/B/A Battleship Massachusetts. He presently sits on the Boards of Directors of the Swansea Ambulance Corp. and the South Coast Partnership,

Paul lives in the Town of Swansea with his wife Donna. He is thirty four year veteran of the Swansea Volunteer Fire Department. He served on the Towns Advisory & Finance Board for 15 years; it’s Board of Selectmen for 3 years and has been the Town Moderator for 12 years serving in his 5th 3 year term.

Paul graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth with a Bachelors of Science degree in Finance.

Mike D’Orlando, CIC, LIA, Educational Training & Consulting Services
Michael D’Orlando, CIC, is an education consultant and instructor for MAIA. In 1982, Mike began his insurance career at Welsh & Parker Insurance Agency in Hudson, MA and started teaching in 1989 while still working at the agency. In 1998, Mike established his company Educational Training and Consulting Services and became a full time instructor. Mike teaches a wide range of commercial lines and personal lines courses including the popular one hour webinars. He has served as a member of the Mass. Continuing Education Course Review Committee.

Jack Dumpert
Jack Dumpert has been in the surety bonding business for 40 years. He worked at Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland for 10 years having started there as a trainee and ending up as the branch manager. He also worked at Joseph J Naples and Associates for 25 years as Bond Manager and Vice President. Currently, Jack works as a Surety Bond Broker at Vanner Insurance Agency. He has his MBA from the University of Buffalo. He has served as President of the Surety Association of Buffalo as well as Chairman for the Construction Exchange of Buffalo and Western New York. Mr. Dumpert also teaches the New York State Agents and Broker’s License Course at Canisius College and Bryant & Stratton Business Institute. He is a frequent speaker on the subject of bonds before Insurance, Construction, Accounting and Attorney Organizations.

Robin C. Federici, CPCU, AAI, ARM, CPIW
Robin C. Federici, CPCU, AAI, ARM, CPIW, is the founder of Insurance Education and Training Associates, LLC (IETA) of North Kingstown, RI, a strategic provider of quality CE approved property & Casualty insurance educational programs designed to meet the needs of the P&C insurance professional. 

She has been in the insurance profession for over thirty years and has acquired an in-depth knowledge and experience in both insurance agency and company operations and procedures.  
For over fifteen years, Robin served as the Director of Education for Rhode Island's largest professional trade association for independent insurance agents and brokers.  She was the primary instructor and course creator for the vast majority of their education programs.  In 2003, Robin formed her own training and consulting company, Insurance Education & Training Associates, LLC (IETA).

She is a past president of the RI Chapter Society of CPCU and served as a member of their Scholarship Board.  Robin also served a three-year term as a National Governor and member of the national Society of CPCU Board of Governors.

Robin is a Technical Insurance & Agency Management expert for the IIABA Virtual University.
Robin’s passion is teaching - whether in Rhode Island or nationally - and as a nationally recognized creative insurance trainer, Robin knows that well-educated insurance professionals are an asset to consumers.
Robin creates a distinctive learning experience with each of her unique, custom-written programs.

Douglas J. Fleming, LUTCF
Mr. Fleming entered the life insurance business in 1971 with the Boston agency of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company.   After ten years, in addition to personal production, he was named to a management position as new agent training supervisor, a position he held for five years. He then joined the Berkshire Life Insurance Company as agency supervisor, a position he held for ten years. He is currently affiliated with the Boston agency of Union Central Life in a brokerage capacity.

Mr. Fleming moderates licensing and continuing education classes for MAIA, PIA NY, NJ and CT, and also provides continuing education classes to the insurance industry in the greater Boston area. He is a member of the National Faculty for the National Alliance, Austin TX, and teaches throughout the United States in their CIC program. In 2005, he assumed the duties of Educational Consultant for the PIA of New York in their CIC program.

Jill Haynes Gidge, CPCU, CIC, CISR, CRIS, AAI, ACSR, AAM, AIT, CPIW, AIS, BSN, RN
Jill Haynes Gidge is a Magna Cum Laude Baccalaureate degree graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell where she majored in applied science and nursing, and minored in behavioral science. She was an agency principal in an independent property and casualty agency for over 30 years, and oversaw the commercial lines department from 1984 until 2002. She founded Insure-Ed, an independent insurance education consulting and training company, in 1996. She has been instructing insurance education programs for more than 15 years. She serves an instructor for the National Alliance for both the Certified Insurance Service Representative (CISR) and Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) programs, for the Insurance Institutes of American (IIA) and the American Institute for Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters (AICPCU), for the CPCU Society’s Center for Leadership and for the Insurance Risk Management Institute IRMI). She also does expert witness work for Errors and Omissions cases. Jill resides in Nashua, New Hampshire.

William Hofmann, III, CPCU, CLU, AAI, CIC, LIA
William Hofmann, III, CPCU, CLU, AAI, CIC, LIA, is the Executive Vice President and Treasurer of Provider Insurance Group, Inc. He is a graduate of Boston University and received his MBA from Suffolk University.

In 1963, Bill started with Hofmann Insurance Agency, Inc. and continues to work in the agency (now Provider Insurance Group, Inc.) after a brief stint with Sheraton Hotel Corporation and Field and Cowles. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers, MinuteMan Insurance Company, Ltd., and Fannie Mae Corporation.

He has served as President of the Independent Insurance Agents of Massachusetts and as Chairman of the Education Committee, State National Director, Executive Committee Member and President of the Independent Insurance Agents of America.

He is a past director (1980 to 1987) of the former Professional Insurance Agents of New England, and chaired its Massachusetts Steering Committee.  During 1987-1988, John led “Project Perspective,” the purpose of which was to foster a better understanding by agents of company operations and of company personnel of agent operations.  Several New England agencies and the Aetna Insurance Company participated.

John obtained his degree from Boston College, spent two years on active duty in the US Army, and graduated from the Reliance Insurance Company School.

Bruce Thomas, CPCU, CIC, CRIS
Bruce Thomas is an independent insurance education presenter, operating out of Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Currently, he facilitates courses for the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, the National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research (CIC courses), the International Risk Management Institute, the American Institute for CPCU, and the Insurance Institute of America. Bruce also instructs various courses designed to fulfill agency personnel's need for Continuing Education requirements.

He is currently working for AICPCU as an Online Self-Paced Training Storyboarder assisting in their efforts to covert textbook delivery to an on-line system He is a test writer for the INS series.   As a long-time member of the Society of Insurance Trainers and Educators (SITE), Bruce has given workshops and seminars on "Presentation Techniques" at several national conferences. He is a member of the Bay Colonies Chapter of the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD).

Both his agency and company experience provide unique perspectives to his present work in the field of insurance education. Bruce is a licensed Property & Casualty producer in Rhode Island where he maintains a modest book of business.

Bernie Torri, CIC, ITP, LIB LReB, Technical Specialist
Bernie is a Technical Specialist with Aon Benfield, in their US Learning and Development department’s Boston office. His primary function is a regional instructor of insurance courses to brokers throughout various Aon offices. The courses cover all personal and commercial lines of property / casualty insurance and have basic, intermediate and advanced levels of expertise. Other courses include time management and DiSC (behavior) courses.

Bernie began his insurance career as a personal lines producer for American Mutual Insurance Companies in 1984. He switched to the agency side and specialized in commercial lines working for Aon Risk Services and then some regional brokers before working as a Senior Business Analyst for a Arbella Protection Insurance Company, specializing in facultative reinsurance placement and training underwriters and retail agents.

Bernie is affiliated with Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents (MAIA) as a staff instructor for commercial and personal lines seminars. He is also a member of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Division of Insurance, Continuing Education Review Committee. Bernie graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Northeastern University in Boston and has held the CIC designation since 1995 and licensed as an all lines insurance broker since 1984. Bernie is also a licensed reinsurance intermediary insurance broker in Massachusetts. As a member of Society of Insurance Trainers and Educators (SITE), Bernie holds their ITP Insurance Training Professional designation.