Sharon Emek, Ph.D., CEO & President
Dr. Emek has been a partner at CBS Coverage Group, Inc., a regional full service insurance agency with multiple locations. In 1998, Emek founded Metro Partners, Inc., a managed agency organization, where she managed 38 agencies on an outsource basis using service center and internet technology to create the Virtual Insurance Agency model of the future. Prior to forming Metro Partners, she was President of The Emek Group, an insurance agency she formed in 1988, which grew to be one of the largest women owned insurance agencies in the country. Emek is a prolific public speaker on insurance and business issues. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, CBS, and Lifetime TV and is often quoted in numerous insurance and news periodicals including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Underwriter, Business Insurance and others. more...
As an authority on insurance issues, Emek has testified before the New York State Assembly Insurance Committee, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee Subcommittees and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Emek is the first woman to receive the Sidney O. Smith Government Affairs Award from the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (2007). She has received numerous other awards including the Outstanding Committee Chairperson Award (2008) and the Distinguished Service Award (2000) from the Independent Insurance Agents & Broker of New York, the Helen Garvin Outstanding Achiever Award from the National Association of Insurance Women (1999), the Women of Power and Influence Award from the National Organization for Women New York City chapter (1999) and the National Promising Research Award for her doctoral research (1978). Emek served on the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York Board for 10 years and is a past chair. She currently serves as a board member of Agents Council for Technology Chairing the Mid-Commercial Real-Time Business Process Working Group, the Institute for Student Achievement, and the Women’s Builders Council. She is past president of the National Association of Women Business Owners – NYC, a past board member of the Center for Women’s Business Research, NYC Mayor’s Small Business Advisory Board, the IBM Small Business Research and Technology Advisory Council, the Family Business Council of Greater New York, the NYC Women’s Economic Development Task Force, and the New York Women’s Agenda. Emek received her doctoral degree from Rutgers University (1977). She is the author of Answers for Managers, translated into several languages, and is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Finance and Business, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who of American Women, The World Who’s Who of Women.
Frank Sentner, COO
Sentner is regularly consulted by insurance agencies, carriers, ACORD, agency management system vendors, policy administration system vendors, and other insurance software vendors. Mr. Sentner is frequently interviewed by national trade publications on technology issues affecting the insurance industry. Sentner is the founder of Soulware, Ltd, which has been providing consulting services to the insurance industry since 1998, specializing in the implementation of technology solutions designed to improve business process integration between insurance carriers and independent agencies. In 1998, Sentner was Chief Information Officer of Metro Partners, an insurance agency back-office outsourcing service center, supporting 38 agencies. Sentner directed the call center site evaluation and selection; call and data center facility design and implementation; and the telecommunications infrastructure design and implementation. more...
In 1984, Sentner founded CISCO Technologies, Inc. As President of CISCO Technologies, Sentner designed and directed development of the first ACORD data standard agency management system which today is called Sagitta and which is still one of the most sophisticated agency management systems in the industry. CISCO Technologies succeeded in winning the contract to provide the next generation of agency management system for Aetna agents. Sentner began his career in 1976 at Insurnet, one of the first technology companies to develop agency management systems for independent insurance agents and brokers. At Insurnet, Sentner was the project manager for the development of the first comprehensive personal and commercial lines database for independent insurance agencies and brokerage firms.
Bill Hunt, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer
Bill Hunt is a long term veteran at working with solutions for the insurance industry and is known as one of the best leaders of sales teams in the industry. He has been a sales consultant for the Lexis Nexis Insurance Exchange. Previously, Hunt was Sr. Vice President at Artizan Internet Srvices, a leading company in products that serve the entire Insurance value chain and Executive Vice President at XDimensional Tehcnologies. As a Sales Executive with many successful years at SAP, AMS and CISGEM, Hunt built several successful sales and marketing teams and worked successfully with many of the industry’s leading national brokers and carriers. Hunt has also worked with many of the industry’s leading innovation companies delivering new state of the art solutions that have had significant success in the insurance industry. He has authored articles that have appeared in many publications and is often interviewed for articles and background research regarding technology in the Insurance Space.
Anthony Caragliano, CPA, CFO
Caragliano is a Certified Public Accountant with broad financial experience at large firms, a venture capital company and start up companies. He currently performs internal audits and due diligence reviews of potential acquisition targets for a large service center company. Previously, he was the controller for Professional Benefits Solutions, Inc., a software development and payroll processing company. From 2000 to 2002, Caragliano was the Vice President, Chief Financial/Operations Officer of Tellus Capital LLC. He had overall responsibility for accounting, finance and administration for this venture capital company and its portfolio companies. more...
He performed due diligence reviews on potential target companies and prepared business plans and models utilized in private placement memorandums. He designed and developed the customer interface, back office accounting systems, security and compliance systems and supervised the integration with correspondent computer systems; and he developed standards for customer acceptance and implementation of fraud verification system for all transactions. From 1995 to 2000, Caragliano was the Chief Financial/Operations Officer of ICD Group International Inc. where he had overall responsibility for finance, treasury and administration for this privately owned trading company. From 1986 to 1994, Caragliano was the Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Elders Finance Group where he was responsible for finance, treasury, compliance and administration. The company’s assets exceeded of $2 billion and equity in excess of $100 million. He developed strategy for all systems of internal control, communications and data processing. Caragliano began his career as an Audit Manager with KPMG Peat Marwick performing audits and other services, including SEC filings of forms 10K, 10Q and S1 for clients in various industries with a primary focus on financial services.
