LIVE from RISKWORLD 2022: Mark Walls, Safety National
Mark Walls, Vice President at Safety National, joined host Jamie Gassmann live in the R3 Continuum booth at RISKWORLD 2022. Not only was Safety National an exhibitor, but Mark also led a public entity session, the only one of its kind at RISKWORLD. He discussed some of the unique challenges public entities face, what he hoped participants would take away from the session, and more.
Workplace MVP is underwritten and presented by R3 Continuum and produced by the Minneapolis-St.Paul Studio of Business RadioX®.
This show was originally broadcast from the RIMS 2022 RISKWORLD Conference held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.
Mark Walls, VP, Communications and Strategic Analysis, Safety National
Mark Walls is Vice President, Communications and Strategic Analysis, at Safety National. In his capacity with Safety National, Walls leads all thought-leadership activities by combining industry perspective and market intelligence to develop expert content for materials like whitepapers, print and social media, webinars and speaking engagements.
With over 24 years of industry experience, Walls returned to Safety National after spending the last year with Marsh as Workers’ Compensation Market Research Leader. Walls is also the founder of the Work Comp Analysis Group on LinkedIn that, with over 22,000 members, is the largest online discussion community dedicated exclusively to workers’ compensation issues. In addition, Walls is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is quoted regularly in multiple media outlets.
Walls is based in Safety National’s corporate office in St. Louis, Missouri.
Safety National
Safety National is a leading specialty insurance and reinsurance provider. Serving thousands of customers nationwide for over 80 years, the Company offers specialized expertise, flexible program and placement design, and unique claims proficiency. Safety National is a member of the Tokio Marine Group and is rated A++ (Superior), FSC XV by A.M. Best. • Top Workplaces, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2018, 2020 • Best Places to Work in Insurance, Business Insurance Magazine, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021
Benefits of Choosing Safety National:
- Outstanding Ratings: The company is rated A++ (Superior), FSC XV by A.M. Best, and A+ by Standard & Poor’s.
- Strong Financial Backing: Safety National is a member of the Tokio Marine Group. With nearly $200 billion in assets, Tokio Marine is among the top ten insurance groups in the world and its companies are among the highest-rated.
- Longevity: Providing service to thousands of customers nationwide since 1942, Safety National can assure you that we will be there when you need us.
- Customer Service: Safety National is consistently top-rated by broker partners for flexibility and responsiveness.
About Workplace MVP
Every day, around the world, organizations of all sizes face disruptive events and situations. Within those workplaces are everyday heroes in human resources, risk management, security, business continuity, and the C-suite. They don’t call themselves heroes though. On the contrary, they simply show up every day, laboring for the well-being of employees in their care, readying the workplace for and planning responses to disruption. This show, Workplace MVP, confers on these heroes the designation they deserve, Workplace MVP (Most Valuable Professionals), and gives them the forum to tell their story. As you hear their experiences, you will learn first-hand, real-life approaches to readying the workplace, responses to crisis situations, and overcoming challenges of disruption. Visit our show archive here.
Workplace MVP Host Jamie Gassmann
In addition to serving as the host to the Workplace MVP podcast, Jamie Gassmann is the Director of Marketing at R3 Continuum (R3c). Collectively, she has more than fourteen years of marketing experience. Across her tenure, she has experience working in and with various industries including banking, real estate, retail, crisis management, insurance, business continuity, and more. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mass Communications with special interest in Advertising and Public Relations and a Master of Business Administration from Paseka School of Business, Minnesota State University.
R3 Continuum
R3 Continuum is a global leader in workplace behavioral health and security solutions. R3c helps ensure the psychological and physical safety of organizations and their people in today’s ever-changing and often unpredictable world. Through their continuum of tailored solutions, including evaluations, crisis response, executive optimization, protective services, and more, they help organizations maintain and cultivate a workplace of wellbeing so that their people can thrive. Learn more about R3c at www.r3c.com.
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TRANSCRIPT
Intro: [00:00:03] Broadcasting Live from Riskworld 2022 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, it’s time for Workplace MVP. Brought to you by R3 Continuum, a global leader in helping workplaces thrive during disruptive times. Now, here’s your host.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:00:22] Hi, everyone. Your host, Jamie Gassmann here, and I am at our podcast sponsor, R3 Continuum’s, booth at Riskworld 2022. And joining me is Mark Walls from Safety National. Welcome, Mark.
Mark Walls: [00:00:35] Welcome. Hello, Jamie. Thank you for having me.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:00:37] Well, it’s a pleasure to have you on the show. So, tell me a little bit about what Safety National does.
Mark Walls: [00:00:43] Safety National is a commercial carrier reinsurer dealing with employers that retain risk, mostly high-deductible self-insurance workers comp, multi lines. We do cyber, a lot of different things, but focused on the commercial casualty line.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:01:00] Wonderful. And so, I know you’re an exhibitor at the show and your booth is like right in the front of the expo hall, so how has it been going for your team here, and conversations, and what’s the energy feel like?
Mark Walls: [00:01:13] It’s just been nice to get out. After two years of not having these events, it’s just been nice to get back in the game again, be out among people again. I think everybody’s really enjoying that.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:01:24] Yeah, I think so, too. I know I’ve been enjoying all of the conversations we’ve been having and the people we’re meeting. I mean, there’s a lot of positive energy, I’m feeling, in the expo hall.
Mark Walls: [00:01:33] Yeah, I would agree. Just everywhere. I mean, the events that I’ve gone to have all been packed, a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm. People are just glad to be back in the game.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:01:42] Yes, it definitely is fun to be able to like kind of be amongst like peers in a way, right?
Mark Walls: [00:01:48] Yes, agree.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:01:49] Yes. See people we’ve been seeing on Zoom calls or LinkedIn and social media, going, oh, look at what’s going on in their life, now, we can actually talk about it.
Mark Walls: [00:01:58] Mm-hmm. Agree.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:01:59] Yeah. So, now, you’re a speaker at this year’s conference. Talk to me about what is the topic you’re presenting on?
Mark Walls: [00:02:04] So, tomorrow, I’m leading the public entity industry session. It’s something that I’ve done here at RIMS, as long as I’ve come to RIMS. So, 10-plus years, I’ve led this session and I’ve got Steve Robles from LA County and Kevin Confetti from the University of Chicago helping to lead the discussions. And it’ll be very much a free-form, interactive discussion with the people that show up, talking about the challenges that public entity risk managers are facing and how they’re working through some of those.
Mark Walls: [00:02:33] So, public entity faces some very unique things. Among the things we’ll be talking about is law enforcement liability insurance, and the types of claims, and the size of the claims you’re seeing in that space. Sexual assault, sexual molestation claims, there’s been a lot of changes in legislation around the country impacting that. Another big challenge for public entities is the cyber marketplace. Quite frankly, they’re a huge target for cyber hackers, and because of that, they have a really hard time getting insurance.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:03:07] Wow. Interesting. So, looking at the topic and the panel members, I know you’re having kind of an interactive dialogue, but what are some of the things that you’re hoping that that audience is going to take with them when they leave that session?
Mark Walls: [00:03:21] The goal is to come up with some ideas, some solutions. I mean, everybody knows what the problems are, and there’s a lot of common problems. So, you hope that what you come out of that is a nugget or two around, how have you been able to work around this? What solutions have you found? How are you approaching this? So, that’s the goal with events like this, is to get people together, share ideas, share solutions. If you come away with a nugget or two that helps you solve a problem, you’ve had a successful trip.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:03:52] Yeah, absolutely. It’s almost kind of like an on-show like brainstorming session in a way.
Mark Walls: [00:04:01] It really is. I mean, to me, the thing I’ve missed the most the last two years is the casual collaboration that you have in these events, the opportunities to just have a discussion with people around what’s happening in their world and how they’re dealing with it. And that’s what I try to make this session when we have it, because it’s the only public entity session at the entire conference, and so we want people to come there and just collaborate.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:04:24] Yeah, absolutely. The best part is that human connection where we can learn from each other. So, that’s fantastic. Well, I hope it goes well for you.
Mark Walls: [00:04:33] Thank you. I’m sure it would be amazing.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:04:34] And I absolutely appreciate you being on the show. I know we’ve connected a few times and I kind of pulled your arm, and like, let’s go. So, thank you so much.
Mark Walls: [00:04:41] Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it very much.
Jamie Gassmann: [00:04:42] Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Mark.
Mark Walls: [00:04:44] Alright.
Outro: [00:04:49] Thank you for joining us on Workplace MVP. R3 Continuum is a proud sponsor of this show and is delighted to celebrate most valuable professionals who work diligently to secure safe workplaces where employees can thrive.
