A look back at Commissioner Kreidler’s Climate Summits
Washington state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has been lauded within the industry for his work addressing climate change and encouraging his fellow insurance commissioners to follow suit and make climate work a priority.
He’s been a frequent commentator on issues that pertain to insurance and climate change. For example, in 2023, he has spoken to a panel hosted jointly by the Institute of International Finance and Deloitte in Washington, D.C., as well as a seminar hosted by Insurance Journal.
In June 2020, Insurance ERM named Commissioner Kreidler an insurance industry leader on climate change.
Part of those efforts have come in the form of his Climate Summits, which started with a collaboration with the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group in 2016 and developed into a series of video presentations after the pandemic.
Commissioner Kreidler is stepping down from public office at the end of the year. The final installment of his 2024 Climate Summit Series went live last week, capping off a stretch of informative, important presentations discussing the intersection of climate change and the insurance industry under his direction.
Commissioner Kreidler’s Climate Summits have included dozens of presenters and panelists over the years. The list includes:
- Dr. Joe Casola, UW Climate Impacts Group
- Alex Bernhardt, Responsible Investment Group, Mercer
- Steve McElhiney, EWI Reinsurance
- Dan Dunmoyer, Farmers Insurance
- Dr. Amy Snover, UW Climate Impacts Group
- Steve Kolk, American Academy of Actuaries
- Nick Bond, UW State Climatologist
- Susan Devine and Larry Burtness, Quileute Tribe
- Charlene Nelson and Lee Shipman, Shoalwater Bay Tribe
- Dr. Himanshu Grover, UW Institute for Hazard Mitigation and Planning
- Samantha Medlock, Willis-Towers-Watson
- Alex Kaplan, Swiss Re
- William P. Steele, Pacific NW Seismic Network
- Maximilian Dixon and Derrick Hiebert, Washington State Emergency Management Division
- Matthew Nielsen, Risk Management Solutions
- Pat McNaughton, OIC and Cynthia McHale, Ceres
- Pamela Cone and Nancy Watkins, Milliman
- Denny Heck, U.S. House of Representatives
- David Forte, OIC Senior Policy Advisor
- Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz Director, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
- Shivani Patel, RBC Global Asset Management
- Fawn Sharp, Quinault Indian Nation and the National Congress of American Indians
- Dr. Gary Geernaert, U.S. Department of Energy
- Hon. Sherri Goodman, Environmental Change and Security Program and Polar Institute
- Kara Hurst, Head of Worldwise Sustainability, Amazon
- Michelle Lancaster, Director of Sustainability, Microsoft
- Francis Bouchard, Head of Public Affairs and Sustainability, Zurich Insurance
- Christopher Krumm, CEO, Sironix Renewables
- Kara Hurst, Chief Sustainability Officer, Amazon
- Hana V. Vizcarra, Harvard Environmental and Energy Law Program
- State Sen. Christine Rolfes, 23rd Legislative District
- U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, 6th Congressional District
- Ekhosuehi Iyahen, Secretary General of the Insurance Development Forum
- Thomas B. Leonardi, Connecticut insurance commissioner
- Rena Priest, Washington state Poet Laureate
- Michelle Lancaster, Director of Sustainability Stakeholder Engagement at Microsoft
- Ana Pinheiro Privette, head of Amazon’s Sustainability Data Initiative
- Rob Johnson, Vice President of Sustainability and Transportation for the Seattle Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena
- Dr. Yoon Kim, Head of Global Client Services, Moody’s ESG Solutions
- Jodi Hanson Bond, President of DevryBV Sustainable Strategies
- Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, Washington state’s 34th Legislative District
- Dr. Kris Ebi, UW Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
- Dr. Nathan Gillett, Environment & Climate Change Canada
- Roy Wright, IBHS President & CEO
- Edda Björk Ragnarsdóttir, Carbfix
- Guy Giffords, Washington DNR
- Carlene Anders, Okanogan County Long Term Recovery Group and mayor of Pateros
- Dennis Burke, Reinsurance Association of America
- Roger Grenier and JulieAnna Anastassatos, Verisk Analytics
- Guillaume Mauger, Washington State Climatologist
- Dr. Ron Dembo, founder of RiskThinking.AI
The presentations from 2021 on are available on YouTube:
