Business & Industry Professionals Interest Group Meeting & Technical Session (E2109148)

Art Grutt is CEO and Managing Partner of Cambridge Insurance Advisors. As Partner-in-Charge of the firm’s Employee Benefits Group, Art leads a talented team of consultants and client experience managers providing guidance to employers and executives. Art and the advisors at Cambridge deploy a proven process to help employers maximize their employee benefit return on investment and avoid margin erosion due to increasing premiums. Art's areas of expertise include Self-Funded Health Plans, Captives, M&A Insurance Due Diligence, PEOs, HR Compliance, Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation and Executive Benefits. Art earned a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) designation from the Wharton School of Business at UPenn and IFEBP in 2006 which is considered the standard of excellence in the benefits industry. Art was elected President of the CEBS NY Chapter in 2012 and served as a Board Member since 2007 acting as Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Chair of the Education Committee. Art has lectured at the Group Underwriters Association of America as well as for many industry groups. Prior to joining Cambridge as a Partner in 2006, Art had a distinguished career at Guardian Life Insurance Company of America.

Laura Crothers Osborn is a highly regarded speaker, author and expert in HR and Leadership. She is the Owner and President of Crothers Consulting, a boutique HR consulting, coaching and soft skills training firm servicing middle market businesses for over 10 years. They work with organizations to determine the best ways to attract, integrate, develop, engage and retain their talent.

Laura is a Human Resource expert with over twenty-five years of experience coaching and assisting senior and mid-level leaders. Laura opened Crothers HR Consulting in 2010 to fuel her passion for helping leaders achieve organization and strategic clarity. She and her team have successfully guided business leaders and HR executives, providing a clear line of vision as they face the many challenges associated with growing their company or engaging in mergers or acquisitions. Her candid, down-to-earth approach allows her to connect quickly and deeply with people.

Laura is known for her fast paced, creative solutions in all areas of HR. Her leadership style developed throughout her years in Human Resource leadership roles with McGraw Hill, AT&T, ADP, Merrill Lynch, EverBank and Shearson Lehman Brothers. Laura led and/or facilitated multiple initiatives focused on change management, integration, mentoring, leadership development/coaching, workforce planning, talent, performance management, employee engagement and compensation design.

Laura was Chief People Officer at US Express Leasing (USXL). Here she built the HR capability for this $85 MM start-up commercial leasing organization, which grew to $1 Billion in assets. Her ability to be nimble and react quickly to changing dynamics enabled them to grow the organization from 8 to 250 employees in five years. Laura worked as Senior Director of HR focused on the Mergers and Acquisitions at Standard & Poor’s where she led complex diligence, integration and acquisitions. She and her team use this experience as they deal with clients engaged on both the buy and sell side.

Laura is the chapter chair of both the Morris and Monmouth chapters of the Women President’s Organization (WPO) for CEO’s that run multi-million dollar businesses. She also sees great value in leadership assessment tools and is certified in The Leadership Circle® Profile, The Leadership Circle® Culture Survey, PDI Profiler®, DiSC ®, and is a SHRM certified SPHR and a CTI coach. Laura is an active member of ACG-NJ and Impact-100 Garden State.