Bryan Casey
Partner
Locke, Lord, Bissell, and Liddell, LLP

Brian Casey is a partner in the Corporate and Regulatory Insurance Practice Group of the Atlanta office of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP. Mr. Casey's practice primarily focuses on mergers and acquisitions and the multi-state regulation of insurance companies, insurance agencies, third party administrators, and other financial services firms. He also represents insurance clients in the areas of privacy, reinsurance, corporate finance and venture capital, and e-commerce. Mr. Casey is a highly sought after speaker and routinely addresses a number of public and private organizations on both a local and national level. While a well versed speaker on a number of topics including the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act, Telemarketing and the Do-Not-Call regulations, the CANSPAM Act of 2003, Fair Credit Reporting Act, HIPAA privacy regulations and electronic commerce, with a particular emphasis on electronic signatures and records, Mr. Casey remains nationally recognized for his focus on various regulatory matters and trends affecting the insurance industry. For the past several years Mr. Casey has been lauded for presentations and multiple publications on the Life Settlements industry.
Mr. Casey is a graduate of Auburn University (B.S.B.A. Accounting, summa cum laude, 1984); The Ohio State University College of Law (J.D., 1987) and Emory University (Master of Laws in Taxation, 1992).
 

Bryan Freeman
President
Habersham Funding, LLC

M. BRYAN FREEMAN, President of Habersham Funding, LLC, is recognized for his longstanding efforts in developing the secondary market for life insurance. A licensed life agent for 31 years, he completed his first settlement in 1989.
Bryan has received many honors for being a life settlement pioneer. In 2009, he was named by the Life Settlement Review as one of the 10 most influential people in the settlement industry internationally. In 2006, upon completion of four terms as President of LISA, Bryan was honored with resolutions from both houses of the Georgia Legislature for his settlement industry leadership.
He has been actively involved in the development of responsible regulation and legislation of the secondary market since its inception. He lobbied for federal employees and veterans to gain the right to transact settlements, and for tax-free treatment for viatical settlements. Bryan has lobbied and testified before the U.S. Congress, state legislative committees, the NAIC and NCOIL on numerous occasions. He frequently speaks about and writes on life settlements.

Committee Members

Jose Garcia
CEO
Carlisle Management Company
 

Having established a nine year track record of success across several sectors of the Life Settlement industry, Jose Garcia has put his experience to work as both a life settlement Fund Manager in Luxembourg. Recognizing that many of the industry standards and ancillary sectors are outdated, Mr. Garcia is launching new investment vehicles utilizing Life Settlements as underlying assets.
Having served as the CEO and equity partner of one of the industry’s largest life settlement providers. Mr. Garcia’s industry experience also extends from industry brokers, to life settlement providers, fund management, fund structuring, and investment marketing. During his career in the secondary market for life insurance, Jose Garcia has led and overseen the purchase of more than $2 billion in Life Settlements as well as helping to raise more than $750 million for investment into this asset class.

Doug Head
Executive Director
LISA

Doug Head serves as LISA Executive Director. Since 1992, Mr. Head has tirelessly worked to promote the growth and development of the life settlement industry. Specifically, Mr. Head has been integral to the development and passage of key life settlement legislation across the United States. As Executive Director, Mr. Head represents LISA before state and federal legislative committees and works with important industry organizations such as the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL), and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Previously, Mr. Head has served as President and Secretary of LISA as well as Chair of its Legislative Committee. As Executive Director, Mr. Head has helped guide LISA membership growth from a few dozen companies to over 140 domestic and international entities representing every industry segment. Today, LISA is widely recognized as the Voice of the Industry, leading the largest and most diverse membership of any life settlement trade association.

Chris Wells
ELSA

Chris Wells is the Deputy Convener of the European Life Settlement Association and oversees the administrative and daily operations of the Association. He joined ELSA in August 2009 and is currently involved in the Drafting of the European Life Settlement Association's Code of Practice and expansion of the Association's membership base.
Since graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Hull Chris has worked in Stock Loan and Fund Management roles for both Merrill Lynch and Northern Trust. He has served as President of AIESEC (Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales) for the University of Hull and continues to play an active role within the Association.

Paul Winner
ELSA

Paul Winner launched The European Life Settlement Association in May 2009 after Paul Winner Consultants Limited (PWCL) undertook a feasibility study. The study concluded that there was strong support for such an Association to protect the rights of the European Investor.
Paul Winner's career has spanned politics and public affairs, reputation management, community and charitable involvement. His company, PWCL, has advised many UK trade associations including the CBI (the Confederation of British Industry). He has stood for Parliament 4 times, been a magistrate for over 25 years, built the 10th largest independent UK PR Company and advised UK and international organisations on their public relations strategies.
He set up The Campaign to Clean Up Copier Contracts with the backing of an All Party Support group in the UK Parliament. As an artist he has used his talents to raise funds for many charities as well as serving on their advisory Boards or as a Trustee.

Karla Ortiz
Event Director

The growth and success of LISA is inextricably tied to the success of our Events Department. As head of this department, Karla provides critical leadership in every aspect of the planning, marketing and execution of LISA conferences and specialty seminars. Since 2005, Karla has guided the growth of all LISA events as the industry has seen a dramatic surge in interest and participation. As a result, the secondary market has experienced an equally dramatic rise in conference and events competition. Anticipating these trends, Karla has more than tripled the events on LISA’s calendar, going well beyond our traditional bi-annual conferences. The calendar now includes a broad range of specialty seminars, summits and forums for professionals from every industry segment. Karla has significantly advanced our events planning process creating the Conference Committee whereby members are afforded the opportunity to serve in the critical decision making process of content development. The importance of our continued success in the events arena cannot be overstated. Each year, our events represent the best and the brightest of the secondary market, regularly drawing record attendance. Revenue generated by these outstanding forums significantly supports our efforts in a variety of other arenas essential to the success of the secondary market. Our members are strongly encouraged to contact the Events Department to learn more about what we have in store for 2010 and beyond.

Will Menezes
Business Manager

Since 2005, Will Menezes has served as LISA’s business manager. During this period, Will has helped oversee a tripling in LISA membership, the largest expansion of membership growth the association has ever experienced. As daily leader of a small but talented work force, Will performs a variety of duties crucial to the daily success of LISA. These include, but are certainly not limited to, marketing for LISA and our members, materials and information technology production, programmatic development as well as other ongoing projects. Additionally, Will effectively manages the association’s human resources needs, oversees its technology and accounting, and supports the Public Relations Department. As business manager, Will has helped develop some of the industries’ most important working committees to include the LISA Political Committee, Best Practices Committee, and LISA involvement with the Insurance Educational Council. In response to the growing need for state by state legislative support, Will helped implement the newly formed LISAPAC, the governmental advocacy arm of this association. On behalf of LISA, Will continues to offer innovative initiatives and ideas to LISA members in the service of the association and the industry at large. On a daily basis, Will connects with our membership base to maintain the outstanding progress the association has made to date.