Event Highlights New Degree Program from UC's Lindner College of Business

Ohio’s Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor will bring the Insuring Ohio Futures awareness campaign to UC’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business at 2 p.m. Nov. 13, to highlight UC's new insurance and risk management degree as a solid step in diminishing a shortage of professionals in the insurance industry.

UC President Santa J. Ono, Lindner College of Business Dean David Szymanski and Center for Insurance and Risk Management Director Steve Slezak will join her on the sixth floor of the college for remarks on forging partnerships between the insurance industry, risk management professionals and institutions of higher education as a way to promote career possibilities and support a critical need for talent. Industry partners Carl H. Lindner III, chairman and CEO of Great American Insurance Group, and Timothy Timmel, chief operating officer and senior vice president of operations for the Cincinnati Insurance Company, will also join Taylor and UC administrators to emphasize the need for a new generation of trained professionals.

Through industry partnerships and educational programs, the recently launched Carl H. Lindner III Center for Insurance and Risk Management will play a critical role in work force development by combining academic programs, research and industry.

“Our college is stepping up to create pathways for students to get into the great careers by offering a new major and minor in insurance and risk management,” Slezak says.

The new Insurance and Risk Management major and minor will be available beginning winter/spring semester. The program will strike a balance between providing a general framework for risk management and give specific insights into insurance, an industry that employs people from a variety of disciples, including accounting, finance, information systems, advertising, sales and sales management and operations.

According to a work force development study, the insurance industry expects an availability of 17,000 jobs over the next five years because of an aging, retiring work force. The study notes that Ohio’s insurance industry ranks seventh in the nation with more than 100,000 employees and an annual statewide economic impact of nearly $6 billion.