Zurich Insurance Academy International Adjunct Faculty

As part of Zurich North America, Spring Uphoff Neely is the Head of Strategy and Execution, Zurich Multinational for U.S. Commercial Insurance. She has more than 21 years of Property and Casualty insurance experience, including 20 years managing complex multinational financial program structures. Throughout her career, Spring has helped deliver innovative services and digital tools, tapping into her strong market and technical knowledge of multinational risk needs

During her career, she has played a significant role in the development of value-added solutions that have pushed the multinational insurance industry forward. A few highlights include a strategic role in the launch and design of Zurich’s award-winning Exporter Solutions digital platform for incidental multinational exposures, her contributions in data, integration, and user experience requirements for the My Zurich customer portal, and as a key driver of Zurich’s Multinational Insurance Application, now called the Global Program Support tool, an industry leading tool that ensures compliant solutions in a world of evolving tax and regulatory requirements.

In addition, Spring has been instrumental in developing new products and solutions for complex multinational risks, such as the award-winning International Towers by Zurich product, the Zurich Loss Pooling Program, and Zurich’s International Programs Training & Certification platform.

Educational background, certifications and honors

Spring holds a Bachelor of Science degree in international business with a concentration in international marketing and a Bachelor of Arts degree in German, both from Bradley University. In addition, she has a certificate in offshore operations from the Petroleum Extension of The University of Texas at Austin.

Spring was recognized in 2008 as one of four key drivers globally of Zurich’s Multinational Insurance Application (MIA), which supports Zurich’s strong commitment to compliant risk programs. She was also honored with a Zurich Excellence Award in 2021 for her pivotal role in the creation and delivery of the Zurich Loss Pooling Program.

Leslie Carlson is the Head of Multinational Servicing at Zurich North America, where she leads multinational program servicing for all lines of business produced and received in the U.S. Leslie manages regional teams of dedicated experts who coordinate across the Zurich network of more than 200 countries and territories and alongside the underwriters to provide a proactive and compliant program and servicing experience.

Leslie has been with Zurich for over 20 years, holding leadership roles across technology, operations, Sales & Distribution and business functions. In the past two years, she has helped the Servicing team engage more proactively in the marketplace with distributors and customers to showcase Zurich’s deep multinational expertise and capabilities. She leverages her technology and lean management expertise to continuously improve and transform Zurich’s operations to support and sustain its leadership role across all types of multinational needs.

Educational background, certifications and honors

Leslie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in management information systems from Indiana State University and is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. She regularly engages in developing continuing education programs on International topics for distributors.

Tom Dohrer is the U.S. Multinational Claims Coordinator for Zurich North America, acting as the point of contact in the U.S. for any claim-related issues. Tom works closely with the local U.S. Claims teams and the network of Multinational Claim coordinators around the world to assist distributors and customers to ensure they have a positive claims experience.

Tom has held various roles in Claims at Zurich for 20 years. Prior to his current position, he led the Claims Strategy and Execution Team and was involved in projects that focused on innovation, digitalization and process improvement. In that role, he worked and coordinated with all parts of Claims to support leadership and to deliver key improvements within the organization. Tom has also held leadership roles throughout Zurich’s Technical Claims’ organization, managing Claims teams on a domestic and international level. Tom is a licensed attorney and previously practiced law, where he had extensive litigation and trial experience.

Educational background, certifications and honors

Tom holds a Bachelor of Arts in history and architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Juris Doctor from DePaul College of Law in Chicago.