Industry Conference

Drew Cleland, CMT is a Vice President and Investment Officer at Trustmark, where he serves as a Senior Portfolio Manager. With more than 17 years of investment management experience, Drew specializes in institutional and individual equity management, providing tailored portfolio strategies for individuals, trusts, foundations, and institutional clients. A Chartered Market Technician (CMT), he combines technical and quantitative research with disciplined portfolio management to help clients achieve long-term financial goals. Drew is based at Trustmark’s Colony Park office in Ridgeland, Mississippi.

James Brinson is the Executive Director for the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security. He has been employed there since 2004. He is a Specialist in Terrorism and Chemical, Biological, Radioactive, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) weapons. Mr. Brinson is an Instructor in active shooter preparedness and response, training military, law enforcement and civilians in responding to and surviving active shooter type attacks. Mr. Brinson also teaches; counter terrorism operations, executive protection, and numerous other courses. Prior to working in the state of Mississippi, Mr. Brinson worked for the U.S. Air Force working jointly with other services in counter terrorism operations and response worldwide. He oversees the protection of the State of Mississippi’s Critical Infrastructure, and its citizens, coordinates Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) response efforts for Mississippi and works with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task on prevention, protection and response to potential terrorist issues in Mississippi. Mr. Brinson presents at many local, state, national and international audiences on his unique knowledge base.

Jeff Taylor joined Regions in 2014 and serves in a leadership role within the Regions Corporate Bank. Taylor guides strategies designed to help protect the security of Commercial and Corporate Banking accounts. He is consistently focused on research and awareness in terms of fraud prevention, and he meets with clients across the bank's multi-state footprint to help educate them on best practices regarding account security. In addition, Taylor is frequently cited by news outlets that turn to him for practical, relatable advice on how businesses and individual consumers can help protect their accounts and avoid falling victim to scams. 'Cybersecurity is everyone's responsibility, and Regions Bank is always ready to align with clients and share advice and insights on ways they can reduce their risks of fraud,' Taylor says. 'This goes beyond cybersecurity and into the payments space, where we encourage businesses to establish 'dual controls' requiring multiple personnel to keep watch over, and sign off on, various expenditures. We also advise regularly training your staff to recognize red flags of fraud schemes. No matter the size or scope of your business, our experience shows a proactive stance toward fraud prevention can really pay dividends.' An experienced payments professional, Taylor previously held positions in Treasury Management with Regions and other financial institutions. Prior experience includes sales and management roles in other industry segments before bringing his experience to the financial services industry. He earned his degree in Business Administration from Freed-Hardeman University and his Certified Treasury Professional designation from the Association for Financial Professionals. Taylor has served in leadership roles for the Alabama Association for Financial Professionals and has been a presenter at the AFP National Conference as well as other industry roundtables. He also leads and participates in national fraud consortiums focusing on the financial services industry. Taylor currently serves on the Board of Directors for The Bell Center, a nonprofit dedicated to maximizing the potential of children from birth to three years of age who are at risk for developmental delay.

Ed Simmons is the CFO of Benefit Administration Services, Ltd. as well as the Acuity Group, which provide employee benefits solutions and third party administration of health and benefit plans. Ed graduated from Miss. State University with a degree in Petroleum Engineering and earned an MBA from the University of Alabama. He performed business valuation and litigation support work during his time at Horne LLP and The Koerber Company.

Sandeep Rustagi is the Chief Data Analytics Officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), where he heads the organization's AI strategy and implementations. He leads transformational initiatives that harness artificial intelligence and data analytics to deliver measurable improvements in clinical, operational, and financial performance. He also chairs UMMC's AI governance committee, guiding the responsible selection and deployment of AI solutions with a focus on fairness, transparency, and explainability, and regularly advises the UMMC Board and executive leadership on AI.

Prior to joining UMMC, Sandeep held senior executive roles in multiple global organizations, delivering large-scale, technology-enabled transformation initiatives and building high-performing teams to achieve complex, mission-critical objectives.

Sandeep holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems and an MBA. He is recognized as a trusted advisor to C-suite leaders navigating today's complex digital landscape. A respected thought leader, he is a frequent keynote speaker at premier industry forums, including ACHE, the Chief AI Officer Exchange, and the CDO Leadership Summit.

Dr. Saman Sargolzaei is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Program Chair of Artificial Intelligence at Belhaven University. He is also the Founder and Director of the Brain Autonomy and Resiliency (BAR) Lab, where his research focuses on human-centered, ethical, and trustworthy artificial intelligence.

Dr. Sargolzaei’s expertise spans artificial intelligence, machine learning, network science, computational neuroscience, and emerging neurotechnologies. His work explores both the transformative potential of AI and the challenges that come with increasingly autonomous systems, including bias, transparency, trust, ethical decision-making, and responsible AI adoption. He teaches courses in AI, machine learning, deep learning, NLP, and AI ethics, bringing technical expertise together with practical and ethical perspectives on the rapidly evolving role of AI in organizations and society.

His teaching and research have been recognized with the University of Tennessee Alumni Association Outstanding Teacher Award (2026), the Cunningham Outstanding Teacher/Scholar Award (2025), and recognition through the NSF CMMI Game Changer Academies for Advancing Research Innovation (2024).

John Tidwell is co-author of the book Building and Distributing Agentic AI Solutions: A Comprehensive Guide to Productizing AI and serves as the Chief Technology Officer at YoungWilliams, where he leads a team responsible for the ongoing design, development, and deployment of Priya™ an innovative AI-driven government service solution which leverages Microsoft Azure’s AI platform. With expertise in Azure cloud technologies, generative AI, DevOps, and Agile software development, John has guided numerous projects from concept to production. His technical leadership includes architecting scalable systems, driving strategic cloud adoption, and mentoring development teams to achieve excellence. John holds multiple Azure certifications, including Azure AI, and is actively pursuing a Master of Science in Computer Science specializing in Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech.

Ken Jones is a Senior Technology Architect with Pileum Corporation. He has been with Pileum for over 14 years. Prior to this position Ken was the Director of Information Technology for Butler Snow Attorney for approximately 15 years. He holds many IT certifications. Ken Jones received his Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from Mississippi College in 1992, where he was honored as the top Computer Science graduate in his class.

Ken’s leadership and work in the legal IT field has also been recognized by his peers. He was named to the Thomson Elite Steering Committee and the Interwoven Steering Committee for the International Legal Technology Association. He was also named as a “Top 100 Global IT Technology Leader” by CityTech Magazine, which focuses of the IT needs of legal and other professional service firms.

Ken is married to wife Karen and has 2 children.

Lisa specializes in providing property & casualty insurance brokerage services. She is responsible for providing risk management support while assisting his/her clients with controlling and minimizing the total cost of risk. Lisa also ensures that her clients have the appropriate coverages.

Lisa began her career in 1994 and joined Gallagher in 2023. Prior to joining Gallagher, she worked at larger carriers, small carriers, and third party administrators. Lisa started her career as an adjuster and progressed to Claim Manager. Just before joining the Gallagher Family, Lisa spent nearly 7 years with CorVel Corporation, as an Account Manager.

Lisa trained newly recruited adjusters in the Gallagher Summer Internship Program during 2010-2017, while managing one of Gallagher Bassett’s largest clients. During her time at CorVel Corporation, she also mentored and helped train new Account Managers, while handling a $7Million dollar book of business with 100% retention. Lisa’s clients heavily leaned on her expertise to bring resolutions to their issues.

Lisa earned her Bachelor degree from Florida State University.
B.S., Psychology

Sean specializes in providing sound property & casualty insurance risk management services for the Mid-South and Southeast regions of Gallagher Global Brokerage – GCRC reporting directly to Charlie Dirks, JD.

He is responsible for providing risk management support while assisting his clients with controlling and minimizing the total cost of risk. He also ensures that his clients have the appropriate coverages and a complete understanding of the claims process to best guide the client from start to finish on any pending insurance claim. Setting the expectations of a client to then deliver on those with the strong carrier partnership in their handling and decision-making is an absolute must.

Periodic claims reviews and proactive loss prevention awareness by Sean helps his clients better understand their desired insurance needs from exposures in their current and evolving business environment.

Sean began his P&C insurance career in 1997 and later joined Gallagher in 2021. Prior to joining Gallagher, he got his start with State Farm Insurance as a Medical PIP adjuster but took an elevated position with State Auto Insurance in 2000 as a multi-line P&C Claims Adjuster. After more than 20 successful years with State Auto Insurance, he was sought out by Gallagher knowing his current employer was going through an M&A restructure with a leading national insurance carrier. He joined Gallagher in November 2021.

A highly dedicated and proven claims professional demonstrating a high attention to detail. His roles involved licensing, training, investigation and litigation strategy along with the necessary coverage and liability analysis to devise plans of action in resolving all types of claims with clear, detailed and effective communication. He has participated and resolved well excess of 100 mediations/arbitrations as well as attending court trials in reporting back to corporate claims the daily outcomes.

Education and Professional Designations

Sean received a Bachelor of Business Administration – Marketing from Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia (1991) –