Headquarters:

Calgary, Alberta

Year founded:

2008

Number of employees/consultants:

4/hundreds of healthcare experts

Phone:

855 278 9273

Email:

Experts@ConnectMLX.com

Website:

ConnectMLX.com

LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/chrisrokoshconnectexperts

“We prioritise embracing cutting-edge technologies, creative problem solving and continuous improvement to enhance our premium funding solutions and provide exceptional value to our clients”

Brett Bastow, IQumulate Premium FundinG

Chris Rokosh, RN, PNC(C)

Legal Nurse Consultant President, CEO, and Host of “Inside Medical Malpractice” Podcast

Chantel Josiak, RN, BN

Legal Nurse Consultant Senior Nursing Consultant Experts Lead

Retha Van Der Merwe

Director – Business Development

Leadership

Chris Rokosh built Connect Experts based on the belief that accurate, unbiased, scientifically based medical knowledge can positively impact healthcare, law, and individual lives. On any given day, Connect Experts has 250–300 experts providing opinion. They work with individual lawyers and major companies in the US and Canada. Rokosh has provided expert opinion on several medical malpractice cases and worked with some of the top lawyers and medical legal experts in North America. Her platforms include national and international conferences and the stage of Columbia University in New York. She has been featured in The Globe and Mail, Canadian Nurse, Chatelaine Magazine, Lawyer’s Weekly, and Lawyer’s Daily.

Legal Nurse Consultant President, CEO, and Host of “Inside Medical Malpractice” Podcast

Chris Rokosh, RN, PNC(C)

When you contact Connect Experts for a healthcare expert, you will meet Chantel Josiak. She has been a Registered Nurse since 2008 and Connect Medicalʼs Legal Nurse Consultant and Experts Lead since 2018. Her nursing background is valuable and varied, with a focus on public health, as a clinical nurse educator, as well as a hematology and infection control expert. Whether you need input into the medical issues of your case, or help figuring out what type of expert to retain, Josiak will talk it through with you. Then she will work hard to find just the right expert, with the right expertise, for your case. Her success rate is 99.9 percent.

Legal Nurse Consultant Senior Nursing Consultant Experts Lead

Chantel Josiak, RN, BN

Retha Van Der Merwe is regarded as one of the industry’s leading and most experienced general insurance brokers. With 40 years of experience operating in three different countries, her expert knowledge and passion for complex risks have ensured her reputation as a trusted insurance adviser for businesses ranging from start-ups to large listed companies. Van Der Merwe excels in finding innovative solutions for hard-to-place risks and complex risk problems, with the scope to achieve excellent outcomes for her clients.

Director – Business Development

Retha Van Der Merwe

BRETT BASTOW, IQUMULATE PREMIUM FUNDINGs

Leadership

“Our clients can expect IQumulate to support their business in several ways, providing an understanding of what premium funding solutions are available”

GRAEME GORDON, IQUMULATE PREMIUM FUNDING

BRETT BASTOW, IQUMULATE PREMIUM FUNDING

Leadership

Ghafur Barchia

Chairman

For over 20 years, as a chartered accountant, Ghafur Barchia has specialised in scaling up and succession for family businesses, multinationals and private wealth clients working in industry as well as Big 4, mid-tier and boutique advisory firms. His approach brings clarity to addressing a broad range of strategic issues relating to scaling up through mergers and acquisitions, international tax treaty impact on cross-border activities, capital raising support, strategy design and finance function effectiveness. From a succession perspective, his industry experience provides a systematic framework for architecting tax-effective structures, asset protection, facilitating governance, designing ESOPs and advising on divestment transactions.

Chairman

Ghafur Barchia

Helen Johnson

Partner – Tax Advisory

Helen Johnson leads the PwC Legal tax practice and the New Zealand international tax team. She advises clients on all aspects of New Zealand tax, with focus areas including cross-border and domestic property and infrastructure investment, tax rulings and disputes, structuring and capital raising. Her clients include corporate groups, managed funds and high-net-worth family groups. She is also interested in tax policy. Johnson is a member of the New Zealand Law Society's Tax Law Committee and regularly presents at industry seminars. She previously worked at top-tier law firms in New Zealand and London.

Partner – Tax Advisory

Helen Johnson

Stevens & Associates Lawyers is a leading and trusted employment law firm based in Sydney known for delivering high-quality legal expertise in the area of employment law and industrial relations across Australia, alongside a proven track record of effectively and swiftly resolving a variety of workplace law issues. In the past year, the firm’s growth has been notable. It has: • experienced a 213% growth in the number of client matters, increasing from 149 client matters in the 2022 financial year to 390 client matters in the 2023 financial year • improved its online visibility, leading to over 50 online enquiries each month and a conversion rate of client leads of up to 40% • significantly expanded the breadth and type of matters that it advises on day to day, which has increased the firm’s skillsets, diversity and resilience • expanded its community outreach by collaborating with local Sydney venues for client seminars and continuing active participation in a Sydney small/family business group Stevens & Associates Lawyers has adapted to digital trends by implementing an effective strategy with SEO and web design, resulting in a structural shift that has seen increased representation of employees where the firm previously mainly advised employers. The firm’s recognition as a “Fast Firm” attests to its momentum in the employment law space.

“IQumulate is on a technology journey, and we’re just getting started”

Wayne Tower, IQumulate Premium Funding

Chris Baldock

Partner – Employment

Thierry Pascal

Head of Credit and Legal

Cemal Akgul

Head of Risk and Collections

Stephen McMillan

Commercial Manager

Chris Baldock leads the PwC Legal employment practice in New Zealand. Taking a highly commercial approach, his team helps employers navigate the nuances and challenges of New Zealand’s unique and evolving labour law regime. Baldock has worked with some of New Zealand’s largest organisations and advises on all manner of workplace legal issues, including statutory compliance, M&A people matters, workplace safety, disciplinary and performance issues, complex restructuring and change processes, Holidays Act compliance, collective bargaining and industrial action, and regulatory investigations and prosecutions. With a commercial litigation background, he has appeared regularly before the Employment Relations Authority and the courts.

Partner – Employment

Chris Baldock

Thierry Pascal has over 13 years of experience in business and corporate banking in various financial/credit analytical and relationship management roles with the NAB and CBA. After a career break to undertake postgraduate studies, he joined GE Capital as a senior risk analyst in premium funding in 2010. Following the divestment of the premium funding business to the Macquarie Group in 2015, he joined Macquarie Premium Funding and was promoted to credit risk manager, where he led the credit underwriting team. Following the re-branding to IQumulate Premium Funding, Pascal was recently promoted to head of credit and legal, a role that sees him manage the credit underwriting team as well as oversee IQumulate’s in-house legal function. Pascal holds undergraduate and postgraduate tertiary qualifications in accounting and law.

Head of Credit and Legal

Thierry Pascal

Cemal Akgul sees the head of risk and collections role as pivotal in guiding and influencing business decisions. He has more than 15 years of experience across financial and government services, most recently with the NDIS, where he was the leading consultant driving the Risk Management process’ nationwide. Prior to that, he served various roles at BMW Finance across the United States, Hong Kong, Germany and Australia. During Akgul’s tenure at BMW Finance, he predominately worked in risk management, guiding the organisation through seismic changes between 2016 and 2018. In his time prior, he was based out of New York, leading BMW Finance’s American subsidiary's market risk and data analytics teams between 2011 and 2016. Akgul values a balanced approach to business, encourages a positive work culture and is passionate about teaching and guiding the business and individuals at IQumulate.

Head of Risk and Collections

Cemal Akgul

Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager. As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.

Commercial Manager

Stephen McMillan

One culmination of these efforts has been the real-world, needs-based IQEdge solution. A one-stop online quoting tool designed for both the Australian and New Zealand markets, IQEdge delivers quotes in under 60 seconds. Plus, the solution offers quote comparison and quote versioning capabilities, enabling users to review vital historical and financial data in a single page view. IQEdge can streamline and automate application processing, underwriting document verification and payment collection, cutting the need for manual labour and minimising processing errors. A digital “self-service” platform, IQEdge, reduces the need for customer and administrative support. Meanwhile, borrowers can access their accounts, make payments and manage their policies independently and through sales and support teams, which are always available for further assistance. “We’ve created a quality platform that simplifies the quoting process yet amplifies the customer experience,” says Gordon. “It’s a real game changer.” IQumulate offers an online digital quoting tool to clients. The best-in-market solution enables IQumulate to tailor funding offerings to brokers that align with their prefered distribution channel.

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Medal

Small business

Brokers’ Pick – Professional liability

Broker's Pick – Personal Accident and Illness Insurance

Turnaround time – claims

BDM support

Broker communication, training and development

Overall service level

BDM support

Medal

Overall service level

Broker communication, training and development

BDM support

Turnaround time – claims

Broker's Pick – Personal Accident and Illness Insurance

Brokers’ Pick – Professional liability

Small business

Medal

Overall service level

Broker communication, training and development

BDM support

Turnaround time – claims

Broker's Pick – Personal Accident and Illness Insurance

Brokers’ Pick – Professional liability

Small business

What does IQumulate have in mind for the future? “IQumulate is on a technology journey, and we’re just getting started,” says Wayne Tower, CEO. “Through continuous engagement with our clients, partners, marketplace and industry, we will listen to the needs as they arise and position our business to be agile and respond to changes as they occur. “Faster decision-making innovations such as AI-powered decision support systems can expedite the underwriting and approval process, leading to quicker responses to clients. This can improve client satisfaction and potentially attract more business, with the potential to allow IQumulate to capture a larger market share, whilst continuing to deliver service excellence to clients.” “As forward-thinkers with a digital and ‘do it better’ mindset, we collectively and proactively look to learn and improve on our customer experience for our clients, paving the way for successful business outcomes for our clients and our business in the coming years ahead. “We’re excited for the future and look forward to what’s on the horizon.”

https://iqumulate.com/

IQumulate invests in education and people, which are vital to attracting new business and talent to the company. “We have long tenures for several of our key staff, including some in leadership positions, and this sound working knowledge of our business, practices and industry provides great insights and a wealth of experience to offer our clients,” says Bastow. “Our new head of sales, Graeme Gordon, formerly manager for New Zealand, joins us in Australia to drive our sales strategy and lead our team to successful outcomes for our clients and our business. We look forward to great things ahead with Graeme as he continues to be active and present in the New Zealand market as well as building sound working relationships and new connections in Australia.” Clients can also expect a lot from working with IQumulate. “Through active engagement with our trusted broker network, IQumulate provides relevant information, education and training content,” says Graeme Gordon, head of sales. “Our clients can expect IQumulate to support their business in several ways, providing an understanding of what premium funding solutions are available and how IQumulate can spread the cost of insurance and help borrowers get the right level of insurance cover to free up their cash flow for other expenses or business growth opportunities. Premium funding is often considered a tool for those who simply cannot afford to pay their premiums in full. While this is certainly a significant driver for many, it is also successfully used by profitable companies who use premium funding to manage their cash flows more wisely or better manage their liquidity.”

What does IQumulate have in mind for the future? “IQumulate is on a technology journey, and we’re just getting started,” says Wayne Tower, CEO. “Through continuous engagement with our clients, partners, marketplace and industry, we will listen to the needs as they arise and position our business to be agile and respond to changes as they occur. “Faster decision-making innovations such as AI-powered decision support systems can expedite the underwriting and approval process, leading to quicker responses to clients. This can improve client satisfaction and potentially attract more business, creating a competitive advantage with the potential to allow IQumulate to command premium pricing or capture a larger market share. “As forward-thinkers with a digital and ‘do it better’ mindset, we collectively and proactively look to learn and improve on our customer experience for our clients, paving the way for successful business outcomes for our clients and our business in the coming years ahead. “We’re excited for the future and look forward to what’s on the horizon.”

Claire Watson

Product Manager

Claire Watson

Commercial Manager

Stephen McMillan

Claire Watson

Product Manager

Claire Watson

Product Manager

Claire Watson

Similarly, brokers can expect:

top-in-class service fast response times competitive financing options annual re-marketing of policies to get the best deal hassle-free claims experience dynamic brokers eager to impress who do not take the business for granted

“Our brokers understand their clients’ business needs and pair them with the right product and appropriate level of cover for any foreseeable risk or contingency”

Cynthia Yap, Dynamic Insurance Services

“Our brokers are encouraged to ‘specialise’ in a market niche because it allows them to negotiate an insurance scheme with the underwriters for the most competitive insurance premiums”

Cynthia Yap, Dynamic Insurance Services

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Connect Medical Legal Experts is on a mission to openly share knowledge underpinned by the belief that legal knowledge can boost healthcare outcomes, and medical knowledge can improve legal outcomes. It achieves this by facilitating access to qualified, unbiased healthcare professionals who translate complex research and medical knowledge into a language anyone can understand. This skill is particularly noteworthy because the experts are responsible for educating the courts. Canadian Lawyer’s readers recognized that dedication with a coveted Readers’ Choice award of 2023. “We know that preparation is critical in all areas of law, especially in medical malpractice, and that a solid grasp of the medicine is required to represent their clients best, whether the plaintiff or the defence,” explains president and chief executive Chris Rokosh. “We know that the consequences of anything less could be devastating.” Connect Experts stand out in their niche market by employing an exhaustive and multi-point selection process to vet new experts, including education reviews, clinical experience, specialty areas, published works, and more. Its success rate stands at over 99%. Rokosh started Connect Experts based on the organization’s mission and believes that when you change anything, you must change it on many levels. To that end, she tirelessly educates nurses, doctors, and the public on medical malpractice issues. She has provided expert opinion on many birth trauma cases, appearing as an expert witness in court in multiple provinces. She was part of a national, multidisciplinary team developing safer practices in obstetrical care and a founding member of the Legal Nurse Consulting Association of Canada, where she was instrumental in getting the role of the legal nurse consultant recognized as an emerging practice group by the Canadian Nurses Association. In 2020, Rokosh started the podcast Inside Medical Malpractice, which was highlighted as one of the top healthcare podcasts of its kind. Now, with 70 episodes, the podcast explores the often misunderstood but fascinating world of medical malpractice with guests that include experienced lawyers, patients, and medical experts in the most complex areas of healthcare. With a deep respect for the professions of medicine and law, Inside Medical Malpractice has been approved for legal, nursing, and medical education credits in many jurisdictions in both Canada and the US. The last few years have turned many systems upside down, including healthcare and law, and Connect Experts has adapted by adding new ways for lawyers to reach them. It has updated its website to incorporate easy online requests for experts and will be introducing a service where lawyers can speak directly with a doctor to discuss their case as part of the vetting process. “This past year, we have become acutely aware of a heightened responsibility for our experts to provide expert opinions with a thorough understanding of the current legal and healthcare challenges,” she adds. “Our experts must do excellent work promptly despite challenging circumstances to help advance the backlog of medical-legal cases through the courts.” The company has also retained experts to investigate potential COVID-19 malpractice claims who are qualified to comment on the multiple standards of care and causation issues in these incredibly complex cases. “We stand out in one significant way: our entire team is healthcare. Our client-facing people are experienced Registered Nurses and Legal Nurse Consultants. So, the teaching, helping, and explaining starts with the very first contact and continues until the case is out of the courts,” she remarks. “Finding great experts, physicians, nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals is all we do.”

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the best mentorship and support for whatever stage of their business or clientele one of Australia’s most attractive commission rates

Ms Yap’s own experience drove her to devise a viable broker model and commission structure that can support many startup brokers with a fast-growing clientele. This allows for a greater number of authorised representatives who are incentivised to target particular industries to maximise economies of scale, while a robust IT and support system ensures that brokers can offer the best possible service 24/7. “Our clients never have to wait longer than two hours for a response, and our brokers are contactable over the weekends for urgent claims,” says Ms Yap. “Our brokers understand their clients’ business needs and pair them with the right product and appropriate level of cover for any foreseeable risk or contingency.” The firm has made extensive efforts to refine its offering, and in 2019, it commissioned a comprehensive competitor review of the broker network market and found several gaps in the support for smaller independent brokers. This resulted in a significant investment in IT infrastructure to onboard brokers from anywhere in Australia. The tiers in the commission structure were simplified to make it more attractive for the smaller independent brokers to join while providing them Steadfast member benefits.

Dynamic Insurance Services is also continuing to boost its growth with initiatives such as:

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a 12-month branding and marketing campaign investment in digital assets and content that can support the marketing efforts of brokers strengthening their stable specialised insurance schemes to offer even better value for money for clients

Ms Yap says, “We have a supportive work environment with an emphasis on mentorship and wellbeing. This is especially helpful for female insurance professionals, who often have to balance professional goals with family duties. We actively encourage brokers to break new ground by establishing market niches and insurance schemes that best leverage their experience and contacts.”

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