Who would have thought a foreigner who arrived at the United States almost 40 years ago, not knowing a word of English, would be standing here today being installed as the president of IBA-SFV. Well, they told me I couldn’t be the president of the United States because I wasn’t born here, so I chose the next best thing, IBA-SFV. It has been a tough journey, a lot of hard work, but giving up and failure wasn’t an option, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It has been a great joy to be serving on the IBA-SFV Board of Directors for the past 6 years alongside some great people. I have learned a lot from them and am very excited to be the 75th President of the IBA-SFV. It’s an honor to be following the footsteps of amazing past presidents of the Board and I hope that I can be half as good as they have been.
I would like to thank our Past President, Ryan Surina of Acrisure, for all his efforts in the past year. Without his guidance and dedication to this board I don’t think we could have made it through all the challenges that we’ve had to face in the past year.
I also to thank our former Past President, Alon Ben-Nun of Universal Risk Insurance Services for his friendship, his guidance and most importantly his upbeat energy.
Thank you, Diane Yamashita of Momentous Insurance, for recommending me to join the board 6 years ago and believing in me that I can get the job done.
For most of us 2023 was one of the most challenging years in our career but we pulled through it. We will face new challenges this year but in the long run this will make us stronger. What really stands out is the way we all collaborated and supported each other through an extremely difficult market environment and with seemingly ever more demanding client needs. As we look to 2024, the opportunities for all of us are immense. We can only do this together and I look forward to doing this in partnership with all of you.
My vision for IBA-SFV for this term is not only to keep the legacy of IBA-SFV but to change and liven things up a bit, just like my personality. I also look forward to making new friends and strengthening relationships with everyone in this room.
As always, your support doesn’t go unnoticed and is very much appreciated. We hope to deliver what is expected of us and make insurance fun for the incoming younger agents.
We are adding a new event this year- Women in Insurance breakfast and will have a panel of women in insurance leadership to encourage and support the young women insurance.
Lastly, I want to thank our Sponsors Mark Kaufman from XPT, Willa Wang from Blus Sky Restoration, Jeff Conley/Nancy Burgos from Amwins and Katie Andrews from Paylocity. I would also like to thank our Booster Members and the entire team of the Board of Directors. Without your support we wouldn’t be such an active association as we are.
On behalf of the duly elected officers & and directors of the IBA San Fernando Valley Association, we look forward to seeing and serving you all at our upcoming events and hope you have a fantastic year.
Carmen Amirian
