Dear Members,

At today's Annual General Meeting, my term as President of John Street Club will end, and we will begin a new act in our history. When I reflect on my duration on the Board of Governors and as President, I'm reminded of a quote from Shakespeare's play: The Tempest: "What's past is prologue," meaning what's transpired before is the opening of what is to come.

Last year, 2023, our Club finally exited the pandemic era. It began early in Andrew Weitzman's first term in March 2020 with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, continuing under Kerry Dunn in 2022 for our reopening, and concluded this year with the ending of the federal emergency response on May 11, 2023, which also happened to be, poetically, our largest luncheon event all year. With my departure the last of the pandemic Presidents will have moved on.

I benefited greatly by serving as Secretary under Andrew and Vice President under Kerry and appreciated both staying on the Advisory Board this year. They are both profiles in leadership, and our resurgence this year was in large part because of their efforts. When we refreshed our branding earlier this year, I insisted we add the year we were established: 1946, because we've collectively earned every one of our 78 years of continuous operation and rightly should wear it with pride.

I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge our guest speakers. Our signature event, the speaker luncheon, is only possible because industry leaders are willing to make the time to stop by and speak to us. It's always a thrill to find out many have been to one of our meetings before! You would be amazed at the time and energy spent preparing for our events. On behalf of the Club we are truly appreciative.

This year was an astonishingly productive year for our Club. Some of the highlights were:

• Refreshed the Club's iconic branding.
• Completed the migration of Club records to the new Admin platform.
• Relaunched the website.
• Created a LinkedIn group that attracted over 1,100 followers.
• Created sponsored tables for luncheons to help defray the cost of speaker luncheons.
• Enhanced our Club's Governance by adopting modified Robert's Rules, updated our Operational Plan, and created Standing Rules to track Board of Governors resolutions.
• Recruited 26 new members and convinced many former members who had lapsed during the pandemic to return (thank you to our phenomenal Membership Chairperson Paula Trincera).
• Forged partnerships with the Water Street Club and The Bridge with a social mixer event and joint luncheon, respectively (thank you to our liaisons David Lynders and Kirk Hudson).
• Conducted nine Speaker Luncheons, with four consecutive luncheons having more than +100 attendees (Jonathan Zaffino of Ascot, The Hard Market, John Lupica of Chubb, and Sara Robson of Marsh w/ The Bridge) and held four special events.
• Rebooted our Annual Scholarship Golf Outing benefiting the Stephen M. Calascione Memorial Scholarship Fund for the first time since 2021 and raised $1,500 benefiting the scholarship fund (thank you Dennis Brown, Michael Hodson and James Murphy).
• Proposed and ratified eight changes to our Bylaws encompassing adding inclusionary principles to our Object clause; moving our default luncheon day to Thursday; designating Speaker and Membership Chairperson permanent Officer positions, and changing future elections so that the membership will directly elect all Officer roles (in addition to President).

All these accomplishments were only possible with the time and energy of our Board of Governors and Advisory Board. It is indeed an exceptional group of accomplished professionals, thank you for your service. Thank you to Hilary Ruby for serving as our Club Secretary for three terms; one if not the most challenging and time-consuming jobs on the board, and to Kim Boldi, our Speaker Chairperson, for recruiting a full slate of fantastic speakers last year. Thank you to all of our member volunteers, in particular Stephen Farrelly for another fantastic year organizing and hosting the Annual Governors Dinner.

Congratulations to Alan Carlson, who is the winner of the Hawley T. Chester Award for Excellence in Service to The John Street Club, for his six years of service on the Board of Governors. He's served in whatever way he was asked, including Membership Chair, Treasurer, and Governor. He was always a valued and consistent contributor for his entire time on the board – this honor is well deserved.

Congratulations to the Stephen M. Calascione Memorial Scholarship recipients this year: Grace Comas and John Pappas. Also, thank you to Ned Browne, current Member and former President, who serves on the board of another organization set up in Steve Calascione's honor for the benefit of SNACK, for facilitating a generous donation to the scholarship fund. While I never met Steve, I'm amazed at the impact his legacy continues to have to this day.

This year's nominating committee was comprised Kim Boldi, Alan Carlson, and Hilary Ruby, and it presented its recommendations for new board members last month. We are fortunate to have recruited five terrific new members to the Board of Governors , and we will undoubtedly see their positive impact in the years to come. In addition, the committee recommended a very qualified and dedicated candidate as our next President: Peter Linn.

A quick word about Peter: It has been a pleasure serving alongside him on the Board of Governors for several years now through the pandemic, reopening, and resurgence. Through it all, he remained steadfastly committed and was an ambassador of our Club to the industry beyond. He most recently served as Vice President and was responsible for pushing forward a few of the previously mentioned initiatives. He was also formerly the Speaker Chairperson, bringing that valuable experience to this role. Congratulations, Peter, I'm confident you will do great.

It's been an honor and privilege to serve as the 76th President of the John Street Club and on the Board of Governors; even through the tempests. My time is now a small part of our storied past. That past has always inspired me, but I'm still even more excited for our future. And if our past is prologue, we can expect great things at the John Street Club for a very long time to come.

Best regards,

Steve Robinson

The Board of Governors for the 23-24 term was:

• Steve Robinson – President
• Peter Linn – Vice President
• Hilary Ruby – Secretary
• James Murphy – Treasurer
• Kim Boldi - Speaker Chairperson
• Paula Trinchera - Membership Chairperson
• Alan Carlson - Governor
• Brooke Ellis Moriarty – Governor
• Michael Hodson – Governor
• Brendan Mahoney – Governor
• Gillian Russo – Governor
• William Sutherland - Governor

The Advisory Board was:

• Kerry Dunn
• Ian McMullin
• Andrew Weitzman, MBA

The Luncheon Speakers were:

• Santi Hernandez , CEO of Arch Re Facultative
• Elizabeth (Greer) Geary , President Insurance Solutions at Liberty Mutual
• Rose Hall, Head of Innovation AXA XL Ecosystem
• Jonathan Zaffino, Group President and CEO of Ascot Group Ltd.
• The Hard Market
• John Lupica, Chairman, Chubb Group and President North America Insurance
• Sarah Robson, CEO of Marsh Canada Limited
• Rajiv Punja, Chief Product Officer at Ledger Investing
• Hank Watkins , Regional Director and President – Americas at Lloyds