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Julie Benafield Bowman |
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Julie Benafield Bowman was appointed Insurance Commissioner on January 15, 2005. Ms. Bowman received her B.A. degree in political science and speech communications from Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas in 1985. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law in 1989.
Prior to assuming the Insurance Commissioner’s post, Ms. Bowman served as Chief Executive Officer of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission (AWCC) from 1998 to 2005. At the AWCC she was instrumental in expanding the services of the Health and Safety Division, redesigning and streamlining all the Commission’s forms, and revising and introducing several of the Commission’s rules. She helped the AWCC curtail its personnel and finances while, at the same time, maintain its services to the public. All these activities, she stressed, were intended to be responsive to her perception that the public wants a government accomplishing its mission effectively but also efficiently.
Before joining the AWCC, she served as General Counsel at the Arkansas Development Finance Authority from 1996 to 1998. She was Attorney Supervisor of the Workers’ Compensation Fraud Investigation Unit of the Arkansas Insurance Department from 1993 to 1996, and was Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in the Arkansas Sixth District from 1989 through 1993. During her tenure at the Fraud Unit, Ms. Bowman prosecuted numerous cases of workers’ compensation fraud and successfully tried and won a conviction in the first Arkansas jury trial regarding this subject.
Ms. Bowman was a member of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC) where she served on the Executive Committee and as an officer. During that time she was instrumental in the revitalization of the finances and services of the association. Ms. Bowman held the office of President-elect of the Association when she resigned to move to her new post as Insurance Commissioner. The IAIABC, a worldwide association of workers’ compensation boards and commissions, addresses such concerns as employee benefits, medical costs, education, adjudication, safety, self-insurance, legislation, and other issues facing workers’ compensation systems.
As Insurance Commissioner, Ms. Bowman authors various weekly and monthly columns and is a frequent speaker at local and national conferences. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Southeastern Zone of the National Association of Insurance Commissioner (NAIC), a position which provides her a seat on the Executive Committee. She also serves as Vice-Chair of the NAIC Market Regulation and Consumer Affairs Committee and Vice-Chair of the Information Resources Management Committee. Ms. Bowman and her staff travel extensively to promote consumer education within the State of Arkansas. Under her leadership the Arkansas Insurance Department has developed an ongoing consumer education and awareness program, and has pursued an aggressive information technology infrastructure to increase our services to the public and industry. Increased services include creation of the www.insurance.arkansas.gov and www.fightfraud.arkansas.gov Web sites, year-round online filing and electronic funds transfer payment of premium taxes, initiating conversion to paperless processing, and the first Insurance Department in the United States to successfully interface with the NAIC Online Fraud system. Ms. Bowman is a member of the Pulaski County Bar Association and served on the Board in 2002-03 and 2005-06. She is also a member of The Rotary Club of Little Rock. Ms. Bowman resides in Little Rock with her 17 year-old daughter, Melissa. She is a member of Saddle Creek Church, where she sings on the Praise Team. Ms. Bowman was listed in the Arkansas Business “Forty Under Forty” for 2001 and was in the 2003 10th anniversary issue of the magazine during a retrospective of all previous “Forty Under Forty” achievers. |
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