The NASBP magazine, Surety Bond Quarterly (SBQ), the voice of the surety industry, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with an issue that you don’t want to miss! This anniversary celebration issue will be released in summer 2024, featuring special content on how the surety and construction industries have changed in the last 10 years through the perspectives of NASBP members and industry stakeholders and consultants. Below are two authors of several who will be featured in the special 10th-Anniversary issue.

Get to Know These SBQ Authors

Sherron Watkins – the Enron Whistleblower
Sherron Watkins is a certified public accountant and the former Vice President of Enron Corporation who alerted then chairman Ken Lay in August 2001 to accounting irregularities within the company, warning him that Enron “might implode in a wave of accounting scandals.” She has testified before Congressional Committees investigating Enron’s demise from both the U.S. House and Senate. Watkins received national acclaim for her courageous actions, and Time magazine named Watkins, along with two others, as one of its 2002 Persons of the Year.

If you saw Watkins’ presentation at the 2023 NASBP Fall East and West Meetings, you know she is an engaging and informed presenter. What she has to say in writing is just as interesting. We are confident you will want to read her SBQ article titled, “Never Shortcut Due Diligence Even Though the Counterparty is the World’s Largest Financial Institution.” She references then U.S. Senator Carl Levin’s powerful opening statement at the start of the Senate’s hearing on the banks’ role in the collapse of Enron. After reading Watkins’ SBQ article, you will understand why Time magazine selected Watkins as Time Person of the Year 2002.

Known as the Enron whistleblower, Watkins speaks around the globe about ethics and leadership and the lessons to be learned from the collapse of Enron, where she served in a variety of executive positions for over eight years. She is co-author of Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron. Watkins now lectures on leadership and ethics as the Executive-in-Residence at the McCoy College of Business at Texas State University and as Professor of the Practice at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Michael Bond – Chief Underwriting Officer – National Accounts at Markel Surety
Michael Bond is Chief Underwriting Officer – National Accounts at Markel Surety. He oversees the underwriting of accounts requiring surety capacity from $50 million to $500 million. The National Accounts offering adds to Markel Surety’s well-established track record and existing business in Contract and Commercial Surety.

NASBP was thrilled when Bond eagerly agreed to be SBQ magazine’s futurologist for this special 10th anniversary issue. Bond has been a regular presenter for NASBP for years. You may recall recently he participated on these two NASBP Virtual Seminars: Personal Branding: Becoming A Surety Influencer, with Courtney Decroes of Early, Cassidy & Schilling, An AssuredPartners Agency, and Surety Industry Market Update. Now we have the good fortune to have Bond writing for SBQ. He will be looking into the “crystal ball” of the surety industry and contemplating where our industry is headed in the near future and beyond! Perhaps you have heard that theme song from the old Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon, The Jetsons, that had a fun, futuristic setting of 2062! Get ready for a fun read about the surety industry’s future!

Prior to Markel Surety, Bond was Head of Surety for Euler Hermes North America. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Surety and Fidelity Association of America, the Management Committee of the International Credit Insurance & Surety Association, and the Executive Committee of the Pan American Surety Association.

Remember, this special anniversary issue of NASBP Surety Bond Quarterly will be mailed to NASBP members and stakeholders by the end of June 2024 and will also be available at https://www.suretybondquarterly.org/. Check out the magazine’s site for more details, the latest stories, and how to subscribe. Follow @nasbp on social media.