Member Webinar: Veterans Day 2023

Eric served in the Army National Guard for 19 years. During his time in service he spent 8 years as an enlisted Solider and 11 as an Officer. He rose to the rank of Captain finishing his career in November 2021 as an Airborne Logistics Commander where his unit was responsible for supporting special operations units in the field. Eric is a graduate from the following Army schools: Officer Candidate, Logistics Officer, Captain’s Career Course, Airborne, Air Assault, and Pathfinder. Eric is also a combat Veteran serving in the Operation Iraqi Freedom Campaign in 2006, where he worked with local Iraqi Police forces to fight against insurgency in the streets of Ramadi.

Eric currently serves as the National Co-Chair for Valor, Liberty Mutual’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) dedicated to Veterans, current service members, spouse/partners, and allies. Eric’s work on this team has included supporting Veteran/Current Service member hiring initiatives, creating a robust mentorship program, elevating current service member benefits, and being a trusted advisor to Senior Leadership on military current events. Eric has been featured on “Veteran on the Move” podcast, Worklife.com news article on how remote work impacts Veterans, Benefitsnews.com on how Liberty Mutual’s ERG is supporting Veterans, and more. Eric began his insurance career with a degree in Risk Management & Insurance from Ball State University in 2006.

Upon returning from Combat in 2007, Eric began selling insurance with Nationwide and later State Farm. After obtaining his MBA, Eric went on to work for Liberty Mutual Insurance in 2011, where he continues to work today! Eric has held 8 roles during tenure at Liberty Mutual from front line adjuster and manager, to a more home office Director type of role that he currently holds today. Eric contributes his longevity with the company to not only his career progression and infinity for the work he does for the company and our policyholders, but the ability to help create and lead our Valor ERG.

Michelle Howard served 35 years in the United States Navy. She led Sailors and Marines multiple times in her career as the Commander of: a ship, an Expeditionary Strike Group, Task Force, and a Naval theater. Operations in her career include NATO peacekeeping, West African Training Cruise, Indonesia Tsunami Relief operations, and the rescue of Maersk Alabama from Somali Pirates.

In 1999, Michelle became the first African American woman to command a ship in the Navy. In 2014, she became the first woman four-star Admiral in the Navy.

Michelle was the Shapiro Visiting Professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University from 2018 to 2020. Michelle was the Chair of The Naming Commission from March 2020 to October 2022. The congressionally mandated Commission identified and made recommendations to remove, rename or modify Department of Defense Assets that commemorated the Confederacy or individuals who voluntarily served the Confederacy.

Rumbi Petrozzello is the Head of Strategy, Consulting at Seramount. Previously Rumbi was the principal of Rock Consulting and with Aon’s Cyber Solutions. At Aon, she directed the career-development arm of the company’s Women in Cyber program, also serving as a leader in the organization’s Asian and Pacific Islander employee resource group. Leveraging training on building racial equity, through Race Forward, Rumbi led Courageous Conversations on antiracism and racial equity and, as a certified facilitator, led sessions on activating allyship and leading inclusively. Rumbi is certified in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion though Cornell University.

A Past President of the New York State Society of CPAs, in 2021, Rumbi became the first woman of color elected to serve in that role in the organization’s 125-year history. In 2024, Rumbi joined the board of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association), thus also joining the board of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). The Association is the world’s leading professional accounting associations, serving over 600,000 members.

Rumbi has been recognized and honored for her DEI work and has been on countless panels. She has also been interviewed by numerous news outlets such as The New York Times, New York Post, CBS, and The Rachel Maddow Show.

A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, in Massachusetts, Rumbi received a BA in economics, and then went on to the University of South Africa, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting science. She is a certified public accountant, is certified in financial forensics, and is a certified fraud examiner. Rumbi and her husband live in Arverne, New York, where he surfs and she runs. She also loves reading, podcasts, all manner of sport, and traveling. Rumbi dreams of becoming a Double Dutch skipper one day.

Lisa Rosser is a Northern Virginia based human resource professional and a military veteran who spent 22 years in the active Army and the Army Reserve and 8 years working as a Human Capital business management consultant with Accenture.

In 2007, when the veteran unemployment rate was 23%, she combined this experience and founded a training and consulting firm called “The Value Of a Veteran” with a mission to help organizations create veteran talent programs built on a solid, high ROI business case.

Over the last 16 years, through training, consultation and change management practices, she has helped more than 450 large companies and government agencies build comprehensive, effective and award-winning veteran talent programs.

She also advises small businesses on issues related to recruiting and retention and advocates for sourcing talent from under-utilized populations such as people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, veterans and military spouses, formerly incarcerated people, people aged 55+, etc.

She has been featured on televised segments on MSNBC, Fox Business News and Real Clear Politics, and has authored or contributed content to 3 publications on veteran talent.