UA’s Rabel Receives Alabama Finance Association Outstanding Faculty Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. William Rabel, professor of insurance and financial services at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce, has been named recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Award by the Alabama Finance Association.

The Alabama Finance Association Outstanding Faculty Award was created to recognize professors who have significantly impacted students in a meaningful way. Professors can be recognized through their service to the school, excellent teaching style, mentorship of students, or the positive motivation the professor provides.

Nominations are accepted through students, teaching assistants and other professors. The winner of the award is selected by the officers of the Alabama Finance Association and receives a plaque celebrating his or her excellence as a faculty member.

Rabel, a Fellow of the Life Management Institute and a Certified Life Underwriter, is the John and Mary Louise Loftis Bickley Endowed Teaching Professor of Insurance and Financial Services.

Prior to joining the faculty in Aug. 2006, he was senior vice president, Education and Training, at Life Office Management Association where he lead a strategic business unit that provided professional education for those involved in the management and operations of financial services companies throughout the world.

Under Rabel’s leadership, the association’s Life Management Institute program became the world’s largest university-level professional education program in financial services. It is used in some 60 countries and is offered in seven languages

Prior to joining the Life Office Management Association, Rabel served as dean of The American College’s Huebner School of CLU Studies. He also has served on the faculty of Syracuse University’s College of Business and was an Economic Affairs Officer for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, Switzerland.

He serves on the board of trustees, S. S. Huebner Foundation for Insurance Education, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He also has been appointed as a Fellow Professor at Peking and Renmin (People’s) Universities, both of Beijing, China and is a member of the Council of Senior Advisors, China Center for Insurance and Social Security Research.

An active member of several professional organizations where he has played a leadership role, he has twice been elected as a director of the American Risk and Insurance Association, where he received the President’s Award; he is serving a second term on the Board of Governors, Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association, where he served for three years as chairman or co-chairman of the nominating committee and is Secretary-elect.

He has served as chairman or a member of the strategic planning committee of several organizations, including the American Society of CLU, the American Risk and Insurance Association, the Association Internationale de Droit des Assurances, and the International Insurance Society.

Rabel holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M, where he was a Munnerlyn Scholar, and earned masters and doctorate degrees from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Huebner Fellow.