HERB
DENENBERG BIO
Herb Denenberg has been an investigative and consumer reporter,
columnist and advocate for over 25 years. Before that he served as Pennsylvania
Insurance Commissioner (1971-1974), Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner
(1974-1975), and Professor at the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania (1962-1970).
He was the consumer and investigative reporter for the CBS and
then the NBC TV station in Philadelphia for 25 years, and more recently served
in that capacity at the Harron Cable Update and the Adelphia Cable update, both
nightly newscasts, and for the Tri-State Media All-News Cable Network. He is
also a columnist for a group of papers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and
appears as an expert witness cases against insurance companies involving bad
faith denial of claims and other matters.
He is now an adjunct professor of information science and
technology at Cabrini College. He has also served as an assistant professor of
insurance at the University of Iowa and a professor of law at Temple
University.
He has won hundreds of awards for his media work, including 40
Emmys, the Consumer Service Award of the Consumer Federation of American, the
Award of Achievement from the American Board of Trial Advocates, an award for
the best in consumer journalism from the National Press Club and a Lambert
Award for contributions to the health care delivery system. During Denenberg's tenure as Pennsylvania
Insurance Commissioner, Ralph Nader wrote, "He's clearly the most
consumer-oriented insurance commissioner in American history." As a result
of the health care reforms he implemented as Commissioner, he was elected to
the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. His motto as
Insurance Commissioner, was "Populus Iamdudam Defutatus Est" which
translated from the Latin is "The Consumer Has Been Screwed Long
Enough."
Denenberg is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University (B.S.),
Creighton University School of Law (J.D.), Harvard University School of Law
(LL.M.), and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D.). He also received two
honorary degrees, a Doctor of Humane Letters from Spring Garden College and a
Doctor of Laws from Allentown College. He is a CPCU (Chartered Property and
Casualty Underwriter) and a CLU (Chartered Life Underwriter).
For three years he served in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of
the U.S. Army as a first lieutenant and and was a captain in the reserves.
He is the author of seven books and hundreds of articles on
insurance, law, and consumer affairs. He has testified many times before
Congressional committees, state legislative committees, and the City Council of
Philadelphia.
He has served on the board of Consumers Union, the publisher of
Consumer Reports, and is now on the board of the Sapio Institute (on
interactive learning) and the Center for Proper Medication Use. He served as
President of the American Risk and Insurance Association. He recently authored
a Shopper's Guide to Herbal Medicine published by the Center.
Denenberg has served as consultant to the US Department of Labor,
the US Small Business Administration, the National Commission on Product
Safety, the FTC, the US Department of Justice, the US Department of
Transportation, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Philadelphia
School Board, the State of Alaska and Nevada, the United States Commission on
Civil Rights, and other government agencies. He was special counsel and
research director of the President's National Advisory Panel on Insurance in
Riot-Affected Areas; associate director of the Wisconsin Legislature's Law
Revision Committee, special counsel to the Mayor of Washington D.C., and
general counsel of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. He was a
co-author of the first no-fault
law passed in a United States jurisdiction (the Social Protection
Plan of Puerto Rico). He also instituted a long list of fundamental reforms as
Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner.
Denenberg has an entry in Who's Who in America, Who's Who In
Insurance, Who's Who in Health Care, Who's Who in Science and Engineering,
Current Biography, American Men of Science, Who's Who In World Jewry and other
standard biographical reference. His biography, authored by Howard Shapiro, is
entitled "How to Keep Them Honest" and was published by Rodale Press.