Herb Denenberg has been an investigative and consumer reporter and columnist
for over 25 years. Before that he served as Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner,
Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner, and Professor at the Wharton School
of the University of Pennsylvania.
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, and a more complete version of that
guide which is to appear on their Web Site at www.cpmu.org.
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.
Click here for Herb's Media Bio