Greater Hartford
Transformational insurance executive leader with a successful track record at all levels of Agency & Distribution Management, Business Operations, Distribution Strategy, and Sales. Expertise in Personal, Commercial, Life & Annuity, and affinity/membership-based business models like AAA and AARP. Creative problem solver and strategist with a keen ability to diagnose the core components of a business challenge, map the elements of the solution, and drive an execution plan to a successful end state. A strong bias towards an entrepreneurial mindset, capable of assuming different roles in an effort to drive organizational change by establishing effective operating routines for sustained high performance. KEY ACHIEVEMENTS • More than doubled PIF and TWP during tenure at AAA Northeast. • Grew direct to consumer business to over $100 million from scratch over four years at AAA Northeast. • Stood up Life & Annuity distribution operation and grew revenues to several million in 2.5 years. • Reversed topline growth from -10% to +9% delivering PL Agency Channel turnaround at The Hartford.
Responsible for all revenue generating facets of the Insurance Division, including budgeting, P&L management, carrier relations and managing a team of 350+ licensed producers for Personal Lines, Small Commercial and Life & Annuity products. Scope included the management of a multi-hundred million dollar renewal book of business across all lines of business. Architected the strategy and execution plan for advancing Personal Lines transformation from an independent agency platform to a primarily direct-to-consumer focus. Developed and executed strategy to harden and align go-to-market (GTM) approach for the 90+ person Life and Annuity division. • Increased new business (NB) run rate by 112% over tenure. • Annual Life & Annuity NB premium increased over a 2.5-year period with a run rate of 200% over previous year. • Both policies in force (PIF) and total written premium (TWP) more than doubled during tenure while growing +10% and +30% over prior year, respectively. • Grew Motor Club Insurance Company’s (MCIC) direct to consumer book of business to over $100 million from scratch over four years.
Responsible for formulating and executing the growth strategy for the Insurance line of business. Direct management responsibility for a staff of 250+ licensed agents and sales leaders across a five-state footprint and multiple lines of insurance: Personal, Commercial & Life. Distribution model included brick & mortar retail and call center operations. Managed all aspects of carrier partnerships to optimize overall growth and profitability. Partnered with internal resources and external vendors to develop the necessary operational capabilities to achieve planned growth and net income targets. • Repositioned the Small Commercial operation resulting in 300%+ growth in Premium over tenure. • Consistently delivered on YOY revenue and net income targets by growing TWP at a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.4%. • Established new business production records every year (except for 2020 due to COVID) achieving a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.85%. • Developed process and infrastructure for the recruitment of non-licensed candidates facilitating improved average agent production by 80%+, agent retention of 90%+ and staff diversity targets. • Redesigned compensation plans which led to improved recruitment, agent retention and average agent production with no impact to profitability or NB quality. • Improved organizational structure and career pathing for the sales team to establish adequate spans of control while also creating talent pipeline necessary for leadership perpetuation resulting in 21 leadership promotions.
Business owner of Home Office Operations for the Agency Channel. Led team of direct reports and matrixed business partners to develop and deploy distribution strategies that optimized agency engagement and sales effectiveness to achieve growth and profitability objectives. Managed governance of exclusive AARP Through Agents program including executive liaison with senior leaders of the ASI Distribution & Operations team. Provided leadership and expertise for the Agency Channel to drive key enterprise initiatives and priorities. • Achieved topline growth of 25% over a three-year period by repositioning and aligning sales and agency compensation to drive behaviors that led to improved retention and new business placement. • Delivered on turnaround plan for the Personal Lines Agency Channel reversing top line growth from -10% to +9%, a combined ratio improvement of -13 points and an expense ratio improvement of -3 points. • Improved the three-year accident year loss ratio (AYLR) by 5.7 points as leader of the National Sales Team responsible for managing eAgent relationships by realigning alliances focusing on increased sales discipline and agency management actions. • Partnered with Field Sales and internal business partners to drive profitability actions targeted to deliver $30 million of underwriting income improvement over three years. • Led effort to identify, stabilize and harden core sales operation assets that were critical to the ongoing viability and success of the Agency Channel and AARP relationship.
Led Personal Insurance (PI) Agency Development unit including defining the strategic direction and tactical implementation of associated business initiatives. Managed team of five Agency Development professionals to provide agnostic consultation services to key agency partners along with 20+ Agency Training Specialists who provided automation and underwriting training to the agency plant. Acted as primary liaison with the National Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) and corporate representative for the PIA Partnership Committee. • Successfully repositioned and led the PI National Producer Council comprised of 16 leading agents representing every PI region to be a collaborative body for senior leadership providing critical real-time agent feedback to guide the communication and execution of business line strategies and initiatives. • Led integration of agency diagnostic and consultative sales expertise into the Field sales model and partnered with PI Training to create supporting curriculum to drive ongoing change management. • Provided SME consultation to home office business partners that optimized state, regional and countrywide initiatives to achieve stated outcomes. • Effectively guided and influenced regional business partners (product & pricing, sales, marketing) to develop and execute statewide initiatives that aligned with stated agency value proposition.