A round-up of employment-related news as well as awards and raffles from in and around the Massachusetts insurance industry.
Longtime Risk Advisor and Past President Robert W. Gilbert, Jr. Retires From The Dowd Agencies
Robert W. Gilbert Jr. has retired after 43 years of dedicated service at The Dowd Agencies, LLC, a leading New England insurance provider celebrating 120 years of family-led business this year. An insurance consultant and risk adviser for The Dowd Insurance Agencies, Gilbert also served as its president, vice president and treasurer over the course of his tenure.
“Bob has been a mentor to me since I started in this business over 30 years ago,” said President and CEO John E. Dowd Jr., who joined the company’s fourth generation in 1982. “We worked together as partners and he has been an integral part of our growth and success.”
Gilbert, who lives in West Springfield with his wife, Connie, began his insurance career at Aetna Life & Casualty in Springfield in 1970. He joined The Dowd Insurance Agencies as vice president and treasurer in 1975. He served in those roles for 13 years before becoming president in May 1988.
David W. Griffin Sr., executive vice president and treasurer for The Dowd Agencies, said, “I have enjoyed working closely with Bob over the years. The contributions he made to both our agency and our industry have been significant and are deeply appreciated.”
A Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter and a Licensed Insurance Adviser, Gilbert will continue working with The Dowd Agencies in a limited advisory role and continues to serve on several insurance carrier advisory councils and civic boards.
Rogers & Gray Announces New Addition to Management team
David Robinson, President & CEO of Rogers & Gray Insurance, announced the addition of Ryan Brown to the management team at the growing Massachusetts-based agency.
“We are thrilled to welcome Ryan to our team,” said Robinson. “We had been looking for the ideal fit to manage key Rogers & Gray locations and Ryan is it. With his strong background on the insurance carrier and the agency side, Ryan is poised to make a big impact on our insurance operations with a particular focus on our client experience.”
Brown joins the agency from Safeco, a Liberty Mutual Company, where he was the Senior Territory Manager in the Boston and New York City markets. He also spent six years with Arthur J. Gallagher in New York and attended SUNY Oswego.
“I’ve been working alongside Rogers & Gray for a long time and have always been impressed by the way they treat their clients and their employees” said Brown. “This position is the perfect opportunity for me to bring my expertise to the agency and the clients.”
A rescue dog dad and Plymouth resident, Brown volunteers assembling Hope Bags for sick children in hospitals across the country through the Message of Hope Foundation. The personal insurance operations of the Rogers & Gray offices in Dennis and Orleans will be managed by Brown and he can be reached at rbrown@rogersgray.com or 508-398-7980.
Doug Roseburg Appointed Regional Sales Director at Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company
New hire brings more than a decade of unique sales and employee benefits experience to increase growth in the Midwest
Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company, a national provider of insurance solutions for individuals and at the workplace, today announced that Doug Rosburg has been appointed Regional Sales Director for the company’s Heartland region in the Midwest. Mr. Rosburg brings years of experience in the insurance and media industries positioning companies for market leadership and profitability. As the newest addition to the company’s sales team, Mr. Rosburg will support the life insurance carrier’s ongoing business needs, continued growth, and increased success in the Heartland region.
“By bringing on a seasoned sales director, I’m excited about continuing to deepen our talent bench to support our collective goals as we move through the fourth quarter,” said Jim Jacobsen, Executive Vice President of Distribution at Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company. “Doug’s deep expertise and experience leading sales in Kansas City and the rest of the region make him a valuable addition to our growing sales team.”
Most recently, Mr. Rosburg was a Senior Sales Representative at Lincoln Financial Group, where he was instrumental in the rebuilding of the Lincoln Financial brand in a variety of regions, including Kansas and Missouri. Prior to Lincoln Financial, he was a Senior Sales Representative at Assurant Employee Benefits, where he managed employee benefits sales opportunities and relationships in Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. He began his sales career serving in media sales positions at Time Warner Cable Media and Florida Weekly.
In his new role, Mr. Rosburg will serve on the Distribution sales team covering the Heartland region in the Midwest, which includes Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado. He will be responsible for overseeing sales opportunities and coordinating with producers in his territory. Mr. Rosburg is the second Regional Sales Director to join Boston Mutual in the latter part of this year, following the recent appointment of Marie Lackey as Senior Regional Sales Director to the Southeastern region.
Mr. Rosburg earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.
Liberty Mutual Insurance Announces Technology Leadership Team Appointments
Liberty Mutual Insurance today announced the appointment of four executives to Chief Information Officer James McGlennon’s technology leadership team. The appointments are part of Mr. McGlennon’s strategy to create a fast, flexible and agile organization that leads change in the industry by incubating new ideas and deploying new technologies.
“These new appointments are key to our success in realizing our strategy to drive a growing, profitable business and Liberty’s vision to become a Top 3 global property and casualty insurer,” said McGlennon. “To achieve these goals, we need to disrupt ourselves and change how we operate, placing the customer at the center of our thinking and looking for new ways to provide value and enhanced service. By doing this we will redefine how customers shop for and learn about insurance by creating innovative ways to help them navigate the roads with more confidence and less worry.”
The technology leadership appointments include:
- Monica Caldas, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Liberty’s Global Retail Markets (GRM). Ms. Caldas leads GRM’s global IT organization, strategy and services with a focus on driving business outcomes with technology by continuously innovating to better serve customers. Ms. Caldas will set the vision and establish the technology roadmap for the global portfolio of IT initiatives and enterprise-wide systems with a focus on digital transformation and deeper usage of data and analytics.
- John Heveran, Chief Information Officer of Global Risk Solutions. Mr. Heveran oversees and manages a team dedicated to delivering innovative technologies and expertise to Liberty International Underwriters, Liberty Specialty Markets, Liberty Mutual Surety, Ironshore and National Insurance.
- Katie Jenkins, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer. Ms. Jenkins is responsible for Liberty’s global cybersecurity program, ensuring protection of company data, defense of the brand and minimizing business impact of cyberattacks. She leads enterprise cybersecurity policy, strategy and programs including cyber risk management, security-enabled cloud technology and employee awareness initiatives.
- Michael Willock, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Liberty Mutual Investments. Mr. Willock oversees the technology that facilitates Liberty’s global invested financial assets, generating income and creating capital for the company. Leveraging his leadership and experience, Mr. Willock will develop a strategic roadmap for Investments technology, enhance its data and analytics capabilities and create scalable front-to-back technology solutions.
MassMutual Appoints Bob Carroll as Head Of Workplace Distribution
Bob Carroll has been appointed as Head of Workplace Distribution for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) as the 167-year-old financial services firm builds on its leadership position in the retirement plans and voluntary benefits marketplaces.
Carroll, who reports to Teresa Hassara, Head of Workplace Solutions for MassMutual, is responsible for executing the workplace distribution strategy, continuing to develop sales talent, driving revenue and growing MassMutual’s share of the retirement and worksite markets. Additionally, Carroll will represent MassMutual as a thought leader in the retirement and voluntary benefits markets, and partner with key accounts and relationship management teams to drive business growth and retention.
“Bob Carroll is a consummate sales professional who has the depth of experience to help steer MassMutual to higher levels of success as we continue to take more than our fair share of retirement plans and voluntary benefits sales,” Hassara said. “We are very pleased that Bob joined the MassMutual team in this crucial leadership role.”
MassMutual provides retirement savings plans through advisors for mid-, large and mega-sized employers in the corporate, Taft-Hartley, government and not-for-profit markets. In addition, MassMutual offers voluntary benefits such as whole life, universal life insurance, critical illness and accident coverage, and executive life and disability income insurance. The insurer is building out its voluntary benefits offerings as employers place a greater emphasis on the financial wellness of their employees.
A key component of MassMutual’s vision and strategy is to help all Americans achieve financial well-being. MassMutual continues to invest in its Workplace Solutions channel, enhancing its ability to help more Americans improve their financial wellness and achieve financial security.
In serving the retirement and benefits market, MassMutual supports financial professionals through two nationwide wholesaling networks, including approximately 70 managing directors who support retirement plans in the institutional and emerging markets, and 15 voluntary benefits wholesalers. MassMutual recently announced plans to expand its voluntary benefits wholesaling team to 21, nearly doubling the size of the team at the beginning of this year.
Carroll comes to MassMutual from John Hancock Financial Services, where he was most recently Vice President of National Sales, spearheading strategy for retirement plan product development, marketing, and product distribution through broker dealers, RIAs, and third-party administrators. Previously, he served in a variety of sales leadership roles at Hancock.
Carroll has a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Business Administration from Illinois State Universityand Series 7, 24 and 63 licenses.
