Leadership

The leaders of Victor bring perspective, specialization and experience to the business of running a global enterprise focused on one thing – the success of its partners and clients. As seasoned industry experts in underwriting, portfolio management, technology, finance and claims management, we create long-lasting relationships to bring clients and partners the latest in insurance innovation backed by a long history of producing results.

Michael Ashkar

Principal Legal Support, Victor

Mark Bates

Chief Operating Officer, Victor

Gregory Butler

President and Chief Executive Officer, ICAT

Kristen Coffel

Global Head of Marketing, Victor

David Cook

President, Victor Canada

Mike Ferber

Chief Executive Officer, Dovetail Insurance

Jill Frances

Chief Underwriting & Operations Officer, Victor International
Active Underwriter, Victor Syndicate 2288

Brian Hanuschak

President, Victor North America

Brian McDermott

Chief Information Officer, Victor Insurance Holdings

Eric Solash

Global Head of Capital Markets, Victor

John Stephenson

Country Manager, Victor Insurance UK

Anthony Stevens

President, Victor International

Kelly Temme

Finance Director, Victor

Fred Willemze

Country Leader and Managing Director, Victor Insurance Netherlands
Strategic Partnerships Director, Victor International

Michael Ashkar

Principal Legal Support, Victor

Michael Ashkar is responsible for providing principal legal support to Victor. He leads a team of in-house attorneys to support key corporate strategies. In addition, Mike coordinates with compliance colleagues to seamlessly integrate legal and compliance mandates within the business practices.

He previously served as the Assistant General Counsel at Oliver, Wyman & Company. Before that, he was a corporate associate at Brown & Wood and Morrison & Foerster. In his more than 15 years of combined law firm and in-house experience, Mike has successfully presided over a variety of legal matters, including initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital debt and equity financings, and SEC filings. He has previously advised on corporate governance, risk management and intellectual property protection.

Mike holds BA, MBA and JD degrees from Boston University, and is a member of the New York, New Jersey, and California State Bars.

Mark Bates

Chief Operating Officer, Victor

Mark Bates is the Chief Operating Officer for Victor Insurance Holdings. He ensures operational consistency and efficiency across the organization, globally.

Prior to his role at Victor, Mark held several senior leadership positions at Marsh, including Chief Operating Officer for Marsh Private Client Services; Chief of Staff to the CEO of Insurance Services Businesses; Chief Marketing Officer for US Commercial Brokerage Business; National Head of Client & Market Insights; and National Head of Pricing of Services.

He was previously a Partner at Oliver Wyman, where he sold and led strategy consulting engagements with Fortune 500 companies to develop and execute growth and go-to-market strategies. Before that, he worked at CarnaudMetalbox, Europe’s largest food-packaging manufacturer, where he led the company’s transformation to lean production in the firm’s UK and German operations.

He holds an MS in Engineering from Cambridge University.

Gregory Butler

President and Chief Executive Officer, ICAT

Gregory Butler is the President and Chief Executive Officer of ICAT. He leads ICAT and its subsidiary, Boulder Claims, in protecting people and businesses as they recover from disasters. Prior to his executive role, Greg held several underwriting and operational positions at ICAT, including service as the active underwriter of ICAT Syndicate 4242, which under his management became a top-performing syndicate at Lloyd’s of London.

Before joining ICAT, Greg served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the California Earthquake Authority (CEA). As founding CEO, he was responsible for establishing all policies and procedures, overseeing a record reinsurance placement and securing CEA’s tax-exempt status. During his two years at the CEA, it became the largest provider of residential earthquake insurance in the world. Prior to his tenure with the CEA, Greg was Deputy Commissioner at the California Department of Insurance.

He holds a BA in Public Policy from San Jose State University.

David Cook

President, Victor Canada

David Cook is President of Victor Canada and is responsible for developing the vision and strategic direction of the company.

Dave joined Victor Canada, formerly ENCON, as an actuary in 1992 and has gained extensive industry knowledge in his more than 25 years with the company. He was appointed Vice President and Chief Actuary for Victor Canada's Underwriting Management division in 2002, with responsibility for aggregate loss reserving and product pricing. In 2007, he was appointed Senior Vice President, responsible for the underwriting review of large accounts and the provision of application handling and policy issuance services to brokers. In 2009, Dave was promoted to the position of Chief Underwriting Officer, and in 2016, he was appointed Managing Director.

Dave holds a BS in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and has been an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society (ACAS) since 1996.

Brian Hanuschak

President, Victor North America

Brian Hanuschak is President of Victor North America, responsible for leading operations for all of Victor's businesses in North America, including Victor US, formerly Victor O. Schinnerer & Co.; ENCON in Canada; ICAT, the property catastrophe business; and Dovetail, Victor's insurtech marketplace for insurance agents and their small commercial customers.

Prior to this role he led Victor O. Schinnerer & Co., the founding company of Victor Insurance Holdings, for five years. Additionally, Brian has held prior senior management positions in subsidiaries of Travelers, GE Capital and Berkshire Hathaway. Prior to joining Schinnerer, Brian was Managing Director at Guy Carpenter, responsible for developing Guy Carpenter's Program and Alternative Risk Initiatives in addition to individual treaty relationships.

He graduated from the University of Rhode Island and holds the ARM designation.

Jill Frances

Chief Underwriting & Operations Officer, Victor International
Active Underwriter, Victor Syndicate 2288

Jill Frances is Chief Underwriting & Operations Officer, Victor International, and Active Underwriter for Victor Syndicate 2288. Jill is responsible for setting underwriting direction and standards within Victor International, new product development and carrier relationships.

Previously, Jill was Managing Director, Professional Liability Leader at Victor US, responsible for leading the underwriting, risk management and claim teams for the Architects & Engineers and Real Estate flagship programs. In the span of her career, Jill held leadership positions in Underwriting, Product Development and Sales at Sentry, CNA, Hartford and Aon. As a producer and placement resource at Aon, Jill's reputation and subject matter expertise in Cyber and IT Network Security Risk Management earned her the opportunity to serve on The White House Task Force under President George W. Bush on The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace (February, 2003).

Jill holds a BS in Business Management from Western Governors University and earned her MA from Gonzaga University in Organizational Leadership. She holds the designation of Associate in Risk Management (ARM).

Brian McDermott

Chief Information Officer, Victor Insurance Holdings

Brian McDermott is Chief Information Officer for Victor Insurance Holdings. He is responsible for all aspects of technology, including formulating the overall strategic vision, leading all aspects of application development, infrastructure, quality assurance, maintenance and end-user support.

Brian has more than 27 years of technology leadership experience in retail, insurance, finance and government organizations. In his role, he oversees the implementation of digital portal strategies, and automated solutions to align with business strategy and growth. In addition, he collaborates with the executive team to make decisions around product strategy, concept and architecture, as well as driving IT delivery to adhere to government, industry, and organization compliance and security standards.

He holds an MSC in Business Information Technology from the University of Salford, United Kingdom, an ITIL Foundation Certificate in Service Management and APM Group certification in Managing Successful Programmes.

Kristen Coffel

Global Head of Marketing, Victor

Kristen Coffel is the Global Head of Marketing for Victor Insurance Holdings. She sets the marketing and customer experience strategies across Victor to drive customer engagement by providing innovative end-to-end insurance solutions.

Kristen has over 20 years of marketing, sales and management experience. Prior to her role at Victor, Kristen was Vice President of Sales and Marketing for ICAT, the property catastrophe underwriting organization within Victor, where she delivered sales, marketing and user experience strategies for ICAT’s commercial and residential property catastrophe products. Previously, she worked as a Branch Manager for a financial management organization where she led underwriting and service teams to achieve sales objectives and grew the member base through business development initiatives. Kristen has also served in training, development and human resource roles, and is a certified Myers Briggs facilitator.

She holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Colorado at Denver and a BS in Psychology from Virginia Tech.

Eric Solash

Global Head of Capital Markets, Victor

Eric Solash is the Global Head of Capital Markets for Victor Insurance Holdings, and is responsible for advancing Victor’s capital strategies involving traditional and alternative capabilities as a means to drive growth across all classes of P&C insurance including catastrophe and specialty lines products.

Eric has more than 20 years of experience in capital markets, alternative funding, and insurance investment banking. Prior to joining Victor, he was Managing Director and Head of Alternative Funding at General Electric Company with responsibility for funding GE’s global infrastructure projects in power, renewable energy, and healthcare developments. Eric’s previous executive roles include being the Chairman and Co-Founder of Agile Private Wealth Group, a life insurance MGA that provides client solutions to family offices, foreign nationals, and asset managers. Eric has also been involved in new technology start-ups as well as enterprises associated with private equity and debt capital alternative funding involving sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments, insurers and reinsurers.

He is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania.

John Stephenson

Country Manager, Victor Insurance UK

Responsible for developing the vision and strategic direction for Victor's business in the UK.

John joined Victor UK (formerly Bluefin Underwriting) in 2011, bringing more than 20 years of industry experience. He started his career with UK broker Helm Group, then spent seven years at Bluefin Insurance Services where he held a number of positions before being appointed Commercial Director of Bluefin Underwriting in 2015. He brings a unique expertise in sales, distribution and operational excellence and has been instrumental in Victor UK's digital transformation and growth of third party distribution networks.

Anthony Stevens

President, Victor International

Responsible for advancing Victor's insurance strategies outside of North America with a focus on innovative insurance products and digital solutions across international regions within the Victor group.

Anthony joined Victor in 2019, bringing more than 25 years of experience from the carrier, brokerage and consulting sides of the insurance industry. Previously, Anthony was Head of International Development for Marsh's Global Risk and Digital division, a position he held since October 2017, and was the operation's Chief Data Officer prior to that. He brings a unique expertise in technology, strategy and international growth to this role, having worked across Europe and Asia-Pacific throughout his career. Before joining Marsh in 2014, he held senior roles at RSA and Oliver Wyman.

He holds an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge University.

Kelly Temme

Finance Director, Victor

Kelly Temme is Finance Director for Victor Insurance Holdings. She is responsible for financial reporting, analysis, forecasting, and partnering with business leaders to provide financial insight and drive decision-making around strategic and operational initiatives.

Her background spans finance, audit, risk management and insurance. She spent the first part of her career at General Electric in finance and audit, working both domestically and internationally. Most recently, Kelly served as Finance Director for Travelers, before joining Victor Insurance Holdings in 2016.

Kelly holds a BA in Finance and Marketing from Boston College. In addition, she holds a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation as well as Life and Health licenses in Connecticut.

Fred Willemze

Country Leader and Managing Director, Victor Insurance Netherlands
Strategic Partnerships Director, Victor International

Fred Willemze is responsible for overseeing the development of Victor's business in the Netherlands, including the European business development based on Freedom of Service, while expanding Victor International's business with multinational distribution partners, including large affinity partners, digital platforms, independent brokers and tied agents networks.

He has extensive experience in various positions in the insurance industry, including Head of Marketing & Sales at XL Catlin and Leader of Non-Life Business for Mid & Large Corporate at Avéro Achmea. Over the last years Fred was responsible for establishing the Victor entities in The Netherlands, Italy and Germany.

Fred holds an MBA from Business School Netherlands.

Mike Ferber

Chief Executive Officer, Dovetail Insurance

Michael Ferber is Chief Executive Officer of Dovetail Insurance responsible for the company’s overall strategy, service and product delivery.

Mike has over 25 years of technology, process-effectiveness and change management experience. Prior to joining Dovetail, Mike was the Chief Information Officer for ICAT, also a Victor company. As CIO for ICAT, his role was a business position with responsibilities in the areas of technology, digital and user experience strategies, as well as operational processes.

Prior to joining ICAT, Mike served as Senior Vice President of Change Management for Lehman Brothers Mortgage division in Denver. Prior to Lehman Brothers, he spent five years with GMAC leading operations and technology within their mortgage banking division. Early in his career, he spent seven years with Ernst & Young as well as technology start-up companies.

He holds a BS in Computer Information Systems from Indiana University.