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.

Christopher Schaper

Chief Executive Officer, Victor

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, ENCON

Paul Drake

President, Victor International & UK

Brian Hanuschak

President, Victor O. Schinnerer & Company

Dennis Kane

Global Leader of M&A and Chairman of Automotive, Victor

Greg Martin

President, Dovetail Insurance

Brian McDermott

Chief Information Officer, Victor

Maureen Schnabolk

Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Victor

Eric Solash

Global Head of Capital Markets, Victor

Kelly Temme

Finance Director, Victor

Fred Willemze

President, Continental Europe

Christopher Schaper

Chief Executive Officer, Victor

Christopher T. Schaper is Chief Executive Officer of Victor Insurance Holdings. He is responsible for Victor worldwide, which includes subsidiaries Victor O. Schinnerer & Company, Dovetail Insurance and ICAT in the United States, ENCON Group Inc. in Canada, Bluefin Underwriting in the United Kingdom, Mees & Zoonen in Italy and the Netherlands, and Schinnerer’s operations in Bermuda.

Chris joined Victor in 2016, bringing more than 30 years of insurance industry experience at start-ups and existing enterprises. Prior to joining Victor, Chris held several executive roles, including President of Montpelier Re. He also served as Underwriting Chairman of Blue Capital Management Ltd., Montpelier Re’s capital markets operation, where he was instrumental in initiating and establishing the business and held board positions for several Montpelier Re business entities.

Previously, Chris was Chief Underwriting Officer and Head of Reinsurance at Endurance Specialty Insurance Ltd. and also held roles at Gerling Global Financial Products, Employers Reinsurance Corporation (a division of GE Capital), and USF&G (now Travelers).

He holds an MS in International Business and an MBA, both from Johns Hopkins University.

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, ENCON

David Cook is President of ENCON Group Inc. and is responsible for developing the vision and strategic direction of the company.

Dave joined 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 ENCON’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.

Paul Drake

President, Victor International & UK

Responsible for overseeing the development of the company in all respects, having started the business in 2015.

Paul has more than 30 years of senior underwriting experience including roles at XL Insurance, where he was active underwriter of the Lloyd’s syndicate and R J Kiln, amongst others. Prior to leading Victor Insurance (previously Bluefin Underwriting), he was Chief Underwriting Officer for Thistle Insurance Services Ltd which he was instrumental in building for JLT. Prior to that, he was a founding director of specialist insurance management firm aQmen Ltd. Paul was also a director of the Managing General Agents Association (MGAA).

Brian Hanuschak

President, Victor O. Schinnerer & Company

Brian Hanuschak is President of Victor O. Schinnerer & Company, responsible for leading operations and developing business across the firm’s range of specialty insurance products.

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.

Dennis Kane

Global Leader of M&A and Chairman of Automotive, Victor

Dennis G. Kane is Global Leader of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and Chairman of Automotive for Victor Insurance Holdings. He leads the global M&A team and has strategic responsibility for the firm’s automotive practice.

Dennis joined in 2014, bringing 30 years of carrier, program and Managing General Underwriter (MGU) experience. He sold the specialty MGU SeaFire Insurance Services, which he co-founded and co-owned, to Victor Insurance Holdings in 2014. He previously held various executive positions, including Executive Vice President at Zurich, where he held line and functional responsibility for sales, underwriting, human resources and actuarial. He was also a member of the Zurich Program Committee.

He holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Kansas, and completed programs in management, executive and international leadership at institutions including Northwestern University and International Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. In addition, he holds a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation.

Greg Martin

President, Dovetail Insurance

Greg Martin is President of Dovetail Insurance and is responsible for the company’s overall strategy, service and product delivery.

An industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience, Greg was previously Senior Vice President at Zurich Insurance Group, where he oversaw strategic relationships and later formed and led the organization’s broker analytics team. He began his career at Marsh & McLennan, where he moved through progressive assignments in placement, client relationship management and office leadership.

Greg holds a BA in History from Eckerd College, and an MS in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management. He has also completed executive development and technology course work at Harvard and MIT.

Brian McDermott

Chief Information Officer, Victor

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

Brian has more than 25 years of IT experience, including 17 years as a technology executive. In his role, he oversees the implementation of digital portal strategies, artificial intelligence, automation, and natural language processing technologies 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 of solutions with adherence to government, industry, and organization compliance and security standards (NYCRR, NYDFS, SSAE16, SOC1, PCI).

He holds an MS 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.

Maureen Schnabolk

Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Victor

Maureen Schnabolk is Senior Vice President of Human Resources, overseeing human relations for Victor Insurance Holdings. She leads a team of HR business partners, and works with global centers of excellence and the global HR team to implement strategies for a total population of more than 750 colleagues.

Maureen previously held senior-level HR roles with The Walt Disney Company and The Nielsen Company, where she provided end-to-end support for a global employee population, and served as project manager for design and implementation of a centralized Staffing Center of Excellence.

She holds a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.

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.

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.