IRUA Officers & Directors

Mr. Downing is currently a reinsurance consultant associated with Gracechurch Intermediaries, LLC (part of RFIB Americas) and based in Greenwich, Connecticut.  RFIB Americas is part of the RFIB Group Ltd. – a long established UK based specialist intermediary. Previously, he held the position of President of Stonybrook Risk Management. Mr. Downing’s focus is on providing value-added services to his clients and prospects with the emphasis on the insurance carrier and MGA marketplace, InsurTech, Product Development, Alternative Risk, Captive Services Reinsurance and strategic advisory.

Mr. Downing has over 31 years of experience in the banking and reinsurance industry and served as a Senior Vice President – Brokerage  for JLT Re (North America) Inc. Prior to JLT Re, Mr. Downing held various positions at E.W. Blanch, Towers Watson and Towers Perrin, where he was elected a Principal of the firm.

Responsibilities include working closely with Capital Markets, Strategic Advisory, Structured Risk and Exposure Management to provide turnkey solutions to clients and prospects through all phases of the risk management process within the reinsurance and insurance marketplace.  Strengths include management, leadership, negotiation and strategic planning.

Mr. Downing holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance with a Minor in Communications from Metropolitan State University of Minnesota and currently serves on the IRUA Executive Committee as the Treasurer/Investment Chair.  In addition, Mr. Downing is a current member of the John Street Insurance Association.

Laura Herubin is a Vice President and Property Underwriter with MAPFRE Re, North America.  She joined MAPFRE Re in 2002 as an Assistant Vice President.

Laura began her career with the Utica National Insurance Group in 1988 as an underwriting trainee.  She then joined Guy Carpenter, NY working in their statistical department.  She was an underwriter with NorthStar/Signet Star Re, an Associate Underwriter with TIG Re and an AVP with Gerling Global Re before joining MAPFRE Re.
Laura received her Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics with a concentration in Business/Economics from SUNY at Potsdam.  Laura is a member of the APIW and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the IRUA and is a member of the IRUA Education, Conference and Scholars Committees.

Bill Bernens is  Managing Director -Property and Clash at Arch Reinsurance Company in Morristown, NJ responsible for the underwriting, pricing and account management of property and program opportunities. Bill also worked as Director of Corporate Risk for Arch Capital Group in Hamilton, Bermuda focusing on risk management, market/industry analysis and capital modeling.

Prior to joining Arch, Bill was the Manager of Consulting Services at AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe modeling company in Boston, MA.  Bill has 15 years of insurance industry experience and holds an MBA/MS from Boston University.  Before starting his corporate career, Bill served as an officer in the United States Navy.

Christiane Gross is a Senior Vice President Underwriting Team Lead Property Fac. Cert. & Programs at Munich Reinsurance America, Inc. in Princeton, NJ. Christiane started her career with Munich Re in Germany in 2002, holding various property facultative and treaty underwriting positions first in Munich’s Industrial Clients division and later in Munich’s Global Clients/ North America division.

Christiane relocated to Munich Re America in 2014 and has been servicing Regional Clients in the United States. She holds a degree in international business from the Reutlingen University in Germany. She is a member of the APIW and serves on the Board of the IRUA. In November 2019 Christiane assumed the role of IRUA’s Corporate Treasurer, thus joining the Executive Committee. She will continue her role as Co-Chair of the IRUA Education Committee.

Arlene Kern is a Strategic Innovation Leader for the Innovation Practice or “Incubator” Team within New Strategic Markets at Munich Reinsurance America, Inc. (Munich Re) in Princeton, NJ. The Incubator Team will create a disciplined and sustained innovation practice to generate economic growth for Munich Re’s US P&C Operations and its clients.

Arlene has a broad reinsurance background in multiple disciplines.  Having more than 25 years of industry experience, Arlene’s most recent role prior to The Incubator at Munich Re was within National Clients Property Underwriting in the Reinsurance Division. Previous positions include leadership roles within Business Information Solutions and Financial Management and Reporting.  She started her career with State Farm, where she was a Supervisor of various departments within the Accounting Finance Division.

Arlene currently sits on the Executive Board of Directors for the Intermediaries and Reinsurance Underwriters Association (IRUA) where she has been instrumental in advancing the education and awareness for underwriters across the industry in emerging topics for both property and casualty lines of business.  She is also a board member of the IICF Northeast Region.

She is a graduate of York College of Pennsylvania where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.

Keith Cartmell is a Senior Vice President and Property Treaty Reinsurance Underwriter for Toa Reinsurance Company of America, based in the Morristown, New Jersey office.  He joined Toa in 2020 after 16+ years with Sirius Group.  Keith joined Folksamerica Re (a predecessor company of the Sirius Group) in 2004 in their Claims Department.  He transitioned to Property Treaty Underwriting in 2007 and held various positions within the underwriting department during that time.  Keith graduated from Boston University in 2001.

Dawnmarie, an accomplished broker and underwriter, joined Lloyd’s in 2018 from London broker BMS Group, where she served as a Senior Vice President on the Risk Solutions team. In her role as Northeast Regional Director, she is responsible for market development activities in a 12-state region stretching from Maryland and Washington, D.C. to Maine.  She is also responsible for the broker practice group strategy nationally.

Dawnmarie brings more than 20 years of experience, having served in senior leadership roles with Ascot, Aon Benfield, AIG, and Chubb.  Most recently, in her four years with BMS Group, Dawnmarie was instrumental in market development and production efforts across multiple product lines. She focused on program business, having produced and managed her own portfolio of programs and also served as Target Markets liaison for BMS Re US.

Dawnmarie has her Bachelor of Arts degree from Allegheny College. She is actively involved in insurance industry philanthropic efforts and currently serves as Vice Chair of the IICF Boston Board and is actively involved in charitable work through the Covenant House.

Nick Cook is Chief Risk Officer at Crum & Forster in the Jersey City, NJ office. Previously, he held the position of  Senior Vice President and Head of Ceded Reinsurance and advanced to his new position in January 2020. Prior responsibilities at Crum & Forster include leading the Small Business Team as well as working with the Actuarial, Underwriting and Operations teams to implement submission scoring, risk selection and pricing tools for the E&S Casualty division.

Before joining Crum & Forster, Nick held treaty underwriting roles at OdysseyRe, most recently serving as a Vice President working with clients in the U.S and Bermuda casualty markets. Nick is a graduate of Georgetown University and holds the CPCU and ARe designations.  He resides in Stamford, CT.

Meghan’s current role is AVP, Underwriter at Aspen Re America. She is a Casualty Facultative Underwriter writing Auto Liability, General Liability, and Excess/Umbrella Liability. Meghan joined Aspen in August 2012 and has earned her CPCU, ARe and RPLU professional designations. She values both the analytical and client-facing aspects of underwriting.

Meghan strives to provide clients with high quality and personal service while maintaining a profitable book of business. She also takes on additional responsibilities such as leading Management Information Reporting for the Casualty Facultative team and is a member of various committees such as the Social Committee and an Advocacy Program within Aspen.

Joshua Hackett
Managing Director – Head of Casualty
Arch Reinsurance Company

Joshua Hackett is currently Managing – Head of Casualty at Arch Reinsurance Co and has over 10 years of insurance, reinsurance, and financial services experience.

Josh began his career with Zurich Financial Services as an underwriting trainee in their Global Associate Program focusing on large commercial property insurance. He then joined Endurance Re (Sompo) as a reinsurance treaty casualty underwriter where he became an AVP. Josh moved on to become a sell-side equity associate focusing on the insurance sector at Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, until ultimately returning to the reinsurance field as Vice President of Broker Treaty Casualty at Swiss Reinsurance.

Josh received a Masters International Affairs from University of California, San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Political Science from University of Delaware. He holds the CPCU and ARe designations, and has passed the Series 7, 63, 87 licensing exams.

Tom joined Guy Carpenter as its Strategic Advisory Leader for US/Canada in 2017 after spending three years at Arch Reinsurance in an underwriting capacity developing solutions for clients to help manage capital and take advantage of predictive modeling endeavors.  The Strategic Advisory team includes Capital & Growth Advisory, Rating Agency Advisory, and Structured Risks Solutions.

Prior to joining Guy Carpenter and Arch Re, Tom was the America’s P&C Sales and Practice Leader for Towers Watson, a position he stepped into after leading the America’s ERM team for Towers Watson.  Tom was a founding partner of EMB America, LLC, an industry leading ERM and predictive modeling software and solutions provider.

Tom graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a Bachelors of Arts in Mathematics and minor in Insurance.

Danny Hojnowski is a Vice President at TransRe in the Specialty Casualty Underwriting unit with a focus on E&O and D&O treaties. During his 11 years at TransRe Danny has also worked in the facultative unit where he underwrote individual Professional Liability risks. In addition to working as an underwriter, he is responsible for monitoring TransRe’s aggregate exposure across their global Professional Liability book of business. Danny was instrumental in implementing TransRe’s “Entity Data Analytics” which allows TransRe to analyze exposure and pricing across their portfolio by aggregating individual policy level details.

Prior to joining TransRe, Danny was a D&O underwriter at Ace American Insurance Company in New York and a facultative underwriter at Everest Re based in both New York and Bermuda.

Julie is a Managing Director at Guy Carpenter with over 12 years of experience. She is responsible for treaty account management for various clients across multiple lines of business.

Julie graduated from Fairfield University with a degree in business management, has completed the Guy Carpenter training program and earned the ARe, AIS, ARM & CPCU designations. Julie has served on the IRUA Education Committee and Board of Directors since 2015.

James McNally is a Vice President of Treaty Underwriting for the Toa Reinsurance Company of America, based in the Morristown, New Jersey office.  He joined Toa in 2011, and after holding various positions in Actuarial and Corporate Accounting, James joined the Treaty Underwriting Department.  He is currently developing and expanding his book of business of casualty and professional lines.  James graduated from Franklin & Marshall College with a B.A. in Economics and he earned his M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from Lehigh University.  He also holds the professional designations of CPCU, RPLU, ARM, and ARe.

Tim Poeton rejoined the board in 2019 and assumed the role of IRUA Corporate Secretary in November 2019.  He is Senior Vice President – Business Development for State National Companies. He is a 30 year plus veteran of the U.S. reinsurance market having previously holding executive positions with Greig Fester, Guy Carpenter, Cambridge Risk Management and G.J. Sullivan Re.

Michael Schummer was born and raised in  Philadelphia and graduated from Temple University’s Actuarial program in 1991.  He worked at several large national writers in an actuarial capacity, supporting pricing and operations in the field.  After a short stint in Northern California, he moved to American Re (now Munich Re) in Princeton, still in an Actuarial capacity.  Michael moved to underwriting in 2002 and currently act as a Casualty Team Lead in our Treaty area.

Mike Sowa currently holds the position of Group Chief Claims Officer with Aspen Group and is based in New York, NY.  He was appointed Managing Director of Global Accounts and Managing Director, Global Distribution & Marketing, Aspen Re in June 2017. He was previously Managing Director, North America and the Property Product Head and brings more than 30 years of expertise as a result. Before joining Aspen Re in 2004, Mike worked with FM Global, Frankona Re, NAC Re and XL Re.

4.2019

John’s career in insurance and reinsurance has spanned the spectrum from Accident and Health to Property, Casualty, Work Comp, Excess Work Comp, Occupational Accident.  Has worked as an intermediary, broker, claims analyst, and consultant in multiple other capacities. John was previously with the Devonshire Group, Axa LM, Helix UK, Alan Gray, Inc and LDG Re.

John’s current focus is on Liability Runoff Transfer, Captive Insurance, Reinsurance Audits and Commutation.  Additionally, has participated at Director level for several non-profit organizations.

James Wilson
N. America P&C VP, Senior U/W Casualty
Partner Re US