Our Team
Founder and Managing Partner
Jeff Bronaugh, CPCU, CLU, ChFC, CIC
jeff@bceconsulting.co
With over 40 years of experience in the insurance industry, Jeff’s background includes technical underwriting for large accounts, design of insurance contracts, regulatory filings, risk management, marketing, sales, and executive management.
He worked in executive management for a major insurance company before joining the insurance brokerage business, where he represented clients’ interest in areas of enterprise risk management and placement of insurance to include property and casualty and employee benefits.
Jeff served as president of a major bank-owned insurance brokerage in Honolulu with clients throughout the Pacific Rim and as president and managing director of a top-50 insurance brokerage for an international bank. He specializes in insurance company and agency sales, operations, and strategic planning as well as exposure identification for financial institutions and bank-owned insurance operations, service, and sales.
In his consulting practice he continues to serve clients with independent reviews in exposure identification, risk mitigation techniques, insurance coverage analysis as well as contingency and business succession planning.
In addition to serving on various community service boards, Jeff is past president of the Seattle and Hawaii Chapters of the Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriters Society (CPCU) and served on the board of directors of both Seattle and Hawaii Chapters of the Society of Financial Services Professionals. He is past chair of both the CPCU Risk Management Interest Group and Professional Resource Group and is currently a member of the Agents and Brokers Group for the International CPCU Society.
Senior Consultant
Dick Barnett, MBA, ARM
dick@bceconsulting.co
Dick has over 35 years in the commercial insurance industry with both brokerage and insurance company experience. He has extensive experience managing large complex accounts including cultivating broker-client relationships through consultative sales techniques. He also has experience in account analysis for both initial sales and client retention including the use of stewardship reports.
Dick has worked with new and seasoned commercial sales executives/producers to assist them in formulating the best possible strategies to win clients and to retain accounts. Over the years, he has also developed marketing strategies when approaching commercial insurers so that the account is presented in the best possible light to underwriters.
Other accomplishments includes developing a simplified, easily up-datable in-house agency marketing system that eliminated file drawers of insurance company marketing material and developing national and regional association insurance programs to benefit membership.
Dick has over 10 years experience as Director of Broking Services with Wells Fargo Insurance working directly on bank – insurance client integration.
Senior Consultant
Robert C. Kent
bob@bceconsulting.co
Bob has over 35 years in the insurance industry with management and executive experience in risk management, company, and commercial brokerage. Bob served as risk manager for a national brewery in which his responsibilities included purchase and administration of all property and casualty, employee benefits and self-funded programs.
Bob worked for a major national insurance company as regional vice president with responsibility for the ten mid-west states with written premium of approximately one billion dollars. The brokerage sector was where Bob spent the majority of his career. Bob held positions with production and management responsibility including Office of the President of a top 40 broker.
Bob started with Acordia as president and CEO of Acordia of Northern California, was part of the management team that took the company public, a member of a ten member team that initiated a management buy out and took the company private again. Bob was promoted to executive vice president and COO of the corporation, a member of the board of directors and was in that position when the company was sold to Wells Fargo. At the time of sale the company had over 140 offices, 4400 employees and sales in excess of $450,000,000.
Bob’s expertise includes mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning, sales management, exit strategies and operational management. He has served on numerous boards, has done consulting for national and regional brokers as well as non-insurance related businesses.
Senior Consultant
Will Richard, CIC, ARM, AAI
will@bceconsulting.co
W. L. (Will) Richárd is the Senior Consultant for Education and Training. Will has been active in the insurance and risk management industry for over thirty-five years. He is the former founder and managing director of Insight Consulting Group which provided training and educational services to agencies and companies in the areas of marketing, management and risk management.
Will is the developer and author of Supervisory Dynamics TM. He is a co-founder of Certified Risk Managers International (CRM), and previously served as President of the National Alliance Research Academy, and Senior Vice President of the Society of Certified Insurance Counselors (CIC). He is also co-founder of The National Alliance School for Producer Development and Dynamics of Service. Will continues to serve as an educational consultant for National Alliance programs and lectures as a member of the National Faculty.
In addition, Will spent twenty years in both agency and company positions. He was an owner and manager of a general insurance agency and served on the boards of several insurance agencies and companies. He was a Vice President with a national insurance company, and President of a regional company. Will is a licensed risk manager as well as a Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC), an Associate in Risk Management (ARM), and an Accredited Adviser in Insurance (AAI). Will is also a member of The Society of Insurance Research.
A graduate of the University of Texas, Will also completed his MBA studies at Temple University and the University of Dallas, as well as graduate programs at SMU and Stanford. His professional credentials include serving on the Texas Insurance Advisory Association, the Texas Workers Compensation Assigned Risk Pool, Advisory Committee for the Insurance Information Institute, and NAIC’s Advisory Committee on Profitability and Investment Income.
He is a published author, and consults and lectures extensively for industry and agency groups. Will has been recognized for his contributions to the industry by many companies and associations.
Senior Consultant
Bruce McEwan, Ph.D., CPCU, ARM, AAI, AU, AIC, ALCM, AMIM
bruce@bceconsulting.co
With over 40 years of experience in the insurance and risk management fields, Bruce has worked in insurance agencies and insurance companies as an underwriter and in private industry as a risk manager. He has served as a senior executive in the organizations in which he has worked. His background includes work in all lines of property and casualty insurance, with a specialty in marine insurance, risk management, safety and loss control, claims and litigation management, security and alternative dispute resolution (mediation, arbitration and facilitation).
He has served in leadership positions and been actively involved in the CPCU Society and Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS). Bruce is also a scholar-practitioner and believes in the value of continuing education. To that end, he has been teaching insurance, risk management and conflict management courses for over 30 years.
Our Team of Associate Consultants
Our associate consultants have over 200 years of collective experience with specialization in bank and insurance integration, insurance brokerage consultative selling, marketing and agency operations. We have specialists well versed in all facets of insurance company, agency / brokerage operations and extensive risk management functions. We also offer advice regarding client servicing, to include stewardship, productivity and accountability reports, for our customers.
Associations
Peter M. Marchel, Esq.
JD, MBA, CDR, RPLU, CPCU, AIM, AIS
President, Marchel & Associates Risk Consulting
Peter has more than 24 years experience in Legal and Insurance matters. His background is unique; from working on Insurance Opinions as a former Law Clerk to a State Supreme Court Justice, to arguing insurance cases before the court on behalf of both defendants and plaintiffs as a Trial Attorney. His experience as in-house Counsel and General Counsel for both insurance companies and insurance brokerages has brought a unique and valuable perspective to his clients. Peter, consults with clients and their counsel on complex claims, as well as assistance with policy language, structuring program audits, and development of financial risk solutions. Peter has developed D&O programs for over 200 different publically traded companies in the United States and Canada.
Peter holds numerous insurance designations (RPLU, CPCU, AIM, and AIS).
Peter has also taught Finance, Investments and Insurance Law at the College level at Crichton College, Memphis, TN., where he served as an adjunct professor.