Euclid’s partner centric model is a great vehicle for best in class insurance professionals to own their own program administrator.
Euclid’s partner centric model is a great vehicle for best in class insurance professionals to own their own program administrator.
Co-founders of Euclid Financial, Dave McDonald and Jim Thomas, are experienced underwriters in the
highly technical and risky financial institution management liability business. Having successfully built
a FI book for a leading insurance company, and having lived through various corporate mergers and
realignments, Dave and Jim were anxious to establish and control their own underwriting company.
The opportunity to partner with Euclid came at an ideal time and in June of 2015 they launched Euclid
FI. Through Euclid’s previous relationship with Lloyds syndicate, Ren Re, Euclid FI became a cover
holder for Lloyds and are now building a profitable book of financial institution business.
“Partnering with Euclid allowed us to find and contract with a top carrier in a fraction of the time it would have otherwise taken. We couldn’t be happier with the platform they provided us, not to mention the emotional and financial support”. ~ Dave McDonald
Throughout his successful 30-year career in the public-sector insurance industry, Chris Golonka had a
dream he could not shake. He wanted to own his own underwriting facility. That dream became a
reality in 2016 when he launched Euclid Public Sector, a program administrator writing public sector
primary, excess and alternative risk business. When it came time to choosing an insurance company
to represent, Euclid introduced Chris to Hudson Insurance Company, an A-15 rated program carrier
with whom Euclid had successfully partnered for over 13 years. Chris’ public sector expertise and
Euclid’s best practice reputation were attractive to Hudson and the new facility was born. Ultimately,
Jim Marquis, a past colleague and industry veteran joined Chris as a Principal of the company and
both are continuing to grow a profitable book of public sector business.
“The Euclid partnership has allowed me to realize my long held goal of owning my own public sector MGA. The combination of carrier access and developed services that Euclid offered was, simply put, a game changer”. ~ Chris Golonka
Jim Seymour and Paul Bunone met as new employees of an insurance company who had tasked
them with building a management liability business from scratch. Literally within hours of their
meeting, they realized they shared a similar vision for their mission. During the next few years, they
succeeded in their task but always knew that they wanted to control their destiny by being owners in
their own business. In 2011, they founded Euclid Exec and began the difficult task of finding an
insurance company to represent. Both partners remember that period as a challenging one but
through their perseverance and Euclid’s steadfast backing, they ultimately prevailed, obtaining
AmTrust Insurance Company and Lloyds of London paper for their two programs. Since that time,
they have built an extremely profitable program administrator, realizing their dream of both being a
best in class underwriter as well as a business owner.
“Euclid’s partnership was critical during our journey. Their support in our early days never wavered. The strategic guidance and support services they continue to provide are of the highest quality. We feel like we are living the dream.” ~ Jim Seymour
Daniel Aronowitz thrives on the challenge to build and grow businesses based on expertise. A graduate of Vanderbilt Law School, Dan entered private practice and evolved into a national expert on D&O and professional liability insurance. One of his insurance clients recruited him to run their property and casualty operations, where his team built highly profitable fiduciary liability, surety and other niche insurance books of business. Ultimately, Dan’s entrepreneurial spirit lead him to investigate a way in which he could combine his industry expertise with ownership in his own company. In 2012, after investigating their options, Dan’s team chose Euclid to build an underwriting company, and they now run one of the leading fiduciary liability insurance underwriting facilities in the country.
“The mission of the Euclid Specialty team is to serve as experts in our fiduciary liability niche. We want our underwriting company to be known for its expertise and excellence. Partnering with Euclid’s financial, technology and human resource professionals has helped us achieve a level of excellence that we could not reach so quickly on our own. The Euclid Specialty team loves being part of one of the preeminent underwriting family of companies in the specialty insurance sector.” ~ Daniel Aronowitz
Jay Rittberg was a successful mergers and acquisitions attorney when he joined a major national
carrier to work in, and ultimately run, their transactional insurance business. A new and dynamic form
of insurance, Jay and his team helped establish and make accepted insurance covering buyers and
sellers of companies for the representations and warranties committed to in the sales agreement. As
this line of business continued to soar, Jay knew that the time was right to establish his own program
facility. Partnering with Euclid as well as two other industry experts, Phil Casper and Albert Song, Jay
attracted Swiss Re, Allianz and Aspen Insurance Company as paper and began underwriting in July of
2016. Within a short period of time, Euclid Transactional was a leader in this dynamic space.
“On the day after I joined our new company, Euclid introduced me to one of our carriers with whom we ultimately partnered. Things fell into place much quicker than I expected and importantly, the services Euclid provided were built out and ready to go immediately. From a speed to market perspective, this model is unbeatable” ~ Jay Rittberg
There are few classes of insurance more challenging than environmental liability. However, there are
few people better equipped to underwrite successfully in this class than Ken Cornell and Marilyn
Hattier. Both hold master’s degrees in the field and both rose to senior executive positions at major
insurance companies underwriting the class. Nevertheless, despite their success they were motivated
to leave the corporate world and start their own company, in part to be free from the distractions that
go with being an executive in a large organization. Their partnership with Euclid was a natural win-win
as it allowed them to partner with Lloyds Syndicates, with whom they had enjoyed a close
relationship in the past. Ken and Marilyn (Managing Principals of the company) were joined by past
colleagues Sean Upton and Chris Sisler (Principals of the company) and launched the new venture in
November of 2016. All are now busy running a best in class environmental underwriting company.
“Euclid’s culture of transparency and entrepreneurship is such a breath of fresh air compared to large corporations. Add to that the lack of bureaucracy which allows for quick decision making and you have the best environment to build a business. We are having fun again!” ~ Marilyn Hattier