Operator first. Builder by necessity.
I've spent thirty years in sales, with insurance part of it the whole time (workers' comp, group health, voluntary benefits), where strategy meets commercial reality: building distribution, turning around books, recruiting the agencies that actually produce, and lately building the software the market kept refusing to build for us.
My background runs across commercial insurance, workers' compensation, small business, transportation, technology, sales, marketing, and operating leadership. I've worked inside carriers, MGAs, venture-backed insurtechs, and now a PEO, in roles where the plan was only as good as the team's ability to run it: market judgment, underwriting awareness, disciplined execution, and bringing people with you.
Today I'm Chief Revenue Officer at a specialty PEO for tough-to-place workers' comp distributed through wholesalers and retail agents, and the founder of Seven16 Group, the advisory and build firm behind this site. Seven16 is where the consulting, the training, and the software live: the market reads, the distribution designs, and the tools on the Products page, all built with the same stack I recommend to clients.
The name is personal. 7, 1, 6 are three numbers that map to how I'm wired: the seeker, the pioneer, the builder. I hold that frame through a Christian lens, not as divination but as archaeology, digging up what God wrote in before I had any say in it. It's also why I root for underdogs and lead with transparency: the accounts nobody else will write, the agents nobody else is calling, the honest read nobody else is giving.
I was trained in SPIN, Strategic, Conceptual, and High-Payoff Selling, played competitive soccer for years, and hold an MBA from Pepperdine (cum laude), an MA from San Francisco State, and a BA from Cal State Northridge. I live in the Dallas–Fort Worth area with my wife; our two kids are grown and building careers of their own.
Five builds, one pattern.
Every stop was a distribution problem with an underwriting constraint attached. The tools came later, when the problems kept repeating.
- Aug 2026 →Specialty workers' comp PEO — Chief Revenue Officer. Sales, marketing, business development, and channel strategy for a specialty PEO focused on high-mod, cancelled, non-renewed, and high-hazard workers' comp, distributed through wholesalers, retail agents, and PEO brokers.
- Jul 2024 – Aug 2026Berkley Small Business Solutions (W. R. Berkley) — VP, National Distribution, Sales & Marketing. Platform premium ~$25M → $100M+ in 26 months (on pace for ~$135M vs. a $109M 2026 plan); submissions 20,000 → 100,000+ a year; wholesale network refocused from 40 to 24 partners.
- 2021 – 2024Kinetic Insurance — Employee #2 at a venture-backed insurtech MGU. $0 → $45M written premium in 18 months; 30 of the Top 100 brokerages recruited in the first 90 days.
- 2014 – 2020PacificComp / CopperPoint / Alleghany — second-in-command at a 700-FTE carrier. Distressed California comp book from a 200%+ combined ratio to underwriting profit in 32 months; in-force $65M → $311M.
- 2011 – 2014Atlas General and Pride Risk — first distribution leader at a California comp MGA ($20M → $150M in 24 months; 200 → 400+ agencies; offshore BPO model processing 20,000+ submissions a year), then program management and business development.
- EarlierAllianz Trade, Parsons Group / Accenture, ADP — technology, consulting, and sales roles that taught me how large organizations actually adopt a system.
Four principles I operate from.
Clarity before activity
Define the market, the lane, the audience, the problem, and the intended outcome before adding tactics. Most "marketing problems" are positioning problems.
Execution is part of strategy
A strategy that cannot be operated, measured, and adopted is incomplete. Every engagement ends with a system someone can run.
Growth must be economically sound
Volume means little if quality, retention, service, risk, or profitability deteriorate. I've run the underwriting side; I don't sell growth that breaks it.
Technology should reduce friction
Data, software, automation, and AI should help people make better decisions and do higher-value work, with a human signature wherever money or reputation moves.
Topics I'm glad to take on stage.
The two-speed market and what it means for programs and agencies. Building distribution from zero: the first 90 days, the first 30 brokers. Turning around a distressed workers' comp book. The PEO model as a relief valve for tough comp. What one revenue leader can run alone with AI and a modern stack, and where the approval gates have to be. Conference keynotes, panels, and podcasts: inquire here.
Let's compare notes.
Thirty minutes is usually enough to know whether there's a fit. Bring the problem; I'll bring the pattern-matching.