Management Team

Jeff Rieder is President of Ward Group^®. Jeff has significant experience in the insurance industry with expertise in the property-casualty and life, health and annuity segments. Throughout Jeff's 16 year career, he has been involved with over 350 projects for numerous regional, national and international insurance companies, covering a diverse range of technology, performance, and operational evaluations. Jeff joined Ward Group in 1998, after he worked five years for a major property-casualty company in the corporate finance department. Jeff leads the firm's annual Ward's 50 analysis of the financial performance of every property-casualty and life-health insurance company in the industry identifying the top performers in each segment. The Ward's 50 Benchmark Group has achieved international recognition and is widely regarded as one of the insurance industry's distinct achievements.

Jeff is a frequent speaker at insurance industry conferences on a diverse range of subjects, including, among others, claims operations, human resources, information technology, agency management, distribution system analysis and expense benchmarking.

Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and international business certification from the University of Cincinnati.

Brad Stegman is Chief Operating Officer and has served at Ward Group since the company was founded in 1991. He was instrumental in the systems design and development of all Ward Group applications and technological infrastructure. Brad has over 16 years experience in the insurance industry and has been involved with and supported over 1,000 benchmarking and consulting projects at property-casualty and life, health and annuity insurance companies throughout the United States and Canada. He has extensive experience in applications design, development and implementation, systems analysis, process reengineering and financial modeling.

Brad holds a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering from the University of Cincinnati. Prior to the founding of Ward Group, he was Project Engineer at Colejon Corporation.

Charlie Gall is Director of Benchmarking Services at Ward Group. Charlie has over 15 years experience in the insurance industry, working with over 100 insurance companies throughout the United States and Canada. He has expertise in both the property-casualty and the life, health and annuity segments. Throughout his career, Charlie has directed numerous consulting projects covering a diverse range of operational performance, expense benchmarking and project management.

Charlie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Cincinnati. Prior to joining Ward Group, he served as Project Manager and Controller for a national property-casualty insurance company.

Betty Cornelius is Director of Marketing and has served at Ward Group since 1994. Betty is critical to defining and implementing the corporate marketing strategy for Ward Group. She has coordinated efforts with marketing teams at many high performing Ward's 50 recipient companies and has been instrumental in making the certification and placement on the list of Ward's 50 companies an international recognition which is widely regarded as one of the insurance industry's elite achievements. More recently, Betty has led efforts to promote new benchmarking initiatives at Ward Group leading to significant growth and added value to Ward Group clients.

Betty holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Mount St. Joseph. Prior to joining Ward Group, she served as an independent marketing and graphic design advisor.

Quin Netzel is a Director of Ward Group. During his 18 year career, Quin has lead various insurance processing, underwriting, claims and customer service operations. Quin is a disciplined business strategist successful in identifying improvement opportunities and retooling insurance operations to maximize performance and financial outcomes.

Prior to joining Ward Group, Quin served as Chief Operating Officer of Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corporation where he initiated corporate-wide projects to streamline underwriting and policy processing operations. Quin has also held senior management positions with Craig-IS, ACE USA, Renaissance Re US and State Farm.

Quin holds a B.A. in Business & Communication from the University of Illinois and a Juris Doctorate from Southern Illinois University.

Gary Eberhart is Director of Business Development at Ward Group. He brings more than 30 years experience in the insurance industry with insurers, national trade groups and as an independent agency principal. Gary has led internal and industry wide research studies, developed new agency compensation programs and designed and managed numerous national sales campaigns.

Prior to joining Ward Group, Gary has served as the Executive Vice President of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA), where he reorganized the entire national office to better serve its affiliates and members. Gary has also served in senior management positions at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), HWC and the Continental Insurance Companies.

Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Valparaiso University and an M.B.A. from Indiana Wesleyan University. He also earned the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Certificate in Organization Management at the University of Notre Dame.

Jim Caruso is a Director of Ward Group and has 20 years experience in the insurance industry with significant experience in commercial lines operations. Prior to joining Ward Group, Jim served in front line underwriting positions for Cincinnati Financial Corporation and underwriting management positions for Great American Insurance and Ohio Casualty group handling all lines of commercial accounts. Prior to his most recent position as P&C Manager for a retail agency in Cincinnati, Jim served as General Manager of Deep South Surplus of Ohio MGA where he successfully developed and managed a full service branch facility writing commercial accounts in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Illinois.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Cincinnati and is a licensed Property-Casualty agent.

Leah Hollstegge is a Manager at the Ward Group. Joining the Ward Group in 2005, Leah has led benchmarking and consulting projects at property-casualty and life, health and annuity insurance companies throughout the United States and Canada. She has worked with insurance companies in detailed assessments of their Information Technology Operations, allowing companies to maximize their Information Technology spend to meet corporate priorities. Leah also designed the quantitative approach Ward Group uses to measure the operational performance of clients.

Leah holds a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science and a Masters of Business Administration from Ohio University. Prior to joining the Ward Group, she worked as management consultant for the Voinovich Center.

William Lang is a Manager at Ward Group and has been with the company since 2001. William has led numerous benchmarking and consulting projects at property-casualty and life, health and annuity insurance companies throughout the United States and Canada. He was extensively involved in the development, testing, and launch of Ward Group's newest benchmarking application and continues to support the maintenance and enhancement efforts with the application.

William holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Accounting from the University of Cincinnati. Prior to joining the Ward Group, William worked in the Internal Audit department for the Union Central Life Insurance Company.