John Keenan, CLU, CPCU is founder and Chairman of Keenan & Associates, one of the largest privately-held insurance broker/consulting/TPA firms in the United States. He founded the company in 1972, with four employees in one office, and has subsequently directed its growth to a firm of over 600 employees with 10 offices located throughout California. Keenan & Associates specializes in providing insurance services to schools and hospitals. Mr. Keenan is also Chairman of the Board of a TPA recently purchased from Blue Cross - Innovative Care Systems. ICS specializes in counties and large commercial accounts.

 

Before forming Keenan & Associates, Mr. Keenan served as Vice President with Cal-Surance, as well as Vice President with Frank B. Hall. Prior to these executive positions, Mr. Keenan worked for New York Life and Metropolitan.

 

Mr. Keenan graduated from Loyola University in 1952 with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and began his career in the insurance business in 1954. He received his Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation in 1960 and his Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation in 1984. He also holds a certificate in Agency Management and Group Insurance from the American College. He was a Life Underwriter Training Council (LUTC) instructor for four years.

 

Mr. Keenan has been a big supporter of education in the insurance industry by not only providing facilities for instruction, but also providing financial aide for his employees to continue their education.

Sean Smith, is the President and Chief Executive Officer, succeeding company founder and Chairman John Keenan in 2000. He gained his broad background in operational, technical and marketing facets of the insurance consulting and brokerage business through more than 23 years of experience in the industry. Sean empowers an entrepreneurial culture among the company's 600 employees through a goal-oriented management system that emphasizes customer focus.

 

During his years at Keenan, Sean progressed through several previous sales and management positions, from Account Executive, then leadership of the northern California sales team, before returning to the Torrance headquarters to head up operations for the entire Schools Division.

 

Prior to joining Keenan & Associates in 1989, Sean served as a major accounts manager for Anthem Blue Cross, where he handled large commercial and school clients. He began his career at Prudential Insurance Company where he developed and negotiated their first preferred provider organization, and conducted cost management analysis for commercial clients.

 

Sean graduated from the University of Redlands (California) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and Economics. Business Insurance designated Sean as one of the "Millennium Heirs to the Industry". He is actively involved in the Young Presidents' Organization, an international forum for the exchange of ideas and continuing education between today's corporate leaders.

James D. Tinyo, Senior Vice President, is responsible for the management of the Keenan HealthCare Division. This Division is comprised of four business operations: Property/Casualty, Benefits Consulting, Risk Management Services and a Medical Third Party Administrator (TPA).

 

Prior to Keenan, Jim served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Kagan Insurance Services, a local Benefits and Life insurance broker. In addition to overseeing each division in the company, Jim managed an account team of eight individuals who handled the Employee Benefits for a Fortune 500 company with 25,000 employees.

 

Before Kagan, Jim spent 20 years with Johnson & Higgins (J&H). He led a large Property/Casualty and Employee Benefits Middle Market Division, with responsibility for over 80 employees. In addition to Jim's management responsibilities, he served as a Senior Client Manager on 10 accounts. Before moving into insurance brokerage management, Jim served as the Chief Financial Officer of the Western Region for J&H.

 

Jim received a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Rutgers College and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Massachusetts.

Steve Richter, is Senior Vice President, HealthCare Division, for Keenan & Associates. Steve works with Keenan's health care clients to develop employee benefit strategies, evaluate alternative financing and delivery system options, and to assist in implementation and performance management.

 

Steve has over 25 years experience in managed health care and insurance programs. Prior to joining Keenan & Associates, Steve was in the Southern California health care practice at Watson Wyatt. During his tenure at Watson Wyatt, Steve served in a variety of capacities, including Southern California Health Care Practice Leader and National Thought Leader on health care purchasing.

 

Before Watson Wyatt, Steve was Vice President of EQUICOR's (Equitable-HCA) Health Care Product Division. He was responsible for development and management of EQUICOR's health care product line, including PPO, HMO, managed mental health, managed pharmacy, and Centers of Excellence programs. Previously, Steve was Vice President, Medical Product Development, for CIGNA. Steve spearheaded the development and implementation of CIGNA's managed care product portfolio. Steve developed his foundation in healthcare at Kaiser Permanente, Southern California, where he worked for ten years in various capacities.

 

Steve holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of California, Irvine, and Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Steve has also attended executive programs at Harvard and Stanford.

Jim Kreig, Senior Vice President in the HealthCare Division, is responsible for senior client management, new business, and product and program development.

 

Jim came to Keenan & Associates in l986 after six years with the Hospital Association of Southern California where he was Director of their captive insurance agency. Working with employee benefits since 1973, Jim has both insurance company and consulting experience. He was a major group underwriter at CNA Insurance Company in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles to work for a major consulting firm. Since 1980, Jim has spent his time working exclusively with the health care industry to design and implement benefit programs for numerous health care clients.

 

Jim graduated from Marietta College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and Economics. He holds designations as a Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC).

ChuKee Lim, Vice President/Senior Consultant, HealthCare Division at the Torrance office, is responsible for client consulting services and sales. ChuKee joined Keenan HealthCare in October 2002 and brings with her over 18 years of employee benefits experience.

 

In her prior work experience with Kagan Life & Health and Aon Consulting, she provided technical, financial, employee benefits and human resources broker/consulting services to various national clients ranging in size from 200 - 20,000 employees. In addition, ChuKee has five years of large case health underwriting experience with a major insurance carrier and was an employee benefits manager in the corporate human resources department of a large national employer.

 

ChuKee graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia and has a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia.

Lee Exton is Vice President, HealthCare Division, for Keenan & Associates. Lee works with Keenan’s health care clients to create effective employee benefit strategies, evaluate alternative delivery and financing arrangements, and oversee product implementation and performance management.

 

Lee comes to Keenan after serving as the California Health Care Practice Leader for another consulting organization and is spearheading employee benefits consulting with Hospitals and Medical Groups.

 

Lee has fifteen years of employee benefits consulting experience working with organizations in both the public and private sectors. In addition to serving major corporations and numerous health care industry organizations, he has consulted to states, counties, and cities.

 

Recently he developed a state of the art integrated wellness program, working in concert with the Risk Management and Human Resources departments of a local municipality. In addition, he has broad experience working with health care purchasing coalitions in California.

 

His experience includes the design of numerous full flex cafeteria plan programs, the implementation of innovative consumer driven programs, and the development of a national database of health plan organizations. He is currently coordinating Keenan’s survey of California physician groups.

 

He has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal, Los Angeles Times, Business Insurance, and Workforce Management. He is a frequent speaker and has presented to such organizations as IPMA, PIHRA, California CPA Association, IBF, Health and Benefits Expo, and GeoAccess. In addition, he has appeared on ABC's Financial Watch.

 

Lee holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of California, Irvine. In addition, has served as an instructor for the Wharton Schools CEBS program.

Becky Carlucci, Assistant Vice President for Keenan’s Northern California HealthCare Division, has more than 20 years of experience with benefit plan strategy, design, implementation and communications for large corporate and not-for-profit employers. As the lead consultant for several health care clients, Becky supports their needs including for strategic planning, benefit design, renewals, marketing and vendor management.

 

Prior to joining Keenan & Associates, Becky was the Director of Benefits for Catholic Healthcare West (CHW). While at CHW she had overall responsibility for the corporate benefits staff to develop, implement and administer the full array of employee benefit programs for CHW’s 42 acute-care facilities and medical groups. She also was responsible for Executive Benefits.

 

Becky’s professional experience also includes serving as Supervisor, Benefits Development for Pacific, Gas & Electric (PG&E) as well as Benefit Consultant at Bank of America in San Francisco.

 

Becky holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from San Francisco State University. She has also had several public speaking engagements on the topic of managed care and vendor partnerships and she has served on the advisory committees for Prudential and PacifiCare.