Directors at Large

Courtney Algeo is the Senior Vice President of Underwriting for Fetch by The Dodo responsible for product development, underwriting profitably and quality. Courtney has 30+ years of experience in the insurance industry, with the majority of that time responsible for property and casualty products.  In her previous senior management roles with The PMA Insurance Group and Accident Fund Holdings, Inc Courtney was responsible for Underwriting profitability and excellence, product development,  market intelligence and field underwriting technical development.

Courtney is a graduate of Loyola College in Maryland and earned an MBA from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Courtney resides in East Norriton Pennsylvania with her rescue cats Kit Kat and Oreo.

Tom Bean is Vice President of Operations with FIGO Pet Insurance. In this capacity, Tom oversees the Claims and Customer Experience Departments. With over a decade of professional experience in the insurance industry, Tom has developed a strong background in management, strategic growth, workforce development, and analytics. Tom joined FIGO in 2019 as Claims Director and quickly advanced to executive leadership after growing the Claims Department while ensuring policyholder expectations were met and exceeded. Tom has received industry recognition for his leadership. 

Prior to joining FIGO, Tom served as Strategic Advisor and Property Claims Manager at American Family Insurance. Tom received his B.A. in Marketing from Eastern Illinois University. Tom currently resides in Chicago with his wife Brittany and his golden doodle, Lady.

Chad Bellin is President of Insurance Services at Independence Pet Group (IPG), one of North America’s largest pet insurance and services companies. At IPG, Chad is responsible for all facets of insurance operations, including implementation and management of partnerships, broker and employee benefits sales, as well as direct-to-consumer inbound sales, claims, and customer service.

Before joining IPG, Chad was the Vice President of Operations at LTCG, the industry-leading long-term care insurance TPA. Early in his career, he spent eight years at Target Corporation in various management and leadership roles in-store operations. 

Chad is driven by his desire to support and develop others. He believes that to create a world-class enterprise, every employee must be invested in the company’s mission, and the company must be invested in the employee’s career. He understands the importance of empowering others.

Chad is a University Wisconsin-Eau Claire graduate with a B.S. in Management and a Minor in Human Resource Management.

He lives in the Indianapolis area with his wife, Jamie, and has three children.

Brad Fisher is a Vice President at American Modern Insurance Company, and oversees the Specialty Clients Division which is responsible for the management of American Modern’s program business. Brad’s role within Specialty Clients includes oversight of a team including Sales, Product, Operations, and Underwriting disciplines. Brad assumed responsibility for Embrace’ Pet Health Program in July of 2018.

Brad joined American Modern in 1991 as a resident staff adjuster located in Toledo, Ohio. During Brad’s 23 years in Claims, he held various positions throughout the Department. Prior to his move to Specialty Clients, Brad was Vice President of Property Claims overseeing Inside Adjuster teams as well as First Notice of Loss. Brad earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University. He has earned both his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation as well as an Associate in Claims (AIC) designation.

Ali started her career as a civil engineer, working on rail and infrastructure in New York City, a far cry from pet insurance. She attended Wharton Business School and spent the next 10 years at BlackRock, developing her love of insurance and Thai food. She co-founded Wagmo with Christie to help make the lives of pet parents easier. Ali has a BS in Civil Engineering fromBucknell University and a Master’s in business from Wharton. She lives in Connecticut with her family, including three kids, three fish and her rescue Manny.

Wagmo is a tech-first pet wellness company built with new pet parents in mind. Wagmo’s wellness and insurance plans empower pet parents to get the care they need for their pets when they need it the most. Wagmo alleviates the financial stress of routine and emergency pet care from grooming to essential maintenance, cancer treatments, and emergencies without having to compromise. The company was founded in 2017 by Christie Horvath and Ali Foxworth and is headquartered in NY.

Gavin is Trupanion’s General Counsel and Chief People Officer. Gavin moved from Los Angeles to join Trupanion in September 2016. He began leading the human resources function in 2019.

Gavin has nearly twenty-five years of legal and business experience. Prior to Trupanion he worked for AIG Consumer Insurance for nearly fifteen years in different roles, and before that was an attorney for Morrison & Foerster LLP. Gavin has a B.Bus.Sci from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Seattle with his wife, two kids and newest family member Bebe.

Melissa Gutierrez is SVP and General Manager with Synchrony CareCredit, where she leads the rapidly growing Pets Best Insurance business unit. Prior to joining Pets Best, Melissa was President of NBS Insurance Agency, Inc.  During a 33-year career with Nationwide, Melissa held roles in sales, strategy, marketing and finance across several business units including Nationwide Insurance, Nationwide Financial and Nationwide Specialty Health. Melissa holds the chartered life underwriter (CLU) designation, a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Franklin University, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Dayton.  Melissa is currently the Chairman of the Franklin University Board of Trustees; Franklin University is a private, non-profit international university based in Columbus, Ohio.

In her spare time, Melissa enjoys rowing crew, gardening, traveling, and cooking.  She resides in Galena, Ohio with her husband Tony, youngest son, Joshua and two cats (who love everyone but each other!), Elvis and Keisha. 

Rob is the Co-Founder and Chief Pet Protector of Healthy Paws Pet Insurance and Foundation leading product development, insurance underwriting, strategic partnerships, customer care, and claims management.

Prior to forming Healthy Paws, Rob was the President & COO of Trupanion Pet Insurance. Rob also was the founder and CEO of OUM & Associates, a national liability insurance MGA for allied healthcare providers which was acquired by Aon in 1994. Rob began his career of over 30 years as an entrepreneur and insurance executive with General Reinsurance Corporation.

Rob graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. Passionate about giving back to the community, Healthy Paws Foundation is a natural extension of Rob’s interests as he had also founded Partners in Education and Home Court NW, two non-profit organizations serving youths of Greater Seattle.

Tyler Joyner is the Chief Operating Officer at PetPartners and oversees the Operations and Technology departments within the business.  Tyler has a strong background in Information Technology and is fluent in many disciplines relevant to technology.  He is passionate about the impact that technology can provide to support efficiency and promote a higher degree of support for pet parents.  In 2013, Tyler joined the team at PetPartners with the responsibility of assessing and rebuilding the entire technology stack implemented to manage quoting, enrollment, and servicing of policies.  He advanced his career and stepped into an executive leadership position after demonstrating a deep understanding of the business and leveraging technology to improve upon operational efficiencies.

Tyler is a graduate of Western Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and a focus in Computer Information Systems.  Tyler lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife Rachel and their two children.

Lior is Head of Operations and Corporate Secretary at Pumpkin. As a founding team member, he is currently leading the company’s operational, legal and financial matters. Lior is an executive with cross-functional expertise in direct-to-consumer operations, law, finance, corporate development and M&A.

Prior to joining Pumpkin, Lior was Chief Operating Officer of IL MAKIAGE, a direct-to-consumer beauty brand. Prior to that, Lior held Corporate Development leadership positions in the energy space with TechnipFMC, leading M&A and integration projects and strategy development cases. Lior started his career as a lawyer at Meitar Law, Israel’s premier law firm, advising clients on M&A and financing transactions, commercial agreements and general corporate law matters. He has also served as a combat officer (Captain) in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Lior holds an MBA (honors) from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a dual degree in Law (LLB, honors) and Economics (BA) from Tel Aviv University.

Connor is President of Prudent Pet and has over a decade of experience working in the Property & Casualty Insurance industry. During those years he served in a variety of roles overseeing M&A of brick and mortar insurance operations as well as building out online quoting and binding capabilities and the call center team supporting the digital experience.

Connor helped launched Prudent Pet in 2018. As President, he works to expand the business on both consumer-facing and business-to-business aspects. In his spare time, Connor enjoys golfing and spending time with his wife, sons, and goldendoodle.

Brian Macias is the President of Embrace Pet Insurance. He is a University of Michigan graduate with 18 years of experience in the direct-to-consumer and affinity sales of financial products, including home loans, property and casualty insurance, accident and health insurance, and Medicare. Beginning his career as a mortgage banker at Quicken Loans, Brian worked his way up to an executive leadership position at the company and has since created significant growth in similar roles at National General Insurance and other entrepreneurial ventures. He lives in the Cleveland area with his wife, two daughters, and chocolate Lab, JoJo.

Casey Masters is the Chief Executive Officer of Companion Protect™, LLC and is responsible for leading the development and execution of the company’s long-term strategy. After earning a degree in Finance from Kansas State University, Casey began his insurance career in 1991 as a Financial Analyst at Lockton Companies—working with large national clients on the financial structure of their insurance programs. This role led the way for him to become a Co-Founder of lock\line, a startup within Lockton Companies, where he served as Director of Finance and eventually Senior Vice President of Client Services. Under his guidance and direction, lock\line grew to become the leader of wireless device protection programs and was acquired by DST Systems in 2002 and ultimately merged with Asurion in 2005.

Casey lives in Leawood, Kansas with his wife and kids. He enjoys sports, cooking, and of course spending time with his rescue dog—Salvy.

Jack Lansford is a Product Director at Liberty Mutual Insurance, responsible for leading their Pet Insurance program. Jack has been with Liberty Mutual for eight years, where he has spent the majority of his time working on Auto and Property personal lines insurance. His experience there has spanned product pricing, underwriting, analytics, and competitive analysis.

Jack is a graduate of the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance and loved UW so much he later returned to earn his MBA. He lives in Seattle with his wife Amanda and Labrador Retriever Warren, where he enjoys golfing and visiting the city’s many breweries.

Jennifer Nocco is the Head of Pet Insurance at Petco, responsible for leading the Petco Insurance brand and aggregator site, PetInsuranceQuotes.com.  She joined Petco in 2021 after more than a decade in the casino industry, working for Caesars Entertainment. Jennifer has an extensive background in marketing strategy, product management, operations, sales and analytics. She began her career in investment banking working with clients in the insurance industry.

Jennifer holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and a BA in Math and Economics from Boston College. She lives in San Diego with her husband Chris, stepdaughter Skye and two cats, Pete and Fluffy. 

Katie Rudolph is the Vice President of Underwriting for ManyPets Inc., responsible for product development and compliant deployment along with underwriting profitability. Katie has over 15 years of experience in the insurance industry, including commercial lines underwriting, carrier MGA management, creation and implementation of global group governance program, life insurance product and filing, embedded insurance programs, and most recently pet insurance product development and management. She has worked most recently with big name insurtechs Haven Tech (formally Haven Life) doing product development and filing and Cover Genius sourcing insurance products and leading them through a compliant rollout.

Katie is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison (Mathematics with a focus on Actuarial Science and Certificate in Spanish), holds a Masters in Nutrition from Northeast College of Health Sciences and earned an EMBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology. She also holds her CPCU and AU designations along with her P&C agents license. Katie resides in North Plainfield, NJ with her significant other and 4 rescue cats Minerva, Harry, Luna and Beatrix.

Franklin joined Chubb in 1988. After holding a variety of management positions in underwriting and operations, he joined Chubb’s corporate strategy group in 1999 where he was responsible for development of strategy for the use of secure commerce in serving Chubb’s agency community.

In 2001, Franklin joined Chubb Custom Market with responsibility for distribution strategy and the creation of an in-house MGA to produce business on behalf of other non-affiliated carriers. Franklin assumed responsibility for Chubb Custom Market’s program business unit in 2003.

January 2016, with Ace acquisition of Chubb, Franklin assumed responsibilities for the combined Westchester Programs operations.

Dave Sefcik brings more than 25 years of experience in the specialty insurance business in senior sales and underwriting management roles. As Business Development and Program Management Lead for AXIS Accident and Health Insurance, Dave is responsible for program and relationship management with key distribution partners. Prior to joining AXIS, Dave was Director of accident and health for a specialty MGU owned by a large national property and casualty wholesaler where he managed a team focused on underwriting new and renewal business as well as expanding distribution channels for accident and health products.  Dave was previously employed by AXIS as Vice President of Special Risk where he marketed Accident products to prospective MGU’s and worked with legal, product, claims, operations and underwriting in moving the MGU’s through the on-boarding process.  Dave graduated with a B.S. in Finance from Eastern Illinois University.  He resides in a Chicago suburb with his wife, two kids and their golden-doodle Brody who, at 65 lbs, thinks he’s a lap dog.       

Lauren relocated to Canada in 2022 to be PetYellow’s Chief Executive Officer. Prior to that, she has over 10 years of pet insurance experience in Australia, across a broad range of functions from claim assessment, dispute resolution, compliance, account management, sales, marketing, underwriting and product and portfolio management. Lauren has a Bachelor of Business Management, a Diploma in Veterinary Practice Management, and years of experience as a veterinary nurse.  Pet parent to three chihuahuas, Lauren is passionate about building products and services that improve the health and welfare of pets and provide peace of mind to the pet parents that care for them.

Scott Taylor is the President at Spot Pet Insurance and with 28 years of business development experience in the insurance industry, is a pet health insurance expert. Scott has a myriad of experience building distribution through employee benefits broker networks and managing affinity group relationships. Being a marketing and business development professional, Scott is focused on the distribution of Pet insurance to help ensure pets and pet parents are happy and healthy. A couple of Scott’s key focuses are building strategic partnerships and developing innovative product and program solutions for Spot Pet Insurances partners and prospective partners.

Scott obtained his masters from the University of New Haven in Business Management. He currently resides in Palm Beach, FL – Scott enjoys spending his time outdoors either boating, golfing, or fishing and also playing with his yellow lab, Stone.