A&H Intermediaries, LLC

Mark Abicht has worked in the insurance industry as a reinsurance intermediary-broker for the last 18 years. During his last two years at Reinsurance Alternatives/Willis Re, he led its broker management team. Early in his career he provided support to the senior members of the broker team, and quickly developed the necessary skills to become a production broker. Because of his strong leadership skills and understanding of business fundamentals, he was promoted to lead the Accident and Health broker staff.

As Senior Vice President and Manager; Life, Accident and Health of Reinsurance Alternatives/Willis Re, Mark’s responsibilities included the management of the Life and A&H broker team, and the production and servicing of his own book of business. The medical business included a significant volume of medical stop loss business, as well as provider excess, life, sports disability, first dollar medical, medical excess and personal accident business. Mark’s book of business included approximately $3,000,000 in brokerage income.

Prior to joining Reinsurance Alternatives in 1988, Mark was a treaty accountant for E.W. Blanch Co. for a period of one and a half years subsequent to completion of his college education.

Mark earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting from the University of North Dakota in 1987, and shortly thereafter earned his CPA designation.

Bruce Horner has worked in the insurance industry as a reinsurance intermediary-broker for the last 24 years. His career has been 10 years with E.W. Blanch Co., followed by 11 years at Reinsurance Alternatives/Willis Re. His skill sets includes communications, math, computer programs and contract drafting. Early in his career he provided support to the senior members of the broker team, and developed the necessary skills to become a production broker.

As Senior Vice President of Reinsurance Alternatives/Willis Re, Bruce’s responsibilities included the production and servicing of his own book of business. His book of business included a significant volume of medical stop loss business, provider excess, life, sports disability, medical excess, medical retrocession and personal accident business. Bruce’s book of business included approximately $2,000,000 in brokerage income.

Bruce joined E.W. Blanch as a trainee in 1980 and joined Reinsurance Alternatives in 1990 as a Senior Vice President.

Bruce earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota and a Juris Doctorate from William Mitchell College of Law.

Linda Rasula has 19 years experience in the insurance industry, with 16 of those years as a reinsurance intermediary-broker. Linda joined the senior Life and A&H broker team at E.W. Blanch in 1988, subsequently joined the Reinsurance Alternatives, Inc. broker team in 1995. Linda's understanding of the business fundamentals immediately benefited the broker team. That understanding of the medical marketplace and its complex issues provided significant support to the production and support of new business.

As Assistant Vice President of Reinsurance Alternatives, the dominant Life, Accident and Health reinsurance intermediary-broker in the reinsurance marketplace, Linda's responsibilities were predominately dedicated to the servicing of the business, although Linda does have an exclusive relationship with certain ceding insurers. The medical business Linda has serviced includes a significant volume of medical stop loss as well as provider excess, group life, sports disability, medical excess and personal accident business.

Linda earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Mankato State University graduating Magna Cum Laude. Linda also has her Associate of Reinsurance and Associate of Insurance Accounting and Finance designations.

Linda's past experience and expertise is a significant component of the value that she and A & H Intermediaries bring to its clients.

Steve Bauman has over 11 years of experience as a software developer. He has extensive experience with Visual Basic, from VB 3 to the current VB 6, including ActiveX components, ActiveX control creation, ODBC and the new OLE DB, and Microsoft Transaction Server. He also has experience with Access, SQL Server (6.5 and 7.0), Crystal Reports, HTML (and Dynamic HTML), Active Server Pages, Internet Information Server (IIS), Basic, Object-Oriented design/development, and Visual SourceSafe. Steve is a Microsoft Certified Professional in Visual Basic 5.0, Visual Basic 3.0, 4.0 and 6.0 desktop applications, Windows Open System Architecture (I & II), Analyzing Requirements and Defining Solutions Architectures, and SQL Server 6.5 and 7.0. Development platforms include Windows NT, Windows 95/98, and Windows 3.11. He codes using standard Hungarian naming notation (Microsoft’s recommended naming convention).

Steve most recent assignment was to analyzes, design and develop at Reinsurance Alternatives. Steve’s responsibilities included architecture design, development using VB 6.0, and database design and implementation. He had written a great deal of the accounting system, as well as a broker front-end (a marketing system), an address system, a document tracking system, and an expense system. Steve also acted as a technology mentor to the IS staff. The features of the architecture included asynchronous processing, Distributed COM, ODBC & OLEDB (using ADO ), and intrinsic and third party windows controls. Steve also designed his own ActiveX components for use in the system to make development easier and faster. He also upgraded the application to the latest technologies as they became available.

It was at Reinsurance Alternatives where Steve also gathered important experience in the reinsurance industry, researching its inner workings from the broker point of view, to the contract writing, to the accounting portion. Steve worked closely with accounting experts to create a system that was intuitive and easy to use by both new employees and “power-users” alike.

Steve was a consultant for Magenic Technologies, a Microsoft Solution Provider, prior to joining Reinsurance Alternatives. It was here that he earned his Microsoft Certified Solution Developer title, as well as becoming familiar with the Microsoft Solutions Framework methodology of application development. Steve attended training for this methodology, as well as applied it immediately at his client’s site. Steve also maintains relationships with expert consultants.

Steve also acted as a developer at Schwan’s Sales Enterprises. In his role, Steve acted as a mentor to new developers, as well as designing and coding Microsoft Transaction Server components and applications, developing a food-court sales/reporting system, and creating reports using Crystal Reports. There he learned and applied Windows standards, Java, JavaScript, VBScript, and HTML. Steve also created the pilot for Tony’s Pizza.

Russ has 31 years of experience in the insurance industry with over 26 years of management responsibilities. Early in his career he quickly developed the necessary management skills and strong business fundamentals to lead a staff of up to 50 employees. His strong track record of corporate success resulted from the utilization of strategic planning. The establishment of the mission, vision, and goals provided the framework and structure to execute his plans.

As Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Reinsurance Alternatives (subsequently acquired by Willis Re), the dominant Life, Accident & Health reinsurance intermediary-broker in the reinsurance marketplace at the time. Russ’ responsibilities were to determine mission, vision, goals and direction for all administrative areas of the corporation. The administrative areas included treaty accounts, contract writing, information systems, corporate accounting and budgeting, human resources, and risk management discussions with broker and contract writer to construct reinsurance agreements that are clear and concise.

Russ’ strongest talent is the management of his staff. His ability to attract, retain, develop, coach, and lead staff members in a cohesive manner lead to the success of Reinsurance Alternatives. The mission, vision, and goals designed lead to the implementation of a treaty accounts information system that supports the needs of senior management, brokers, and the treaty accounts staff. This world class accounting system was designed in 1996, written in 1997 and successfully implemented in 1998. This is the third treaty accounts information system developed by Russ during his career. The first system was at E. W. Blanch Co in the early 1980’s and the second was upon his arrival at Reinsurance Alternatives in 1989. The successful implementation of the accounting system is a direct result of Russ’ expertise and his constant training and leadership of the staff under his control.

Prior to Russ’ arrival at Reinsurance Alternatives in 1989, Russ managed the treaty accounts and claims operation for E. W. Blanch Co beginning in 1980. Russ was instrumental in the design and development of management systems that provided the user with significant management information and provided the necessary accounting and claims information to reinsurers. The information system design allowed for the efficient processing of transactions with a minimal number of personnel. Russ’ knowledge base is a reflection of his involvement in the direct side of the insurance business during the 1970’s. He began his career in 1973 as an insurance examiner with the State of Minnesota auditing Life, Accident & Health and Property & Casualty companies. Russ also worked as the Director of Accounting for the John Alden property/ casualty companies and for the Title Insurance companies of the St. Paul Companies during the 1970’s. During his involvement with those companies he prepared GAAP and Statutory financial statements as well as managing the staff responsible for the daily accounting activities.

Russ earned a Bachelor of Science in Business degree from the University of Minnesota , Carlson School of Management in 1970, and was honorably discharged from the U. S. Army in 1972.

Jeffrey Kuhs has 16 years of industry experience with over 11 years in senior management. He has compiled a long track record of corporate and information technology success. Strong vision, careful planning and precise execution are common denominators of his work.

As part of a senior management transition plan, Jeffrey has been mentored and trained in all areas of the intermediary business. Through this process, he gained considerable experience in each departmental area and understands the “big picture” of an intermediary organization.

Jeffrey has managed several large scale corporate projects, gaining extensive logistical and international business experience in the processes. He has major work experience in over 12 countries in North America , Europe and Asia . Typical projects he controlled consisted of multi million dollar budgets with over 100 team members.

As a corporate Assistant Vice President of Reinsurance Alternatives/Willis, Jeffrey’s responsibilities were to determine IT vision, goals and direction. In addition to running the IT department, he represented corporate IT concerns at the executive level. During this period, he oversaw the maturation of several major industry specific projects including two reinsurance intermediary accounting applications, a large scale accounting application, a multi-faceted web initiative and the implementation of an electronic imaging system.

Through the years Jeffrey has accumulated an extensive knowledge of business management and information technology. He is a Six Sigma green belt and ITIL trained. He has employed various methodologies including Microsoft Solutions Framework, Microsoft Operations Framework and PMI principles.

Jeffrey earned a Bachelor of Science in Business degree from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota . As an emphasis to his business degree, Jeffrey specialized in Information Decision Science at the University. The Carlson School of Management Information Systems department is considered one of the top in the nation. In addition to national merit recognition, he received multiple academic honors from the University.