Please tell us about your family, interests, and hobbies:

My family is comprised of my wife of almost 11 years, Beth, and our 7-year-old son. I have been involved in music since middle school and currently perform with a nautical and traditional Irish themed band called “The Pride of Bedlam.” We perform at the Texas Renaissance Festival (the nation’s largest renaissance themed park) from October through November. The Pride of Bedlam also performs at various festivals and events throughout the year.

I also have a passion for rebuilding and working on cars. My automotive focus is on restoring mid 80s-early-90s BMW 3 series’, commonly referred to as the e30. I would love to spend every waking moment working on e30s. People have asked why I never pursued automotive restoration as a career―my response is always that making it a career would mean it would be my job and that would change my approach to it and I hope to never change my love for this hobby.

Beyond cars and hand drums, I was raised on a healthy dose of theater, both musical and non. Because of this, I have always had an appreciation for the theatrical arts and make it a point to attend as many performances as my schedule will allow.     

What is your professional background and how has it led you to working in environmental insurance?

Interestingly enough, my professional background is as far from environmental insurance as you can get. I was in the IT field for a number of years before getting involved in the mortgage industry. While in the mortgage industry, I met the wife of Brett Amick (Beacon Hill’s Assistant Vice President and Regional Manager) and through various events and gatherings, I learned about environmental insurance through him. Eventually the timing was right in which the mortgage industry was in a down swing and Brett was looking to bring someone new into the industry to train as his second. So, for the last 9 or so years I have been learning, under Brett, the ins and outs of environmental insurance.

What is the most important lesson you have learned in your career?

Often people will tell you things that will stick with you and other important lessons you learn simply by trial and error. Documentation, from a professional liability standpoint, is probably the top of most people’s lists, but that’s more about procedure and covering yourself in case of an issue.  

The most important lesson I have learned as a broker comes from Brett, which came from one of his mentors when he was first in the industry. “No one deserves a quote, but they do deserve an answer.” The whole idea being: responsiveness and setting expectations. Always respond to questions and requests that you are given, even if the answer isn’t what they want to hear. Making sure that communication with your partners (agents, carriers, insureds, brokers, etc.) is top of mind. Always strive to respond faster than what most consider a timely fashion. It’s such a simple thing that most people don’t really think about or are afraid to follow because of what the outcome may be. Trust me―follow it, your agent/insured/underwriter/whoever will appreciate it more than sitting on something for months with no response until you finally have to tell them “no”. 

If you had to choose one word to describe the most important motivator to being a leader in your career, what would it be and why? What are you doing specifically at Beacon Hill to help you achieve this?

Teamwork. Leadership is rarely about the actions of the leader. It is the successes of a team that makes a leader great. It is up to the leader to identify the strengths of their teammates and utilize those strengths in a way that best benefits the team. When a leader has developed the strengths of their team in any project to a point that they can feel pride in their work, there is nothing more satisfying. 

Beacon Hill Associates has developed a culture of teamwork. While my teammates might be separated by geographic region, we all have the same goal and that is to offer a high quality product and service that our clients have come to expect. Utilizing this model has enabled me as a producer to achieve outstanding results for our clients and will continue to allow us to reach new levels of quality, service, and performance both internally and within the industry.