Leadership

David Blumenstein

President and CEO

Mr. Blumenstein is President and CEO of The Segal Group. He previously served as the National Director of Multiemployer Consulting and as consultant to numerous multiemployer funds, including health and welfare plans, defined benefit pension plans and defined contribution pension plans. His current clients include a range of multiemployer plans and international union plans.

Mr. Blumenstein is a member of Segal’s Senior Management Team and Multiemployer Leadership Group and also serves on The Segal Group’s Board of Directors. He also oversees Segal Communications and Segal Select Insurance.

Mr. Blumenstein worked in all areas of employee benefits for a major insurance company before he joined the firm. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan with a BA in Philosophy.

Mitch W. Bramstaedt

SVP, Regional Manager - Midwest

Mr. Bramstaedt is a Senior Vice President in Segal's Chicago office and the Midwest Region Manager. He assists multiemployer and public sector clients with benefits strategy and design. Mr. Bramstaedt specializes in comparing managed care carve-out programs to carrier-based options and develops health care cost management programs. He has been successful in reducing client health care costs by following a process of goal setting, data evaluation, plan design modeling, vendor selection, and vendor management. He has also worked with many clients to develop effective contribution options. As a past member of Segal’s National Rx Consulting group, he was instrumental in developing innovative methods for evaluating prescription drug programs and reducing drug spending.

Prior to joining Segal, Mr. Bramstaedt was the Manager of Underwriting for a Chicago-area HMO. He also served for three years as an Employee Benefits Underwriter with a consulting firm specializing in association trusts and for four years as an Underwriter with a national insurance company. Mr. Bramstaedt is a past member of URAC’s Consumer-Directed Advisory Committee. This committee assists URAC with the development of accreditation standards for Consumer-Directed Health Plans.

David Brenner

SVP, National Director, Multiemployer Consulting

Mr. Brenner is the National Director of Multiemployer Consulting for The Segal Group as well as a Senior Vice President and Benefits Consultant in Segal's Boston office. Mr. Brenner specializes in consulting to multiemployer funds, including health and welfare plans, defined benefit pension plans and defined contribution pension plans. He also consults to joint labor management apprenticeship and training programs on operational issues. Mr. Brenner’s current clients include a range of local, statewide, regional and national plans.

Mr. Brenner is a member of Segal’s Multiemployer Leadership Group. As the Industry Group Leader for the Building Trades, he constantly monitors relevant legislation, trends, and developments to ensure that Segal’s Building Trades clients are prepared and informed. He is involved in strategic planning initiatives for multiemployer services and product development. He works closely with Segal’s Director of Research as a member of the Working Committee of the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP), providing guidance on public policy, legislative and regulatory issues and other matters of interest to multiemployer plans.

Mr. Brenner is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a BA with Individual Concentration (Labor Studies). He received a JD from Northeastern University’s School of Law. Mr. Brenner is a frequent speaker at benefits conferences and other industry forums, and has taught labor history courses at the college level.

John Coyle

SVP, Regional Manager - West

John Coyle is a Senior Vice President and Consultant in Segal’s Phoenix office. He is also responsible for overseeing operations for the company’s West region, which includes offices in Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco. An expert in the public sector health market, Mr. Coyle works with clients to develop and implement solutions to operational, benefit design and funding challenges. As a Senior Health Benefits Consultant, Mr. Coyle also assists in the design, implementation and ongoing analysis of complex employee benefits programs for state agencies, large public sector consortiums and municipal and county clients. He is an authority on issues relating to administration of benefits for school districts and public sector employees.

Prior to joining Segal, Mr. Coyle was Vice President of Human Resources for an Arizona hospital.

Mr. Coyle received a BS in Business Management from Arizona State University. He frequently speaks in Arizona and Colorado on a variety of employee benefit topics, including consumerism and consumer-driven health care and is often quoted in local publications.

John Flynn

Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Flynn is a Senior Vice President and the firm's Chief Operating Officer and is located in Segal's Hartford Office. He is also on the firm's Board of Directors. Mr. Flynn provides consulting services in the health, flexible benefits and retirement areas. He serves as Consultant to a number of public sector entities and collectively bargained health, pension and annuity funds.

Mr. Flynn received an MA in Economics from Trinity College (Hartford, CT) and received both a BS in Insurance and Finance and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Hartford. He attended the Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Program and is a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist. Mr. Flynn is also licensed as a Certified Life/Health Insurance Consultant and Broker.

Mr. Flynn is Past President of the Southern New England Chapter of CEBS. He is a member of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, the New England Employee Benefits Council, the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the Government Finance Officers Association. In 2010, Mr. Flynn was elected to the Board of Visitors of the University of Hartford's Barney School of Business.

John Gingell

Chief Practice Officer

John Gingell is a Senior Vice President and the firm's Chief Practice Officer and is located in the Chicago office.

Mr. Gingell provides health care and pension consulting advice to clients and specializes in developing strategic, customized solutions to help manage rising health care costs. His expertise includes claims data mining, aggressively managing vendor contracts, plan design, and incentivized wellness and disease management alternatives. Mr. Gingell also works to minimize employee dissatisfaction through carefully crafted communications. He helps clients address the short-term pension funding issues they are facing due to investment market activity while also maintaining focus on the appropriate long-term strategy for retirement income fund design.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Gingell specialized in employee benefits with a major insurance carrier. Mr. Gingell received a BS in Business Administration at The Citadel. He has taken numerous management, health care and strategy courses at a variety of institutions and attended the Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Program. Mr. Gingell is active in The Executives' Club of Chicago and other HR groups, and he is a past chair of a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Board. He is President of the Foundation Board at Northeastern Illinois University and Chairman of its Finance Committee. Mr. Gingell is also the Chairman of the Board of the Arts and Business Council in Chicago. Mr. Gingell holds board and committee positions in various human resources, benefits and charity associations in the Midwest. He is a frequent speaker at benefit conferences and other events on health care issues.

Howard B. Goldsmith

SVP, Regional Manager - New York

Mr. Goldsmith currently serves as Senior Vice President, Regional Manager in the New York office and works with many of Segal’s public sector clients on health, retirement, compensation, and human resource matters. He has more than 25 years of experience in the benefits consulting industry. Mr. Goldsmith has been a member of the Company’s Public Sector Leadership Group since 2006 and is a member of several committees focused on developing innovative and creative new solutions for clients. He holds an MBA in Finance from Rutgers University and a BS in Business Economics from Cook College, Rutgers University.

Andrew Sherman

SVP, National Director, Public Sector Market

Stuart Wohl

SVP, Regional Manager - East

Mr. Wohl is a Senior Vice President and Senior Benefits Consultant, located in Segal’s Washington, DC office.  As East Regional Manager, he is responsible for overseeing Segal’s clients in the Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Washington DC, Hartford and Boston offices. Mr. Wohl is a member of Segal’s Public Sector Leadership Group.  He previously served as Segal’s Retiree Health Practice Leader and East Region Health Practice Leader.

He serves as Consultant to large Public Sector Clients. He also consults to numerous trust funds that provide health and/or life benefits to retirees and their dependents typically resulting from bankruptcy, collective bargaining or litigation. In many of these situations, Mr. Wohl led the Segal team that helped establish these plans, work that included providing assistance in drafting trust and plan documents, hiring plan and claim administrators, developing compliance policies, plan design decisions and communications.

Mr. Wohl is a recognized expert on retiree health benefits and retiree health valuations and served as a technical resource to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board in its deliberations prior to the issuance of GASB 43 and GASB 45. He has been called as an expert witness regarding retiree health benefits and retiree health valuations. 

He received a BA in Mathematics from Trenton State College (Ewing, NJ) and an MS in Operations Research from Baruch College of the City University of New York. He is a licensed Life and Health Insurance Consultant in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC and other states.

Kathryn Bakich

SVP, National Health Care Compliance Practice Leader

Kathryn Bakich is a Senior Vice President in Segal’s Washington, DC office with extensive experience in health care compliance. She is the firm’s National Health Compliance Practice Leader. Ms. Bakich is one of the country’s leading experts on employer sponsored health coverage. She specializes in providing research and analysis on federal laws and regulations affecting health coverage, including: ERISA, Medicare, HIPAA, COBRA, the Newborns’ and Mothers’ Health Protection Act, the Mental Health Parity Act and the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act.

Ms. Bakich is a recognized expert on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed in 2010. She speaks regularly about the law, helps plan sponsors understand its short- and long-term effects on their plans and assists clients with preparing comments on the legislation for submission to regulatory Departments (Treasury, Labor, and Health & Human Services).

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Bakich was an attorney in private practice representing multiemployer health plans, and an appellate administrative law judge. She graduated in 1979 with a BA in Political Science, in 1982 with an MA in Public Policy and in 1985 with a JD from the University of Missouri. She has been admitted to the Bar in the District of Columbia, United States Supreme Court and multiple federal district and appellate courts.

Randolph Carter

SVP, National Communications Practice Leader

Mr. Carter is a Senior Vice President and the firm's National Communications Practice Leader. He has extensive experience in employee and participant communications and he works with clients to develop employee benefit and human resources communications strategies, approaches and materials. 

He has specialized expertise in developing wellness and disease management promotion campaigns, benefit satisfaction surveys, manager/supervisor compensation training and annual enrollment communications campaigns.

Mr. Carter joined the firm when it acquired Marjorie Gross & Company. Before joining Marjorie Gross, he was with Buck Consultants and Johnson & Higgins. Mr. Carter is a graduate of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

David Dean

SVP, Multiemployer Retirement Practice Leader

Mr. Dean is a Senior Vice President, Benefits Consultant and Actuary in Segal’s Chicago office with extensive experience in actuarial consulting. As the firm’s Multiemployer Retirement Practice Leader, he leads strategic planning initiatives for multiemployer services and product and service development. Mr. Dean provides actuarial and consulting services to a number of pension and health clients and leads the Chicago office’s Compliance Practice for pension and health clients.

Mr. Dean has specialized expertise with all facets of multiemployer consulting, including plan design, mergers, funding projections, withdrawal liability, and issues involving the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA’06) and the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). He serves as a major resource for Segal’s multiemployer pension fund clients in regards to strategic planning for future funding under PPA’06 and plan design under the ACA.

Mr. Dean received a BA in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota. He is a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and an Enrolled Actuary. Mr. Dean also holds Life and Health Licenses from various states, including the State of Illinois.

Edward Kaplan

SVP, National Health Practice Leader

Edward Kaplan is a Senior Vice President and the National Health Practice Leader in Segal’s New York office. In addition, he leads Segal’s Medical Stop Loss Leadership Group and supports the New York Health Alliance. Mr. Kaplan has extensive experience in the benefits industry and has specialized expertise in pricing and plan design strategies for managed medical, dental and prescription drug programs. He works with companies, governments and collectively-bargained plans (including a statewide retirement health plan system, coalition of entertainment industry health plan sponsors and the collectively-bargained workers of a national transportation employer). In 1996, Mr. Kaplan created the Segal Health Plan Trend Cost Survey, now a standard in the industry. Client appreciation and use of the survey has contributed to Segal’s national reputation as a leader in prescription drug plan benefit consulting and pharmacy benefits management consulting.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Kaplan served as an Associate Manager of Underwriting for a major insurance carrier, where he helped to develop managed care plan designs, pricing techniques and financial risk sharing arrangements. He also served as a Health Consultant for a major consulting firm, where he assisted in the development of rate manuals for managed medical, dental, and prescription drug programs, and was involved in several special studies related to managed care, including studies on the prescription drug “shoebox” effect, HMO “skimming” and other issues.

Mr. Kaplan received a BA in Economics from Rutgers University. He is quoted frequently in general business and employee benefit publications on managed care issues. He has authored articles and book chapters for several trade journals and publications, including Employee Benefits Handbook, published by WG&L, Trustees Handbook, published by the International Foundation of Employee Benefits, IPMA-HR News, and workspan.

Megan Kelly

VP and Benefits Consultant, National Multiemployer Health Practice Leader

Ms. Kelly is a Vice President and Benefits Consultant in Segal’s Cleveland office. She also serves as the National Multiemployer Health Practice Leader where she leads strategic planning initiatives for multiemployer services and product development. Ms. Kelly has extensive experience with all facets of multiemployer consulting, including benefit strategies, plan design, mergers, funding, plan management, and issues involving the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) and the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA’06). She serves as a resource for Segal’s multiemployer clients in regards to strategic planning in all benefit areas.

Prior to joining Segal, Ms. Kelly served as Director, Health and Welfare, for a large human resources consulting firm. Consulting to clients on all types of health and welfare issues, Ms. Kelly also assisted in the marketing of new programs and in new business development.

Ms. Kelly graduated summa cum laude from Ohio University with a BA in Health Care Administration and a minor in Business. She is a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS), a Member of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP), a Member of the Health Action Council (HAC) and a Member of the Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (WEB).

Stewart Lawrence

SVP, National Retirement Practice Leader

Mr. Lawrence is a Senior Vice President and the National Retirement Practice Leader in Segal’s New York office. He has extensive experience in a wide range of employee benefit services, including benefit and de-risking strategies, funding and plan management, behavioral economics and predictive modeling.

As head of the firm’s National Retirement Practice, Mr. Lawrence works with clients throughout the U.S. and serves as the Consultant and Principal Account Officer for many of Segal’s largest clients. Additionally, he is Segal’s representative in the Multinational Group of Actuaries and Consultants. Mr. Lawrence has expertise in the design and financing of qualified and non-qualified retirement plans.

Mr. Lawrence is a 1970 graduate of Queens College of the City University of New York with a BA in Mathematics. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and an Enrolled Actuary. Mr. Lawrence is a member of the Policy Board of the American Benefits Council, a former Chairperson of the Financial Executive International’s Committee on Benefits Finance and a former member of the Board of Directors for the Council on Employee Benefits. Mr. Lawrence has written numerous articles about employee benefits. He currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Financial Executive magazine.

Kim Nicholl

SVP, National Public Sector Retirement Practice Leader

Ms. Nicholl is a Senior Vice President and Consulting Actuary in Segal’s Chicago office and is also the firm’s National Public Sector Retirement Practice Leader. She has extensive experience supporting the design and financing of retirement and other employee benefit programs for the public sector. Ms. Nicholl has consulted on the design and interpretation of plan provisions for defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans, and on their relationship to ERISA, IRS regulations and new legislation. Her experience includes all aspects of employee benefit programs.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Nicholl served as National Leader of Public Sector Retirement Consulting at another consulting firm. She graduated magna cum laude from Loyola University with a BS degree in Mathematics. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and an Enrolled Actuary under ERISA.

Ms. Nicholl speaks and presents frequently at professional organizations, including the National Council on Teacher Retirement, the National Association of State Retirement Administrators the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, the International Foundation of Employee Benefits and the Conference of Consulting Actuaries. Additionally, she has provided educational sessions for the Boards and Staff of public pension retirement systems. Ms. Nicholl has testified before state legislative bodies in Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland, Ohio and Texas. She currently serves on the American Academy of Actuaries Public Pensions Subcommittee.

Stuart Lerner

SVP, Administration and Technology Consulting Practice Leader

Stuart Lerner is a Senior Vice President in Segal’s New York office with extensive experience in administration and technology consulting. He is the firm’s Administration and Technology Consulting (ATC) Practice Leader. Mr. Lerner’s expertise includes business process analysis and redesign, organizational and operational redesign, system functionality analysis, systems implementation management and project budget management.

In his role as Practice Leader, Mr. Lerner is responsible for helping the ATC Practice provide a wide variety of services to public sector and multiemployer clients. The services performed by the ATC Practice create operational efficiencies, improve member services and reduce costs and compliance.

Mr. Lerner is a key member of Segal’s National HIPAA Compliance Team and plays a vital role in identifying, reviewing and assessing multiemployer compliance approaches as well as potential compliance solutions offered by transaction software companies and clearinghouses. He is the Founder and an Advisory Council Member of the Multiemployer IT Summit, a group dedicated to bringing multiemployer technology experts together to share ideas and industry best practices.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Lerner worked for a large Taft-Hartley pension fund, where he was instrumental in the design and implementation of their new computer system. Mr. Lerner received a BBA in Finance from Hofstra University and an MBA in Finance from Long Island University.

Serena Simons

SVP, National Retirement Compliance Practice Leader

Serena Simons is a Senior Vice President in Segal’s Washington, DC office with extensive experience in employee benefit plan compliance. She develops and manages the company’s retirement plan compliance services and is the National Retirement Compliance Practice Leader.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Simons was engaged in the private practice of law in Washington, DC, specializing in issues under the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA. Ms. Simons received her JD, with high honors, from the Duke University School of Law and received her BA from Duke University. She is admitted to the Bar in the District of Columbia.

Elliot Susseles

SVP, Segal Waters Practice Leader

Mr. Susseles is a Senior Vice President in Segal’s Washington, DC office with extensive human resources experience. He directs Segal Waters Consulting (the firm’s Public Sector Human Resources Practice) and serves on Segal’s Public Sector Leadership Group.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Susseles served as Associate Director of Labor Relations for the District of Columbia where he was responsible for the District’s labor economics program. He has extensive experience in government finance and human resources, including roles with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority as a labor economist and with the New York City Transit Authority as Chief of the Office of Labor and Cost Analysis. Mr. Susseles served as Assistant Director of Research and Negotiations with a major public employee union.

Mr. Susseles graduated from Hofstra University with a BA in Economics and from New York University with an MA in Economics. He is a member of WorldatWork and the International Personnel Management Association (IPMA). He is a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) and is currently pursuing Certified Benefit Professional (CBP) designation from WorldatWork.

Richard Ward

SVP, National Public Sector Health Practice Leader

Richard Ward is a Senior Vice President in Segal's Glendale office and is the firm’s National Public Sector Health Practice Leader. He has extensive experience working with employee benefit programs for the public sector, with specialized expertise in the strategic design, administration, and funding of public employee and retiree benefit plans.

His experience includes all aspects of employee benefit programs, including vendor selection and management, financial management and reporting (such as rate development, budget projections, and reserving), evaluation of alternative service models (such as tiered networks and on-site clinics), and benefits enrollment/administrative services.

Mr. Ward received a BS in Mathematics from George Mason University. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Mr. Ward is a frequent speaker on benefits design, health management, and employee and retiree benefits strategies for public plans and employers. Organizations and events he has presented to include the Public Sector Healthcare Roundtable, The World Congress (Strategic Leadership for the Health Care Industry) and the Governmental Finance Officers Association.

Helene Dankner

SVP, Chief Human Resources Officer

Ricardo DiBartolo

SVP, Chief Financial Officer

Margery Friedman

SVP, General Counsel

Richard Hiss

SVP, National Director of Content, Marketing and Sales Support

James Sokol

SVP, Chief Information Officer