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Area Vice President Employee Benefits
Gallagher Benefit Services
Bloomington, Minn.

Clients of Brian Owen, area vice president of employee benefits with Gallagher Benefit Services, said that his ability to easily explain the complexities of benefits coverage issues to employees at any level takes the fear out of making benefits changes.

"Brian and his partner Sandy Oleson are great translators and they are very accessible," said Denise Griffith, director of human resources at Cottage Grove, Minn.-based South Washington County Schools ISD 833. "It's amazing how quickly we get callbacks from Brian and his team. They're great advocates for our organization."

Griffith said one program in particular created by Owen has greatly benefitted her school district. The program is called "Hot Topics."

"Brian and his team go out and do employee information workshops on specific topics such as how to pick the best insurance plan, because we offer a couple of different options; or how to save money on your prescription drugs; or how to understand your health care alternatives," Griffith said.

"They'll go out to a third of the schools in our district and tape them (the workshops) and put them on our Web and use them for seminars," said Griffith.

Another school district, Mounds View Public Schools in Shoreview, Minn., has achieved excellent results through calling on Owen and his team to make in-person appearances to employees.

"Brian is always very good about coming out when we need him to talk to our employees, to do demos on training or about new products that we're offering," said AmyJo Johnson, employee relations and benefits manager at the school district.

In the past year Owen and his team managed to negotiate a 10 percent reduction in the district's health insurance premium for 2012, which Johnson described as a "huge" accomplishment.

Area Vice President, Employee Benefits
Gallagher Benefit Services
Bloomington, Minn.
Category: Health Care

Taking Trainees Under His Wing

Bloomington, Minn.-based Brian Owen, an area vice president and senior consultant for Gallagher Benefit Services, wields plenty of influence among his peers and young brokers.

In 2011, the company had six interns and Owen reached out to all of them. He provided job shadow opportunities for them and set aside time to answer their questions, encourage their growth and teach them the nuances of the benefits brokerage trade as it undergoes far-reaching changes under health care reform.

Last year, Owen took a new sales trainee under his wing, and due in large part to his mentorship and guidance, this trainee was the first among her peers in the company to win an employee benefits sale.

Owen also coaches and mentors youth sports and has dedicated hours of his time to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the National Neurofibromatosis Foundation.

Owen, a graduate of North Dakota State University, is a veteran of the benefits business, having been a part of it since 1989. In the past 23 years, he's worked on the carrier side and on the agency side of the business. Working with corporations of all sizes with diverse workforces, Owen has seen every kind of benefit plan permutation you can think of. He has also helped to implement more consumer-directed health plans and wellness programs than he probably cares to admit.

But like all the consultants named Responsibility Leader® on these pages, Owen has reached out and done more than simply serve clients day in day out. It's the work that doesn't carry any remuneration for which he's now getting noticed.

Vice President
Aon Hewitt
Boston

Peggy Sheedy is known as a meticulous plan designer and a relentless negotiator.

"With Peggy taking the lead, we just finished resolving a medical claim I really didn't think we were going to get approved," said Marilyn Van Note, director of benefits at WilmerHale, a very large multinational law firm.

"It was something our carrier doesn't usually cover in the way it needed to be covered," Van Note said. "It was something outside the box. Peggy was able to get enough clout behind her to move things up the chain to the medical director of the provider and make sure they had everything they needed then ride them until a decision was reached."

In addition, Van Note said Sheedy is bringing up some new plan ideas that it looks like the law firm is going to put in place going forward.

Sheedy listens well and gets to know her firm, Van Note observed. "She's extremely responsive," Van Note added. "She brings a lot of ideas to the table. She and her team know how to talk with our senior management." Sheedy helped another client, Wolverine World Wide, work its way through a major challenge in 2011.

Sheedy was faced with a unique issue related to the casual and work-related footwear maker's renewal because the firm contracted with a consultant to work with its procurement department to review all contracts, including ones in the health care realm.

For the 2012 renewal process, Sheedy had to build credibility with the new consultant, enabling her to become part of the procurement process. With this renewal, Sheedy faced two challenges: meeting the cost goals of the procurement department and achieving the human resources department's goal to offer the best benefits for the employees with the least amount of disruption.

Sheedy's efforts were a success on both fronts, said Joane Van Luven, senior human resources director, global total rewards at the Rockford, Mich.-based Wolverine World Wide.

"Peggy was not only able to educate the internal procurement people who may be experts at contract negotiations but not in health care, but she was able to come up with several very creative ways of negotiating that ultimately saved us a great deal of money in health care renewals," said Van Luven.

In the seven years that Sheedy has handled Wolverine, a period in which double-digit rate increases have not been uncommon in the industry, Sheedy has often negotiated rate decreases or break-even renewals, Van Luven said.

CEO
Benefits Resource LLC
Aliso Viejo, Calif.

One of Benefits Resource LLC CEO Christopher Thurin's admirable qualities is his exemplary leadership ability, clients said.

"Chris is such a dynamic leader," said Louise Stone, vice president of human resources at Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Pacific Premier Bank. "He excels at motivating people. He's one of the most unique businessmen I've worked with in that regard."

That opinion is seconded by Lupe Mujica, vice president of human resources at Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based MERIT Properties, a property management company. "I have done business with brokers for 20 years and Chris is the best I've worked with," Mujica said.

Another secret of Thurin's success is the top-notch quality of his staff. "I feel like they're an extension of my department at all times of the year, not just when we're doing renewals," Mujica said. "In all cases, they're great advocates."

MERIT is part of a much larger company and when somebody from the parent company comes in and looks at Mujica's benefits numbers, "They always say, 'For your size we couldn't possibly have negotiated better rates,' " she said.

Another thing Mujica has never had another broker do so well is roll out her benefits enrollments.

"We have eleven on-site locations in California and Chris had somebody on his staff go with us to each site," Mujica said. "He actually had one of his team members stand there with us and help us give the benefits information, which I have never had a broker do before."

Thurin and his team helped her roll out a wellness program in the past two years and the biometric feedback she has received has shown what she calls "some amazing results in the health" of her firm's employees.

At Pacific Premier Bank, the company's previous broker set up benefits for its board of directors. As it turned out, the bank's carrier had no idea the benefits the bank had gotten the year prior to Thurin teaming up with it had been added to the plan.

"So it would have been ugly if any major issues had come up, but Chris made sure that when he negotiated our benefits the next time around that that was part of the plan, that we needed to be able to cover our board of directors, and he connected us with the plans that were willing to do that," said Stone.

In the last year, Thurin and his team negotiated a decrease in bank employee premium contributions because of new programs that had been set up, with no deterioration in benefits.

"It was really an amazing year," Stone said.