Insurance News

03 May 2010-Patricia Withers has joined the Baldwin Connelly Family of Companies as Director of Wellness Engineering. Pat has dedicated the last twelve years to designing and delivering wellness programs as a project manager and contractor for PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. Her training events earn consistently excellent ratings for her holistic approach and her real world application. Prior to concentrating in wellness, Pat taught accounting and auditing as an adjunct professor at the University of Tampa. She earned her CPA designation in 1992 as a senior associate for Coopers & Lybrand. She has a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Utah.

Pat is a PhD in holistic nutrition. In 2010, she was board certified by the Holistic Nutrition Credentialing Board. Her areas of research include stress management and eating habits.

22 April 2010-Peggy Arledge has joined Baldwin Connelly as a Senior Private Risk Advisor in our Charlotte, North Carolina, office. Peggy has over twenty years of experience in the insurance industry working with select families across the country and internationally. Peggy specializes in serving the affluent with an emphasis on coastal risks including but not limited to South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Prior to joining Baldwin Connelly, Peggy was a Private Client Advisor with HUB International, a national broker headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. In this role, Peggy served as a risk specialist and relationship manager for affluent clients. In addition, Peggy was a Risk Advisor for Wachovia Insurance Services (Charlotte, NC, and Charleston, SC) and Marsh Private Client Group’s Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale Megayacht divisions managing international clientele.  

Peggy is committed to the private risk industry and is furthering her education by obtaining the Certifiied Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation. Peggy is originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, and resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.

19 April 2010-Angela J. Whitaker has joined the Baldwin Connelly Family of Companies as Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer. Angela has over nineteen years of extensive management and insurance operations experience. She has served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Lykes Insurance, Inc., headquartered in Tampa, Florida, with offices in Winter Park and Fort Myers. During her twelve year tenure, Angela served in several capacities, including Director of Operations and Vice President–Operations. Previously, Angela worked with Hilb, Rogal & Hamilton Company of Tampa Bay, where she was Vice President of Operations, and Lanier Upshaw, Inc., Lakeland, where she served as Operations Manager.

Angela earned a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Accounting from Lambuth University in Jackson, Tennessee, and a Master of Business Administration, Accounting Concentration, from the University of Tampa. She holds the Florida General Lines Property & Casualty (2-20) and Florida Surplus Lines (1-20) licenses and is currently working toward the Accredited Adviser in Insurance (AAI) designation.

Angela is active with the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. She is a Board Member of the Florida Users Group of Applied Systems and is Past President and Treasurer. She and her family reside in Tampa.

29 March 2010-Matthew R. Hammer, ARM AAI, has joined Baldwin Connelly as an Advisor. Matt has over seven years experience in the insurance industry. Prior to joining Baldwin Connelly, Matt was an Account Director with Harden & Associates, a regional broker based in Jacksonville, Florida. In this role, Matt was responsible for establishing a presence in Tampa for the firm in an uncharted territory and successfully recorded the highest revenue production in the firm’s 57 year history for a new Account Director. Before joining Harden, Matt was with Jack Rice Insurance, where he served as an Account Executive, and the Florida Association of Insurance Agents. Matt has studied advanced course work and currently holds the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Accredited Advisor of Insurance (AAI) designations.

Matt is on the Board of Directors for Voices for Children of Tampa Bay, serves on the Executive Leadership Board for Real Estate Lives, and is an active member of Medical Group Managers Association. He graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelor of Science in Risk Management, Insurance and served as the Vice President of the Insurance Society. Matt resides in St. Petersburg, Florida.

23 February 2010-Baldwin Connelly continues its Educational Series with "High Net Worth Liability Trends and Serving the Affluent." Held on February 23 at Palma Ceia Golf & Country Club, the lecture provided CE credit for P&C, CE, CFP, CPE, and CLE. The featured speaker, Jeff Carroll, who heads up Chartis Insurance's Casualty Division for the Central Region based in Chicago, spoke to 55 of the Bay Area's best CPA's, lawyers, and financial planners.

01 January 2010–Mari Soler has joined Baldwin Connelly’s Employee Benefits Group as a Client Services Manager. Mari is responsible for the day-to-day servicing of clients including general account execution, problem solving, marketing, plan implementation, and communications. Mari’s experience includes eligibility updates/changes, ID card issuance, claims advocacy, payroll premium information, COBRA questions, plan verifications, FMLA/Inter FMLA administration verification, and fulfillment requests.

Mari developed and managed customized Open Enrollment processes for multi-state accounts, including developing and printing collaterals, updating eligibility files, and producing benefit statements. With nearly a decade of experience,

Mari started her career as a benefits administrator, gradually gaining the expertise to manage a team of benefits professionals responsible for the eligibility, administration, and escalated claims issue activities of national accounts. Mari is bilingual. 

09 November 2009—Mark Jagor has joined Baldwin Connelly’s Private Risk Management team as an Advisor, working out of Atlanta, Georgia. Mark has over three years experience working with small businesses and affluent clientele. Prior to joining Baldwin Connelly, Mark worked for an independent agency out of Alpharetta, Georgia. Mark holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Financial Management from the University of Georgia.

06 November 2009—Baldwin Connelly proudly supports the 6^th Annual Junior League of Tampa Holiday Gift Market. Held at the Florida State Fairgrounds, the market hosts over 120 unique merchants from all over Florida and across the country and features everything from clothing and jewelry to food, art, and specialty items. Over the past five years, the Holiday Gift Market has helped put nearly $500,000 into the Junior League’s community projects in the areas of foster care, basic needs, education, and literacy.

06 November 2009—Baldwin Connelly is a proud sponsor of the Eighth Annual “Richard’s Run for Life” 5k, a Gonzmart Family Foundation event. 100% of all proceeds benefit the Amandelee Fund for Sarcoma Research at Moffitt Cancer Center. Several Baldwin Connelly colleagues as well as carrier reps participated in the race, held in historic Ybor City, and enjoyed the food and beverage at the post race party.

01 November 2009—Baldwin Connelly is a proud lead sponsor of the Legacy Institute for Nature & Culture's (LINC) 2010 Calendar, featuring the work of Florida’s leading conservation photographers and showcasing Florida’s most beautiful ecosystems. LINC’s mission is to raise awareness for national environments and cultural legacies, educate about important connections between human societies and natural ecosystems, and promote conservation of natural heritage. Funds raised from the sale of these calendars will enable educational outreach supporting Florida Forever and conservation initiatives by LINC.

Downtown Clearwater’s Cleveland Street District catches the eye of 3 companies in Tampa Bay as a great area to relocate during the incipient stages of the downtown’s expansion: Baldwin Connelly, Carlisle Fields & Company and Nichols Insurance have merged into the new Baldwin Connelly Family of Companies, and they make downtown Clearwater their new long-term location.

“Baldwin Connelly is excited to partner with the Lightning organization. Joe and his team are a pleasure to work with and truly understand the issues and implications of the risk exposures faced by their organization,” Trevor Baldwin of Baldwin Connelly said. “They are a very forward thinking group that consistently maintains long-term strategy and results as the focus of their decision making paradigm.”

For more information, contact Trevor Baldwin, Baldwin Connelly, 813.984.3216, tbaldwin@baldwinconnelly.com or Brian Breseman, Tampa Bay Lightning, bbreseman@sptimesforum.com, 813.301.6871.

24 April 2009--"Love Looks Not With The Eyes But With The Mind"

Baldwin Connelly/Carlisle Fields/Nichols Insurance were Muse Sponsors of the 4th Annual Spring Gala, an enchanted evening at Ruth Eckerd Hall, to benefit the arts education programs of The Marcia P. Hoffman Performing Arts Institute.

Since its inception in 1984, the arts education programs at Ruth Eckerd Hall at the Richard B. Baumgardner Center for the Performing Arts have maintained a level of excellence both on site and outside its walls, serving the Tampa Bay Area, the state of Florida, and beyond.

The Marcia P. Hoffman Performing Arts Institute is based on the philosophy that the performing arts are integral to human development and essential to the quality of life of a community. Quality programming engages the community as a whole in an ongoing dialogue that strengthens the individual, Ruth Eckerd Hall, and the community at large. All programming is designed to provide lifelong learning opportunities which provide accessibility to and exploration, discovery, and mastery of the arts. The arts education programs have touched the lives of over two million students.