Monarch E&S Insurance Services

Derek Borisoff

Chief Executive Officer

Yiana Stavrakis

President

Devon Borisoff

Vice President and Commercial Lines Leader

Leadership

Derek Borisoff serves as CEO of Monarch E&S. He joined the firm over 25 years ago and has held various positions with increasing authority throughout his career, starting his senior year at the University of Southern California (USC) as a NAPSLO intern. Borisoff spent the next decade working for an E&S firm, eventually owning part of the operation. At age 33, he took the helm of Los Angeles-based Monarch E&S Insurance Services and became its owner seven years later. As CEO of Monarch, Borisoff operates more as a coach than a CEO, something he knows well from his years competing in college sports and coaching water polo. His overall business philosophy is that success comes from supporting the people who support your business. Borisoff is an active sponsor of Young Brokers and Agents events such as the Young Agents Conference, I-Days and other events organized by independent agent associations. He has been married for 33 years to his wife, Kristi. They raised three sons, all of whom won multiple national championships in water polo at USC and are employed within the insurance industry. In 2017, Monarch partnered with Specialty Program Group. Borisoff’s role transformed to include strategic M&A and the national expansion of Monarch.

Chief Executive Officer

Derek Borisoff

Yiana Stavrakis serves as president of Monarch E&S. She joined the firm in 2020. She is a significant contributor to the company’s national expansion and is instrumental to Monarch’s ongoing growth and strategy. Prior to joining Monarch, Stavrakis was chief sales officer for the Specialty Program Group, providing strategic sales and marketing guidance to acquired business partners. She began her insurance career with Metro Insurance Services, a real estate MGU, and steadily rose in both position and authority as she mastered underwriting and claims management. In 2012, Stavrakis joined Preferred Concepts as part of the Metro acquisition, providing operational support to the unit’s underwriting teams and carrier partners. Following Preferred Concepts, she joined the wholesale brokerage world via Amwins, where she developed strategic retailer and carrier relationships. Stavrakis graduated summa cum laude with a major in business management and a concentration in management information systems from Rutgers Business School. She is a licensed property, casualty and surplus lines insurance professional and holds both the ASLI and CPCU designations. Stavrakis is an IBANY board member and the co-founder and past president of NAPSLO’s Next Generation. In 2010, she received the NAPSLO Past President’s Award for outstanding committee work. In 2013, she received the Steven R. Gross Under 40 Award. She also received IBANY’s First Emerging Leader Award in 2015. Stavrakis has most recently been named one of Insurance Business America’s Hot 100 and 100 Women to Watch and was a finalist for Insurance Business America’s Woman of Distinction Award.

President

Yiana Stavrakis

A third-generation insurance professional, Devon Borisoff joined the industry in 2011 after graduating from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Since joining the business, he has worked as a marketing representative for USLI, spent over a year as a North American property broker at Lloyd’s of London, and interned for over two years with various carriers in Scottsdale, AZ. Borisoff joined Monarch E&S in 2017 as a senior underwriter specializing in both binding and brokerage business, while also acting as their VP of carrier relations. Recently, he has taken over as VP and commercial lines leader for Monarch.

Vice President and Commercial Lines Leader

Devon Borisoff

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Stefanie McLeod

Personal Lines Leader

Stefanie McLeod serves as the personal lines leader of Monarch E&S. She joined the firm in 2002, beginning her career as the receptionist and working her way through underwriting to the position she is in today. Over the past 20 years, McLeod has been successful in growing a large book of personal lines business while also helping to expand Monarch’s personal lines products and regions. She has been a member of the IBA-BGP since 2008 and understands the importance of supporting the company’s retail agents.

Personal Lines Leader

Stefanie McLeod

Peter Burrous

Chief Marketing Officer

Peter Burrous, chief marketing officer at Johnson & Johnson, has been with the company for 19 years. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1981, he spent 20 years in various sales and marketing positions at The Coca-Cola Company. He joined J&J in 2003 to build an industry-leading sales and marketing team. He and his team are responsible for agency partnerships and the overall sales and marketing plan.   Peter is a member of the Trident United Way Tocqueville Society. He lives in Mt Pleasant, SC with his wife, Catherine. They have four children – Peter, Bradford, Leslie, and Web – and now have their first grandson, with a second grandson on the way. Peter is an avid pilot and enjoys traveling, boating, and skiing in his off time.  

Chief Marketing Officer 

Peter Burrous

Monarch E&S Insurance Services was established in 1986 in Burbank, CA, and is built on the principle of providing unmatched service to its customers. Its motto, “You’ll get the royal treatment,” is meaningful to Monarch. The company has grown into a leading managing general agency and excess-and-surplus lines wholesale brokerage. Its geographic footprint expanded nationally with the creation of the Monarch Southeast and Monarch Northeast branches. Monarch acquired Commonwealth Underwriters, expanding to the mid-Atlantic region and into the transportation vertical. Most recently, Monarch expanded into the Gulf with the acquisition of Commercial Sector Insurance Brokers and Professional Insurance Executives, entering the CAT property and energy sectors.

“Monarch E&S has the products, talent, expertise, and reputation to get deals done with our strategic partners and clients, which is essentially table stakes”

Yiana Stavrakis, Monarch E&S Insurance Services

Steven E. Craig

Chief Financial Officer

Mark Bernacki

Chief Underwriting Officer

Julie Prewitt

Senior Vice President, Marketing

Simon Williams

Chief Strategy & Distribution Officer, Arch Insurance International and Active Underwriter, Syndicate 1955

Steven E. Craig is the chief financial officer at Johnson & Johnson. He graduated from Clemson University (BS Finance) in 1988, the University of South Carolina School of Law (JD) in 1993, and New York University School of Law (LLM, Taxation) in 1995. After practicing tax law for 15 years, he joined J&J as CFO in 2010. He lives in Charleston with his wife, Molly. They have three children: Steven, Macy, and Michael. He enjoys playing golf, traveling, hunting, boating, and generally being outdoors. 

Chief Financial Officer

Steven E. Craig

Mark Bernacki is the chief underwriting officer of Amwins, the first to serve in the role. Prior to that, he served as president of Amwins Special Risk Underwriters. In addition to his leadership in underwriting, Bernacki runs the Amwins Alternative Risk Transfer Team for Amwins.

Chief Underwriting Officer

Mark Bernacki

Julie Prewitt has worked on nearly every aspect of marketing and advertising in her nearly 20 years in the industry. Her team at REInsurePro manages branding, advertising, events, content, digital campaigns, and agent engagement and plays a key role in product development.

Senior Vice President, Marketing

Julie Prewitt

Kimi leads the Estate Planning and Wealth Protection team and is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. She understands the complex and delicate nature of family estate planning, the technical requirements around probate and estate administration, and the importance of preserving wealth for future generations. Her advice is accurate, commercial, strategic and tailored to each situation.

Partner

Kimi Shah

Partner

Kimi Shah

Partner

Kimi Shah

maintaining an in-house team of more than 20 programmers to facilitate fast improvements direct bill options to streamline the payment process for the agent and the insured providing IVANS policy downloads that enable up to 30 percent labor savings to independent agencies delivering online capabilities including rating, policy documents, payments, and claims reporting

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“We will continue to strengthen our service proposition and customer experience as a key differentiator, as we build on the momentum we have achieved to date across multiple business lines and territories,” says McLean. “Our im is to continue to grow our market relevance and strengthen our partnerships with our strategic brokers as we expand our leadership position in key sectors. “We will also continue to invest in talent. We are committed to drawing from the broadest pools of talent, and to creating an environment that attracts and retains stellar employees. We recognise the importance of building teams that are diverse, collaborative, and innovative and are dedicated to cultivating a supportive and inclusive workplace culture in which all our employees can thrive.”

Monarch’s sister company, Capitol Special Risks, is now part of the Monarch umbrella to provide retail broker customers with expertise and markets in the professional, management, and cyber liability space. “I am very proud of our young and dynamic leadership team,” says Derek Borisoff, chief executive officer of Monarch E&S. “Stefanie McLeod, vice president of personal lines, and Devon Borisoff, vice president of commercial lines, are led by Yiana Stavrakis, our very capable president. All three are known standouts in our industry who lead by example in both work ethic and desire to solve problems. Our firm’s outstanding performance is a result of their positive communications with our people, superb carrier relationships, and proactive management style.” As a full-service MGA and wholesale brokerage, Monarch gives retail insurance brokers access to many different lines of business through its commercial lines, personal lines, professional lines, transportation, mining/energy, CAT property, earthquake, and flood departments. “Monarch E&S has the products, talent, expertise, and reputation to get deals done with our strategic partners and clients, which is essentially table stakes,” says Yiana Stavrakis, president at Monarch E&S. “How do we go above and beyond? We aim to work on every deal, regardless of size, as if it were our personal account and provide our retail brokers with problem-solving competencies to handle hard-to-place risks. Most competitors do not provide the same level of service for smaller brokers and risks as they do for larger ones. Monarch thrives when it comes to providing solutions for small to mid-market risks.”

relationships and teamwork embracing and driving change holding teammates accountable pursuing excellence with humility giving back to the community

Furthermore, talent acquisition and retention pose a significant challenge and are at the forefront of most business leaders’ minds during this unique time. The insurance industry has been aware for years of a looming talent shortage caused by the Baby Boomer generation’s retirement and is now experiencing a war for talent. “Monarch has been able to overcome this talent acquisition challenge by staying true to who we are, a family environment with national resources, which is something we will continue to encourage and promote,” says Stavrakis. “When working for a team like ours, you are not another cog in the wheel but have the opportunity to make your mark and grow with us as we build out Monarch 2.0.” Monarch E&S Insurance Services is licensed in every state and is continuously finding ways to enhance its team, client, and carrier partner experiences. Get ready for the royal treatment as Monarch 2.0 expands digitally.

“I am very proud of our young and dynamic leadership team. Our firm’s outstanding performance is a result of their positive communications with our people, superb carrier relationships, and proactive management style”

Derek Borisoff, Monarch E&S Insurance Services

Yiana Stavrakis, Monarch E&S Insurance Services