SPG WHOLESALE

Yiana Stavrakis

President – Contract Binding, Personal Lines, and Lite Brokerage

Derek Borisoff

Chief Executive Officer – Contract Binding, Personal Lines, and Lite Brokerage

Devon Borisoff

Vice President and Commercial Lines Leader

Leadership

Yiana Stavrakis is president of contract binding, personal lines, and lite brokerage at SPG Wholesale. Previously president of Monarch E&S Insurance Services, she has been instrumental in the business’s growth since its acquisition by Specialty Program Group in 2017 and its integration under SPG Wholesale. Stavraki began her career at Metro Insurance Services and later held roles at Preferred Concepts and Amwins, developing strong relationships with retailers and carriers. She holds a summa cum laude degree from Rutgers Business School and the CPCU and ASLI designations. She serves on the IBANY board and has been recognized by Insurance Business America among its Hot 100 and Women to Watch.

President – Contract Binding, Personal Lines, and Lite Brokerage

Yiana Stavrakis

Derek Borisoff serves as CEO of contract binding, personal lines, and lite brokerage at SPG Wholesale. Previously, he was CEO of Monarch E&S Insurance Services, which became part of Specialty Program Group in 2017 and is now consolidated under SPG Wholesale. 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. He is an active sponsor of Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of California and a top sponsor for events such as the Young Agents Conference, Los Angeles I-Day, San Diego I-Day, and other events organized by retail broker associations.

Chief Executive Officer – Contract Binding, Personal Lines, and Lite Brokerage

Derek Borisoff

Devon Borisoff serves as vice president and commercial lines leader at SPG Wholesale. He previously held leadership roles at Monarch E&S Insurance Services, which became part of Specialty Program Group in 2017 and is now consolidated under SPG Wholesale. A third-generation insurance professional, Borisoff joined the industry in 2011 after graduating from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He 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.

Vice President and Commercial Lines Leader

Devon Borisoff

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Stefanie McLeod

Vice President and Personal Lines Leader

Stefanie McLeod serves as vice president and personal lines leader at SPG Wholesale. She previously led personal lines at Monarch E&S Insurance Services, which became part of Specialty Program Group in 2017 and is now consolidated under SPG Wholesale. 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.

Vice President and Personal Lines Leader

Stefanie McLeod

Shannon Newman

Director of People Operations

Shannon Newman joined Gorst & Compass in 2021 and serves as director of people operations. In this role, she leads initiatives that support the company’s strategic growth, with a strong focus on culture, employee experience, and organizational effectiveness. Newman partners closely with leaders across the business to enhance engagement, streamline processes, and ensure teams have what they need to succeed. Before joining Gorst & Compass, she held human resources, business development, and consulting roles with Chubb and ADP, giving her a well-rounded view of people and business dynamics. Newman holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University Northridge and a master’s degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix.

Director of People Operations

Shannon Newman

Specialty Program Group (SPG) Wholesale has established itself as a leading MGA by pairing scale and specialization, with an unrelenting focus on execution. Formerly Monarch E&S Insurance Services – the organization operates across ten branches nationwide, bringing together approximately 205 professionals spanning commercial lines, personal lines, professional and executive liability, contract binding, brokerage, transportation and flood. At the heart of SPG Wholesale’s success is a culture built around: expertise collaboration problem-solving Many of its brokers and underwriters, who average 15 years of experience, have spent their entire careers in the E&S space. That depth of technical knowledge translates into real-world value for retail brokers navigating an increasingly volatile and fragmented market. SPG Wholesale’s teams are organized by line of business rather than geography, meaning the person handling a professional liability placement or a high-net-worth personal lines account is a true specialist. The firm combines binding authority, brokerage capability and specialized divisions, allowing retail partners to place a standard GL risk, a complex property deal and a nuanced personal lines account without having to spread their business across multiple wholesalers. Long-standing carrier relationships and binding authorities afford SPG Wholesale access that many mid-market competitors cannot match, as well as real-time insight into changing appetites and emerging opportunities. While SPG Wholesale benefits from the strategic resources of a national specialty insurance platform, it has maintained the entrepreneurial, market-facing culture that defined Monarch E&S since 1986. The operating model is one of centralized strategy with decentralized execution: divisional leaders across commercial, personal, professional liability and operations are empowered with a high degree of autonomy to respond quickly to market shifts and client needs in their respective segments. SPG Wholesale’s strategy in recent years has been shaped by an E&S market that no longer follows predictable, long-term cycles. With casualty, property and other lines often moving in different directions within the same quarter, the firm has focused on three core levers: deepening carrier relationships to move quickly as appetite changes investing in people through training, specialization and data-driven performance management deploying technology and automation to strip out low-value, repetitive tasks Crucially, SPG Wholesale sees technology as an enabler, not a strategy in itself – the goal is to free up experts to do what they do best: structure placements, advise retail brokers and build new business. Being recognised by IBA as a 5-Star Wholesale Broker and MGA seven times since 2019, underscores SPG Wholesale’s reputation for consistency and delivery. The firm views that reputation as something earned one placement at a time: by positioning submissions correctly, connecting brokers with the right carriers, moving quickly when timing matters and following through across every line of business. For clients and future employees alike, SPG Wholesale offers a clear proposition: a wholesale partner – and a career platform – built on specialization, accountability and a relentless commitment to solving problems that the standard market can’t.

“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

Daniel Kang

Director of IT

Nealy Farshadi

Principal, Strategic Client Relations

Christopher Welty

Chief Human Resources Officer

Simon Williams

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

Daniel Kang joined Gorst & Compass in 2024, bringing more than a decade of information technology leadership experience. As director of IT, he has led the organization through a successful migration to a cloud-based environment and has modernized IT support systems with a people-centric approach. His work focuses on improving reliability, efficiency, and user experience while supporting the company’s broader growth goals. Prior to Gorst & Compass, Kang served as associate director of IT at Cinter Technology and held technology roles in the financial services sector at Mizuho Group. With a strong interest in cybersecurity and emerging AI technologies, he continues to advance the company’s technology strategy to enable scalable growth, stronger protection, and ongoing innovation.

Director of IT

Daniel Kang

Nealy Farshadi is instrumental in helping strengthen and grow Brown & Riding’s (B&R) client relationships. She maintains and improves quality procedures, oversees B&R’s ISO certification, and manages the firm’s client feedback program. Her contributions enable the executive management team to act on client input effectively. As a result, B&R’s client feedback scores greatly exceed the average and continue to improve each year. Farshadi also supports and furthers the growth of B&R and its employees by contributing to professional development within the organization and being a resource to staff.

Principal, Strategic Client Relations

Nealy Farshadi

Christopher Welty is dedicated to aligning employees with Brown & Riding (B&R)’s vision and values, fostering mutual growth for all. During his tenure, B&R has more than quadrupled in size. He has helped successfully integrate the company through two mergers and has been a strong advocate for many of the company’s important benefit plan enhancements and development programs. He excels at collaboration and has been a key contributor in establishing and promoting the company’s culture and offering programs and opportunities to help employees build a rewarding career. Welty joined B&R in 2007 as an HR assistant. His dedication and talent earned swift advancement, culminating in his appointment as the firm’s chief human resources officer in 2019.

Chief Human Resources Officer

Christopher Welty

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