Meet Our Team

Venture Underwriters, Inc. underwrites surplus lines risks, produced exclusively by wholesale brokers. With branch offices throughout the country, Venture offers both Primary and Excess Liability coverages nationwide.

OUR OFFICES

Atlanta Office
Northridge Center 1 | 365 Northridge Road | Suite 250 | Atlanta, GA 30350

Napa Office
1040 Main St. | Suite 100 | Napa, CA 94559

Stamford Office
1 Landmark Sq | Suite 805 | Stamford, CT 06901

Michael Johnson

President and Chief Underwriting Officer

mjohnson@ventureund.com
415-816-8368

Michael Johnson has more than 15 years of underwriting experience. Prior to his role with Venture, Michael held both underwriting and leadership roles for companies including AIG, Munich Reinsurance America, Inc, and Diamond State Group. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from California Polytechnic State University.

Jeffrey Kilmartin

President

jkilmartin@ventureund.com
475-619-9998

Jeff Kilmartin has extensive experience within the commercial lines casualty space. Before joining Venture Underwriters Jeff spent more than 15 years with AIG, Chubb and Admiral with increasing responsibilities in underwriting excess casualty. Jeff also has a regulatory compliance and product development background and was instrumental in the development of an excess product at a major E&S carrier. He holds a bachelor’s degree in education from the State University of NY at Cortland.

Elmer Jones Leader Image
Elmer Jones

Senior Vice President

ejones@ventureund.com
770-595-6282

Elmer Jones has more than 35 years of underwriting experience. He has worked for various companies during his career holding both underwriting and leadership roles. Previously Elmer held the position of Vice President in the E&S Underwriting Department for Swiss Re. He also worked for Crum & Forester, Zurich Financial Services of Atlanta and The Hartford and Aetna Life & Casualty of Pennsylvania.

Tom Rocca

Senior Vice President

trocca@ventureund.com
707-241-0124

Joined the insurance industry in 1990 and has held various underwriting and leadership roles for admitted and nonadmitted markets. Native Californian and graduate of the California State University, Chico.

Ron Pardo

Senior Vice President

rpardo@ventureund.com
415-999-8351

Ron has 28 years of casualty underwriting experience in various technical and leadership rolls encompassing underwriting, management and business development responsibilities for major national and global carriers.

Prior to joining Venture Underwriters Ron has held varying positions of responsibilities with Markel, XL Group, Allied World and AIG. Ron holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an Option in Finance from California State University, Fresno.

Patti Brown Leader Image
Patti Brown

Vice President Excess Casualty

pbrown@ventureund.com
404-528-1826

Patti Brown has more than 30 years of experience underwriting commercial insurance. Her experience includes underwriting umbrella/excess and primary casualty insurance as well as compliance. Prior to joining Venture Underwriters, Patti held positions with Axis Insurance, Riverstone Resources, LLC, American Safety Insurance Services, Inc., American International Group and Home Insurance Group. During her time at American Safety Insurance Services, Inc., Patti developed and was responsible for direct oversight of more than 20 programs. Patti has a Bachelor of Business Administartion from Georgia State University.

Holly Heimbruch

Vice President, Underwriter

hheimbruch@ventureund.com
714-273-2498

Holly has more than 15 years of experience underwriting on the West Coast, specializing in construction risks with a focus on wraps and project specifics. Previously Holly held the position of Assistant Vice President and Regional Manager for both HCC and Navigators Insurance. She also worked for Lexington Western Risk and St. Paul Construction and holds a degree from Pasadena City College in communications.

Daniel Kirby Leader Image
Daniel Kirby,
CPCU ASLI

Vice President, Underwriter

dkirby@ventureund.com
740-974-2705

Daniel Kirby has more than 10 years of experience underwriting casualty insurance across the country. Prior to joining Venture, Daniel worked as an Underwriting Manager for Tokio Marine and HCC Casualty Insurance Services, Inc. In this position, he helped to manage the Artisan Contractors Division, specializing in admitted contractors GL and excess, he also spent 10 years with Century Insurance Group. Daniel holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and business administration from Franklin University.

Tony Auman Leader Image
Tony Auman

Vice President, Underwriter

tauman@ventureund.com
678-832-2120

Tony Auman has 30 years of experience underwriting standard and E&S products. Prior to Venture, Tony helped to launch the Atlanta JRIC branch, while there his underwriting was focused on contractors and product risks. Before JRIC, he wrote owners, landlords and tenants, products and contracting risks for Hermatige Insurance and was also an underwriter at Admiral Insurance for 10 years.

Matthew Gaffner

Vice President

mgaffner@ventureund.com
917-533-7146

Matt Gaffner has over 20 years of Commercial Underwriting experience working for various companies in both New York and Los Angeles. Most recently Matt was Assistant Vice President of Primary Casualty for Tokio Marine Specialty Insurance Services, Inc. in California. Prior to this Matt held positions of increasing responsibility at carriers such as XL Global Risk and American International Group (AIG). Matt holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Boston University School of Management.

Chris Barrow

Vice President

cbarrow@ventureund.com
630-945-7075

Chris Barrow has 30 years of experience in the casualty insurance industry. He started his career as a claims adjustor at Crawford & Company before moving into underwriting at Western World Insurance Group.

Chris has held various E&S underwriting roles with increasing management responsibilities at Crum & Forster Specialty and most recently at Vela Insurance Services where he served as Vice President and Chicago Branch Manager. He is experienced in underwriting construction, products, hospitality and premises based risks. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Wittenberg University as well as a Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist (CRIS) designation from the International Risk Management Institute, Inc. (IRMI).

Nora Nakawatase

Vice President

nnakawatase@ventureund.com
510-552-3769

20 years in the insurance industry working for several quality carriers as an underwriter in various casualty roles. She has lived in various parts of the country and enjoys California. She is a Graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

Don Strong

Vice President

dstrong@ventureund.com

Don Strong has more than 20 years of commercial underwriting experience. Prior to his role with Venture, Don has held underwriting and leadership roles for companies including Colony / Argo, Deans and Homer, Malmgren group and Claims consultant group. Don has experience in both admitted and non-admitted lines and specializes in construction risk and commercial P&C. Prior to his career in underwriting, Don worked in senior leadership for Claims Consultants Group and Malmgren Group specializing in large property loss and class action litigation. Don Holds an M.S in Cardiac Physiology / Rehabilitation from Utah State University and an MBA from University of Phoenix.

Gary Shreve

Vice President

gshreve@ventureund.com

Gary Shreve has 30+ years of insurance experience in casualty and property underwriting, marketing, production, and management with both standard and surplus lines carriers, managing general underwriters, and reinsurance companies. Prior to joining Venture Underwriters, Gary held various positions of responsibility with multiple corporations, including Travelers, Employers Reinsurance Corporation, and Berkley Reinsurance. Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree focused on Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Amy Johnson

Vice President

ajohnson@ventureund.com
208-954-0210

Amy Johnson has specialized in the excess and surplus lines insurance industry for the past 15 years. Prior to her role with Venture, Amy held both underwriting and business development roles for companies including AmTrust E&S Insurance Services and Nautilus Insurance Company. Amy holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Boise State University.

Brandi Senn

Vice President

bsenn@ventureund.com
480-284-1238

Charles Josi

Assistant Vice President

cjosi@ventureund.com
415-638-4476

Joined the insurance industry in 2018 after several years working in logistics and operations. Positive insurance career trajectory progressing from Underwriting Assistant to AVP in a very short period of time. Graduate of University of Oregon.