Compare key financial metrics with the
Ward's 50 group of top performers and the industry.

Jeffrey Rieder has served as President of Ward Group since 2005. He has significant experience in the insurance industry with expertise in the property-casualty and life, health, and annuity segments. Since joining Ward Group in 1998, Jeff has worked on over 350 projects at numerous regional, national and international insurance companies to evaluate operational performance and identify successful business practices.

Jeff is a frequent speaker at insurance industry conferences on a diverse range of subjects, including: claims operations, human resources, information technology, agency management, distribution system analysis, expense benchmarking, and industry trends.

Jeff leads the firm's annual analysis of the financial performance of U.S. property-casualty and life-health insurance companies to identify the fifty top performers in each segment. Recognition as a member of Ward’s 50 Top Performers is one of the insurance industry's distinct achievements.

Jeff, a Certified Public Accountant, is CPCU and CLU certified and holds a B.S. in Accounting and International Business Certification from the University of Cincinnati.

Charlie Gall is responsible for heading major client engagements and overall leadership of insurance operational benchmarking programs in North America, including Core Enterprise Operations and Claims and Information Technology benchmarking. Charlie has over 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, working with over 100 insurance companies throughout the United States and Canada. He has expertise in both the property-casualty and the life, health and annuity segments. Throughout his career, Charlie has directed numerous consulting projects covering a diverse range of operational performance, expense benchmarking and project management.

Prior to joining Ward Group, he served as Project Manager and Controller for Liberty Mutual and in the corporate Finance departments at Great American Insurance Company.

Charlie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Cincinnati.

Donald McNees has over 20 years of experience in relationships with senior management, works to enhance growth and improve performance at some of the world’s largest financial institutions. Don advises clients on market share, target operating models, performance benchmarking, and organization effectiveness to achieve their business objectives. And, he oversees forecasting analytics with the objective of providing client management with market guidance for future planning and budgeting.

Don is a frequent speaker at industry conferences including American Banker, Bank Marketing Association, Society of Actuaries, and Retirement Income Industry Association meetings. He has published articles and been quoted on growth, organization effectiveness, and customer relationship management trends in the Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, American Banker, Best’s Review, BAI Strategies, Bank Systems and Technology, and The Street.com.

Prior to joining McLagan, Don was a Principal and Owner in the financial services consulting practice of Deloitte. In addition, he was previously a Partner with Towers Perrin where he provided leadership for their financial services industry vertical and was on the Executive Committee of Tillinghast.

Don received an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a B.A. from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.