CRAIG LANDI

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Craig Landi is the founding Chief Executive Officer and President of Falcon Risk Holdings. He brings over 30 years of specialty insurance underwriting experience and a long track record of managing profitable underwriting franchises.  Most recently, Craig served as President of Argo Pro, one of the largest business units within Argo Group Ltd., focusing on its financial and professional lines of business. During his time at Argo, he expanded the insurance suite of products and created a programs division. He significantly grew the business’ gross premium writings and expanded the Argo Pro team on a national basis.

Prior to joining the Argo Group Ltd., Craig established Freedom Specialty Insurance Company (“Freedom”) within Scottsdale Group, now a subsidiary of Nationwide Insurance in 2007. He grew Freedom significantly through late 2015 with a product portfolio consisting of financial and professional lines, surety, transactional risk and other related programs. During his time at Freedom, Craig employed a unique approach to analyzing both individual risk as well as portfolio risk construction.

Prior to Freedom, Craig held a variety of senior level positions at AIG, CNA, and Arch.

Craig received his BS in Economics and Finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

Fun Fact: Craig is a collector of fine wines from around the world.  His favorite cuisine to pair with a nice red is Italian. 

JOHN MERCHANT

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, Chief Underwriting Officer

John has been in the insurance industry for over 18 years, primarily focused on Cyber and Technology Risk. Prior to joining Falcon, John held various underwriting, product development and business development roles at Optio Insurance Services, Nationwide E&S/S, and The Hartford. He also spent over two years at a predictive analytics and cyber modeling start-up where he learned what a “zero-inflated negative binomial” was and how to use it in conversations.  

Fun Fact: John played rugby in college with Dave Lynders. John was better.

BRYAN HARMSEN

Executive vice president, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Bryan is accountable for Falcon’s overall operations and shared services. He has a passion for designing processes and tools that make it easier for each team member to do their work, contributing to a positive workplace culture, while maintaining a strong focus on the needs of our clients.

He began his career in IT service delivery at IBM where he became a certified process engineer and led a process team that opened new IBM delivery centers in the Midwest. Bryan began working in commercial specialty insurance at Hiscox, as Lean Manager for the US. He then moved to Argo Group for seven years where he served as Director of Process Engineering and AVP of Operations for the Argo Pro business unit. In the latter role, Bryan had responsibilities that spanned underwriting support, process, and tools, audit and compliance while supporting a portfolio that included Directors & Officers, Financial Lines, Cyber, Architects & Engineers, Miscellaneous Professional, Accountants Professional, and Lawyers Professional Liability. Prior to Falcon, Bryan served as Head of Data Operations and Process at Munich Re Specialty Insurance.

Currently based in New York, Bryan has also lived and worked in California, Texas, Florida, Missouri, Iowa, South Africa, and India. Bryan received his B.S. in Business Management from Colorado State University and his MBA, with a Finance concentration, from the University of Denver.

Fun Fact: Bryan has visited 49 of 50 states in his life and looks forward to an Alaskan adventure to cap off his 50-state list. This is a goal he set when he was 12 years old.

MARTIN SCHNABEL

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF CLAIMS OFFICER

Marty has over 30 years of claims experience.  Most recently he was the chief claim officer for Nationwide E&S/S. His introduction to Nationwide was as the founding claim leader of Freedom Specialty.  He is an attorney and proud alumni of New York Law School and SUNY at Buffalo.

Fun Fact: Marty was a member of Buffalo's Division I baseball team, and today manages Hoboken's senior baseball All-Star Team.

Ted Stefas

Executive Vice President, General Counsel

Ted Stefas serves as Executive Vice President, General Counsel on the Board of Directors for Falcon Risk Services. Ted most recently served as Chief Underwriting Counsel and Assistant General Counsel at Argo Group. He brings over 20 years of legal experience serving in multiple senior leadership roles and as counsel for Management and Professional Liability insurance groups. He reports to Craig Landi, Chief Executive Officer, and sits on the executive leadership team to help deliver best-in-class solutions for clients.

While Ted isn’t working at his day job, he is a proud husband to Georgia, who is also an attorney, and father to two girls, Effi, 15, and Annabelle 12 (future attorneys). 

Fun Fact: Ted was Class AND All-School President throughout high school!

Jon Laubinger

SENIOR Vice President, Analytics and Predictive Modeling

Jon is Senior Vice President of Analytics and Predictive Modeling, working closely with the underwriters to meet their data and analytics needs. 

Prior to joining Falcon, he held several actuarial and predictive analytics roles, including managing a team of actuaries at a Fortune 100 mutual insurer. 

Jon received his B.A. in Philosophy from UMass-Amherst, where he was nominated for the Rhodes Scholarship. He also hold his J.D./MBA from Boston College.

Fun Fact: Jon has won two trivia gameshows. When he is not busy taking Ken Jennings' money on national television, he enjoys spending time with his wife and Dachshund-Yorkie mix rescue dog, Peanut.