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.

Mark Tavel, CPA

Financial Controller

Mark has been a practicing CPA in the state of New York since 2014 and has specialized in the insurance industry since 2016. Prior to joining Falcon, he spent nine years at Mazars USA LLP, where he was an Audit Manager in their insurance group. 

Mark has a Master's in Accounting and a Bachelor's in Finance and Accounting, with a minor in Mathematics, from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Fun Fact: Sports, board games, video games, cards, chess, darts, bar trivia, whatever... if it has rules, winners, and losers, Mark is ready to play.

Nell Baird

Head of Business Support Services

Nell is the Head of Business Support Services, working closely with the Underwriting Assistants to support operations across all lines of coverage. Prior to joining Falcon, Nell held various positions within Financial Institutions teams at AXIS and AIG. Nell has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and is happy to draw from her liberal arts background and love of working with people.  

Nell is passionate about healthcare advocacy and volunteers with Community Health Advocates to help New Yorkers navigate their health insurance benefits.

Fun Fact: Nell ran the New York City Marathon 7 times, but these days she prefers to skip running and go straight to brunch.  

Rich Pluschau

Chief Information Officer

Rich Pluschau is the Chief Information Officer of Falcon Risk Services. Rich brings over 35 years of expertise in numerous disciplines of insurance across Actuarial, Underwriting, Claims, Finance, Operations, Environmental, MGA Programs, Information Technology and Data Management.  Most recently, Rich was the Global Head of Information Management, Governance and Architecture at AIG.

Rich completed his BS in Mathematics, Business and Statistics at the University at Albany and his MBA in Risk Management and Actuarial Science at the Saint John’s University College of Insurance.

Rich was also elected for multiple terms to the Shoreham Wading River Central School District Board of Education, where he served as Vice President, and is currently on the board of directors of the Insurance Data Management Association.  

On a more personal note, Rich and his family love animals and currently have 2 dogs and 2 cats (but you never know when another will show up).  He also has one favorite hobby, and that is finding more hobbies. 

Fun Fact: Rich regularly attends many concerts and has a particular love for progressive rock music; he has seen the band “RUSH” 41 times in multiple countries over the years.  

Melissa d. Rinard

Vice President of Operations

Melissa is the Vice President of Operations at Falcon Risk Services. She joins us from Argo Group where she spent eight years in Internal Audit, Business Process Engineering. Most recently, she was the Director of Operations for the Argo Pro business unit where she had underwriting support, audit, and reporting management responsibilities.  

Melissa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Counseling from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and is certified in Change Management, Agile, and Six Sigma.

Fun Fact: Melissa is an avid outdoorsy person. She currently resides in New Braunfels, TX, where she keeps very busy with her family and dog, Oscar, while exploring new hiking trails in the Hill Country whenever she gets a chance.

Gopika Shah

Technology Officer

Gopika is the Technology Officer at Falcon Risk Services. Her work focuses on strategic development and data architecture in support of our data warehouse, analytics, and predictive modeling capabilities.

Prior to joining Falcon, Gopika worked for over 9 years in the insurance industry, holding several data management and data architecture responsibilities at AIG, where she focused on strengthening their Data Governance and Reference Data Management capabilities. Most recently, she was the product owner for the global reference data management strategy. Alongside this, she also established the New Jersey chapter of the Global Women in Technology council at AIG in 2015 to much success. Prior to joining AIG, Gopika worked at Daniel B. Stephens (a water resources and environmental consulting firm) for 8 years, where she held several data analysis and data visualization positions.

Gopika holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Application as well as an Associate degree in Networking Technology.

Fun Fact: Gopika likes to get competitive when playing Monopoly, poker and Catan.

MOHAMMAD DEEB

Staff Accountant

Mohammad joins Falcon as the staff accountant. Growing up, he always loved math and was highly organized and introverted. Naturally, he pursued a career in accounting. In 2018, Mohammad graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Montclair State University. Prior to Falcon, Mohammad worked at his first job post college at a local wielding company as an accountant for 3 years.

Outside of work, Mohammad enjoys spending quality time with family and friends, often engaging in outdoor activities and sports. He cherishes moments with his family and loves being a father.

Fun Fact: Mohammad is a big foodie and recently turned baker, as he used some time at the beginning of the pandemic to learn how to bake. Nowadays, he enjoys experimenting and trying out new recipes. Furthermore, he can easily down 5 ice cream cones, with a side of an entire large pizza and some wings, in one sitting.

ADAM ZWIBEL

Senior Product Counsel

Adams serves as Senior Product Counsel within the Legal and Compliance team. Prior to joining Falcon, he was Claims Consultant of Management Liability & Specialty at Nationwide Insurance Company, where he handled claims from various business lines including Directors & Officers, Cyber, and Crime.

He holds an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York Binghamton. Additionally, he received his J.D. from St. John's University School of Law.

Fun Fact: Adam's favorite TV show is Seinfeld, despite it being a show about nothing. He is always on the lookout for Seinfeld bar trivia nights in NYC.

Duncan Phelps

Business Analyst

Duncan joins the Falcon team as our business analyst. Although this is his first experience in the insurance industry, he has previously worked for various clients like the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Information & Technology space. 

Duncan received his Bachelor's in Psychology from Louisiana Sate University in Shreveport.

Most of his free time is spent playing with and caring for his dogs, playing games, or exploring outside. 

Aya Yoshizawa

Marketing & Producer Management Coordinator

Aya is the Marketing Coordinator at Falcon Risk Services and supports the Head of Marketing with all marketing and communication initiatives. Although this is her first post-grad role, she has prior marketing and communications experience in the sustainability sector, as well as in healthcare and education. She is now eager to learn more about the insurance industry.

Aya graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor's in Economics. During her time in college, she was a proud member of the Women's Squash Team, which she started playing when she was only 11 years old.

Fun Fact: Aya is able to speak four languages: Japanese, French, Spanish, and English, from having grown up in a multi-cultural environment.

Lindsey Rothenberg

Associate Actuary

Lindsey currently works for the Analytics and Predictive Modeling team under Jon Laubinger as an Associate Actuary. She started her career at Falcon, however, as an underwriting assistant, which has taught her how to price models more thoughtfully.

In 2022, Lindsey graduated from Binghamton University with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Sciences. Although Lindsey loves math, her second love is film. In college, she participated in Binghamton Television for all 4 years of her undergraduate studies and was president for 2 years. In the summer of 2021, Lindsey was also fortunate enough to intern for NBC Olympics, in particular assistant directing the live stream of Simone Biles’ beam finals. In addition, Lindsey won several short film competitions between 2018-2021.

Fun Fact: Lindsey’s favorite TV show is The Office; she has seen the show beginning to end at least 6 times and knows almost every line.

Karena Chmielowiec

Compliance Specialist

Karena is the Compliance Specialist at Falcon, working under Melissa in the Operations team. Prior to joining Falcon, she was a Mortgage Underwriter. Karena decided to pivot to the insurance industry as a way to transition back into legal and compliance. Her previous experience in various law firms and as a mortgage underwriter has helped her maintain an eye for detail and understand how to analyze risk. Although she is new to the insurance industry, she is eager to learn more about it.

Karena received a Bachelors in Biology from Caldwell University in 2017, as well as obtaining a paralegal certificate from Duke University in 2019. 

In her spare time, she enjoys gardening and cooking. When the weather is warm, she enjoys taking her two dogs kayaking at the jersey shore.

Fun Fact: Karena is trying to check off a bucket list goal by obtaining her private pilots' license. She will hopefully be finishing her needed hours by the end of 2024!

Krys Brun

Executive Assistant/Office Manager

Krys joins the Falcon team as the Executive Assistant to the Executive Leadership Team as well as Office Manager. Prior to joining Falcon, Krys was a Business Information Analyst at Nationwide Mutual Insurance.

Krys graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Human Relations from the CUNY School of Professional Studies. 

In her spare time, Krys enjoys watching new movies and spending quality time with her family and three dogs!

Fun Fact: Krys is a huge fan of Rihanna, and hopes she will release a new album and go on one last tour so that Krys will get a chance to see her in person.