4
ON THE MOVE AMES & GOUGH PROMOTES FOUR EXECS Ames & Gough, a leading insurance broker and risk management consultant specializing in serving design professionals, law firms, associations/ nonprofits, and other professional service organizations, announced the appointments of equity partner Allison Buytenhuys as senior vice president and of Brian Lynch, Cady Sinks, and Rachelle Tucker as assistant vice presidents. “At Ames & Gough our ongoing success has always depended on our ability individually and collaboratively to consistently deliver exceptional service to our clients,” said Matt Gough, president, Ames & Gough. “For several years, Allison, Brian, Cady and Rachelle have distinguished themselves by their client focus, commitment to service excellence and outstanding performance. On behalf of our leadership and all the members of our firm, I’m pleased to recognize their accomplishments and look forward to their continued contributions to our clients and success at Ames & Gough.” Allison Buytenhuys, appointed as a senior vice president, has been a partner of Ames & Gough since 2015. She will continue to lead the firm’s Administration, including accounting, technology, and licensing, as well as assisting with human resources and employee benefits. Based in the Washington, D.C., office, she joined Ames & Gough in 2001, after serving as a marketing assistant for Victor O.
Schinnerer. One of the firm’s 13 active partners, she earned a bachelor’s degree in business marketing from Penn State University. Cady Sinks, promoted to assistant vice president, is a client executive based in the Washington, D.C., office. In addition to evaluating clients’ risks and handling all aspects of their insurance renewal process, she is directly involved in the placement of all commercial coverage lines, including property/casualty, professional liability, and management liability. She joined Ames & Gough in 2016 and has more than 16 years of insurance industry experience. She earned bachelor’s degrees in economics and English from The University of Virginia, where she was a GEICO Jack & Dorothy Byrne Academic Scholarship winner. She also earned an master’s degree in insurance management from Boston University. Brian Lynch, promoted to assistant vice president, is a client executive based in the Washington, D.C., office. He joined Ames & Gough in 2017 and has more than 10 years of experience in insurance brokerage. Previously, he worked at insurance brokers in Boston where he was a member of the Boston Young Professionals, Cape Cod Young Professionals and Falmouth Chamber of Commerce. Lynch earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast communications from Elon University. Rachelle Tucker, promoted to assistance
vice president, is a senior account manager based in the Boston office. She joined Ames & Gough in 2014 and has nearly 25 years of experience in commercial and personal lines account management, as well as customer service with various insurance companies and agencies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Tucker earned an associate’s degree in business administration from Fisher College and holds several insurance designations, including: Associate in Insurance Services, Certified Insurance Counselor, Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist. She has been a member of the Massachusetts Association of Insurance Women and is a former director of the Bristol Chapter. With more than 1,500 architects, engineering firms, and other construction professionals of all sizes as clients, Ames & Gough is the leading insurance brokerage and risk consulting firm serving the needs of these professionals. Ames & Gough also has established itself as a committed, superior resource for law firms and associations and nonprofit organizations in need of professional liability, management liability, and property/ casualty insurance and risk management assistance. Established in 1992, the firm has offices in Boston; Philadelphia; Orlando, Florida; and Washington, D.C. Clients throughout the U.S. are served by a team of more than 40 professionals and staff located in the four offices.
SHAWN MAHONEY, from page 3
many CEOs I was nervous about work getting done when we closed our offices due to shelter-in-place ordinances. It’s been truly fulfilling to see our team providing the same level of service to our clients virtually as they do in person. Their professionalism and integrity speak to the strength of our hiring team and the culture we’ve built around independence and trust. From the leadership perspective, we needed to overhaul how we communicated with our workforce. We implemented weekly Friday video calls (and added a virtual happy hour at the end) to share company-wide information. The calls were recorded and posted on our internal website with written highlights if someone was unable to attend. For important updates, we added a new tab to the website and sent emails, ensuring employees saw the information. A dedicated chat channel was open to our entire team for ongoing or urgent questions about company matters during the pandemic. It wasn’t about how often we sent information to the team, but how many options we gave them for accessing it that was important. Sometimes it takes a megaproject to shake things up and help us see and adapt to new ways of improving where we live, work, learn, and play. COVID-19 has been the ultimate megaproject. We’ve found that to navigate through challenging times collaboration is key. Our best way ahead is together, through strategic partnerships and adaptive thinking. SHAWN MAHONEY is the CEO of OAC Services, Inc. He can be reached at smahoney@oacsvcs.com.
❚ ❚ Importance of IT. Internet connectivity is now an essential utility and IT specialists are your first responders, ensuring everyone has 24/7/365 access from everywhere and anywhere. Remote working arrangements will be here to stay for a long time. Servers are the new printers. Making sure you have enough capacity on the company’s hardware to host remote access for a disparate workforce is the key, and the chokepoint, of getting work done and turned in. “Sometimes it takes a megaproject to shake things up and help us see and adapt to new ways of improving where we live, work, learn, and play. COVID-19 has been the ultimate megaproject.” ❚ ❚ Site safety and access. Safety has always been a priority on the jobsite, but now we need to track personnel access and infection rates. We developed an app called Site Safe to collect self-reported data on infection exposure and symptoms in order to control the spread of the virus on jobsites. Health check points at construction gate entry points will be mandatory going forward to protect workers and clients from viruses and project shutdowns. The firms that can proactively address health and safety concerns on jobsites will be the most coveted. ❚ ❚ Communicating with a virtual workforce. I’ll admit, like
© Copyright 2020. Zweig Group. All rights reserved.
THE ZWEIG LETTER OCTOBER 12, 2020, ISSUE 1363
Made with FlippingBook Annual report