KELLY WOLFRAM
Pleasant Prairie
Summary
Senior underwriting leader with 35+ years of experience across Primary and Excess Casualty, E&S, ART, Foreign Casualty, Property and Professional lines. “Senior casualty underwriter with 35+ years of experience across Primary and Excess Casualty, ART, Foreign Casualty, Property and Professional lines.” “I lead E&S underwriting with a single aim: grow profitable portfolios by combining technical underwriting rigor, disciplined governance, and people-first leadership.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
Work History
E&S Senior Vice President, CUO
CM Vantage
Madison, WI
01.2025 - 01.2026
- My CM Vantage role was eliminated in a restructuring. I’m immediately available and looking for senior E&S underwriting leadership roles where I can drive portfolio strategy and build underwriting teams.
- Led underwriting strategy across E&S Primary and Excess Casualty (Auto, GL, WC, Umbrella, Excess, Specialty).
- Oversaw underwriting governance, technical reviews, and portfolio performance.
- Strengthened broker relationships and executed disciplined growth initiatives; managed and mentored underwriting leadership.
E&S Senior Vice President – Head of Excess Casualty
IFG
Chicago, IL
01.2024 - 01.2025
- Developed and executed strategic plans to grow E&S casualty portfolios while protecting margin; increased submission flow and managed loss-ratio outcomes through disciplined appetite and pricing guardrails.
- Established underwriting guidelines, authority matrices, and standardized playbooks to ensure consistent decisioning and regulatory compliance.
- Underwrote complex, high-severity accounts directly and led technical reviews to set the tone for quality and consistency across the portfolio.
- Partnered with Actuarial and Reinsurance to support pricing, capacity, and ART decisions; implemented monthly KPI dashboards to monitor loss ratios, premium growth, and referral trends.
- Built and sustained strong relationships with wholesale brokers, MGAs, and specialty partners; represented the company in market forums to strengthen distribution.
Executive Underwriter, National Accounts Practice Group Leader, North American Construction
Allianz
Chicago, IL
01.2019 - 01.2021
- Underwrote large, complex Excess Casualty programs for national accounts.
- Led technical reviews across Auto, GL, WC, Umbrella, and construction-specific exposures.
- Partnered with Claims, Actuarial, and Risk Engineering to strengthen risk selection.
E&S Executive Vice President, Specialty Casualty (GL & Excess)
WKFC
Chicago, IL
01.2016 - 01.2019
- Led underwriting for the Excess Public Entity Casualty MGA program, including GL, Auto, and Employers Liability for municipal, education, and public-sector risks.
- Transitioned into leadership of the Lloyd’s-backed New York Construction Primary & Excess program, overseeing high-hazard construction risks including scaffold, heavy trade, and wrap-up exposures.
- Directed underwriting strategy, appetite, and technical reviews across both programs, ensuring alignment with carrier and Lloyd’s standards.
- Strengthened MGA governance, rate adequacy, and portfolio performance while expanding broker and distribution relationships.
- Served as senior technical resource for coverage interpretation, program structure, and manuscript forms.
Vice President, Casualty
Ironshore
Chicago, IL
01.2011 - 01.2016
- Underwrote complex Primary and Excess placements across manufacturing, construction, transportation, and specialty risks.
- Provided technical guidance on coverage, pricing, and structure.
Assistant Vice President, Excess & Primary Casualty
Navigators
Chicago, IL
01.2006 - 01.2011
- Managed multi-line casualty underwriting including GL, Umbrella/Excess
- Strengthened underwriting discipline and referral quality.
Education
High School Diploma -
Hoffman Estates High School
Hoffman Estates, IL05-1985
Skills
- Portfolio Strategy
- Middle-Market Casualty
- E&S Binding
- Broker Development
- Underwriting Governance
- Team Building & Succession
- Pricing & Analytics
- Product Development
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- KPI Dashboards
- ART
- Reinsurance Structuring
- Process improvements
- Business development
- Organizational development
- Staff development
- Strategic plans
- Customer support
- Revenue generation
- Financial management
- Public speaking
- Operations management
- Financial reporting
- Corporate presentations
- Recruiting and hiring
- Budget preparation
- Partnership development
- Marketing expertise
- Product management
- Innovation management
- Strategic goals
- Strategic planning
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Troubleshooting and problem resolution
- Data-driven decision making
- Documentation and reporting
- Organizational improvement
- Data analytics
- Cross-functional communication
- Reporting oversight
- Market analysis
- Talent development
- Reporting management
- Budget oversight
- Budget administration
- Cross-functional team leadership
- Influencing and negotiating
- Business performance management
- Leadership and people development
- Relationship and team building
- People and culture
- Client relationship building
- Employee coaching
- Revenue growth
- Strategic business planning
- Industry expertise
Accomplishments
- Drove regional portfolio growth — led underwriting strategy that produced 50–70% increases in targeted submission volume while maintaining target loss objectives.
- Delivered measurable profitability improvements — implemented monthly KPI dashboards and portfolio reviews that enabled timely appetite/pricing actions and improved loss-ratio stewardship.
- Built and scaled underwriting teams — recruited, trained, and promoted underwriters (teams of 5–25), reducing escalations 25% and shortening time-to-independent decisioning by ~40%.
- Middle-market technical leadership — personally underwrote complex manufacturing, retail, distribution, hospitality, and real-estate accounts and set technical standards for the team.
- Broker development and distribution — established targeted broker plans and technical clinics that increased placement rates and improved program launch outcomes by ~18%.
- Cross-functional product delivery — partnered with Actuarial and Reinsurance on ART/capacity decisions and with Claims/Finance to translate emerging risk trends into revised appetite and product language.
- Governance and playbooks — created underwriting guidelines, authority matrices, and playbooks to ensure consistent decisioning and regulatory compliance across Primary and Excess placements.
- Go-to-market execution — launched broker-targeted appetite plays and proprietary endorsements that reduced exceptions and accelerated bind times.
PROFESSIONAL PHILOSOPHY
I lead E&S underwriting with a single aim: grow profitable portfolios by combining technical underwriting rigor, disciplined governance, and people-first leadership. I underwrite complex, high-severity accounts myself to set the technical standard, partner closely with Actuarial and Reinsurance to align pricing and capacity, and build durable broker and MGA relationships that expand market penetration. I measure success by loss-ratio stewardship, sustainable premium growth, and the development of underwriters who make confident, consistent decisions.
Timeline
E&S Senior Vice President, CUO
CM Vantage
01.2025 - 01.2026
E&S Senior Vice President – Head of Excess Casualty
IFG
01.2024 - 01.2025
Executive Underwriter, National Accounts Practice Group Leader, North American Construction
Allianz
01.2019 - 01.2021
E&S Executive Vice President, Specialty Casualty (GL & Excess)
WKFC
01.2016 - 01.2019
Vice President, Casualty
Ironshore
01.2011 - 01.2016
Assistant Vice President, Excess & Primary Casualty
Navigators
01.2006 - 01.2011
High School Diploma -
Hoffman Estates High School