Robert H. Hilb, Founder and Chairman of the Hilb Group
Mr. Hilb has enjoyed a long and successful career in the insurance brokerage business. Starting in 1946 after his service to our country in World War II, Mr. Hilb joined the Chicago office of W.A. Alexander (now Willis) and went to DePaul University at night.
In 1958, he formed Hilb-Downing, Inc, an independent agency in downtown Chicago. Hilb-Downing was sold to Fred S. James (now Marsh) in 1969 and Mr. Hilb remained as the head of the Chicago office and the Midwest regional director.
In 1979 an opportunity presented itself that changed the landscape of the insurance brokerage industry. Mr. Hilb was hired to run Insurance Management Corporation in Richmond, Va. Two years later, the opportunity to acquire IMC from its parent arrived. In 30 days, Mr. Hilb partnering with Alvin Rogal of IMC Pittsburgh and David Hamilton of IMC Birmingham raised $18 million and formed Hilb, Rogal and Hamilton Company.
For the next 26 years, Mr. Hilb served HRH as it’s President and CEO, Chairman, Chairman Emeritus and was a board member at the closing of the $2.1 billion sale to Willis.
Mr. Hilb is a graduate of DePaul University and lives in Glen Ellyn, Il and Palm Springs California with his wife of 60 years. The Hilb’s have four children and 10 grandchildren.
Robert J. Hilb, Founder and President of the Hilb Group
In recent years, Bob Hilb has served as Chairman and CEO of Dahlgren Investments, a Richmond, Virgina based investment company. Dahlgren currently owns two industrial supply businesses and one sales and marketing consulting business. Allof the businesses acquired by Dahlgren have been in need of turnaround expertise and sales leadership. Both industrial supply businesses have more than doubled in sales and profitability since their acquisitions by Dahlgren.
Prior to starting Dahlgren, Bob Hilb was employed by Hilb, Rogal and Hamilton Company, a Richmond, Virginia based NYSE insurance broker. During a 13 year career at HRH, he was a producer in the local retail office, served as a founder and ultimately CEO of HRH International and concluded his career as a corporate vice president responsible for building affinity sales teams.
Prior to his tenure at HRH, he worked at Lloyd of London and in the wholesale and program segment of the insurance brokerage industry. Bob Hilb is a 1985 graduate of Drake University and lives in Richmond, VA with his wife and three children.
Evan C. Wooton, Founder and Chief Operating Officer
Evan brings the Hilb Group a fresh perspective as an industry outsider with over 20 years of experience and an impressive track record of building businesses.
Most recently, Evan was President and Co-owner of Premier Pet Products, one of the country’s top providers of pet supplies. In ten years at Premier, he grew the business ten-fold by transforming the company’s business strategy, building infrastructure, securing financing, acquiring product lines and businesses, and growing organically. Evan’s accomplishments were recognized by a number of business organizations at the local, state and national levels, including being selected by the U.S. Small Business Administration as the National Small Business Person of the Year in 2003.
Prior to his tenure at Premier, Evan took another start-up called Three Dog Bakery to the national stage. When the company was a one-store gourmet dog bakery in Kansas City, Evan was recruited by a venture capitalist to scale the concept to a national level. He successfully grew the company from $400,000 to over $4 million in three years.
His career started in a management development program at Hallmark Cards. In his eight years there, Evan worked in marketing, strategy, finance, operations, retail, research and sales, all the while building experience and skills to successfully manage businesses.
Evan was born and raised in Kansas City. He graduated from the University of Kansas with highest distinction and departmental honors in the School of Business in 1986. He earned his MBA in Management Administration at Indiana University in 1988. He and his family live in Richmond, Virginia.
John D. Austin, Founder and Chief Financial Officer
John brings over 20 years of finance related experience to the Hilb Group, primarily in the distribution industries.
For the last 14 years, John has served in progressively responsible financial capacities with Performance Food Group Company, a Richmond based publicly traded foodservice distributor. John served as PFG’s Chief Financial Officer for the last 6 years, prior to selling the company to a consortium of private equity sponsors. During his career at PFG, the company grew from approximately $800 million in revenue to more than $6 billion when it was sold, through both a combination of internal growth as well as more than 25 acquisitions of privately-owned businesses. John was integrally involved in all aspects for a majority of those acquisitions, as well as raising the capital necessary to fund the company’s growth. In addition to this M&A experience, John was integrally involved in leading the company through the process of going private and also the divestiture of a significant business segment that created significant shareholder value.
Prior to joining PFG, John spent 4 years as the assistant controller for General Medical Corporation, a Richmond based distributor of medical supplies. John also spent the first 6 years of his career in public accounting, primarily with the Richmond office of Deloitte & Touche.
In addition to his business responsibilities, John serves on the Board of Governors of the Saint Christopher’s School and the Executive Board of the Heart of Virginia Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
John is a graduate of the University of Delaware and lives in Richmond with his wife and two sons.
Jonathan A. Helitzer, Founder and Managing Director – Small Commercial, Personal Lines and Strategic Partnerships
With over 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, Jonathan brings a varied background that includes international sales and underwriting, high-hazard casualty program business creation and implementation, alternative risk, and personal lines operations and management.
As an employee of The Hartford, he worked within the company’s private equity investment and strategic ventures organization for five years and authored several insurance-related patent applications.
Prior to his work with The Hartford, Jonathan ran Alexander & Alexander’s Washington, DC international operations and had co-founded an independent insurance agency in McLean, Virginia. He also served as President of Resources International, Inc. a consortium of product and service providers to the U.S. expatriate community.
He holds an A.B. with Honors from Kenyon College and has completed executive education courses at Babson College, the University of Michigan and Harvard University.
Jonathan resides in Simsbury, CT with his wife Michelle and four children
R. Judson Elliott, Jr., Founder and Managing Director – Employee Benefits
Jud has over 25 years of experience in the employee benefits industry and a broad understanding of the marketplace.
After earning a Bachelors degree and an MBA from the University of Georgia, Jud began his career in the group insurance training program at The Travelers. After graduating at the top of his training class, he began a successful sales career in which he consistently produced top-tier results and progressed to positions of increasing responsibility in sales and sales leadership. He later joined Provident Life & Accident Insurance Co. as manager of the group sales office in Dallas, TX, turning an underperforming office into the number one sales office nationally in 1990.
In 1991, Jud was hired by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia to lead the company’s major accounts business unit and to help the company achieve its strategic goal of significantly increasing market share in the commercial large account segment. Under his leadership, top-line revenue increased from approximately $50 million in 1991 to almost $700 million in 2000. Similar improvement in bottom-line results was also achieved, with the business being transformed from an operating loss position to a significant contributor to the company’s overall operating margins. Jud left the company in 2001 following its acquisition by Wellpoint and relocated to his hometown of Richmond, Virginia.
Jud has since held senior leadership positions with two national brokerage firms, HRH and Marsh. While at HRH, he was able to help drive significant growth and margin improvement in the employee benefits segment by completing the outsourcing of small business servicing to a third-party vendor and by negotiating significant improvements in commission agreements with national and regional carriers.
Jud was then hired by Marsh to run the South region as part of a new senior leadership team for the employee benefits business. He was instrumental in creating a more accountable sales culture within the business by implementing rigorous sales/activity management processes, recruiting proven producers to the firm, improving sales presentation and collateral materials, and implementing a CRM platform.
Jud currently resides in Richmond, Virginia with his wife and two children.