The mission of the Advisory Council is to provide external perspective and review as well as advocacy and support for Partners Insurance. This network of experts give Partners Insurance meaningful help on a regular basis in many different areas, including law, organizational development, technology, policy and outreach. Their abilities, experience and knowledge were selected for they compliment a particular Partners Insurance client or the agency as a whole.
Scott Daniel
Daniel Wealth Management Group
Scott Daniel is president and wealth adviser of Daniel Wealth Management Group Corp. of Little Rock, a financial investment company. He is a member of Lions Clubs International and was a board member and executive finance board member of the Arkansas Museum of Science & History. He was also president of the board of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for six years and is a member of the Little Rock Parks & Recreation Commission. He is a member of the Leadership Greater Little Rock class of 2006-07.
Neil Denman
Denman & Associates
Neil Denman received his Bachelors Degree in Accounting (summa cum laude) from Louisiana Tech University in 1997. Upon graduation he started his accounting career with the Big Five firm of Deloitte and Touche, LLP, and then received his license to practice in 1998. After five years with in the tax compliance department, Neil joined the Rogers Accounting Firm, P.A. and was admitted as a partner in 2002. After managing the day-to-day operations of Rogers, Denman, & Associates, PLLC, for over two years, Neil completed the buyout of his partner in the summer of 2005 forming Denman & Associates, CPA, P.A.
Neil is a member of the American Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Arkansas State Society of Public Accountants, and the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts. He currently serves as Treasurer for Calvary Baptist Church and is President the Westside Referral Chapter of Business Network International.
Jonathan Edelheit
Medical Tourism Association
Jonathan Edelheit is CEO of the Medical Tourism Association and an assistant editor of the Medical Tourism Magazine. With a long history in the US health insurance industry, including running a national healthcare administrator, Mr. Edelheit was the first person in the US to implement medical tourism into health insurance plans. Mr. Edelheit has been mentioned in hundreds of media publications. Mr. Edelheit is also editor of several leading US health insurance magazines and organizes one of the largest US healthcare conferences in the US for employers and health insurance companies, the Employer Healthcare Congress.
Leslie Heizman
Martin-Wilborn Partners
Leslie Heizman is senior vice president and will lead the retail marketing and healthcare practices for Martin-Wilbourn Partners. Leslie has more than 30 years of sales and community relations experience, primarily in the television news business. Her broadcast experience includes work at the three major networks in the Little Rock market - KATV, KARK and KTHV - where she served in sales, news and community relations. She has served as vice president and general sales manager at KTHV in Little Rock and has successfully led sales and marketing efforts for one of the largest marketing and communications firms in the Midwest region.
Leslie has 25+ years of board of directors' service for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas. She has served as a Big Sister in the community-based program at Woodruff Elementary School in Little Rock. She currently serves as a trustee for the Little Rock Preparatory Academy. Past board service includes Goodwill Industries and Television Broadcasters of Arkansas.
Mike Pickens
Mike Pickens Law Firm/Goldwater Taplin Group
Mike served as 2003 NAIC President, Arkansas Insurance Commissioner for three terms and has vast international experience. Mike is licensed to practice law in Arkansas. He serves on many Boards of Directors for insurance companies and is on the Federal Crop Insurance Board. Mike lives and works in Arkansas, but travels regularly around the country.
Pete Proffer
MidWest Risk
Pete has been active in the financial services area for over 30 years. During his career with Alexander & Alexander (now AON), he specialized in alternative funding mechanisms for large commercial accounts. After 6 years with the firm, he was promoted to President of the alternative funding unit based in Michigan. He held this position from 1985 until 1992. In 1992 several subsidiaries combined and he became the EVP over sales and marketing. Seeking a more favorable climate for his family, he moved to Arkansas. Pete was a minority partner in Member Services Inc., a marketing firm doing business primarily with Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. As the COO of MSI, he excelled in the development of new products and services. He facilited the purchase of Whistler Electronics and remains a minority owner of the firm.
Additionally, Pete was instrumental in starting Midwest Risk Management, an insurance brokerage firm in Arkansas with the former risk manager of Wal-Mart. As the CEO of the firm, he specializes in retail accounts for affinity groups and large commercial accounts in Arkansas. In 2004 he created a wholesale facility, Corporate Risk services, Inc., which places specialized funding products for retail agents outside the state of Arkansas. Pete is active in the community through charity events and served on the Bentonville School Foundation Board.
Charles Rateliff
VPA
Charles Rateliff retired in 2005 from Wal-Mart Stores as a Senior Vice President after a twenty-five year career. Sam Walton identified Charles early on as a young man with tremendous potential. As a result, he allowed him to accumulate responsibilities quickly. Charles was hired in 1979 as an Internal Auditor, but within five years was promoted to Treasurer. Over the course of the next twenty years, Charles was asked to either develop or restructure several divisions within Wal-Mart. These experiences required that he develop keen analytical skills as well as specific skill sets particular to each division.
Wal-Mart was not yet a one billion dollar company when Charles joined in 1979. Upon his retirement in 2005 Wal-Mart sales were approaching $350 billion. During his career he held responsibilities for all the Benefit Plans (401k and Profit Sharing), Workers Compensation, General Liability, Property Insurance, the Self-Insured ERISA Health Plan, the Aviation Department (26 Lear jets and 85 pilots), the Travel department (in-house commercial bookings of $40 million annually), Compliance, Food Safety, Risk Management, Domestic and International Security.
The success of Wal-Mart allowed Charles to retire early and pursue his personal interests. He is currently very active in the Bentonville, Arkansas area serving on several charity boards. In addition, he enjoys working on his real estate projects, his consulting business, and other investments.
Tod Yeslow
Mitchell Williams Law Firm
Todd Yeslow provides counsel on all technical legal aspects of employee benefits matters including: plan design (individual and integrated); taxation and ERISA compliance; voluntary correction of fiduciary breaches; self-correction and voluntary correction of design or operational defects; corporate transactions; outsourcing, and insourcing; governmental filings; plan governance; plan committee structure and counseling; Sarbanes-Oxley controls and processes; Code section 409A compliance; and qualified and non-qualified equity-based and executive compensation plans.
Mr. Yeslow also advises clients of diverse industries, size, and business models in process-driven projects such as: Sarbanes-Oxley review and compliance; fiduciary process implementation; HIPAA compliance programs; employee plan compliance diagnostics; and tax-qualification advice, with in-house and consulting experience in global employee transitions and migrations; vendor contract negotiation and drafting; implementation of global stock-based and executive compensation programs, as well as addressing employee benefits issues in merger and acquisition transactions.
For more information about our Advisory Counsel, please contact us!