We believe this is the most important page on our website.  It is the experience of our staff that is the key to our ability to help our clients excel beyond the competition.

Richard C. Shoemaker, President & CEO, IR Group Companies

Richard founded the first of the IR Group Companies in 1977.  Prior to that he held several management positions with a national commercial carrier.  For over 25 years he has provided strategic planning advice and research to some of the top performing retail and wholesale brokerages in the U.S.  He developed our "tactical response" divisions  to provide M&A and Human Resource services necessary to supplement our clients' strategic plans. 

Robert C. Kent, President, Kent-Shoemaker & Associates, Sacramento

Prior to joining the IR Group, Mr. Kent was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Acordia, Inc., the nation's fifth largest insurance broker.  During the sale of Acordia to Wells Fargo, Mr. Kent was responsible for the strategic integration of 140 offices into the Wells system.  Prior to Acordia Mr. Kent served in numerous executive positions for national insurance brokerages and multinational insurance carriers.  Mr. Kent is a graduate of St. Edwards University, Austin, TX.  He has served on a number of Boards of Directors of insurance related companies.

While he will offer consulting on a broad range of topics, his emphasis will be on helping financial institutions who want to be in the commercial P&C insurance distribution segment.  

Donald R. Weber, President, Shoemaker-Weber, Pismo Beach

Prior to joining the IR Group, Don was Executive Vice President for the United States operation of what was the seventh largest broker in the world.  He also served on the Board of Directors.  Prior to that, under his stewardship as Chairman & CEO, he grew a small Midwestern brokerage into the 14th largest brokerage in the United States. He has served on the board of The Council of Agents & Brokers.  

Dick Rohde, CIC, Executive Vice President, IRC of South Carolina

Dick has been a President of a national MGA and Managing Principal of a large retail broker.  Prior to joining the IR Group in May 2009, he was President of the Arrowhead Commercial Business Group.  Prior to that, he was Managing Principal with Barney and Barney, LLC.

He has served on the Board of The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, as well as the Board of IBA West.  He holds the CIC designation and has completed the Wharton School Agency Management Program.

He has a track record of cutting edge product development, creating performance incentive structures and is an expert in evaluation technology systems for retail agencies and wholesale brokers. 

David A. Speciale, J.D., Managing Director & National Practice Leader, IR Group of Boston

Prior to merging with the IR Group in 2004, David was President of Career Champions. That company provides executive coaching and had a distinguished executive search practice that is now part of the IR Group.  David was an executive with two of the world's largest insurance companies.  He was a Regional Vice President, based in Japan and responsible for Asian operations.  He then returned to the U.S. with global responsibilities for personal lines P&C and Life operations.   In addition to his consulting activities, he is our national practice leader for insurance carrier operations.  He holds both a B.A. and J.D. degree.   

Bruce Fernandez, Managing Director, IR Group of Florida

Prior to joining the IR Group, Bruce was Managing Member of G2G3, LLC, a marketing and business development consulting firm for financial services organizations.  Bruce's insurance management background is very broad and includes responsibilities with carriers, retail brokers and wholesale brokers.  His expertise includes work with captives, alternative risk funding, the Illinois Insurance Exchange and was a co-founder of the Lionheart Group. He earned a B.A. in Business from Rollins College. 

Suzanne Martin, Vice President - Operations Director

Prior to joining the IR Group in 1980, she had both retail brokerage and insurance carrier experience.  She worked in the corporate offices of a large carrier with positions in systems analysis and also worked in their space planning division.  She has designed our custom databases and manages internal activities insuring total quality management. 

Raymond Benetti, Merger & Acquisition Specialist

Ray has an MBA in taxation from Golden Gate University and a B.A. in Accounting from Sacramento State University.  He is the senior partner in a major accounting firm and is under contract to IRC as part of our M&A team.  

Other Staff & Networking

Our senior executives are backed by talented support staff.

Over time, our consulting division has developed a network of sole practitioners who add highly specialized expertise as needed.

Our executive search division was a Charter Member of the largest network of insurance search firms in the United States.  That affords us broader geographic coverage and spheres of influence.