Our People
Montlake's management has combined industry experience of more than 100 years. They have worked together the last 18 years to perfect their focused approach to workers' compensation insurance for high-risk specialty contractors.
Prior to the formation of Montlake, the principals of the company were the executive management team of Eagle Insurance Group, a company they managed from its inception in 1985 until the company was sold in 1998. Between 1987 and 1997, Eagle, under the direction of Montlake's management, produced a direct loss ratio of approximately 56%, while the industry averaged 86.8% over the same period.
Montlake is the continuation of management's success at Eagle. Virtually all of the Company's underwriting, claims, and information technology professionals were trained and developed at Eagle and accompanied management to Montlake.
Steve Clark has specialized in workers' compensation insurance since 1976. Mr. Clark served as a Regional Vice President for Industrial Indemnity from 1978 to 1985 with product line underwriting responsiblity for workers' compensation in several states and for USL&H insurance company wide. Steve was Executive Vice President and Underwriting Officer of Eagle Insurance Group when it was founded in 1985 and served as President of Eagle from 1994 until the company was sold in late 1998. Mr. Clark and Mr. Snyder founded Montlake in January 1999 with one objective; to build the finest workers' compensation specialty company in the country.
John Snyder served as Eagle's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer prior to the formation of Montlake. John joined Eagle in 1986 as Senior Vice President of Finance and served in that role until his promotion to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in February of 1997. Prior to joining Eagle, John was Assistant Controller for North Pacific/Oregon Automobile Insurance Company.
Carrie has twenty years of experience in the insurance industry. Prior to joining Montlake, she served as Director of End User Computing for Eagle Insurance. Her responsibilities included contract administration on software acquisition and development projects as well as the configuration and maintenance of some two hundred PC's throughout the company. Her excellent customer service skills and intimate knowledge of the insurance industry as well as her technical expertise make her one of the most valued and indispensable members of the management team. At Montlake she has complete responsibility for network, intranet, internet, applications, and data management.
LaMonte has 16 years of experience in the insurance industy; with 9 years as a Senior Claims Examiner or Supervisor. Prior to joining Montlake, he served as a Longshore Product Manager for a large managed care company.
Ed has ten years of workers compensation experience. Prior to working for LOCA he worked for a top rated workers’ compensation attorney as a paralegal specializing in workers’ compensation. Ed also worked for another insurer working Federal and State workers’ compensation claims, general liability claims, auto liability claims and maritime claims.