Office of Risk Management and Insurance Research










Stephen D'Arcy
Professor of Finance, Emeritus
PhD and MS, University of Illinois, finance
BA, Harvard College, applied mathematics

Stephen D'Arcy is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, past-president of the American Risk and Insurance Association, and past-president and member of the Board of Directors of the Casualty Actuarial Society. The author of scores of articles and book chapters on finance, actuarial, and insurance issues, D'Arcy has won several awards for best paper in a journal or at a conference. His research interests include dynamic financial analysis, financial pricing models for property-liability insurers, catastrophe insurance futures, financial risk management, pension funding and regulation.

D'Arcy has won college, campus, and national teaching awards and was named a University Scholar in 1994. He has provided services to the Departments of Insurance in Illinois and in North Carolina and worked with actuarial consulting and insurance companies. Prior to his academic career, he worked as an actuarial student at Aetna Insurance Company and as actuary at CUMIS Insurance Society. He also served on the Governor's Task Force on Medical Malpractice in Illinois.

Jeffrey Brown
William G. Karnes Professor of Finance
Director of the Center for Business & Public Policy
PhD, Massachustts Institute of Technology, economics
MPP, Harvard University, public policy
BA, Miami University, economcs and political science

Jeffrey Brown joined the University of Illinois faculty from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government where he was an assistant professor of public policy. During 2001-2002, he served as Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers where he focused primarily on Social Security, pension reform, and terrorism risk insurance. He also served on the staff of the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security and has been a consultant to the World Bank, the Executive Office of the President, and several private firms. He is a Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Associate of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, and a member of the American Economic Association, the American Risk and Insurance Association, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and the Risk Theory Society. More recently, Professor Brown was appointed by former President Bush as a member of a blue ribbon committee charged with the responsibility of how to change the Social Security System to head off the looming Social Security crisis.

Brown has published extensively on public and private insurance markets and is co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance. He is co-author of the book The Role of Annuities in Financing Retirement from MIT Press.

David Sinow
Clinical Professor of Finance
PhD, University of Illinois, international relations and law
JD, University of Illinois
MA, University of Illinois, political science
BA, University of Illinois, political science

David Sinow is the Executive Director of the Office of Risk Management and Insurance Research. As a Clinical Professor of Finance at the University of Illinois, Professor Sinow has taught undergraduate and MBA students since 1990. A recipient of numerous teaching awards, he joined the faculty as a full-time Clinical Professor in 2001. He teaches courses on basic insurance, wealth management, employee benefits, real estate, and financial markets. Since joining the faculty, he has been annually recognized as one of the outstanding undergraduate teachers in the College of Business. His past research focused on developing computer technologies to help the professional money manager to outperform the S&P 500 Index. Professor Sinow's other major area of interest is the study of the burgeoning insurance industry in China. For the past twenty years, Professor Sinow has appeared monthly on Public Radio to answer questions from the listening audience on wealth management, insurance, and related topics.

A licensed attorney, Sinow was the co-founder and CEO Emeritus of Strategic Capital Bancorp. He has held numerous directorships on bank boards and charitable foundations.

Rick Gorvett
Associate Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Actuarial Science Program
PhD, University of Illinois, finance
MBA, University of Chicago, finance, statistics and econometrics
BS, University of Illinois (Chicago), mathematics

Rick Gorvett is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and an Associate in Risk Management. He also has the Financial Risk Manager designation. He has taught risk management, actuarial science, finance, and insurance at the University of Illinois and at The College of Insurance in New York. He has published a number of articles in various professional journals and has won several best-paper awards. His research interests include dynamic financial analysis, enterprise risk management, financial risk management, and the application of chaos and complexity theory to insurance and risk management issues.

In addition to his academic background, Gorvett also has significant corporate and consulting experience in risk management and insurance. More recently, he was Senior Vice President and Director of Internal Audit & Risk Management at Zurich North America. He has provided services to and advised state and federal government personnel on several issues, including reserve adequacy and terrorism risk insurance mechanisms. Currently, Professor Gorvett is the Director of the Actuarial Science Program at the University of Illinois.

Mark Vonnahme
Distinguished Visiting Clinical Professor of Finance
MS, University of Illinois, finance
BA, University of Illinois, finance

Mark Vonnahme joined the UIUC faculty as a Visiting Lecturer in Finance in the Spring of 2004, teaching property liability insurance to both undergraduates and graduate students. More recently, he has developed course offerings for graduate and executive MBA students in Risk Management, Enterprise Risk Management, Insurance for Business Executives, and Corporate Governance and Leadership.

Vonnahme has spent over thirty-five years in the property casualty and surety industries retiring in September 2003, as the President and CEO of CNA Surety, the largest publicly traded surety organization in the United States. As a leader in the surety industry, he has been called upon frequently to speak on issues related to mergers and acquisition as well underwriting, marketing and reinsurance issues related to the business. Currently he is Senior Vice-President of Arch Insurance Group.

Vonnahme is a CPA, member of the Illinois CPA Society, and Past Chair of the Society's Construction Accounting Committee. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of the Surety Association of America. Current research interest focuses on ERM best practices in global companies.

Don Davis
Adjunct Lecturer
MBA, University of Illinois
BA, Appalachian State University

Don Davis joined the University of Illinois in 2007 as an Adjunct Lecturer in Finance. He teaches insurance and enterprise risk management courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Prior to joining the faculty, Davis enjoyed a successful fifteen year career with two of the most prominent national insurance companies based in the U.S. His primary responsibilities and areas of expertise included product development, marketing, systems development and implementation. In addition to his current teaching responsibilities, Davis is a prominent consultant, focusing on risk management and insurance issues faced by small and medium size companies. A consummate entrepreneur, Davis also started and developed four successful small business companies, and he currently is a member of several Boards in both the profit and non-profit sectors.

Jeffrey Myers
Adjunct Lecturer
BS, Bradley University, Electric Engineering Technology

Jeffrey Myers joined the University of Illinois faculty as an Adjunct Lecturer in Finance in the Spring of 1994, teaching corporate risk management to both undergraduates and graduate students. He is also a regular participant in the Emmerson Cammack Lecture Series each fall semester. He has over thirty years experience in the risk management field, primarily in the public utility safety and risk management field at Central Illinois Light Company (CILCO) and Ameren. He is also very active in the firefighting field and currently serves as the Deputy Fire Chief of the Chillicothe Fire Department in Illinois, where he is responsible for emergency response operations and disaster planning.

Myers is a member of the Risk and Insurance Management Society and is a past Chair of the Mid-Illinois Chapter. He is also a past member of the Edison Electric Institute and served as Chair of the Risk Management Professional Development Committee. He is a member of the International Fire Chiefs Association and the International Association of Emergency Managers. He has held various directorships on local insurance companies, charitable foundations and community organizations.



Additional Expertise:

College of Business Faculty from Finance, Accountancy, Business Administration, Marketing, and Economics

Actuarial Science Faculty

Faculty from other disciplines including, but not limited to, Engineering, Computer Science, Law, and Medicine