As president of the Retail segment, Barrett Brown is responsible for leading Brown & Brown’s 240+ retail offices across the country and in select global markets. He also oversees Brown & Brown University, the company’s technical sales, service and leadership training program that provides vital training for Brown & Brown teammates throughout the organization.

Barrett began his insurance career in the commercial account department at Chubb Group of Insurance Companies in 1996 before transitioning to Brown & Brown in 1999. During his time with the company, he has led various Brown & Brown entities and continues to serve as a Retail regional president with offices in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Wisconsin and Ireland. Barrett’s emphasis has been on revamping marketing infrastructure and improving business development efforts for the Retail segment.

He has a disciplined focus on doing what is best for our customers and is driven to deliver agile solutions and improved customer experiences today and into the future.

Barrett believes that teammates are the lifeblood of our business. He remains true to the Brown & Brown vision of being in the people recruiting and enhancing business, which includes finding talent, mentoring and aligning teammates across the business and giving them the opportunity to grow and succeed within the organization.

Barrett is a graduate of the University of Florida. He resides in Georgia with his wife and two children.

John Esposito is senior vice president and regional president for Brown & Brown’s Retail segment, where he is responsible for all retail operations across 21 offices in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington.

John joined Brown & Brown in January 2002. He has held several leadership roles and exemplifies the company culture centered on meritocracy. John first worked in the home office in Daytona Beach, Florida, as an executive in the marketing department. He obtained his Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation in 2003, was promoted to a sales leadership position with Brown & Brown’s Texas office in 2004, and in 2005 John was promoted to a corporate leadership position in the Tallahassee, Florida, office. He successfully helped position the agency to become one of the premier insurance agencies in Northwest Florida. John continued in that role until 2009 when he moved west to lead Brown & Brown’s Phoenix, Arizona, office. He was promoted to his current position of Retail segment regional president in June of 2016.

Before launching his insurance career, John played baseball for the University of Mississippi, and he was the assistant baseball coach at Jefferson Davis Community College for two years where he helped lead the team to a National Championship in 1998. John earned a degree in international business from Florida State University in 2001.

John has had several mentors throughout his life and is committed to giving back at every turn and leading by example to help others. Whether serving as a mentor or supporting his local community, John is focused on making a positive impact. Throughout his career, John has served on numerous boards, including the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation of Arizona, various agent advisory councils for carriers and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Volusia County.

John enjoys family vacations, golf, boating, attending live sports events and concerts, and his beloved Chicago Cubs. John lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife, Melanie, and their three children.

Rich Knudson is Brown & Brown’s senior vice president and regional president of the Retail segment. In a nearly three-decade career, Rich’s vast experience extends from claims administration and lead producer to office and regional executive management. His industry knowledge and capabilities create impactful insight that he shares with his team to help them generate opportunities, understand local market needs, implement products and solutions and learn how to effectively support each customer.

Rich started his insurance career in 1995 as an independent claims adjuster before making a career change to the agency side of the business as a producer with Poe & Brown in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1998. Rich was asked to lead the Brown & Brown office in Clark, New Jersey. After growing the business by more than 50 percent, Rich was promoted and asked to run one of Brown & Brown’s larger offices in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 2006. After successfully building that business by more than 20 percent and growing his team over nearly 10 years, Rich was promoted to regional vice president in 2011. He was named regional president in 2015 with responsibilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York.

Rich currently serves on the board of the Nerney Leadership Institute at Cabrini University. He previously served on the board for the School of Risk Management at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is a past board member of the Children’s Home of Easton in Pennsylvania.

Rich currently holds property & casualty and health insurance licenses in most of the 50 states and has his CIC designation. He earned a Bachelor of Science in political science from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Rich enjoys golf, skiing, paddleboarding, fishing and spending time with family and friends. He lives in central New Jersey with his wife, Angela, and their son.

Don McGowan is Brown & Brown’s senior vice president (SVP) and regional president of the Retail segment. His customer-centric approach and focus on top and bottom-line growth, along with his intense commitment to building an extremely talented and entrepreneurial team, has helped lead the Northeast region to great success.

Don’s close teammate relationships have created an energy and passion prevalent throughout the region. His commitment to seeking and attracting top talent through the acquisition and individual hiring process has been a major factor in contributing to the region’s growth.

Don joined the team via the acquisition process in 2004 and held positions in sales, office leadership and regional management, before being promoted to his current role of SVP and regional president.

Don graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Don’s personal interests are first and foremost his family, friends and teammates, all of whom he considers to be family. He also enjoys working out, golf, boating, reading and jigsaw puzzles.

Don resides in Laconia, New Hampshire, and Bedford, Massachusetts, with his wife, Kelly. He has one daughter and one son, who is a Brown & Brown producer in the Boston area.

Always pursuing new avenues for business growth, Scott Penny has been an integral part of Brown & Brown’s diversification of capabilities and strategic expansion, now totaling more than 300 locations across the U.S. and select global markets.

As executive vice president and chief acquisitions officer, Scott’s aggressive approach and knowledge of Brown & Brown’s business segments drive the organization’s expansion strategy. Scott has been a part of Brown & Brown for more than 25 years. Before taking on the role of chief acquisitions officer, Scott held a number of other positions, including regional president, regional executive vice president, office leader, producer and marketing representative.

Scott has served in various advisory and board capacities for Central Indiana Insurance Agents, United Way of Volusia County, United Way of Indianapolis and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis. Scott has also served on various regional and national insurance carrier advisory councils, including The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers and Council on Employee Benefits Executives Board. He holds a Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation.

Scott is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where he received a degree in political science. Scott resides in Lake Mary, Florida, with his wife and three children.

As a Senior Vice President, National Employee Benefits and Regional President at Brown & Brown, Paul Rogers is responsible for the overall national strategy, growth and retention of customers for all employee benefits consulting and brokerage services in all market segments at Brown & Brown.  Paul has extensive knowledge and experience in providing customers with innovative solutions by integrating the appropriate insights and technology to help meet their needs. He brings Brown & Brown’s employee benefits resources together, focusing on collaboration, coordinating the employee benefits strategy and helping to reinforce our commitment to all markets in the employee benefits space. He encourages teammates to focus on the people, resources and technology that can assist our customers in developing ways to better serve their businesses and their employees. Paul also oversees a region of Brown &Brown Retail consisting of all lines of business.

Prior to his current role, Paul served as president and COO of Pacific Resources (now part of B&B’s Strategic Non-Medical Solutions). He shared responsibility for the overall growth, operations and P&L of the company with Paul Barden, CEO. He oversaw corporate strategy, product and service development, brand strategy, marketing, public relations, underwriting and other technical resources. Paul worked closely with senior leaders in the insurance carrier and TPA community to help ensure the development of solutions that meet the current and emerging needs of customers.

Before becoming President, Paul served as executive vice president and led new business development at Pacific Resources. He was also responsible for product development, and he provided operational oversight including program/plan analysis, financial and risk analysis, funding alternatives and integration services.

Prior to Pacific Resources, Paul held various management and business development positions at UNUM and Liberty Mutual. A veteran of the financial services industry, Paul worked for State Street Bank & Trust in accounting and management positions. Paul is a frequent guest speaker and presenter at employee benefit forums, carrier conferences and other key industry events. He served as a board advisor for Cogito Corporation and serves on the board of his alma mater, Catholic Memorial High School. Paul holds a bachelor’s in business degree from St. Francis Xavier University.

As a Chief Financial Officer for the nearly $2 billion Retail segment, Joe leads and is responsible for financial operations, teammate development, and strategic planning for over 100 profit centers across the United States.

Joe began his career at Brown & Brown in June 2006 as part of the Internal Audit Financial Team. He has worked in many of the positions in the accounting and finance departments serving as – Acquisition DD Team, Regional Operations Supervisor, Accounting Leader and his current position.

Mary Raveling brings more than 30 years of insurance industry experience to her role as a member of Senior Leadership—Retail segment for Brown & Brown, Inc. Based in Minneapolis, Mary focuses on strategy and innovation to develop new tools to spur business development and profitable growth. She has worked with many large Fortune 500 corporations and mid-size businesses to plan, design, and implement customized risk management products and services throughout her career.

A broker at heart, Mary loves understanding the complexities of customer issues and finding customized solutions. In addition, having been on both sides of insurance acquisitions, Mary brings first-hand experience to the integration process and appreciates the best each has to offer to make us better together.

Before Brown & Brown acquired Hays Companies in 2018, Mary served as Hays Companies’ national president of property and casualty. As president, she oversaw national property and casualty brokerage teams, coordinated marketing and managed insurer relationships for all offices across Hays Companies. Before joining Hays Companies in 1996, she was the marketing manager for Sedgwick. Mary started her insurance career as a teen in her family’s agency.

Mary holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation, serves on several insurer advisory boards and supports several local nonprofit operations. She enjoys gardening, the outdoors and football, and she is a steadfast Minnesota Vikings fan. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and has four sons and one daughter.

As the chief information officer (CIO) for Brown & Brown, Ignus Bezuidenhout cultivates business-aligned teams that deliver innovative solutions across the enterprise. With 30 years of technology solutions leadership experience, he focuses on developing solutions that increase efficiency for teammates and their customers. Ignus and his team apply cutting-edge and forward-looking technology to improve the small details that lead to successful business operations on a large scale.

Ignus began his extensive technology career as a developer in South Africa. He later moved to Chicago to work on Y2K projects, then began to shift his focus to the financial services industry in 1997 and the insurance sector in 2011. Before his current role, Ignus was CTO for Brown & Brown, senior vice president and divisional chief information officer of the BB&T Insurance (now Truist) wholesale and premium finance divisions.

Joining Brown & Brown in February 2020 as an enterprise software architect, Ignus worked diligently until his promotion to chief technology officer in January 2021. With decades of technical experience and a passion for collaborating on solutions, Ignus continues to develop business processes and implement new technology that helps to reduce costs, reduce risk, improve customer satisfaction and allow business growth.

Ignus enjoys spending his time playing golf, mountain biking and participating in triathlons. He lives in Wake Forest, North Carolina, with his three children, and primarily works remotely out of the Brown & Brown Daytona Beach, Florida, campus.