The leaders behind Pinnacol

O’Donnell also served in leadership positions at GMAC, the Walt Disney Company and Goldman Sachs, and he began his career as an attack helicopter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps. He earned an MBA with high honors from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the U.S. Naval Academy.
  
Recently, O’Donnell served as a board member of the United Service Organization (USO) of Illinois and established a military and veterans program at his prior company that led to the hiring and support of hundreds of veterans. He is the proud father of two children, loves outdoor activities, sports and travel, and is excited to be a part of Pinnacol’s caring culture.

Before joining Pinnacol, Jennifer served as the director of investments for CommonSpirit Health where she assisted in the management of approximately $50 billion in operating, pension, insurance, defined contribution, and foundation assets. 

Jennifer also led the investment team at Catholic Health Initiatives for 22 years, managing the centralized investment pools for operating, pension, insurance, and defined contribution plans with aggregate assets of approximately $17 billion. 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in information management with an emphasis in finance from the University of North Dakota and a master’s degree in finance from the University of Colorado. Jennifer earned her Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2001 and is a Certified Cash Manager. She serves on the board and as the Chair of the Investment Committee for the Catholic Foundation of Northern Colorado. Jennifer has also served on numerous private equity and real estate advisory boards along with chairing the investment committee for a university foundation.

Schmitz has a strong track record of creating data-driven, digitally focused marketing programs that elevate brands and drive growth. Prior to joining Pinnacol, she served as the head of brand and digital at Transamerica where she led a comprehensive rebranding process and was responsible for establishing and overseeing multiple digital platforms. Before that, she provided leadership as the vice president of digital and content at Cactus, a full-service advertising agency.

Schmitz holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She lives in Denver with her husband and three children.

Her accomplishments include developing a four-year plan to ensure Pinnacol's profitability, working with Standard & Poor's to secure a strong financial rating for Pinnacol, and securing a $100 million surplus note to address 2015 financial reporting rule changes that impact all member companies of government pension plans. The Denver Business Journal named Kranz a Top Financial Executive in 2017.

Prior to joining Pinnacol, Kranz worked for M.D.C. Holdings as a director of finance and was a vice president of RiskCap (now a part of Beecher Carlson), where she oversaw the finance and accounting operations for 15 captive insurance companies. Kranz also spent four years with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Chicago as a senior associate. Kranz holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in business administration from Regis University. She is a 2014 graduate of the Denver Metro Chamber's Leadership Denver program and serves on the board of directors of the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts. In her free time, Kranz enjoys watching sports, travelling and spending time with her son.

O’Rourke, who began her career in the insurance industry as a commercial lines producer working with top national and regional brokers, has more than 20 years of experience in the areas of national program development and product management, new business acquisition and retention, and risk evaluation and book profitability. She has been recognized for her ability to build strong strategic partnerships and for her knowledge of agency and carrier operations. At Pinnacol, O’Rourke has led high-performance teams, first as a business director then as the associate vice president of underwriting. She was also instrumental in leading Pinnacol’s efforts to improve the digital experience for agents, including enhancements to the Agent Portal, straight-through processing and the Agent Quote system.

A Certified Insurance Counselor and licensed property and casualty agent, O’Rourke earned her bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Colorado. She is married and loves being a grandma. In her free time, she enjoys golfing and spending time with family and friends.

As the associate vice president of customer experience, he led six business teams and the Customer Experience and Spanish Services teams. He oversaw the transformation of the digital experience for policyholders and the creation of a comprehensive voice of the customer program that ensures Pinnacol is focused on delivering improvement that is based directly on input from our key stakeholders. For the past several years, he has led the financial planning process for the organization.

Douglass joined Pinnacol in 2008 as a product manager, was promoted to business director in 2011 and to associate vice president of customer experience in 2014 prior to this most recent role in 2018.

Prior to joining Pinnacol, he spent time at Accenture Consulting and Corporate Express. A Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), he holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Wyoming.

Douglass is married with twins, a daughter and a son. He spends his free time coaching soccer, playing golf and loves taking on home improvement projects.

Vaughn joined Pinnacol in 2009. Previously she was a consultant with Oracle and spent several years as an Oracle specialist at Pitney Bowes.
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Vaughn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Pepperdine University. She enjoys volunteering with nonprofits, including Habitat for Humanity, Food Bank of the Rockies and the local 9Health Fair.

His legal services responsibilities include overseeing litigation, commercial transactions, regulatory affairs and federal legislative activities, and his corporate services responsibilities include overseeing records, mail and print. Leve also directs Pinnacol's ethics officers and the crisis management team.

Leve is an accomplished executive and legal professional with 30 years of experience. Prior to joining Pinnacol, he was general counsel for the State of Tennessee's Division of Health Care Finance and Administration. Before that, Leve was chief legal officer and corporate secretary for Sitel Worldwide, a leading global process outsourcing provider with 57,000 employees and locations in 25 countries. He presently serves as a board member of Cake Insure Inc. and the Colorado Civil Justice League, and previously served on the Bonfils Blood Center Board of Trustees and Tennessee's Williamson County Board of Education.

Leve, the recipient of LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell’s absolute highest attorney rating of AV Preeminent, has both a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from the University of Southern California.

He has also served in senior leadership roles in a number of global industries ranging from Pepsi Cola to AutoNation to Dell, Inc., where he developed strategies and programs to enhance company culture and drive employee engagement, development and business outcomes. Johnson oversees Pinnacol’s Human Resources, Learning & Organizational Development, Employee Communications and Change Management areas and plays a leadership role in the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Prior to joining Pinnacol, Wes led Xcel Energy-Colorado's state public policy and external advocacy efforts. He played an instrumental role in the development and implementation of numerous public advocacy campaigns, setting the stage for transformative dialogue resulting in the advancement of clean energy, new technologies and economic development opportunities throughout Colorado.

Wes volunteers his time serving non-profit organizations promoting entrepreneurship, workforce and community development, youth mentorship, and public education. In addition to numerous committees and advisory councils, he serves on the Board of Directors for the Colorado Enterprise Fund and the Five Star Education Foundation and serves on the Board of Advisors for Colorado Succeeds.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration, both from the University of Colorado. Wes and his family spend much of their free time enjoying the outdoors and the great state of Colorado.