Team

John is the Chief Executive Officer and one of the founding members of Jencap Group. Under his leadership, Jencap has grown from an idea to the fourth largest wholesaler in the country in less than six years. John’s strategic vision for Jencap guides the ongoing management of existing entities, along with all future M&A activity at the firm.

John has more than 35 years of insurance industry experience, the past 30 of which have been focused exclusively on the wholesale distribution space. Prior to Jencap, John was CEO and a founding member of Wholesale Trading Co-Op Insurance (WTCI), which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Jencap. Other roles he has held in the insurance industry include President and CEO of Crump Insurance Services, and President of BISYS Commercial Insurance Services following its acquisition of Tri-City Brokerage where he was also the President.

John is an active supporter of many industry associations and various charities nationwide; including but not limited to the Spencer Educational Foundation, Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation, St. Baldrick’s Day and more.

Mark is the President of Jencap Group. Under his leadership, he works with the Jencap management team to develop strategic plans, drive overall growth initiatives, manage carrier and broker relationships, and work with affiliate company leaders to achieve an effective cross-selling practice.

Most recently, Mark was Chief Operating Officer of Jencap and President of its NIF Group division, a managing general agency and wholesale insurance brokerage where he served for over 30 years.

Mark began his insurance career in 1981 as a Property Facultative Broker at Willcox Baringer Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson and Higgins. Other roles he has held throughout his insurance industry tenure include Property Facultative Underwriter at Kaler Carney and Liffler; Underwriting Manager for Allstate Insurance Company; Assistant Vice President at Delany Management for both facultative and treaty reinsurance, on and off the New York Insurance Exchange; and Assistant Vice President at Danmar Associates.

Mark attended the College of Insurance Work-Study program from 1978-1982.

Peter Byrne is the Chief Information Officer of Jencap.

Peter is an industry-leading expert in technology services and holds several technical certifications. Peter’s matchless operational and integration experience, coupled with his leadership expertise, have uniquely positioned him to drive corporate growth throughout his career in the insurance industry.

Prior to his current role at Jencap, Peter was the CIO at Aran Insurance Services Group and Chief Technology Officer at QBE North America. He is a graduate of Valley Forge Military Academy, Clarkson University and The Chubb Institute.

John LaCava is the Chief Operating Officer of Jencap.

He has been an insurance professional since 1985 and has extensive underwriting, operational and technical experience. His corporate strategic planning and organizational leadership were instrumental in executing several agency acquisitions to grow Jencap Program Administrators product portfolio.

Prior to co-founding Aran Insurance Services Group (now known as Jencap Program Administrators LLC), in 2009, he held various C-level positions, most recently as an executive vice president and director for QBE North America.

John is active in his local community, supporting and coaching various local youth sports teams, and his local charitable activities include raising over $2 million for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s childhood cancer research efforts.

John holds an MBA from Pace University Lubin Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University.

Maria has over 20+ years of experience developing and implementing effective Human Resources strategies. While she started her career in recruiting for Financial Services organizations, she quickly transitioned into HR Partnering roles with Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. After completing the Strategic HR Management Program at Harvard Business School, she progressed to more strategic HR senior leadership roles with WTW, formal Willis Towers Watson, and Markel Corporation. Her most recent role was as SVP of People with NIP Group where she led the Human Resources organization and implemented many innovative HR strategies for the insurance intermediary. Maria earned a BS degree in Human Resources and Finance from Salve Regina University. When not leading people professionally, Maria enjoys spending time with her family, especially sailing and sailboat racing.

Paul started his professional career working in the information technology department for New York University’s school of medicine. In 2006 Paul joined NIF Group, as a marketing associate. In 2014 he was promoted to Director of Media Marketing where he led numerous sales initiatives across the group. In April of 2016 he was named Vice President of Marketing and Sales where he continued to lead marketing initiatives for their national programs and surplus lines divisions. NIF Group was subsequently purchased by Jencap Holdings in December of 2016. Paul was promoted to Managing Director of Sales of Jencap Group in August of 2021.

He currently serves as member of the Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) Long Island chapter planning committee. Paul graduated from Oswego State University in 1998 with a B.A. in Communications and a concentrate in Public Relations.

Matthew began his career at UBS financial services working within their banking products group, specializing in security back lending. After UBS, he attended the University of Rochester Simon School of business where he earned his MBA.

He joined Wholesale Trading Co Op– Insurance Services shortly after to aid in its sale to the Carlyle Group and the creation of Jencap Holdings LLC.

At Jencap Group, Matthew is a member of the Corporate Development team. The team works on sourcing, analyzing and valuing of acquisition targets, as well as managing of the diligence process.

Matthew began his career at Citigroup working within their Financial Institutions Investment Banking Group covering banks and diversified financials.

At Jencap Group, Matthew is a member of the Corporate Development team. The team works on sourcing, analyzing and valuing of acquisition targets, as well as managing of the diligence process.

Matthew holds a B.S. in Management from Boston College.

Denise serves as General Counsel at Jencap.

She oversees legal matters for all of Jencap’s operating companies, including corporate governance, litigation, and M&A. She brings over 20 years of legal experience to her role. Denise began her legal career at Lowenstein Sandler P.C. and was most recently a partner with Saiber LLC before going in-house. Denise has focused her career on corporate counseling, M&A and complex contracts. Denise has broad experience in the structuring and negotiating of mergers and acquisitions, litigation, drafting operating and shareholders agreements, business formation documents, corporate resolutions, and complex contracts. She works closely with business leaders throughout Jencap to identify and mitigate risk, while balancing the business needs of the organization. Denise graduated magna cum laude from Seton Hall University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology. She went on to obtain her Juris Doctor, also magna cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law.