A History of Service
Today’s Oswald Companies represents an evolution of entrepreneurism. The Company began as a partnership between James B. Oswald and Harris Creech. They were two businessmen in Cleveland, with a vision to build a firm based on the principles of professionalism, ethics and superior client service.
Founded in 1893, the original Creech-Oswald Company was located at 2784 Euclid Avenue. In 1910 the company moved to the Hippodrome Building on Euclid Avenue. In 1915, the firm became The James B. Oswald Company, coinciding with Mr. Oswald’s acceptance of all management duties following the resignation of Mr. Creech. Mr. Creech moved on to a distinguished career with The Cleveland Trust Company. In fact, The Cleveland Trust Company owned a large portion of the firm until 1926 when Mr. Oswald became sole owner. Members of the Oswald family held a controlling interest in the Company for many years. In 1934, Mr. Oswald’s eldest son, Robert, joined the firm and following the death of his father, assumed management responsibilities until 1971. Another son, Thomas R. Oswald, joined the firm during World War II and continued until his death in 1957. James R. Pender, grandson of James B. Oswald, joined the firm in 1959 and continues today as the Company’s Chairman of the Board.
In 1967, Mr. Pender was joined by a small group of employees who together purchased the firm from Robert Oswald. Primarily a Property and Casualty insurance agency, the firm then, with fewer than 10 employees, continued to grow. In 1975, John Warfel, a former Aetna underwriter joined Oswald and served as the company’s President from 1980 to 1996. Mr. Pender and Mr. Warfel were both instrumental in seeking opportunities to strengthen the firm’s domestic and international capabilities through a partnership with Assurex (later Assurex Global Services). Assurex is a select group that today is represented by 77 of the largest privately held independent insurance brokerage firms in the world. Mr. Pender served as Chairman of Assurex in 1988.
In order to expand the firm’s services geographically, Mr. Pender, along with Gary V. Trippe, co-founded Oswald Trippe & Company (OTC) in Florida in 1981, as a subsidiary of Oswald Companies. Headquartered in Fort Myers, OTC has grown significantly under Mr. Trippe’s leadership, and currently has regional offices in Naples, Sarasota, Cape Coral and Miami. In January 2002, John Pollock was named as OTC’s President, while Mr. Trippe remains the Chief Executive Officer.
In 1984, Oswald Companies began offering life insurance, group medical coverage, and employee benefit programs to its clients by entering into a joint venture with Marc S. Byrnes, then President of Marc S. Byrnes & Associates Agency Incorporated. Mr. Byrnes built one of the most prestigious life insurance and group benefit practices in the United States. He agreed to merge his practice with Oswald in May 1987 and in less than 10 years built one of the largest life and employee benefit practices in the entire Assurex Global network. Today, fifty-percent of the firm’s revenues are derived from the life insurance and group benefits division. As a result of Mr. Byrnes’ success, he was appointed President in 1996 and later added the responsibilities of Chief Executive Officer in 1998.
To assist in the management of the Company’s growth, the board appointed William J. Leonard as the Chief Financial Officer in 1997; In 1998, he assumed the responsibility of Chief Operating Officer.
Realizing the changes in the marketplace and the need to add services to complement an ever-growing client base, management hired David Kulchar in 1999 to build the Retirement Plan Services operation within a newly created subsidiary, Oswald Financial Inc. (OFI). Mr. Kulchar has expertise in the qualified and non-qualified plans sectors. In addition, the growing demands of many large commercial accounts, law, venture capital, and non-profit firms require management liability assistance. So a new company, Oswald Specialty Risk Services LLC (OSR), was formed as a joint venture with Robert Spofford of Boston, Massachusetts, in 2000. OSR has expertise in Directors and Officers Insurance, Environmental Insurance and other forms of management liability coverages. The two new enterprises, coupled with Oswald Companies existing business, are extremely well prepared and successful as a full service firm providing, risk management, property and casualty insurance, life insurance, employee and executive benefits and retirement planning services to its burgeoning large corporate and middle market client base.
The vision of sustaining Oswald Companies’ growing and dominant market share while simultaneously “caring for its clients’ and employees’ needs, today and tomorrow” mandated that the Company position itself for perpetuation. Accordingly, the Company was restructured into four operating business units in 2002. Robert Klonk, Director of Group Benefits, Dave Kulchar, Director of Retirement Plan Services, David Jacobs and David O’Brien. Co-Directors of Property and Casualty, and Dell Judd, Director of Life Insurance and Executive Benefits are key members of the management team and represent experience from companies including The Principal, Marsh, AIG and Phoenix Home.
In 2004, Oswald Specialty Life was formed as a joint venture with Jeffrey M. Wasserman. Oswald Specialty Life services include annuity advice, long-term care planning, estate and succession planning services.
Continuing to grow, Oswald Companies open our first satellite office in Columbus, Ohio on January 1, 2005. This office allows the Oswald staff to more easily extend our outstanding customer support to central Ohio.
Later that year, Oswald acquired J.A. Ice & Associates and formed Oswald Logistics Insurance. J.A. Ice & Associates was a nationally recognized insurance broker specializing in the placement of property and casualty insurance for messenger and courier companies. Oswald Logistics is currently located in Middleburg Heights, Ohio with a growing staff of over 15 employees.
In 2006, Oswald acquired yet another Midwest market leader, Poyle Associates. This office is located in Birmingham, Michigan and specializes in the placement of personal and commercial real estate insurance.
In October of 2006, Oswald opened its fourth branch office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With the leadership of both Mike Jacobs and John Ratelle, this office will focus on the expansion of business insurance solutions in property & casualty and benefits for manufacturing, retail, healthcare, logistics, and family or closely held businesses.
In January of 2007, Chief Executive Officer Marc Byrnes passed the title of President to David O'Brien, formerly Executive Vice-President. The title of Chief Operating Officer, previously held by Chief Financial Officer Bill Leonard, was acquired by David Jacobs. Currently, Marc Byrnes' retains the title of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Jim Pender is Oswald's honorary chairman.
Over a decade ago Mr. Pender sought to continue his desire to share equity with other present and future employee-owners by establishing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), a spirit of entrepreneurism born by his grandfather, James B. Oswald. Today with over 280 employee-owners, the Company thrives on its spirited history, passion for excellence, integrity, resourcefulness and its ongoing civic and charitable commitment to the communities it serves.