Rory F. Dougherty, President / Chief Executive Officer - Mr. Dougherty was born and raised in western Pennsylvania where he graduated from LockHavenUniversity with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1976. He then moved to Florida in 1977 and entered the insurance industry at age 22 as an agent with a small life and health agency in Vero Beach, Florida. He subsequently purchased the agency from the original founder, John L. Racine, in 1984 and renamed it, Florida Insurance Services, Inc.
The agency grew rapidly under his leadership marketing life, health and annuity products and received numerous national sales awards from many large insurance companies.
In 1996, Mr. Dougherty launched Senior Life Services, a division of Florida Insurance Services, marketing final expense life insurance and other specialized services to the senior market.
He has had more than 35 years of successful sales and management experience in the insurance industry.
Paul McDonald, Executive Vice President / Sales Director - Mr. McDonald graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree from Kings College, London University, England in 1961. He chose insurance as a new career when he joined Combined Insurance Company of America in 1966 as an agent.
He helped Combined Insurance Company to build their United Kingdom operation under the leadership of W. Clement Stone and was promoted through the ranks from rookie agent to sales manager, sub-regional manager, regional manager and finally Vice President of Sales in 1978, when he controlled a career sales force of 1,000 plus agents. He was later promoted to a Vice President position in the company’s Chicago head office then left the organization in 1985.
He subsequently set up and ran his own life and health agencies in Texas and Florida then accepted a position with Mr. Dougherty and Florida Insurance Services in late 1991. He has been instrumental in helping Florida Insurance Services and now Senior Life Services to grow and expand nationally since that date.
Mr. McDonald has had more than 45 years of successful sales management and sales force development experience in the insurance industry.
Jonathan D. Blackburn, Vice President / Sales Director - Mr. Blackburn graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Appalachian State University of Boone, North Carolina in 1997. He then entered into Cemetery Sales at age 22 as a door-to-door sales agent in Winston-Salem, North Carolina working for Service Corporation International. He quickly became one of the top producers in North Carolina.
He was hired as a Sales Director for Stewart Enterprises in 1999 where he built several sales teams in North Carolina and became the top manager in the state. He was also “Sales Director of the Year” in 2004 and 2006 within in company.
He joined Senior Life Services in early 2007 as a Sales Manager and became the “Best New Agent” in 2007, as well as the top Sales Manager in the same year. He was then promoted to Regional Sales Manager in 2008 and by the end of his stay in North Carolina had the largest most productive region in the organization.
Mr. Blackburn has had more than 15 years of high-level production and sales management experience.
Henry Stewart, Senior Divisional Manager / Managing Partner - Henry Stewart served as Vice President of Next Media Incorporated, a large IT consulting firm, from 1999 to 2004. He helped the company to develop strategic partnerships with major corporations such as IBM and Coca Cola. He next became involved in Investment Realty where he brokered more than $20 million in transactions from 2004 to 2007.
He then worked with the Ammerrit Financial Group where he became a Managing Partner helping them to grow to record $25 million per year in health and life insurance products by 2009. Henry joined Senior Life Services in 2010. He has proved to be a dynamic sales trainer, recruiter and builder. He recently earned Managing Partner when he became our first Senior Divisional Manager leading his division to produce more than $5 million in annual life insurance premium. He has brought many new ideas and concepts and strategic planning essential to our continued growth and expansion.
Mose Wilkerson, National Recruiter / Home Office Sales Manager- Mose Wilkerson joined the U.S. Army at age 21 where he served his country for 10 years in the United States and Germany. He spent the last five years as an Army Recruiter. Mose then worked in the Cemetery/Funeral business for three large corporations; The Loewen Group, Service Corp. International and Stewart Enterprises for the next twenty years. He was very successful in Sales, Recruiting and Sales Management and Executive Sales Management.
Mose joined Senior Life Services as a Sales Manager in Tennessee before being promoted and brought to our Home Office as our National Recruiter. He has had more than twenty five years experience in Sales, Sales Management, Recruiting and Team Building.
Administration
Teresa Colvin, Executive Vice President / Administration - Ms. Colvin, a native Floridian, joined Florida Insurance Services in 1995 as head of administration. She was subsequently promoted to Vice President of Administration in 1996 and again to Executive Vice President of all administrative operations in 2003.
Prior to joining Florida Insurance Services, Ms. Colvin held the position of Business Manager at a large Skilled Care Nursing Facility in Vero Beach, Florida.
Tonya Carlson, Vice President / Administration - Ms. Carlson was born and raised in Vero Beach, Florida where she joined Florida Insurance Services in 1996 in the Commission Accounting Department. She was promoted to Department Head in 1998 to Assistant Vice President of Administration in 2001 and then to Vice President Administration in 2003.
Prior to joining Florida Insurance Services, Ms. Carlson worked with a large title insurance company in West Palm Beach, Florida where she supervised 25 – 30 employees when she was only 23 years of age.