Location: 1 Beach Dr SE, Suite 230, St Petersburg, FL 33701
Phone: (727) 526-5707
Toll Free: (800) 692-1211
Gail joined SAN of Florida in January of 2018 in the capacity of Agency Development Field Specialist. She comes to us with over 30 years of insurance experience having worked on the company side with Hartford Insurance and on the Encompass side of Allstate and in several agencies in Orange, Seminole, and Polk counties. Gail was a Sales Consultant for Encompass for over 10 years handling various territories in Florida and ultimately the entire State for auto prior to the company pulling out of the State.
Gail has been a licensed agent since 1988 and has had her C.I.C. designation for 10 years. She graduated from UCF in Orlando with a BS degree in Business-Marketing.
Gail and her husband, Mike, live in Lakeland and also own a home in Micanopy, FL. Mike is a middle school Math teacher in Polk County. Together they enjoy football, music, the beach, listening to audio books and promoting Mike’s magic business. They have three children and four grandchildren.
Gail also volunteers for the Marty Lyons Foundation and is a Guardian ad Litem. In her free time, she enjoys substitute teaching, reading, writing, painting, crafts and spending time with her large family.
Roberto is a native New Yorker living in the Miami area with his wife Magdalena and 3 children since 2001. Prior to entering the insurance industry Roberto served Honorably in the US Navy, and retired after 20 years active duty in 1994. Roberto’s experienced in the insurance industry began with Allstate Insurance Company where Roberto held multiple positions: Captive Agent, Area Manager, Independent Agency Manager serving the Puerto Rico market place, and Regional Sales Manager with Allstate Workplace Division. Since leaving Allstate he has held multiple positions with some of SE Florida Largest Life & Health focused General Agents.
Melanie has been with SAN of Florida since 2015. She supports our members with administrative functions utilizing her experience of over 20 years in Customer Relations and an acute attention to detail. Melanie is focused on collaborating on new business processing for our Agency force. Melanie is always striving to make herself more valuable to our Enterprise through advancing her career in insurance training both within the Industry and within our Enterprise.
Melanie lives in North Florida with her family and their fur babies. Together they enjoy all the outdoor activities the area provides. Jpg also provided in email.
Paul is a native St Petersburger, starting in the insurance industry in 2005 in the Select Business Unit for Comegys Insurance. Paul oversaw a Small Business unit specializing in Contractors, Garages, Retail, and Workers Compensation. With nearly 20 years of experience working directly with Business Owners, Paul understands the needs of Floridians. Paul is able to use that experience and combined with his technical insurance knowledge makes Paul a vital part of the SAN of Florida team. . Outside of the office he loves spending time with wife and son, listening to music, and wondering why cats do the things they do.
Having built and sold Agencies on both the Captive and Independent sides of insurance, Mark brings a wealth of knowledge regarding Agency operations and sales in both the Personal and Commercial space. Additionally, he has done some extensive consulting with Agencies throughout Florida. Activities have included speaking on Sales & Marketing, Attorney CE classes, and Insurance Sales for families and businesses ranging from Personal lines up to NYSE traded firms. Mark is married with 3 daughters and is Blessed to be a lifelong Floridian.
SAN is dedicated to the creation, growth, and retention of the Independent Agency distribution system.
Membership with SAN provides immediate access to over 50 of the top National, Regional, and Florida based insurance companies. We provide top-level commissions, national and local incentives, and profit-sharing without minimums. Agencies associated with SAN are consistently growing their premiums and agency value.
SAN of Florida is the leading alliance of independent insurance agencies in Florida. We are dedicated to the creation, retention, growth and continuing success of the local independent insurance agency.
We offer the independent agent more power in the marketplace, access to major insurance carriers, the ability to capture new markets, receive higher effective rates of commissions, and the opportunity to receive growth and profit sharing while maintaining independence.
SIAA is the nation’s largest alliance of independent insurance agencies, with over 6,750 independent member agencies in 48 states, producing over $7,410,000,000 in premium. SIAA has helped create over 4,158 new independent insurance agencies as a result of its dedication to the creation, retention and growth of the independent insurance agency distribution system.
SIAA’s unique business model provides access to numerous competitive insurance companies, enabling member agencies to become instantly big.
Matt Masiello – Four Pillars from SIAA on Vimeo.
Laura has been with Comegys Insurance Agency since September of 2007. She started in accounting, she was recently promoted to corporate communications. Laura’s contribution to SAN is the SAN of Florida Newsletter. She has been the creative and driving force behind the newsletter since its inception in March 2014. She coordinates every aspect of the newsletter from the layout and editing to print and mailing.
Laura lives in Sunny St. Petersburg with her husband and teenage daughters. She is an avid fisherwoman, she enjoys spending her free time outside with her gorgeous family taking advantage of our beautiful Florida weather.
Janine joined SAN of Florida, February of 2013, prior to that she was Comegys receptionist her first year. Janine enjoyed the customer service interaction and Comegys loyalty, from staff and clients. She came to realize working in the insurance field was a career change that she found rewarding.
Janine obtained her 4-40 license as the next step in her insurance career. As part of her job she handles all San of Florida incoming calls, reports that come from the underwriter companies and serves as a liaison between our Strategic Partner Carriers and SAN agents. Before coming to Comegys she was employed with a non-profit organization for 11 years having responsibilities in Accounting, Membership Management, Database Administrator, Development and Managing Events. Janine is married and spends her time with her family and grandson enjoying our gulf beaches.
Cathy directs the information traffic at SAN of Florida. Cathy handles all incoming endorsement issues and serves as a liaison between our Strategic Partner Carriers and SAN and our Agency Members making sure our Clients are satisfied. Prior to joining SAN, Cathy spent 10 years in Personal Lines Clai assisting processing Medical, Legal, and Vendor billings from Auto Claims. Prior to that Cathy worked in the IT Departments of entities that served both the Federal RTC and Banking. Cathy enjoys her time with wonderful daughters and grandchildren in Pinellas County.
Bob joined SAN of Florida in 2014. After building an Allstate Agency from scratch, Bob was promoted to Sales Management within Allstate. While at Allstate, Bob managed 200 Sales offices in Florida. After being promoted to Home Office to integrate Sales into Allstate’s proprietary technology, Bob also was in Senior Leadership in Denver. Subsequently, Bob Managed and Mentored Independent Agencies as well.
Bob brings a tremendous knowledge to Florida’s Insurance Agencies because of his outstanding insurance reputation. Bob built his own Agency and led a force of Agencies of all types as well. Bob brings a great wealth of knowledge to the Agencies in SAN of Florida having worked in all aspects of insurance. Bob lives in St. Petersburg with this wife and has four sons, three granddaughters, and three grandsons. He says that his favorite hobby is spending time with his family.
Sarah handles the Accounting, Accounts Payables, Commission and Profit Sharing arrangements, and Premium tracking for SAN of Florida. Sarah handles the complexities of dealing with hundreds of combined Agencies, Carriers, and Vendors building long term relationships along the way. Sarah manages the “netweb” process which enables Member Agencies to track Premium and Production for their Agencies.
Dante’ is an accomplished and passionate insurance industry leader who started his career in 1986 with Allstate Insurance Company where he held multiple rolls including: Personal Lines Underwriter, Public Relations Manager, Agent, and Independent Agency Sales Director. Prior to joining the Florida SAN team he was the Florida Assistant Vice President for Nationwide/Allied Insurance. Prior to his career in the insurance industry, Dante’ served eight years in the United States Air Force. Dante’ and his wife Donna live in Fort Myers, where they enjoy family, entertaining and their respective culinary and equestrian hobbies.
Lori, a second generation insurance professional, runs the entire Accounting, IT, and Human Resource Departments for the entire enterprise. She is responsible for all accounting operations, financial reporting, data analysis, payroll, and management for SAN of Florida as well as Comegys Insurance. Lori also runs the Management Information System for these Enterprises and has been in the Insurance Industry since beginning her career. With her extensive financial and managerial experience, Lori provides an integral component to the leadership team. Lori is married and has a beautiful daughter.
After college in Hawaii, Becky entered the Banking business. She left Banking to embark upon a new career in the insurance industry in 1990. During her time in the Insurance business, Becky has worked in every facet of an Independent Insurance Agency’s operation and even worked for three years managing a Nationwide direct agency. Becky’s experience includes extensive experience in all lines of property & casualty and is a Florida Surplus Lines Agent..
Becky Crawford joined Comegys Insurance in 1995 and then became the founding Operations Manager of SAN of Tampa Bay. Since SAN’s inception, Becky’s leadership has helped transform a concept into an Enterprise. Becky has trained over 150 Independent Insurance Agencies representing hundreds more agents. Becky handles facilitating business to our Carriers and helps Agencies transition to experts in their profession through better, operations, and training to help Members prosper…
Becky and her husband have three sons and four grandchildren . She has a second degree black belt in Isshinryu karate and recently became certified as a Guardian Ad Litem for the Second Judicial Circuit for the State of Florida.
Jason has been with SAN since 2005. Jason was recruited by Mark Berset out of the Financial Services Industry in Boston. Prior to entering the Insurance Industry, Jason worked in Institutional Finance working on Business to Business transactions performing Financial Analysis in Boston. Prior to that, Jason received his Business degree from Saint Anselm College in his native New England (playing 2nd Base as well). In 2005 he joined SAN which had 30 members at the time. Jason started recruiting new Agencies to join the SAN Alliance. Jason helped more than double the number of Agencies and triple the amount of Premium in the SAN network. Jason is an avid outdoorsman and also recruits new Members to SAN of Florida.
Mark Berset is the Founder of SAN of Florida and the Regional President of SIAA. Mark leads as CEO of Comegys Insurance, (Top 100 Insurance Agency) as well as SAN of Florida. Mark currently leads an Enterprise in excess of $ 200 million dollars. Other insurance experience includes leadership in 3 publicly held Insurance Carriers based in Florida which are worth well over a Billion dollars in market cap. Mark serves on many Insurance Carrier Councils and Advisory Boards.
Amongst other activities, Mark serves on 2 Bank Boards, is a partner in multiple restaurant franchise , and is the Chairman of an Energy & Environmental firm.
He is the immediate past President of the Bayfront Hospital Foundation in St. Petersburg and continues to serve as a member of the Foundation’s Board. Mr. Berset received a Bachelor in Business Economics from St. Ambrose University and a Masters in Business Management from Georgia State University and currently lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mark is married to Linda Berset, President of Comegys Insurance. Mark also has two children: Derek Berset, Vice President of Comegys Insurance (resides in St Petersburg), and Kristen Berset, (resides in Washington D.C.).
Mark’s passion remains helping Florida’s Independent Agencies prosper.