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Global Client Office

 

 

Through our Global Client Office (GCO), RGA combines established expertise with a client-centric approach to deliver innovative solutions to your competitive challenges. 

RGA established its Global Client Office (GCO) in 2021 to strengthen and align the company's strategic client-centered approach and enable efficient service delivery and holistic solutions. Olav Cuiper, Executive Vice President and Chief Client Officer, leads the office. The GCO consists of Global Marketing, Client Engagement, Innovation and Partnerships (RGAX), Global Accounts, and Health. Together, the team works closely with our insurance partners to identify needs across an increasingly digitalized customer journey and create innovative new business models.

  • Innovation and Partnerships - The traditional linear value chain is transitioning to a more complex web of insurance ecosystems. Through our interconnected relationships with insurers, insurtechs, and other providers and RGAX, our innovation accelerator, we empower insurers to better navigate a rapidly evolving competitive environment. Learn more about our future-focused initiatives at RGAX >
  • Product Creation - We build on established capabilities to explore untapped opportunities, combining expertise in risk management and financial solutions to develop new products, novel propositions, and more effective ways of doing business. Learn more about the successful products we have brought to market. Explore our product development capabilities >
  • Global Reach, Local Insight – By applying insights learned in one market, RGA’s Global Accounts team helps develop scalable solutions in other markets. Learn more about how excellence in product asset management can create tangible value and commercial success. Visit Global Accounts >

By working to ensure the success of our clients, RGA also helps more people benefit from the security insurance provides and advances our purpose of making financial protection accessible to all.

Meet Our Leadership Team

Olav Cuiper2

Olav Cuiper

Executive Vice President,
Chief Client Officer
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Olav Cuiper2

Olav Cuiper

Executive Vice President,
Chief Client Officer
Send email >

Executive Vice President, Chief Client Officer

Olav Cuiper is Executive Vice President and Global Chief Client Officer of Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated. In 2021, RGA established its Global Client Office (GCO) in order to strengthen and align the company’s strategic client-centered approach and enable efficient service delivery and holistic solutions. Olav leads the GCO, which consists of Global Marketing, Client Engagement, Innovation and Partnerships (RGAX), Global Accounts, and Health. He is also a member of RGA’s Executive Committee.

Olav Cuiper is Executive Vice President and Global Chief Client Officer of Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated. In 2021, RGA established its Global Client Office (GCO) in order to strengthen and align the company’s strategic client-centered approach and enable efficient service delivery and holistic solutions. Olav leads the GCO, which consists of Global Marketing, Client Engagement, Innovation and Partnerships (RGAX), Global Accounts, and Health. He is also a member of RGA’s Executive Committee.
Dennis Barnes

Dennis Barnes, Jr.

Chief Marketing Officer
RGA

Chief Executive Officer
RGAX

 

Dennis Barnes

Dennis Barnes, Jr.

Chief Marketing Officer
RGA

Chief Executive Officer
RGAX

 

Chief Marketing Officer, RGA and CEO, RGAX

Dennis Barnes, Jr. is Chief Marketing Officer for RGA and Chief Executive Officer of RGAX, RGA's transformation engine.

Dennis came to RGA with more than two decades of experience as an entrepreneur and innovator in insurance direct marketing. His company, Marketing Direct, Inc. (MDI), an integrated healthcare marketing services company which he founded in 1997, was acquired in 2010 by WPP, the world’s largest provider of marketing and communication services. There, he was President of Wunderman St. Louis and Chief Client Officer of Wunderman Health, a digital agency for life insurance, pharmaceutical, medical devices and other health and wellness verticals. 

He earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from the University of Missouri – Columbia, and holds a certificate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Birthing of Giants program, which focuses on entrepreneurial development. Dennis’ awards include international recognition from Ernst & Young as the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year and local recognition from the St. Louis Chapter of the Direct Marketing Association as Direct Marketer of the Year.
 
Dennis currently serves as Board President for the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA). Previously he has served on the University of Missouri Strategic Development Board, as President of the St. Louis Chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO) and as a member of the Board of Directors of The Magic House, St. Louis’ children’s museum. An author and speaker, Dennis has been featured in Inc. Magazine, St. Louis Commerce Magazine, Fast Forward, St. Louis Business Journal and St. Louis Small Business Monthly.
Nitsou_Paul

Paul Nitsou

FSA, CFA
Executive Vice President,
Global Client Support & Initiatives
RGA
 
Nitsou_Paul

Paul Nitsou

FSA, CFA
Executive Vice President,
Global Client Support & Initiatives
RGA
 

Executive Vice President, Global Client Support & Initiatives, RGA

As Executive Vice President, Global Client Support & Initiatives, Paul Nitsou primarily focuses on overseeing business relations with multinational insurance companies and in developing and supporting local teams in implementing chosen value-added services and business initiatives.

He joined RGA in 1996 to assist in the company’s international expansion outside of North America, and was named President of RGA’s International Division in 2006. Paul began his insurance career in 1985 with Manulife Financial, where he held numerous actuarial-related positions in the company’s U.S. division before joining its retrocession division in 1989, ultimately serving as Vice President, Financial Reinsurance. Currently he serves as chair of ACLI’s International Markets and Trade Committee and is a Member of the Advisory Board of the International Insurance Society.

Paul received a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree from the University of Toronto. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), and a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) Charterholder.
laughlin2

​John P. Laughlin

Executive Vice President  

Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated


 
laughlin2

​John P. Laughlin

Executive Vice President  

Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated


 

Executive Vice President

John P. Laughlin, Executive Vice President, Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (RGA), is Senior Adviser to RGA and a member of RGA’s Executive Committee.

Prior to his current role, John served for more than a decade as Executive Vice President of RGA’s Global Financial Solutions unit. Under his leadership, GFS grew into RGA’s global asset-intensive, capital-motivated, and bulk longevity reinsurance business. John first came to RGA in 1995 when the company acquired then-employer ITT Financial Corporation, a major provider of financial reinsurance in the U.S.

John received his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in business administration and accounting from the University of Missouri, Columbia and his Master of Science (M.S.) degree in finance from St. Louis University.
Arjan van der Velden

Arjan van der Velden

Vice President, Chief of Staff
Global Client Office
EMEA Marketing Business Partner
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Arjan van der Velden

Arjan van der Velden

Vice President, Chief of Staff
Global Client Office
EMEA Marketing Business Partner
Send email >

 

Vice President, Chief of Staff, Global Client Office, EMEA Marketing Business Partner

Arjan van der Velden is Vice President, Chief of Staff Global Client Office, and EMEA Marketing Business Partner of Reinsurance Group of America. In 2021, RGA established its Global Client Office (GCO), consisting of Global Marketing, Client Engagement, Innovation and Partnerships (RGAX), Global Accounts, and Health. As Chief of Staff, Arjan works closely with Olav Cuiper, Executive Vice President, Global Chief Client Officer and member of RGA’s Executive Committee, to strengthen and align the company’s strategic client-centered approach and enable efficient service delivery and holistic solutions.

In his second role of EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Marketing Business Partner, Arjan acts as a business partner to foster alignment and drive the execution of regional marketing strategies to deliver modern client-centric marketing propositions by working cross-functionally with product development, business development, innovation, operations, and external partners.

Arjan is based within the RGA office in Amsterdam (the Netherlands).

Prior to his current role, Arjan spent a decade as Chief of Staff EMEA, implementing the company’s diversification strategies and streamlining and optimizing business management processes within the region. Arjan guided the annual regional financial and business development planning, including implementing strategic account plans and thought leadership in CRM management. In addition, he steered large-scale strategic business development projects throughout the EMEA region, especially in the Middle East.

Before joining RGA, Arjan held several senior-level sales and marketing positions within ABN AMRO Retail Banking (formerly known as Fortis Bank), and Ageas (formerly known as Fortis Insurance International). He also worked as self-employed business and marketing consultant for AMVOX Management Consultants, based in the Netherlands. Arjan received a Bachelor’s Degree in commercial economics from the Haarlem Business School in the Netherlands.