Wisconsin OCI Management & Staff
Sean Dilweg
Governor Jim Doyle appointed Sean Dilweg Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Wisconsin on January 1, 2007. The Office of the Commissioner of Insurance regulates the business of insurance in Wisconsin. The office has a staff of 135 and is responsible for examining industry financial practices and market conduct, licensing agents, reviewing policy forms for compliance with state legislation, investigating consumer complaints and providing consumer information. In addition to its regulatory duties, the agency administers the State Life Insurance Fund, Local Government Property Insurance Fund and the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund.
Prior to this appointment he served as the Executive Assistant to the Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA) from 2003 to 2006. In addition to managing key agency activities, including external communications, tribal negotiations and state finances, he advised the Secretary of the Department of Administration and Governor Jim Doyle on legislative and policy matters. He played a lead role for the administration in the creation of the HIRSP Authority under 2005 Act 74.
Commissioner Dilweg served as Director of Policy Analysis at Essie Consulting Group, a major Madison consulting and lobbying firm, from September 2000 to January 2003. He was a lead Policy Advisor for members of the Joint Committee on Finance during three biennial state budgets and as Committee Clerk for the Senate Committee on Environment and Energy from 1995 to 2000. He also served in several other legislative staff positions beginning in 1991.
Commissioner Dilweg holds a Masters in Public Administration from the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin - Madison (1998) and a B.A. in English from Lawrence University in Appleton (1989).
Kimberly Shaul
Commissioner Sean Dilweg appointed Kimberly Shaul Deputy Commissioner of Insurance for the State of Wisconsin on April 3, 2007. Ms. Shaul, subject to the general direction of the commissioner, supervises the regulatory, public information and administrative functions of the OCI. As Deputy, Ms. Shaul also exercises and performs the functions of the commissioner in the commissioner’s absence. In addition, Ms. Shaul has worked extensively with a number of advisory councils and NAIC committees, including acting as chair of the Annuity Sales Supervision Advisory Committee which is working to set minimum supervisory requirements that annuity writers need to meet in order to sell annuity products in Wisconsin.
Ms. Shaul is an attorney and has extensive legal and business experience in the insurance industry. Most recently, she was Claims Director for American Family Insurance Group in its Life and Health Division. In this position, her responsibilities included general business management, customer service, claims processing, strategic planning, vendor management and contracting, project management, budget and financial analysis and employee development. Ms. Shaul also served in legal and compliance functions at American Family. She started at the company as a litigation attorney for the Property and Casualty Claims Division. She next served as Assistant General Counsel then Life/Health Compliance Director before her work as Claims Director. Prior to her tenure at American Family, Ms. Shaul worked in a private law firm and also for the Wisconsin State Assembly.
Ms. Shaul received both her law degree and B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Eileen Mallow
Ms. Mallow was appointed Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Insurance in November 1999. Her duties at the agency include executive assistance on public policy issues affecting insurance regulation at the state and national level, managing the agency's public information and legislative activities, and supervision of the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund. She also sits on the Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan (HIRSP) Board of Governors, the Group Insurance Board, the Governor's Council on Financial Literacy and the State Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse.
Ms. Mallow has worked in the OCI since 1995. Prior to her current assignment, she was responsible for analyzing public policy and legislative issues for the Commissioner. From 1995 to 1996, she was the director of HIRSP.
Prior to OCI, Ms. Mallow worked as an analyst at the Cost Containment Commission reviewing applications by hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and home health agencies to expand. Ms. Mallow has also been an analyst for nursing home reimbursement policy for the Wisconsin Medical Assistance program and as a Budget Analyst in the state Department of Health and Family Services.
Ms. Mallow has a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Fred Nepple
Mr. Nepple has served as OCI General Counsel since 1984. Mr. Nepple received his B.A. (1971), law (1974) and masters in accounting (1986) degrees from the University of Wisconsin. After a period in private practice he became a staff attorney for the Wisconsin Council on Criminal Justice and then for the Wisconsin state legislature. He served as General Counsel for the Commissioner of Savings and Loan from 1980 to 1984 before joining OCI. Mr. Nepple chairs the NAIC ERISA Working Group and NAIC Regulatory Framework Task Force and received the NAIC Robert Dineen Award in 2003.
Guenther Ruch
Mr. Ruch heads up the Division of Regulation and Enforcement at the OCI and is responsible for the enforcement of the Wisconsin insurance laws. Mr. Ruch has been involved in the regulation of insurance for over 27 years. He has been active in the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a trade association consisting of the country's chief insurance regulatory officials, for over 12 years, heading up the Senior Issues Task Force and actively participating in its insurance market conduct and financial solvency activities.
Prior to his current position, Mr. Ruch served as Senior Vice President at WPS Health Insurance in Madison where he headed up the Actuarial, Underwriting and Marketing Divisions.
Mr. Ruch also served as the director of the OCI's Market Regulation Bureau within the Division of Regulation and Enforcement. The Bureau is responsible for handling consumer complaints, processing insurance policy forms, investigating insurance companies and agents for insurance law violations, and participating in the development of administrative rules. He also served as the Assistant Director of OCI's Financial Analysis and Examinations Bureau within the Division of Regulation and Enforcement. Mr. Ruch also was an accounting manager with a major insurance company based in Madison.
Mr. Ruch has written a number of insurance-related articles including "Medicare Supplement Insurance Standardization - Myth or Miracle" and "The Use of CPA Working Papers in the Financial Examination Process." He has a BBA from the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater and was the 1998 recipient of the NAIC's Robert Dineen Award for outstanding service and contribution to state regulation of insurance.
