Executive Management

Ms. Nicholas brings more than 30 years experience in the global financial services industry including insurance, reinsurance and capital markets. She was named Chief Executive Officer as well as a member of the Midwest Holding and ALSC Board in November of 2021. She has a commitment to developing strong culture and leadership in organizations, supporting diversity and inclusion to grow management. Ms. Nicholas has leveraged this along with her business and financial acumen to drive strategy and results. Ms. Nicholas previously held the position of CEO and Managing Director for Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia, a publicly listed ASX company in Sydney, Australia. She also held various roles with Genworth Financial, Inc. in investor relations, chief financial officer roles in the mortgage insurance business and controllership. Ms. Nicholas also worked in public accounting, including as a firm director with Deloitte.

Mr. Minnich has over 25 years of experience in insurance, a private investment company, technology, risk-management, and investing. He was named Chief Investment Officer of Midwest Holding in November of 2021 as well as the President and a member of the Board of American Life in June of 2018. Mr. Minnich is a Founder and has been Co-Chief Executive of Vespoint Capital LLC, since 2018. Since July 2010, he has been a managing member of Rendezvous Capital LLC, a New York firm advising insurers on capital and investments. From February 2013 to May 2017, he was Chief Investment Officer of A-Cap, an insurance holding and investment company. Mr. Minnich graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1994 and an MBA in 1995 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr. Somaroo is our Chief Technology Officer and has over 20 years of experience across technology and quantitative finance. Prior to joining Midwest, he was the head of valuations at Barclays Africa where he oversaw valuations for all derivative positions across all African trading desks. Prior to Barclays, Mr. Somaroo was a Director at Merrill Lynch in New York overseeing valuations for the global credit derivative portfolio. Prior to that, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Co and a technology scout at Pfizer’s Discovery Technology Center in Cambridge, MA. Mr. Somaroo received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University (UK) and has held post-doctoral positions at Harvard and M.I.T.

Ms. Havranek is our Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. She has worked for us since 2014. Ms. Havranek has more than 25 years of experience in Corporate Reporting in the life insurance, banking, and consumer packed goods industries. Previously, she served from April 2006 to June 2014 as Manager of Finance at Conagra Brands, a large publicly traded corporation. Ms. Havranek holds a B.S.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Nebraska Omaha and is a Certified Public Accountant.