Senior Management Team

Asurion is led by a highly experienced and proven management team that is successfully building the company through innovative growth strategies and strategic acquisitions. The team is dedicated to meeting commitments and flawlessly executing programs to build revenues and subscriber loyalty for its clients.

Kevin Taweel, Chairman
As Asurion`s Chairman, Kevin guides the company`s growth and success in close cooperation with executive management and the board of directors. He co-founded Asurion in 1994. Prior to launching the company, he was the president of Mill River Corporation, an investment company. He also has experience in Mergers & Acquisitions investment banking with Salomon Brothers. He earned an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and holds a bachelor`s degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University. Kevin is a recent recipient of the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Bret Comolli, Chief Executive Officer
Bret holds responsibility for the management, growth and success of Asurion’s overall business operations. He brings more than twenty years of proven leadership, business management and consulting experience to Asurion’s executive team. Bret’s prior business experience includes CEO, COO and General Manager positions at companies such as Excite@Home, Kendara, Risk Management Solutions and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Especially relevant to Asurion’s focus is Bret’s experience at Risk Management Solutions (RMS). As COO and SVP of Marketing and Sales at RMS, Bret helped develop and deliver a suite of software and consulting services used to assist over 75 insurance companies worldwide to identify and manage underwriting and portfolio risk. He also worked at McKinsey & Company, consulting to Fortune 500 companies on strategic, operational and organizational issues. Bret graduated second in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and earned an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He currently serves on the Board of CTIA and is the only person from the insurance, repair, or logistics industry.

Charles A. (Chuck) Laue, President
Chuck is responsible for the management and oversight of Asurion`s North American operations. Prior to this position, Chuck served as President of lock\line, a leader in specialty consumer protection products, which merged with Asurion in 2006. With nearly 20 years of insurance industry experience, Chuck began his career with Kemper Insurance. He subsequently worked for Lockton Companies, Inc., the nation’s largest independent insurance broker, developing and marketing insurance programs for some of the nation`s largest companies specializing in private equity, manufacturing and hotel programs. Realizing the opportunity for protection products utilized by the wireless industry, Chuck founded and served as President of lock\line, a startup within Lockton Companies, Inc. He grew the company into a leading provider of protection programs for wireless and other consumer services companies. He continued to serve as President through its acquisition by DST Systems, Inc. Chuck received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Eastern Illinois University. He is active in many charities including No More Homeless Pets Kansas City and The Nature Conservancy of Kansas.

Andrew Cole, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
With over 15 years of experience, Andrew is responsible for the development and execution of Asurion’s Marketing and Strategic Planning activities. As a former senior executive with leading global consulting organizations, he has partnered with industry leaders such as Apple, Google, Verizon, AT&T, SK Telecom, Orange, GM/Onstar and Sprint Nextel among others. Among other appointments, Andrew has served on the Board of Directors for Geoworks and the Board of Advisors for NTT DoCoMo. Andrew most recently served as President of CSMG ADVENTIS, a leading provider of strategy consulting services focused on the communications, computing, media and entertainment industries. In addition, Andrew served as Communications Practice Leader for the global management consulting firm A. T. Kearney. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Bristol (UK) and earned a Masters in Management Studies from the University of Oxford, School of Business Administration (UK).

Chris Corrado, Senior Vice President, Technology Solutions, Governance and Asurion Mobile Applications
As Senior Vice President, Chris oversees Asurion’s expanding information technology, project management areas and Asurion Mobile Applications. Most recently, he was the Chief Technology Officer at eBay overseeing site operations, information technology, and security. Prior to eBay, Chris was with AT&T Wireless, where he was Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President. While at AT&T Wireless, he oversaw the alignment of the company’s technical infrastructure with its business strategy. Prior to joining AT&T Wireless, Corrado was the head of the Security Solutions Practice at Wipro Technologies. In addition, he held CIO and CTO positions domestically and abroad at three marquee investment banks; Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley. All of these firms set the standard for outstanding use of technology in the financial services industry. Chris also helped Merrill Lynch manage through the 9/11 tragedy, restoring their capital markets businesses. Chris started his career as a programmer and project manager at IBM.

Jim Flautt, Senior Vice President, Technology and Logistics Center
Jim is responsible for leading the operations of Asurion’s Technology and Logistic Center. The industry-leading center includes Asurion’s distribution, logistics and repair operations. Prior to this, Jim led the program management teams for Asurion’s Handset Insurance (HI), Warranty Management (WM), Roadside Assistance (RA) and optimization of the company’s Reverse Logistics and Repair capabilities. He joined Asurion from DigitalThink, a Silicon Valley technology company where he held business development, business strategy and product management responsibilities, most recently as Vice President of Marketing. In addition, Jim has served as a strategy and management consultant for a wide range of technology and industrial companies with McKinsey and Co. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the United States Naval Academy, as well as Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Philosophy from Cambridge University and an MBA from Stanford University. He served five years in the US Navy as a Nuclear Submarine Officer.

Sean McKinless, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Management
With more than 20 years of experience in strategic planning and procurement, manufacturing, inventory management and logistics, Sean is responsible for leading Asurion’s Technology and Logistics Center. Most recently, he was Group Vice President: Strategic Procurement/Consumer Demand Chain for Albertson`s, a national grocery chain.  Sean was instrumental in centralizing all procurement, processes, and tools that generated significant savings. Prior to his work for Albertson`s, Sean held key leadership positions with Dell and Mercedes-Benz. While with Dell for over six years, Sean led the enhancement of the organization’s global supply chain process. This included demand forecasting, procurement and management of 300 suppliers and the support of 5 global manufacturing facilities. In addition, he developed strategies and tools, which optimized inventory levels to record lows for the company and the industry. A U.S. Navy Veteran, Sean has an MBA from the University of Baltimore and a BA from the University of Maryland.

Colleen Mullens, Senior Vice President, Customer Care
Colleen oversees the operations for Asurion’s seven North American customer care centers. With over twenty-eight years of experience in global telecommunications, with leadership roles in customer care, sales, and manufacturing, she most recently served as President, WorldWide Customer Service, for AT&T. Recognized as one of the nation’s top customer care leaders, she has led both global and domestic business operations and has achieved success in managing many start-ups and business transformation strategies. The cornerstone in all these achievements was establishing an outstanding track record of enhancing the end-to-end customer experience by focusing on development of high performance teams, commitment to employee satisfaction, and teamwork. Colleen holds an undergraduate degree from Emory University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

John Rakow, General Counsel
As General Counsel John provides leadership over all aspects of the Company’s legal affairs, working closely with senior management to bring a legal perspective to the development and execution all aspects of the Company’s operations. He has twenty-two years of legal and management experience having served in legal positions in companies, city and federal government and private practice. Prior to joining Asurion, Mr. Rakow was a Vice President in the legal department at URS Corporation, a global engineering and consulting firm operating in 20 countries with over 28,000 employees, where he was responsible for advising management on litigation, M&A, contracting, employment and political and lobbying activities. Mr. Rakow began his career with the Department of the Navy, Office of the General Counsel, and subsequently joined Pettit & Martin in San Francisco as a member of the government contracts litigation group.

Gerald Risk, Chief Financial Officer
In his role as Chief Financial Officer, Gerald has broad responsibility for all aspects of Asurion`s financial strategy and operations. Gerald is also involved in the Company’s international growth strategy and the Company`s corporate development efforts. Prior to joining Asurion in 1999, Gerald advised companies in a number of industries on a wide variety of financial and strategic matters as an investment banker with Goldman, Sachs & Co. in San Francisco, Hong Kong and New York. Gerald has also worked for Hambrecht and Quist, LLC, and Toronto Dominion Capital. He holds an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and a bachelor`s degree in commerce with honors from Queen’s University.

Rodney Schlosser, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships
Rodney leads Asurion’s team charged with developing new and growing client relationships. His primary responsibilities include business development and strategic partnerships. Prior to joining Asurion, Rodney was Director of Marketing and Vice President/Sales for Southwestern Bell Wireless. He has been a panelist at numerous wireless industry seminars and has spent his entire career marketing subscription-oriented products, including work at Time Warner and The Disney Channel. Rodney is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

Doug Tudor, President, Warranty Corporation of America (WaCA)
Doug is responsible for the management and success of WaCA, the Asurion subsidiary that provides service contract solutions to retailing, telecommunications and manufacturing partners. He oversees WaCA`s strategy and works closely with the executive team to drive the company’s success. Doug joined Asurion to oversee the company`s mergers and acquisition function as Vice President, Corporate Development in 2002. He was integrally involved with Asurion`s merger with lock/line and its acquisition of WaCA and Lumitrend. Prior to joining Asurion, Doug spent six years managing Presidio Partners where he invested in, acquired and managed middle-market businesses in various industries. During this time, he was President of Clear Creek Environmental, LLC. Previously, he was in sales, marketing, business development and corporate development at Time Warner and other media companies. Doug graduated from Brown University and Stanford`s Graduate School of Business.

Vijay Velamoor, Senior Vice President of Human Resources
Vijay Velamoor serves as Senior Vice President of Human Resources. He is responsible for the formulation and implementation of Human Capital strategies and programs and positioning the people resources of Asurion as a competitive advantage. The Human Capital strategies and initiatives encompass all aspects of the Employee Life Cycle - talent acquisition, development, reward, retention and the engendering of Asurion`s core values in the organization. With more than 25 years of experience both in the US and internationally, at companies such as AT&T Wireless, Nextel, Airtouch/Vodafone, Harrah`s, and Xerox, Vijay has a proven track record in building world class HR organizations and practices. Vijay has a Master`s degree in Human Resources from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay, India.