Sr Managing Director, Group Head of Finance (Markel Group)

What part will you play? If you’re looking for a place where you can make a meaningful difference, you’ve found it.

Markel Group, a Fortune 500 company, is a growing family of 24 operating companies. It is supported by over 22,000 associates and generates more than $15 billion in annual revenue, with our insurance operations at the core. Our small holding company team “sits under” and supports these businesses, insuring they focus on serving their customers over the long term. Our mission is to be “the best home for our businesses,” while at the same time living the values that we call the Markel Style. We aspire to build one of the world’s great companies by creating win-win-win outcomes for our customers, associates, and shareholders. Markel Group has an attractive opportunity for a business-friendly, team-first finance leader to serve as Group Head of Finance. Markel Group is a holding company comprised of twenty-four operating companies with more than 22,000 associates and over $15 billion in annual revenues. Our cornerstone business, Markel Insurance, provides specialized insurance products that are not typically available in standard markets across the globe. Earnings from our insurance operations have been reinvested in a diversified portfolio of majority owned non-insurance affiliates that we collectively refer to as Markel Ventures.

Our goal at Markel is to continuously compound capital over a long period of time through empowering our leaders to manage their businesses with a long-term mindset. The team at the holding company supports these businesses so they can best serve their customers through enabling our culture, rooted in the Markel Style, allocating capital efficiently, selecting leaders of our businesses and performing the essential functions of a publicly traded company.

This role will report to the Markel Group and Markel Insurance CFO and oversee the day-to-day operations of the holding company finance function, providing strategic and operational leadership across the holding company accounting, SEC reporting, financial planning & analysis (FP&A), tax and controls workstreams while also engaging in strategic projects with executive leadership.

The Group Head of Finance will also have a unique opportunity to enhance the design of our finance engagement model with our Markel Ventures affiliates to ensure consistent financial accounting, controls and governance are in place while keeping to our philosophies of maintaining a minimalistic approach to the size and scale of our holding company operations and respecting each business’s autonomy.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead Markel Group accounting, consolidation, reporting and technical accounting efforts while understanding the nuances of our holding company structure and desire for balancing quality and consistency in financial reporting with maintaining autonomy within our businesses.   
• Oversee our global tax function partnering with tax leadership on minimizing our tax obligations while ensuring our tax department is connected in with key transactions and initiatives
• Participate in our external reporting efforts, including SEC reporting process and drafting, disclosure controls, and coordination with internal stakeholders, external auditors, and advisors to ensure accurate, timely filings
• Devise the strategy and reporting for Markel Group FP&A – planning, forecasting, performance reporting and management insights; translating results into clear reports and narratives for senior leadership
• Direct reports of this role will include the Chief Accounting officer, Global head of tax, holding company FP&A manager, and head of SOX controls at Markel Ventures.
• Continuously improve finance controls, including SOX/ICFR partnership with control owners at our affiliates, including remediation governance and creating a scalable control design as the portfolio of companies evolves
• Partner with senior leadership on enhancing our long-term engagement model for financial reporting matters with non-insurance affiliates balancing our needs as a public company with our desire to have affiliates operate with a high degree of independence
• Communicate with business leaders across Insurance and non-insurance affiliates to align financial reporting, planning assumptions, and value-creation priorities
• Collaborate with the insurance capital and treasury teams to apply regulated insurance capital rules to our strategies.  Build a working knowledge of regulator and rating agency capital regimes under which we operate.    
• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team; recruit and retain talent aligned with Markel’s values and the needs of a multi-entity, evolving organization
• Drive simplification and modernization of finance processes, systems, and reporting—improving speed, accuracy, quality, and insight while reducing manual effort
• Work on ad-hoc projects as assigned by the CFO or other members of Markel Group senior leadership. 

Success in this role requires demonstrated experience over time in the following competencies.  This role is not expected to have all of these competencies on day one.  We are looking for someone who is willing to take a long-term approach and build skill sets for future succession.  Critical to the role is bringing a positive attitude, a multi-year view on career path, an open mindset and a willingness to learn new skills to round out their current skill set.

• Enterprise finance leadership, including managing across accounting, reporting, FP&A, and controls with clear priorities and accountability. 
• General understanding of SEC reporting and disclosures, tax regulations and accounting and
• Building an effective performance management cadence—metrics, analysis, and narrative—to enable decision making
• Designing and scaling finance controls and governance (including SOX/ICFR), with a practical, risk-based approach
• Partnering with diverse operating companies to create alignment while respecting business autonomy and culture
• Leading process improvement and finance transformation (systems, close, planning, reporting automation)
• Willingness to learn new skills and competencies in areas above where the individual has less experience coming in. 

Required Experience:

• 10+ years of progressive finance experience with significant leadership responsibility within accounting/controllership, external reporting, tax and/or FP&A in a complex, multi-entity environment
• Understanding of U.S. GAAP and SEC reporting requirements; experience leading or overseeing periodic financial statement filings and related disclosure processes
• Ability to build and sustain an effective controls environment, including experience with SOX/ICFR and partnering with internal/external audit
• Proven track record of leading and developing high-performing teams, including hiring, coaching, succession planning, and performance management
• Strong executive presence with excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills
• CPA designation preferred; experience in insurance and/or regulated financial services industries or within a multi-entity holding company structure is a plus

About You:

• Team-first leader who builds trust and alignment across functions and operating companies, with the humility to listen before acting
• Business partner mindset—connects finance to strategy and execution, focused on helping our businesses “win”
• High integrity and sound judgment; committed to strong controls, transparency, and always doing the right thing
• Comfortable with complexity and ambiguity; able to prioritize, simplify, and communicate with clarity in a variety of settings
• Exceptional communicator who can translate technical accounting and performance insights into clear business implications for senior leaders and boards
• Developer of talent—coaches, delegates effectively, and builds a bench for the future

Our culture is defined in the Markel Style:

Markel has a commitment to success. We believe in hard work and a zealous pursuit of excellence while keeping a sense of humor. Our creed is honesty and fairness in all our dealings.

The Markel way is to seek to be a market leader in each of our pursuits. We seek to know our customers' needs and to provide our customers with quality products and service.

Our pledge to our shareholders is that we will build the financial value of our company. We respect our relationship with our suppliers and have a commitment to our communities.

We are encouraged to look for a better way to do things…to challenge management. We have the ability to make decisions or alter a course quickly. The Markel approach is one of spontaneity and flexibility. This requires a respect for authority but a disdain of bureaucracy.

At Markel we hold the individual's right to self-determination in the highest light, providing an atmosphere in which people can reach their personal potential. Being results-oriented, we are willing to put aside individual concerns in the spirit of teamwork to achieve success.

Above all, we enjoy what we are doing. There is excitement at Markel, one that comes from innovating, creating, striving for a better way, sharing success with others…winning.

US Work Authorization

US Work Authorization required. Markel does not provide visa sponsorship for this position, now or in the future.

Pay information:

$300,0000-$375,000 annually with 65% bonus target and LTI awards.