John Ratelle
John Ratelle started his risk management and insurance career over 25 years ago when he began working as a claims adjuster. The claims process is where many encounter both the benefit and challenges of actual interaction with insurance. This initial experience provided John with invaluable insights into managing risk.
Risk and losses are often the result of a failure in process, planning and people. To address the evolving complexities of managing and mitigating risk, John has been a leader in creatively helping company’s mange risk.
John’s career has been a series of firsts primarily focused on Employee Risk Management (ERM) with the ability to measure outcomes and return on investment.
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Created the first multi-line multi-year single aggregate program for one of the most respected health systems in the United States
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Brought the first incentive based actuarially supported utilization plan to address the challenges of increasing costs of providing health care benefits to employees
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Brought together the most effective strategy for managing employee health risks and proactively engaging behavior modification to reduce risk and improve productivity
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Developed the nations first Outcomes Based Health Promotion plan that incorporated Predictive Disease Management with nearly 100% engagement to manage employee health risk, the key driver of medical services demand
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Delivered the first strategy to engage workers’ compensation risk through the use of Early Intervention and Stay at Work (SAW) programs to drive significant reduction in OSHA recordable events and actual claims costs
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Designed the first captive driven plan to reduce the excessive costs of surety bonds for one of the nation’s largest publicly held curtain wall contractors
John’s experience in the insurance industry has spanned both risk management of a major Minneapolis corporation and experience at one of the largest insurance brokers as well as becoming a Director at another all while helping some of Minnesota’s the largest companies manage risk. John has work with The Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, Valspar, Supervalu, United Health Care, Taylor Corporation, Holiday Companies, Gander Mountain, Apogee Enterprises, Marsden Holding, HealthEast, Oregon Health Sciences University, and many others that view the management of risk as a key strategy for productivity and profitability.
John is a graduate of St. John’s University with a degree in economics and subsequently earned his MBA from University of St. Thomas. John currently serves as the executive director of four private family foundations and is the Assistant Treasurer for the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches. He also volunteered as the President of the Edina Baseball Association while serving for six years and was on the Board of the Edina Education Fund for three years.
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Richard Atherton
Mr. Atherton is President of Atherton Retail Consulting, LLC, a retail advisory and concept development company. Atherton Retail Consulting works with clients in all phases of retail including concept and business development, financing and raising capital, real estate and construction management, lease negotiations and marketing/merchandising.
Mr. Atherton is an investor and on the Board of Directors of Hot Mama Inc., a fast growing 17 store specialty retailer of women’s clothing for upscale moms. He is also an investor and Chairman of the Board for a new start-up in men’s fashion, Hammer Made, a designer line of shirting and accessories that compares in fabrics and quality with the highest end of men’s shirting fashion but at a value based price. Mr. Atherton is also an active member of Twin cities Angels, an angel investing group located in the Twin Cities area. He is on the screening and serves on due-diligence teams evaluating companies for investment.
Prior to consulting and investing Mr. Atherton co-founded and was a Principal and CFO of Chico’s of Minnesota, a franchised operation of Chico’s FAS, a 1000 store, $1.7billion national women’s clothing company . After building out the state of Minnesota to twelve stores doing $18 million in sales, Mr. Atherton, as lead for the owners negotiated a strategic sale in 2007 back to the parent corporation.
Prior to joining Chico’s fulltime as CFO in 2002, Mr. Atherton ran the sales and distribution arm for Steelcase Inc.’s Midwest area, a $130 Million division overseeing a franchised dealership network in the contract furniture industry. Before Mr Atherton held several management positions at Ford Motor Co., most notably as Dealer Development Manager responsible for overseeing the buy-sell and Dealer restructuring process of the franchised auto dealerships in the upper Midwest.
Mr. Atherton brings over 30 years of entrepreneurial and corporate franchise management expertise to the retail and franchise market. He holds a degree in Business Administration from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.