When we founded Benefit Others Foundation, our goal was simple: to do as much good as possible to benefit others.
Why, you might ask? One day, a founder walked into the living room and found his wife silently crying while watching a St. Jude ad. Through her tears, she said, “We have to do more.” Inspired by that moment, he called a few friends, and together, Benefit Others Foundation was born.
Our mission is twofold: to provide direct support to families facing hardship and to make meaningful contributions to the nonprofit organizations that walk alongside them. With your generosity, we can turn this mission into reality—raising funds, creating opportunities, and making a lasting impact for families and organizations for years to come.
Board of Directors
Matthew Rettig (President)
Matthew Rettig is currently a VP at E-Risk Services, LLC. He has worked in Manhattan with Allied World Insurance Company & in Boston, managing their New England region for Professional Lines. In 2017, Matthew took a role with E-Risk Services and moved back to Connecticut to start his family. He went to Trinity College (go Bantams!) where he played football. He loves spending time with his wife, Morgan, and their two children (soon to be three), as well as coaching, traveling, working out & helping others.
Karen Hays
Karen Hays is a graduate of Loyola College in Baltimore and then went on to working for various insurance companies and brokerages in Boston, London and Chicago. She currently resides in Connecticut and has shifted her focus to raising her three children and spending more of her time working on philanthropic endeavors. When she is not busy taking screens away from her children she enjoys skiing, travel and hiking with the only family member who does not talk back, the dog.
Jeffery Hays (Treasurer)
Jeffery Hays is the CEO of RLA Insurance Intermediaries. Jeff began his Insurance career in 2001 as an underwriter at Lexington Insurance in Boston, before joining CRC Insurance Services in 2006 as a Wholesale Professional Liability Producer. Other than insurance, Jeff is an investor in numerous companies and active philanthropist. He enjoys spending time with his wife and three children as well as playing hockey, gardening and world travel.
Gerrit VandeKemp
After a successful tour of active duty service in the United States Marine Corps, Gerrit continued his military service as an infantry reservist for 4 years while attending college studying Criminal Justice. Gerrit then shifted gears and spent 17 years in the financial services industry. In 2014, he co-founded Alpine Media Technology. An avid skier, sports fan, outdoorsman, and youth sports coach, Gerrit resides in Colorado with his wife Scotta and their three children.
John Grise
John Grise is a Senior VP of AmWins Brokerage. John's success as an insurance professional has given him a profound appreciation for hard work and effort that lead to personal success as long as there is an equal amount of luck sprinkled in. Outside of insurance, John’s passions include spending time with his wife and daughter, investing in various start-up businesses and trying to find ways to benefit others.
Matthew Smith
Matthew Smith started his insurance career in London at Heath Lambert Ltd, he moved back to the states in 2006 to work for S.H. Smith & Company. After working at S.H. Smith & Company for 7 years, the firm sold to RT Specialty in 2013 and Matthew was named an Executive Vice President and created his own Professional liability division. Matthew attended college at University of Hartford and attended the University of Virginia Darden School for an Executive Leadership program. Matthew currently lives in CT with his wife and three children and enjoys spending his summers in RI and winters skiing in VT
Charles Bellingrath
Charles (Chas) Bellingrath is the President of ARC Excess & Surplus of MA. and the Cyber Practice Leader for ARC Excess & Surplus LLC. Chas began his career at S.H. Smith & Company back in 2007 and has since been with ARC for the past 12 years. Outside of Cyber Insurance, Chas sits on a variety of advisory boards, committees and is an active philanthropist. Chas resides in Wayland, MA with his wife Allison and their two children.
Scott Selby
Dave Rettig
Dave Rettig joined East River Energy in 2008. Mr. Rettig focus was on expansion of the overall retail business in Connecticut. He came to East River with over 30 years of sales and marketing experience. Dave began his career in 1979 with SNET progressed to Director of SNET Yellow Pages before moving to Director of Cingular Wireless. In 2002 he started AAA Wireless and American Cellular-Mid Atlantic serving as CEO and President. Dave received his B.S in Business Administration from Syracuse University in 1978. Mr. Rettig enjoys spending time with his wife along with his three children and 5 grandkids as well as playing golf and vacationing to with family
Josie Ramirez
After attending the University of Central Florida, I began my career in Sales and Marketing at Daytona International Speedway specializing in Corporate Hospitality for local and national businesses. Being born & raised on the sunny beaches of Daytona I never thought I’d give up the sand and surf boards for snow and sleds, but I moved to the Windy City where I started my Insurance Career! I joined the ECC family in January 2014 as an Account Manager, assisting producers grow their books with the end goal of becoming a producer myself. In 2019, I transitioned to a production role and have been growing my book with independent agents across the country specializing in all lines of Professional Liability. I’ve been married since 2016 and have 3 amazing children; Wesley, Ariana and Everett that are my pride and joy! In my free time, I love spending time with my family and friends and traveling as much as possible!
