MBG hires new executive team members

Mutual Benefit Group (MBG) recently welcomed two new members to their executive team in Huntingdon.

Bhargavi Venugopalan joined MBG Oct. 3 as vice president of portfolio management.

She will lead MBG's Enterprise Portfolio Management with emphasis on strategy, planning, vendor management, portfolio governance and product delivery. Venugopalan calls her team the "Value-Adding Team"; they will deliver MBG's modernization initiative while simultaneously focusing on best opportunities to enhance experiences, improve operational effectiveness and deliver value by optimizing and automating manual processes.

Venugopalan holds two master's degrees, one in Insurance and Banking Management, and one in Human Resource Management.

Venugopalan recently relocated to Huntingdon from San Antonio, Texas. Born and raised in Chennai, India, Venugopalan moved to San Antonio 12 years ago with her son and became a U.S. citizen in October 2019.

Her career spans 22 years, predominately with USAA and TCS. Recently, she served as lead portfolio manager for P&C Modernization, a $1.6 billion initiative for USAA; it included more than 36 initiatives within itself, cutting across various workstreams (policy, claims, data, agency, SBI, TechE, PICS and FinPAL).

Prior to that, Venugopalan held various leadership positions where her teams directly served property/casualty underwriting, claims, actuary, product management, product development, data analytics, enterprise risk management, RPA, process excellence and member experience.

Before moving to the United States, Venugopalan was part of the Indian insurance industry, addressing the various commercial and personal insurance needs of the corporate, government, banking and the retail sectors.

Venugopalan's interests include learning about people and their culture, mindful meditation and listening to TED Talks. She enjoys being part of the community and loves spending time with her son, Viswa. He recently graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a bachelor of science degree in computer science and a bachelor of business administration degree with an emphasis on cyber security. He has accepted a position with Dell Technologies.

David Golia joined MBG Sept. 30 as the chief strategy officer, reporting to CEO Gary Williams.

Golia recently relocated from San Antonio, Texas, and is excited to be back in his homeland despite being away for the last 25 years. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and was born and raised in the suburbs of Northeast Philadelphia.

Golia's insurance career spans over 22 years, predominately with USAA and AIG, where he served in leadership positions across product management, product development, data science and customer experience. He joins MBG after a brief stint with Hub International where he successfully launched the VIU by Hub platform for personal lines.

On the personal side, Golia's passion is skiing, traveling and keeping up with his 11-year-old daughter, Leighton.

Mutual Benefit Group is a regional property/casualty insurance carrier headquartered in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, that has been providing coverage for autos, homes and businesses since 1908. The Company's insurance products are underwritten through its member companies, Mutual Benefit Insurance Company and Select Risk Insurance Company. Rated A- (Excellent) by A.M. Best, Mutual Benefit serves 70,000 policyholders in Pennsylvania and Maryland through more than 300 independent insurance agents. The Company has been named one of the Top 100 Businesses in Pennsylvania for the past 12 years by Pennsylvania Business Central, and has made the list of Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania nine times since 2009. Learn more at thembg.com.