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Larry Pentis

Larry is responsible for insurance operations outside of Massachusetts as the Executive Vice President of Commerce Group, Inc. Larry graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics from U.C. Santa Barbara and received his Master of Business Taxation and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Southern California. He also received an Advanced Management degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration

John Donahue

John started at Commerce West Insurance Company in April 2007. He is an Alumni of St. Mary's College in Moraga, CA and Columbia School of Business, New York, NY. John has 18 years of insurance-related experience. As well as being a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), he spent 15+ years at Northern California AAA running an A+ rated $2.4 billion insurance operation, including Claims, Underwriting, Product Management, Program Management, and Actuarial. John is married with 3 teenage boys.

Rhea Harris

Senior Vice President of Products & Marketing

Rhea joined Commerce West in 1999, and is responsible for providing our agents and their customers’ competitive personal lines and light commercial insurance products. These responsibilities include overseeing the development and architecture of multivariate rate plans that can be quickly and inexpensively adapted to individual markets our independent agency partners serve. Rhea has over 25 years of insurance experience, including 17 years at Financial Indemnity/Unitrin, where he progressed to the position of Product Manager. Rhea successfully managed over $200 million in auto products in California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, while at Financial Indemnity/Unitrin. Rhea is an alumnus of California State University Fresno where he majored in Business Administration. Rhea and his wife Patty live in Rancho Murieta with their children Kelsey and Kelly.

Kenny Martin

Kenny is responsible for the overall planning, organizing and management of the Commerce West sales function in a manner that ensures reaching or exceeding corporate goals and objectives. Kenny has 19 years of insurance industry experience, including twelve years with Viking Insurance Company of Wisconsin where he progressed to the position of Sales and Marketing Director. Most recently, he worked for five years with California State Automobile Association (AAA Northern Califonrnia) and held the position of Regional Business Director. He earned an A.A. degree from Feather River College and a B.S. degree from the University of San Francisco. He is also a licensed Fire & Casualty and Life & Disability Agent/Broker.

Michael Berryessa

Michael spent 20 years with various insurance companies in positions of increasing responsibility in Claims, Marketing and Underwriting before coming to Commerce West in 1997 as Assistant Vice President of Claims. During his time at Commerce West, Mike has worked steadily to strengthen our professionalism, efficiencies and to enhance our customer service levels. Mike is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University Law School. He resides in Fairfield, Ca. with his wife, Anne and daughter, Colleen.

A.J. Goldsmith

AJ Goldsmith is responsible for helping make Commerce West easy to do business with. His reponsibilities include ease of doing business competitiveness, project and process management, and information technology. AJ brings over 20 years in his areas of expertise and in his career was the team leader for the Autolink team at Viking/Guaranty National Insurance, executive sponsor of CSAA's 2-Minute Quote and Sale-X programs, technical architect for Colorado Casualty's national technology rollout, and started and ran his own web and network consulting business during the dot com era. AJ earned his BS in Computer Information Systems from National American University in Denver Colorado and his MBA with emphasis in Technology Management from the University of Colorado. He resides in Danville California with his wife Pam and two children.

Brad Hauser

He has been with the Commerce Group 2 1/2 years. He has been in the personal lines insurance technology field for over 20 years both as a consultant and with P&C carriers. In his capacity he also has responsibility for technology at Commerce Group members American Commerce and Statewide. Brad earned his Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Notre Dame.

Beverly Cye

Beverly began her career at Commerce West in 1985. She worked as secretary to the President of the Company and has steadily increased her responsibilities. She was instrumental in the design and formation of the company's Customer Service Department and became its first supervisor. After some time in this position, Ms. Cye took over the management of the Underwriting Department, and eventually, the Operations Department. Ms. Cye lives in Livermore, California with her husband, Robert and daughter, Skylar.

Irma Barron

Irma Barron began her career at Commerce West in 1985 as a typist for the Underwriting Department. She put herself through school, focusing on insurance education. Her perseverance has enabled her to hold various positions within the Underwriting Department, eventually earning her the promotion to her current position as supervisor for personal lines underwriting. Irma lives in San Jose, California with her husband, Jorge, and two sons, Fernando and Andrew.

Esmeralda Barron

Esmeralda Barron began her career at Commerce West in 1989. She worked as a typist for the Underwriting Department and steadily increased her knowledge and was promoted to the position of Underwriter. After seven years in the Underwriting Department, Esmeralda went to the Customer Service Department where she brought her Underwriting knowledge and soon after took over the position of Customer Service Supervisor. Esmeralda Barron lives in Manteca, California with Pedro and their daughter Jasmine.

George Jeffers

George Jeffers has been in the property & casualty insurance business since 1979. His background includes being a licensed agent in both California and Ohio. In addition to personal & commercial lines, his agency background includes ocean cargo and other international trade coverages. George left the agency life to work for an agency management system vendor and from there has gone on to do software development for insurance carriers and self-insured entities. He has been with Commerce West since 2000.