Forza Mission Statement
Forza provides customized and innovative worksite employee and union member benefits focusing on the policy holder’s user experience through state-of-the-art delivery technology. Our foundation is built on relationships, transparency, customer loyalty and integrity.
The Forza Story
Our tagline “Custom Benefits built through relationships” is the promise Forza makes to our customers. It means we build a relationship with our clients based solely on their unique needs, giving us the ability to design custom plans to address those needs. Building relationships is the foundation of Forza’s success.
Back in 2009, John D’Angelo saw a need. After working in the voluntary benefit space for over 20 years, he realized that there was a population of part time workers in need of financial security that weren’t eligible for traditional benefits. John, along with original partners Jamie Ibrahim and Mike D’Angelo, started The Forza Insurance Group. Partner and CAO Jackie Blake joined the company in 2017.
Why the name Forza? Being true to their Italian heritage, John, Jamie, and Mike sought an Italian word defining their business goals. Learning the meaning of the word Forza, “The ability to face the difficulties of life “, they knew this should be the name of their company. Helping people who might not otherwise have benefits face the inevitable difficulties in life by providing supplemental benefits is what we do.
In August of 2023, Forza was appointed to Manhattan Life’s Chairman’s Club. Out of over 10,000 agents, brokers, agencies, and enrollment companies appointed with ML, Forza is #1 in the country and internationally for supplemental benefit production!
Today, the Forza Insurance Group is a national benefit advisor specializing in the custom design, installation, enrollment, and communication of voluntary specialty benefits. Never settling for the status quo, product offerings are always changing to meet the needs of today’s diverse workforce.
Forza’s enrollments have also evolved over the years. Knowing not everyone sits at a desk, their cutting-edge technology addresses the importance of connectivity with a remote workforce.
Our proprietary “ACE technology” (Automated Customized Enrollment) delivers a variety of co-branded communications across all digital devices. This ensures that every team member receives personalized messaging with laser like precision. ACE paperless, online enrollment simplifies the user experience and allows for a seamless process from start to finish.
The results? Increased workforce engagement and satisfaction!
Forza remains a small boutique company doing very large deals, always remembering where they came from, not allowing those relationships to ever take a back seat. Still onboarding clients with the same customer centric philosophy, they used from the beginning.
Forza Leadership
John N. D’Angelo, III, Founder
CEO/Partner
John D’Angelo has over 30 years of Voluntary Employee Benefits leadership experience and has placed over $125 million in voluntary benefit premium serving numerous large Labor Unions, Native American Enterprises, and Fortune 1000 Employer Groups. John was an early pioneer and key carrier advisor in the development of paperless enrollment platforms and systems. Under John’s guidance, The Forza Insurance Group has partnered with leading insurance companies, making Forza a leader in the development of point-of-sale enrollment tools, benefit product designs, premium sales, and unique marketing strategies to employees and union members at the worksite. These partnerships combined with John’s approach to the worksite benefits space makes the complexity of enrolling and communicating plans simple for the end user to understand, while deploying various paperless “Cloud” driven automated enrollment tools.
John has served as keynote speaker at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, among others. These speaking engagements have been covered by local news outlets such as radio station WRTI and the Philadelphia Business Journal, which ran a feature on his advocacy stance. Mr. D’Angelo also mentors young executives entering the industry.
John has distinguished himself as a dedicated volunteer. A champion fundraiser, his talents have benefitted the Tara Miller Foundation which raises funds to support research of effective treatment methods and ultimately a cure for melanoma. John has also been involved with Gilda’s Club South Jersey, an organization where individuals and families can receive information, guidance, laughter, and most importantly, the support they need to live their lives with cancer, whatever the outcome, at no cost.
Jamie Ibrahim, Founder
President/Chief Development Officer/Partner
Jamie Ibrahim has over twenty years of business development experience. He served in numerous senior leadership positions and has a great deal of expertise in the Native American marketplace with emphasis on large Tribal owned casino and hospitality operations.
Jamie has been instrumental in developing innovative benefit enrollment strategies for the challenging demographics in the casino hospitality industry leading to increased closing ratios and greater revenue. In his current executive position at Forza, Mr. Ibrahim is responsible for the management of key leadership relationships with insurance carrier partners, and large employers and union clients. Jamie was responsible for securing one of the largest National Voluntary Benefit projects in the industry, comprising of thousands of employees in over ten states.
Michael D’Angelo, Founder
Senior Vice President/Partner
Michael began his career with Synergistic Healthcare co-managing the field enrollments for Seminole Hard Rock Casinos and Seminole Gaming of Florida. He then moved to product development and became a marketing liaison for Seminole Hard Rock Casinos and Seminole Gaming of Florida, Synergistic Healthcare, and Humana Insurance, where he was the client relationship manager for thirty-three thousand employees.
At his current position with Forza, Michael is a member of the leadership team charged with the management of the day-to-day field enrollment operations, including staff recruitment, licensing, appointment, and training. He has full oversight of the Northeast enrollments consisting of over 120,000 participating members in eight states, along with our Southern enrollments in Texas and Oklahoma. He also oversees our enrollments for the New Jersey and Connecticut Department of Corrections, consisting of thousands of employees.
Jackie Blake
Chief Operating Officer/Partner
After receiving her master’s degree in education from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, Jackie worked at 4 different universities on the East Coast in Student Affairs administrative positions. Switching gears to follow her passion, she became a professional fundraiser for the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County in Florida, where her and her team raised over $20 million annually.
In 2008, after moving to Park City, Utah, she was appointed by the Summit County Manager to serve on the Basin Open Space Advisory Committee, created for the purpose of advising and providing input regarding the creation, preservation, and identification of open space in order to ensure high conservation values and promote the resort and scenic character of the area. At the same time, she was elected to Temple Har Shalom’s Religious School Advisory Committee, serving as the chair for two of four years, followed by serving a three-year term on their Board of Directors and chairing their fundraising efforts for eight years.
In January 2014, Jackie Co-founded her own non-profit, Park City READS to promote elevating literacy through early identification of struggling readers, effective reading interventions and appropriate classroom accommodations. As a Certified Dyslexia Advocate, she was able to assist many families with obtaining the services to ensure their children reached their potential. Along with advocating, the organization has grown to include a mentoring program, professional development grants, community education, and implementation of a new school curriculum.
Jackie moved back to the East Coast but remains an Advisor to the Board. Always looking for new opportunities, Jackie became a partner and took on full-time responsibilities for The Forza Insurance Group in 2017. Bringing a diverse skill set to the organization, now as Chief Operating Officer, she oversees the day-to-day operations and administration, including human resources, personnel, purchasing, customer relations, marketing, carrier and vendor management and efficiency monitoring and performance standards.
Nicole Damiano
Vice President of Operations
Before joining the Forza team, Nicole was a tenured retail leader, most recently with the California lifestyle brand PacSun. She started her career while in high school, becoming a manager at 18 years old. Her goal to grow within the company and advance professionally was reached when she was promoted to Area Manager; overseeing several stores in south and central New Jersey.
Looking for a new challenge in 2016, she stepped away from retail and became a licensed Mortgage Loan Officer for Republic Bank. She successfully learned the business of qualifying individuals for mortgages and walking them through all the necessary steps to fulfill their dream of becoming homeowners.
Unexpectedly, opportunity knocked again in the summer of 2019. Nicole was offered and accepted the position of Forza’s Customer Care Manager. Her main responsibilities were to plan, coordinate and control the activities of the customer service team, to maintain and enhance customer relationships and ensure the highest level of service is provided to our large volume of calls through our Benefits Hotline. She also attained her Insurance Producer license, enabling her to better serve our policyholders and be available to assist in enrollments and additional operational tasks within the department.
In March 2022, Nicole was promoted to Vice President of Operations, overseeing day-to-day customer service, quality assurance, and enrollment administration operations.
Evan D’Angelo
Executive Director Enrollment Operations
Evan began his career with Forza as a summer intern in 2018. In 2019 Evan accepted a position with the company as a Benefit Counselor, where he supported Forza’s mid-market cases and rapidly escalated to Enrollment Field Management.
In late 2022, Evan joined Forza’s technology company, ClickEnroll, where he participated as an advisor for field enrollment technology development and was the manager of Business Development for ClickEnroll’s non-Forza Broker and Consultant practice.
After learning all aspects of the enrollment, and associated technology divisions where he participated in managing over 100,000 UFCW Members across eight UFCW Forza Client Locals, Evan currently serves as Forza’s Executive Director of Enrollment Operations. Evan’s responsibilities include managing the operational elements of the field, call center, and self-service enrollments while acting as a liaison between Forza and Clickenroll.
Donna Ward
Customer Experience Manager
Donna Ward started her career in the medical industry where she first developed her skills in sales, customer service and administration.
Donna joined the Forza team in Aug of 2019 as the Office Manager, overseeing the daily functions of the office. She moved into the customer experience department, quickly becoming Forza’s top customer service representative. She now oversees the Customer Experience Department as the Customer Experience Manager, where she leads by example to build strong relationships with our clients.
Carrie G. Coren
Director of Marketing
Carrie Coren joined Forza in 2022 after working with Forza as a consultant for 10 years.
Coren comes to The Forza Insurance Group with over twenty-five years of marketing experience in the communications industry. Carrie is responsible for online engagement through tailored communications based on customer behavior and purchase history.
Prior to accepting the role at Forza, Coren ran a creative marketing agency, Carrie Coren Design. Coren began her career at Fortune 500 companies Comcast and Cox Communications.
Ryan Beattie
Director of National Operations
Ryan started his career in the hospitality industry and climbed the ranks to attain managerial positions. During his tenure, he led the successful launch of several bars and restaurants for one of the most well-known hospitality brands in the world. Additionally, he handled staff training for the grand openings of these world-class brands.
In June 2023, Ryan was appointed as the Director of National Operations for the Forza team. He collaborates with leadership to ensure operational efficiency in field enrollment.
Hunter Williams
Field Enrollment Manager
As Field Enrollment Manager, Hunter Williams is the liaison between field operations and Forza Corporate.
Hunter started working in the supplemental benefit industry in 2009, as an independent Aflac agent in Georgia and his home state of Alabama.
He relocated to New Jersey in 2011 and was a top agent in the state for many years. Hunter led New Jersey with new accounts in 2016 and was a top 10 New Jersey producer in 2017.
Hunter joined Forza in 2017. He continued as a top producer, and combining his affable personality with his field acumen, was promoted to Enrollment Coordinator in 2021. As Forza’s enrollment team grew, Hunter was promoted once again in 2022, this time to Field Enrollment Manager.
Hunter works alongside the Forza’s Vice President of Operations to build, train and manage Forza’s enrollment workforce.
Mike Damiano
Sr. Program Developer
Mike Damiano is an experienced developer with a proven track record of driving significant advancements in Forza’s technical infrastructure. Mike is the primary technical point of contact for company-wide initiatives.
Damiano uses a unique blend of skills to collaborate with the creative team in order to deliver high-quality solutions for customer engagement and satisfaction, and lead product demonstrations at customer sales meetings.
Damiano tackles complex challenges using his technical expertise for all phases of development of Forza’s proprietary software, building and maintaining third-party integrations, developing custom EDI feeds, and building and configuring third-party licensed software.
Mike also supervises the junior developers at Forza.
Jake Derzsak
Program Analyst
Jake Derzsak provides critical support in analyzing, monitoring, and improving the efficiency of Forza’s interactive enrollment technology. He works closely with the Sr. Program Manager to ensure projects are delivered on time and meet quality standards.
Jake is responsible for generating dynamic reports that track and display critical enrollment data over variable time frames, developing and testing Forza’s proprietary software, building and maintaining third-party integrations, developing custom EDI feeds, and building and configuring third-party licensed software.