Leadership
Paul Mallen is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Amalgamated Family of Companies. Since joining the Company in June 2005 as Chief Financial Officer, he has held responsibility over multiple areas of operation and has been involved in all aspects of the business; not only for the finance function, but also had the IT, underwriting, insurance operations and facilities units reporting to him. Additionally, he worked closely with sales and other business units and was significantly involved with the Company’s strategic planning. In addition to his direct involvement across broad operational areas, Mr. Mallen has over 30 years of experience across a wide range of industries and in various corporate finance activities, including transaction advisory services, capital structuring, and credit and financial analysis. His expertise and experience also encompass operations, accounting and auditing, as well as SEC regulatory compliance and reporting.
Prior to joining Amalgamated, Mr. Mallen held senior level positions with other consulting and financial services firms. He was a Managing Director at FTI Consulting and a Senior Manager at Deloitte, where he led numerous teams as a merger and acquisitions specialist. His career also included his role with Citibank in the Acquisition Finance and Global Media and Communications Commercial Banking Groups.
Mr. Mallen is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance and International Business from the New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Emory University. He also graduated from Citibank’s Institute for Global Finance where he was credit trained.
Mr. Mallen serves on the Board of Directors of Amalgamated Life Insurance Company, its parent company, Alico Services Corporation, Amalgamated Employee Benefits Administrators and Amalgamated Medical Care Management, Amalgamated affiliates. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Society of Insurance Financial Management (SIFM), the Montville Lacrosse Club, and is a former Board Member of INMEX (Informed Meetings Exchange), a conference and event management organization. Mr. Mallen is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
John A. Thornton serves as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at the Amalgamated Family of Companies. In this role, he has broad responsibility for the sales and marketing functions of Amalgamated Life Insurance and the other companies within the family. Additionally, as a member of the organization’s Executive Committee, he is actively involved in the operations, oversight and direction of the organization.
John joined Amalgamated Life in 2008 in his current role. He came to the Company with over 20 years of experience in insurance sales and marketing. His career includes 16 years serving at CIGNA, where he transitioned from group insurance to health insurance as CIGNA’s Vice President of Sales. He also served as National Sales Manager with Metropolitan Life, a role in which he oversaw the development, introduction and management of an investment-sensitive life insurance product.
Since joining Amalgamated, John has led the organization through significant growth and development phases. He was a driving force in the expansion of the Company’s voluntary worksite product line, its geographic expansion, growth of the Company’s sales force, and a major branding campaign. As a result of these factors and his effective sales management, the company has enjoyed significant increases in its product sales.
In addition to his sales and marketing role, as a member of the Executive Committee, John’s input has contributed to important operational efficiencies, board developments, compliance matters and overall gains in performance and brand reputation.
John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial relations from Le Moyne College in Syracuse. He is actively involved in the industry and serves as an industry thought leader authoring articles for leading trade publications and frequently serving as an expert source for trade, business and news media.
Timothy J. Kristof serves as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Amalgamated Family of Companies. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing multiple areas of financial management and operations, in addition to lending his proven track record in areas that include transformational growth, cross-functional team management, and product and market development.
Timothy joined Amalgamated in 2018 bringing over 25 years of experience as a senior finance and operations executive serving in both public and private companies, including 20 years CFO and senior finance experience in the insurance, reinsurance financial service industries. He was the CFO at Brightstar Device Protection, LLC, the insurance and service contract business of Brightstar Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group, a global telecommunications company. His career also included roles as Chief Operating Officer and CFO at Asterisk Financial, a start-up insurance services company, and Vice President, Finance, Global Business Services with XL Capital, Ltd., a $10 billion public global property, casualty and life insurance and reinsurance company.
In addition to these positions, Timothy had a 14 year tenure in senior finance, operations and risk management roles within the General Electric organization. He began his professional career with KPMG Peat Marwick serving in its audit and tax departments in progressively more responsible roles during a five year tenure.
Timothy holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Fairfield University and a Certified Public Accountant license, State of Connecticut.
Ellen R. Dunkin, Esq. serves as a Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer for the Amalgamated Family of Companies including Amalgamated Life Insurance. She is responsible for legal counsel, regulatory compliance and interactions with New York State and various insurance departments, as well as the oversight of all contracts. Additionally, she heads the Company’s Enterprise Risk Management program and committee, and works with its brokers on its insurance program and claims administration. In this role, she lends a proven track record in corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, enterprise risk management, company financings, human resources and executive compensation.
Directly prior to joining Amalgamated Life in 2012, Ellen served as Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel and Director of Risk Management with the Crump Group, Inc. (New York, NY), where she was also the chief architect and director of a company-wide enterprise risk management program. She also held roles as: General Counsel, Director of Government Affairs and Assistant Secretary for the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (New York, NY); a Private Practitioner (Larchmont, NY); Senior Attorney at Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (New York, NY); and Corporate Associate with Willkie Farr & Gallagher (New York, NY).
Ellen is a member of the Board of Directors of RIMS, the risk management society, having served as its President in 2021. Her industry roles also include that of former President and Director of the RIMS New York Chapter, 2016–2017 Secretary of the Employment & Labor Law Committee (ELLC) of the Association Corporate Counsel (ACC), 2012–2014 Chair of the Programming Committee of ELLC, active participant on the ACC Compliance Committee, and mentor through the Young Risk Professionals Committee of the New York Chapter of RIMS.
Ellen earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from the State University of New York at Albany (Albany, NY), where she graduated cum laude, and her Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law (Jamaica, NY), where she served as Associate Editor of the Law Review and earned Dean’s List honors. She is admitted to the New York State Bar, and the Federal District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Carol Henrich-Herrera is Vice President of Amalgamated Employee Benefits Administrators. She brings over 28 years of experience in third party administration of employee benefits across all operational areas. Her skills range from strategic planning and regulatory compliance to financial and client relationship management.
Carol joined Amalgamated Employee Benefits Administrators in 2009 and immediately began making significant contributions leading to her steady rise. She has been a driver of many process improvements in areas which include hiring, budgeting, customer service, record maintenance and time tracking for enhanced profitability. In addition to these ongoing activities, she effectively manages relationships with employers and fund administrators. She consistently demonstrates the Company’s strong value proposition to these customers, whose benefit plan members total in excess of 10,000 lives.
Prior to joining Amalgamated Employee Benefits Administrators, Carol served in Project and Implementation Management with Mercer, where she successfully drove key operational objectives and reinforced strategic planning initiatives. Her career also included roles as a Strategic Business Unit Manager, HR Solutions with Affiliated Computer Services and as a Principal with Towers Perrin Administration Solutions, where she was the key technical and administrative leader in the ongoing development of existing and new products.
Carol holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the State University of New York at Oneonta.
Cyndi Katsaras is an Senior Vice President for Amalgamated Employee Benefits Administrators with oversight responsibilities for several departments. Leveraging over four decades of experience, Ms. Katsaras oversees the company’s Service Executives, Customer Service, Appeals, Provider Relations and Claims Departments. She also has direct responsibility as the Fund Administrator for various health, pension, legal and death benefit funds. Her role as Fund Administrator encompasses the monitoring of employer contract renewals and all union and employer relationships, including consulting with respect to negotiations relating to pricing and plan design, which may arise during collective bargaining. In addition, she applies her extensive benefits administration experience in other areas ranging from troubleshooting eligibility and claims problems, to preparing documentation and presenting administration reports for Fund Board meetings.
Prior to joining AEBA, Ms. Katsaras served in various benefits administration roles. She was the Executive Director for the Northern Ohio Advanced Hospitality Benefit Fund and also served as the Director of Managed Care and Benefits Administrator for National Healthcare Access, Inc. In these roles, her responsibilities were broad, and included such functions as liaison with plan sponsors, participants and vendors, as well as various operational responsibilities.
Timothy Clark serves as Senior Vice President at the Amalgamated Family of Companies with direct responsibility for overseeing the organization’s Pension Operations, Document Management, Plan Participation, Payroll Auditing and Accounts Receivables, services provided through Amalgamated Employee Benefits Administrators. He also serves as the Fund Manager for the National Retirement Fund, UNITE HERE Retirement Fund and the National Plus Plan’s 401(k) plan.
Timothy joined Amalgamated Life in 2008 as an Executive Director managing the implementation of contracts, enrollment, eligibility of benefits, billing and collections of the organization’s clients and their members. Prior to his role at Amalgamated Life, he held several management positions at CIT Financial Group, working within various divisions including the corporate loan workout group. His professional career also included several senior level posts in small market mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Amalgamated, he served as the Vice President of Operations with the RJR Group, overseeing its operations in New York City, Guatemala and Hong Kong involving a staff of 115 and sales revenues of $250 million.
Since joining Amalgamated, he has been working closely with the clients’ Fund Trustees on the oversight, management, and reporting of administered plans. He is responsible for the servicing of over 300,000 active, terminated vested, and retiree participants throughout the country. His experience and deep knowledge of retirement plan administration has earned the organization the longstanding loyalty of Fund Trustees in the highly-competitive Taft-Hartley plan environment.
