Diana Chafey is joining NYSE-listed Hagerty as the company’s chief legal officer (CLO) and corporate secretary.
Chafey will succeed Barbara Matthews, who is retiring. Matthews has been Hagerty’s general counsel and senior vice president of legal since 2007 and will remain with the company in a senior adviser role until the end of 2023 to help with the transition.
Most recently, Chafey was CLO and corporate secretary for ATI Physical Therapy. Before joining ATI, she was executive vice president, CLO and corporate secretary for The Warranty Group, a role in which she advised on all global legal and compliance matters was also vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Interstate Insurance Group and Jefferson Insurance Group.
Before moving in-house, Chafey was a partner at law firm DLA Piper USA. In that role she represented clients in the insurance, reinsurance, financial services and private-equity industries.
In her new role, Chafey will be a member of Hagerty’s senior leadership team and take part in all strategic, management and policy decisions affecting the company’s operations and development. She will be responsible for all legal, compliance, governmental and regulatory matters.
COMPANY VETERAN
According to her LinkedIn profile, Matthews has been senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Hagerty since 2007. Before joining the company, she was general counsel at Priority Solutions. Earlier in her career she was chief regulatory and international counsel and chief counsel for the global vendor finance group at Chicago-based Heller Financial. She was previously vice president, general counsel and secretary for Sears Savings Bank, a subsidiary of Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Ahead of her move in-house Matthews was an attorney with Hopkins & Sutter, where she primarily represented federal bank and savings and loan regulatory agencies.
Hagerty is an automotive lifestyle brand and a specialty insurance provider. McKeel Hagerty, the company’s CEO, says in a statement: ‘On behalf of the board of directors and leadership team, we are incredibly grateful for Barbara’s work throughout her tenure at Hagerty. From the many complex partnerships we forged over the years with the nation’s largest insurance companies to helping us establish an independent [board] and shepherding us through the complicated process of becoming a publicly traded company, Barbara has always been a steady and trusted adviser.’
The CEO describes Chafey as a ‘valuable asset’ to Hagerty’s future growth and profitability, based on her ‘deep knowledge’ of the insurance industry, global experience and expertise working with complex regulatory and compliance matters. ‘I am confident she will provide excellent strategic guidance to our organization as we enter a new phase of our growth arc,’ he adds.
Matthews says she is proud of the role she played in helping Hagerty grow and flourish as a company. ‘We had big dreams when I started here in 2007 and it has been gratifying to see them come to fruition,’ she continues. ‘I want to thank the Hagerty family, the [board] and everyone that I have had the honor to work with over the years. It has truly been a rewarding experience.’
Ben Maiden
Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Governance Intelligence, an IR Media publication, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. Ben was previously managing editor of Compliance Reporter, covering regulatory and compliance...
