Ed Kelly to Lead RB Jones Global as Managing Director

Helen Jones-Bak to Serve as Chief Financial Officer, International

LONDON (July 31, 2025) – H.W. Kaufman Group, the privately held, industry leading global insurance organization, today announced the forthcoming launch of RB Jones Global, a best-in-class MGA that will serve clients worldwide. Ed Kelly will join Kaufman on September 4 to lead RB Jones Global, which will initially focus on developing products and programs for clients in the Credit, Energy and Construction sectors.

The company also announced that Helen Jones-Bak will become Chief Financial Officer for Kaufman’s international business. She will start on September 1. Both Kelly and Jones-Bak will be based in Kaufman’s London office and report into Kaufman International CEO Paul Greensmith.

“Ed and Helen are outstanding leaders with the expertise required to expand Kaufman’s international business,” said Greensmith. “Launching RB Jones Global and the addition of such respected professionals signals how committed we are to driving long term and sustainable growth.”

Kelly was most recently the North America Head of Specialty and Global Head of Credit Lines at AIG. He began his AIG career as the Head of the Political Risk Group, first for the UK and Europe before being elevated into a global role. Prior to AIG, Kelly worked in investment banking with Credit Suisse.

Jones-Bak comes to Kaufman from Ascot Underwriting, where she served as CFO. Her career spans more than 25 years in the London market and until recently, she served as Chair for the Lloyd’s Market Association Finance Committee.

Today’s news follows Kaufman’s previous announcement that it would consolidate its international brand portfolio into Burns & Wilcox, which houses the company’s broking businesses and RB Jones, which will focus on specialty underwriting.

As part of the launch of RB Jones Global, the new RB Jones UK and RB Jones Digital divisions will become part of RB Jones Global. In North America, RB Jones will remain a distinct business unit.

“Kaufman’s worldwide growth plans are aligned with building a more collaborative and connected organization that harnesses the very best expertise across our geographies,” added Jodie Kaufman Davis, Kaufman Co-President. “Introducing RB Jones Global is an important step forward in advancing that strategy. We look forward to making additional investments in our broking, underwriting and risk-bearing business units to drive scale and ultimately increase Kaufman’s market share worldwide.”