Our-Team
The company has adopted Kina’ole as our daily mission– the Hawaiian word for “doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, for the right reason, the first time.” Another word – Aloha – captures the company values and Mullen employees embrace the “aloha spirit” in all of their day to day activities with each other – and with our customers. John and Terry Mullen believe that the staff has built and retained the good reputation of the company. In return, our employee welfare and security is a primary business goal.
We are sincerely proud of our staff. They are well-trained, have great work ethics and because of this are actively recruited by the rest of the local industry.
| Leadership Executive Team | |
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J. Terrence Mullen President Terry graduated from the University of Victoria, B.C. He has been with John Mullen & Company since 1974. Originally trained as a multi-line adjuster, he later managed the Workers’ Compensation Department for 10 years before becoming president in 1990. He is a licensed general agent in the State of Hawaii. Terry serves on the Hawaii Insurers Council, the Claim Managers Association, was a charter member of the Hawaii Captive Insurance Council, has served as the director of the Hawaii Insurance Guaranty Association and is a gubernatorial appointee to the Hawaiian Medical Privacy Task Force. |
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Leona L. Christensen, S.P.H.R. Vice President Manager – Human Resources Leona graduated from Fort Hays, Kansas State College with a B.S. in Business. She was employed with United Services Automobile Association in San Antonio, Texas for a short time before relocating to Hawaii. Leona joined John Mullen & Co., Inc., in February 1972 holding the positions of underwriter, and manager of our Customer Services Department. She is now Vice President in charge of Human Resources for John Mullen & Co., Inc. She is a licensed general agent in life and disability in the State of Hawaii and holds the professional certification of Senior Professional in Human Resources. Leona is a National member of Society of Human Resources Managers and serves on the Staff and Development Committee for Aloha United Way. Leona was the SHRM Hawaii President for two terms in 2006 and 2007. She is currently the State Co-Director for SHRM Hawaii and has held this position since 2009. |
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James A. Granata General Manager Jim received his B.A. from St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California and his M.A. from California State University at Hayward. He was formerly Vice President of Production for Oahu Publications (Honolulu Star-Bulletin and MidWeek) from August 2004 – March 2006. Prior to that, he held the position of Plant Director at the San Francisco Chronicle for over 7 years (April 1997 – August 2004). There he was selected by the Hearst Company for national recognition as an Eagle Award winner given only to 20 employees within the Hearst organization for his work on improving communications and changing the culture at the San Francisco Chronicle Union City facility which Jim headed. Jim was initially in Hawaii in the ‘90s where he was Vice President of Production for the Hawaii Newspaper Agency (March 1994 – May 1996). And previous to that he was the Director of Production for the Monterey Herald in California (Nov. 1990 – March 1994). Jim joined John Mullen & Co., Inc., in April 2006 as General Manager. Jim has a broad financial background and is strong in budgets and forecasting. |
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Milia Leong Vice President Claims Manager/Workers’ Comp Milia joined John Mullen & Company in June of 2000 as a Workers Compensation Claim Adjuster. Previously, she attended Kapiolani Community College, studying nursing. Milia was employed with Kailua Physical Therapy from 1992-1994, with Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific from 1994-1995, and with Inter-Island Adjusting Company, Inc. from 1995-2000. In April of 2004, she was promoted to Workers’ Compensation Supervisor and in 2007 was promoted to Claims Manager/Workers' Comp. Milia was promoted to Vice President in July of 2012. Milia served as President of the Hawaii Claims Association from 2009-2011 and is currently serving as Vice President. Milia is active in Hawaii Legislation, including lobbying for a better vocational rehabilitation system and testifying against proposed law changes that would negatively impact workers compensation and increase costs. Milia oversees the in house Telephonic Nurse Case Management program here at John Mullen, of which has proven to significantly reduce the length of disability for time loss claims. Milia works with our Clients to develop return to work programs, transitional light duty and provides on site training on cost reduction strategies. Milia was a featured speaker at the Hawaii Worker’s Comp Conference presented by the Counsel on Education and Management in 2006 and 2009. Milia’s passion and commitment to ensuring Client satisfaction is unsurpassed and promotes this level of customer service to her entire staff. Milia heads the continuous education program for Workers Comp, providing monthly training on various topics such as compensability, reserving, subrogation, claim resolution, vocational rehabilitation, disability management, settlement, Medicare compliance, and special fund involvement. She works intimately with community members such as physicians, attorneys, vendors, ect., and coordinates informative brown bag sessions for our employees and clients. |
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Sherry J. Hunt Vice President Claims Manager Casualty/Property Sherry joined John Mullen & Company in 1985 as an experienced field adjuster. She graduated with a B.A. from California State University Fullerton. Sherry was a senior adjuster handling Auto, General Liability and Marine claims. She was promoted to Claims Manager in 2008 and to Vice President in 2012. Sherry is a past officer and President of the Hawaii Claims Association. She currently serves as an officer in the Hawaii Insurance Claims Manager Association. Sherry has over 30 years of experience in the industry. |
| Account Managers | |
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Althea Fujio Account Manager/Supervisor - WC/TDI Althea attended the University of Hawaii and Kapiolani Community College. She began her career in worker’s comp in 1976 with Hawaiian Insurance Companies in a clerical support position and had the opportunity to transfer to a worker’s comp adjuster position where she remained through early 1985. She then joined Hawaii Insurance Guaranty Association from 1985-1987 as a claims adjuster and expanded her knowledge in handling personal injury coverage and subrogation claims. Althea was hired as a workers’ compensation adjuster with John Mullen & Company in October 1987 where she gained additional experience in handling claims of all levels adding federal/longshore claims, developed relationships with clients, employers, defense and claimant attorneys, DCD and medical providers. She conducted numerous scene investigations for compensability determinations and attended hearings on all islands. In August 1991, Althea was promoted to an assistant supervisor and in August 1994, promoted to the position of workers’ compensation supervisor. In this position she has supervised multiple teams of adjusters, monitoring workloads, providing training and technical/jurisdictional direction resulting in today’s successful adjusters. She has provided client servicing through informative claim reviews and assuring the client’s satisfaction with the progression of their claims while developing long term relationships. She has provided training for employers and served as a liaison for our clients. Her career also includes 10 years of supervising our TDI department with the responsibility for knowledge of the laws for this benefit and assuring compliance with IRS regulations. |
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Stephen Nakao, ARM Account Manager/Supervisor Stephen serves our clients as an account manager and workers’ compensation claim supervisor. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego - Warren College, with a degree in Management Science. He commenced his career in workers’ compensation claims after completing an intensive training program through the IEA, while with Fremont Insurance in California. After gaining additional experience working in the California, Hawaii, and Federal (USL&H) jurisdictions, he joined the company in 1996. Since joining the company, he has further honed his skills as an account manager and works closely with our Self-insured, Captive, and TPA clients to assure that our claims management practices are meeting and optimizing their program goals. As a workers’ compensation supervisor, he is able to use his past experience working with claims from the Construction, Transportation, Hotel, Education, and Agriculture industries to quickly identify issues and keep the adjusters under his charge pointed in the right direction. Always looking to improve his insurance skill set and knowledge for the benefit of our clients, Stephen embarked on The Institutes program for ARM designation and successfully completed his coursework in 2008. Stephen is equally committed to the educational growth of our adjusting staff and has shared his knowledge of workers’ compensation topics through regular training classes. He has also shared his time and knowledge with the insurance community, teaching an HAIP sponsored course. Stephen stays current with local industry trends and case law by regularly attending seminars and maintaining a strong working relationship with the local workers’ compensation legal community. |
