Michael Blackshear serves as Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance & Privacy Officer and Head of Culture & Inclusion for Ryan Specialty. Michael is responsible for maintaining and growing an effective compliance and regulatory risk management framework, along with leading the firm’s Culture & Inclusion function, promoting an environment of belonging and building strong alliances within the insurance industry and communities in which Ryan Specialty colleagues live and work.

 Michael has over 30 years of financial service and executive experience in the areas of ethics, compliance and risk management. Prior to joining Ryan Specialty, he was the North America chief compliance officer for Chubb Insurance Group, responsible for developing and maintaining their North American (NA) compliance program. He was primarily responsible for the NA compliance framework integration and transformation during the ACE/Chubb merger. Before his time with Chubb, he held various leadership roles with Marsh & McLennan Companies, and prior to joining Marsh, he held compliance and risk management advisory roles for KPMG and PwC. He began his insurance career first as an underwriter for Continental Insurance Company and then as a casualty broker with Alexander & Alexander Insurance Brokerage Firm.

In 2022 and 2024, Michael was named and recognized by Savoy Magazine as one of the most Influential Executives in Corporate America. In 2023, Michael was recognized by the Insurance Brokers Association of New York for the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Awards of Excellence, and he was also named one of Insurance Business America’s Global 100 in 2021 and Hot 100 in 2020. Michael also has been honored by both Syracuse University, receiving the Chancellor’s Citation, in recognition of his significant career and civic achievements, and by Fordham’s Black Law Student Association, receiving the annual Ruth Whitehead Whaley Award for being a prominent alumnus in the field of compliance.

Michael serves on several advisory boards and was elected to the Board of Directors of the Excess Line Association of New York (ELANY) in 2021, where he currently serves as ELANY’s Chairman. He is also a member of Syracuse University Board of Trustees and serves on the Audit and Risk, and Enrollment & the Student Experience Committees. Michael obtained a B.S. in finance from Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management, an MBA from St. John’s University, Maurice R. Greenberg School of Risk Management, Insurance, and Actuarial Science, and a Juris Doctorate from Fordham Law School, where he currently lectures as an adjunct professor.