About
JOHN W. BARRETT
John W. Barrett is the founder of Health Insurance Brokers. The firm was created in 2004 to capitalize upon the upheaval in the health insurance industry, and the subsequent trend toward consumer driven health care. The mission of the firm is to meet the needs of individuals, business owners and their employees seeking affordable health insurance and related employee benefits. Mr. Barrett also is the Founder and President of Palisades Capital Group, a Southern California investment banking advisory and valuation firm.
After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Mr. Barrett began his career in the financial services industry in 1972, as a stockbroker with Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards a Los Angeles based regional investment banking firm. In 1976, he joined the management of Paine Webber in their Los Angeles Regional Office. During his tenure, he established the high-yield fixed income sales operation in Southern California. While at Paine Webber he was instrumental in the restructuring of a number of publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT’s) in conjunction with the firm’s New York fixed income trading operation.
Mr. Barrett continued his work with high-yield securities and in 1980 joined Oppenheimer & Company to enhance their Southern California high-yield, risk and tax arbitrage capabilities. After Oppenheimer and the related partnerships were sold in mid 1982, he was recruited to join the New York and Paris based A.G. Becker/Paribas as Vice President/Sales Manager for Tax Arbitrage in New York City. Mr. Barrett participated in the structuring and sales of a number of sophisticated securities and insurance transactions used by corporations and high net worth individual investors to reduce or adjust their tax liabilities.
After the sale of the firm by its French Partner Paribas in late 1984, Mr. Barrett joined the institutional trading firm Jefferies & Company in Los Angeles. Working directly with Boyd Jefferies, he expanded the firm’s ability to offer various tax arbitrage strategies for its corporate, institutional, and high net worth clientele.
In 1988, he was appointed Senior Managing Principal and member of the board of directors of a regional investment banking firm headquartered in Southern California. In that capacity, he formed the corporate finance, insurance, institutional sales and trading departments. Through his efforts, the firm was recognized in January 1989, as the first full service securities brokerage approved under the new Women Business Enterprise (WBE) regulations by the State of California.
In September 1991, Mr. Barrett founded Palisades Capital to offer investment banking advisory services, valuation, research, and consulting services to privately held enterprises, and those companies trading on the Electronic Bulletin Board (EBB) and “Pink Sheets” (PK). During the 1990’s, the firm advised a number of private and public companies in their initial public (“IPO”), secondary offering’s. The firm currently offers public companies assistance in compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, such as general valuation and fairness opinions, including those involving restricted and unregistered securities, and shareholder rights plans.
Mr. Barrett advises the management and boards of a number of public and private companies, including several non-profit organizations. He is a frequent lecturer to business and government sponsored forums, and has written articles for a number of Southern California newspapers and magazines, and has appeared on local radio and cable television programs.
KATHLEEN BARRETT
Kathleen Barrett is Director of Administration and Research for Health Insurance Brokers. Ms. Barrett is responsible for the administration and operations, and providing general economic, insurance and medical industry related research to our business clients and industry. Ms. Barrett is also serves as Research Director, and Manager of Consulting Services for Palisades Capital Group.
Ms. Barrett has been active in the business and academic communities for over 37 years. In addition to her association with Health Insurance Brokers, for the last 17 years she has been responsible for the research and managing consulting services offered by Palisades Capital Group.
In addition, she regularly acts as a free-lance editor for manuscripts and business reports for traditional and on-line publications, and edits academic research papers for various publications. As an example, from 1998 until 2000, she also provided consulting, communication and administration services for a Public Health Project conducted at Rand Corporation.
During the late 1990s, she was a Lecturer and Instructor in the California State University and Junior College Systems. From 1991 until 1997, she lectured in the fields of United States Business and Economic history, as well as Japanese History, at the University of Southern California. In addition, during the 1990s, she provided services as the Assistant Speechwriter for President Stephen Sample of the University of Southern California.
During the late 1970’s, she was a stockbroker with the investment banking firms of Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards, and Paine Webber in Southern California. From 1971 through 1975, she was a Lecturer at USC, and in during 1975 traveled to Tehran, Iran on behalf of the University of Southern California to assist in the establishment of the USC American Language Institute for the Iranian Government.
Ms. Barrett received a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies (Phi Beta Kappa), an MBA in Corporate Finance (Beta Gamma Sigma), and Masters Degrees in Business and Economic History, Asian Studies, and Linguistics from the University of Southern California. She has completed her written and oral exams leading to a PhD in Business and Economic History.
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