Rina Corigliano-Hart

David Tyler

Rina Corigliano-Hart, CLCS, was a stay-at-home mother with two young children when her husband, Fred, came home from work one day with a new life insurance policy that she didn’t think was up to snuff. So, she called the agency who sold him the policy, CNY Health Associates, and told the agent why she didn’t like it and not to submit the policy.

That phone call was the beginning of a career in insurance that has now lasted for more than 20 years. The owner of the agency, Dave Lindberg, must have heard something in Rina’s voice that told him she would fit well in the insurance industry and asked if she would consider coming to work for him.

“He, for whatever reason, thought that I was spunky enough,” Rina said. “Every year after that he said ‘When are you going to work for me. I’d love for you to come work for me.’”

And as soon as her youngest child was ready for preschool, that’s what she did. Rina worked two days a week in the three-person shop, learning the ropes of the industry with Dave and Jan Lindberg, who she describes as her mentors. It was there that she learned the “foundational things,” like how to network and how to have a passion for small business owners.

She was there for four years until Dave Lindberg’s sudden passing. Jan Lindberg, when selling the agency to Business Consulting Group, a unit of OneGroup, made sure that Rina went with the business to the new firm and when she started with BCG, she was fully licensed and ready for a full-time role as an employee benefits consultant.

In that role, Rina managed the employee benefits for members of the Great Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. At the time – prior to health care reform - small businesses could purchase benefit plans through chambers and business organizations and it gave Rina a first-hand look at the valuable services organizations like chambers of commerce could perform for local businesses.

As health care reform came into fruition, Rina saw the need in the small business community for support navigating the many twists and turns that came with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. “Whether you believed in health care reform or not, clients still needed help and guidance in managing that,” Rina said. “And I wanted to be able to say, 20 years from now, or 20 years from then, that I was able to help them with that.”

After seven years as an employee benefits consultant helping clients with their health and dental benefits, in 2016 Rina was tapped to head OneGroup’s newly-created OneSelect Division, a business insurance platform designed exclusively for small, quickly growing companies looking to simplify their operations, reduce their administrative burden, and expand their access to any array of business experts. OneSelect was created for “that tech start-up that knows everything about their business, but knows nothing about running that business,” she said. “One Select was really created to be a concierge type of platform for that.” It also was an opportunity for Rina to take advantage of one of her greatest strengths: networking. She ramped up her involvement in organizations like WISE, the Syracuse Tech Garden, WBOC, and a variety of local chambers of commerce. “That new job with One Select really put me in the position to get out into the community and have conversations with business owners and start-ups and those types of entrepreneurs,” she said. “People get a greater confidence in wanting to do business with you if they see you working in the community.” Of WBOC, Rina said that as a corporate professional, she was initially a little hesitant to get involved with an organization devoted to female entrepreneurs, but the organization has welcomed her with open arms and it has become a wonderful two-way street. “A lot of those women were very much community minded in the same way that I am,” Rina said. “What I found over the years is that the communities that I’ve become a part of seem to all be connected in a really wonderful way. Syracuse is a small enough town that something like that can happen.” Most recently, Rina accepted a position as a OneGroup Business Risk Strategist, working with clients both on a local and national level. In that new role, she consults with clients on various services and solutions including employee health and welfare benefits, business and personal insurance solutions, risk management, claims management and financial services.

Despite growing into a position with both a national and local focus, she remains devoted to the local business and community groups. She currently serves as president of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and serves on the WISE Womens Business Center Advisory Board and is the WISE External Relations Committee Chair. With her children now grown and out of the house, in her free time, she said she enjoys local fairs and festivals and watching local musical acts with Fred.

“Once I became an empty nester,” she said, “my husband and I suddenly discovered that we still like each other, so we’re very much in those newlywed years again.” SWM

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