Frank L. ‘Chip’ Gillis

Chief Executive Officer

As one of the founding executives of Athene Life Re, ‘Chip’ brings experience of Life Insurance and Annuities to the team.

Prior to Athene, Chip was a Senior Managing Director of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. (“BSC”) and Head of Bear, Stearns Insurance Solutions Group that provided advice and solutions to Life and Annuity companies. While there, Chip lead BSC’s entry into the GIC-backed note business and helped create the turn-key Premium Asset Trust Series (“PATS”) program, which was recognized by S&P as the only non-issuer insurance-only program.

Chip built the GIC-backed note business at BSC which consistently ranked in the top 6 dealers in the market.

Prior to joining BSC, Chip spent over 3 years at GenRe Financial Products providing ALM hedging solutions to US Life companies.

Before joining Gen Re Financial Products, Chip was Chief Marketing Officer and board member for Constitution Life. Prior positions included being Managing Director of the ICH companies and being an officer of Southwestern Life and Connecticut Mutual.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Richmond.

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Matthew S. Easley

Chief Actuary

Prior to joining Athene Life Re, Matt was Senior Vice President of Product Management at Allstate Financial.  At Allstate, Matt was responsible for life and annuity product design, pricing, risk analysis and implementation.  In 2008 he led the Fixed Annuity Evaluation Team charged with assessing all aspects of assets, liabilities and new business pricing in light of market conditions, and led the implementation of the necessary changes in 2009.   Most recently Matt joined the Senior Leadership Team and participated in developing the strategic plan for Allstate Financial including the agency distribution system and product calendar.

Previously Matt spent many years at Nationwide Financial Services holding various senior actuarial positions, including Vice President of Annuity and Pension Actuarial and Vice President of Investment Life Actuarial.  His work spanned all of Nationwide’s annuity lines of business and distribution channels, and he was responsible for the investment actuarial team. In his last position with Nationwide, Matt was responsible for pricing, product design, reinsurance, reserves and financial reporting for the fixed annuity and funding agreement business including interest crediting and partnering with investments and ALM on investment and hedging strategies.

During his career, Matt has published articles on risk/utility theory, as well as served on a number of professional boards and committees in the actuarial field, including exam committees, ACLI committees and the board for the OSU actuarial science program.

Matt received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Wooster. He is a Chartered Life Underwriter and has been a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries since 1981.

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Tab Shanafelt

General Counsel

Prior to joining Athene Life Re, Tab was a Managing Director-Principal at Bear, Stearns & Co. (“BSC”) from 1998-2008, most recently in the Structured Equity Products Group where he was part of a newly formed team focused on insurance-linked products. As a member of BSC’s Insurance Solution Group, he helped to design solutions specific to the challenges faced by the firm’s insurance sector clients.

Tab initially joined BSC in 1998 to create and head BSC’s Global Transaction Management Group.

Previously Tab worked for over ten years in a management capacity within the legal departments of Hyundai Capital Services and Nomura Securities International.

Tab has a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from American University in Washington D.C, a J.D. from Pace University School of Law in New York City, and is admitted to the Bar in New York and Connecticut.