Growth & commercial strategy
Pressure-test the opportunity and make deliberate choices about where, how, and when to grow.
- Business model and value proposition
- Pricing and revenue strategy
- Market entry and growth priorities
- Go-to-market sequencing
Growth strategy · Commercial development
A clear path from
business potential
to commercial progress.
Independent counsel for leaders building, growing, or repositioning a business. Deep experience in employee benefits and insurance. A practical perspective for founder-led companies across industries.
30+ yearsEmployee benefits & insurance leadership
15+ councilsNational healthcare & group insurance advisory councils
Hundreds of companies evaluatedCommercial viability, distribution potential, and stakeholder value—assessed together.
Advisory services
Make the next business
decision a better one.
A strong offering needs a viable business model, a credible route to the buyer, and an organization that can execute. Devonwood helps leaders work through those decisions together.
Channels & strategic partnerships
Understand how decisions get made—and build a distribution approach that reflects how buyers actually buy.
- Broker, consultant, and employer channels
- Direct and intermediary distribution
- Partner strategy and positioning
- Commercial readiness for channel expansion
Board, executive & founder counsel
Bring an experienced outside perspective to the choices that shape the business and its next stage.
- Founder support at growth inflection points
- Commercial organization and priorities
- Board governance and strategic oversight
- Purpose-driven business models
Who Devonwood helps
Specialist depth.
A broader business lens.
Devonwood’s advisory work draws on deep employee benefits expertise and extends to businesses facing familiar commercial questions in very different markets.
Insurance brokerage & consulting firms
Leaders evaluating growth priorities, specialty practices, carrier relationships, commercial organization, or the integration of businesses into a national platform.
Benefits providers & technology companies
Teams with a compelling solution that need to sharpen their positioning and establish or expand distribution through brokers, consultants, and employers.
Founders & growing businesses
Owners who need a practical sounding board for business model design, pricing, partnerships, and the transition from a promising idea to a sustainable commercial operation.
Selected advisory work
Commercial questions.
Different contexts.
Advisory experience spans early-stage ventures, growing businesses, and technology-enabled services. Each engagement starts with the company’s actual challenge.
High-end custom knitwear
Consumer brand · Growth stageCounsel on pricing, operations, sales growth, and channel expansion—developing an intermediary strategy alongside direct-to-consumer sales within a business model that incorporates charitable giving.
Veterinary telehealth
Technology-enabled services · Growth stageCommercial strategy and go-to-market guidance for a remote veterinary care company, including the potential of employer and employee benefits distribution channels.
Educational consulting
Founder-led venture · Early stageHands-on founder counsel across value proposition, business model design, pricing, and distribution—pressure-testing assumptions and developing the commercial framework for growth.
Wellness & philanthropy technology
Corporate wellness · International marketsAdvice on commercial strategy, product positioning, and benefits channel distribution for a gamification-based wellness and employer-sponsored giving platform across US, UK, and European markets.
Company names are withheld to preserve confidentiality.
Board leadership & governance
Experience at the board table.
Perspective beyond the business.
Jon’s board service complements his executive career with experience in governance, strategic oversight, and organizational direction. He brings that perspective to founders, leadership teams, and boards working through growth and transition.
Council of Employee Benefits Executives
Chairman · Vice Chairman · Board Member2012–2023 · Washington, DC
More than a decade of industry leadership
Served as Chairman, Vice Chairman, and board member of CEBE, a national association for the employee benefits ecosystem. Provided strategic oversight and governance leadership, helped shape the organization’s direction, and represented the industry in legislative and regulatory matters.
Brantley Risk Management School
Board Member · Employee Benefits Subcommittee Leader2018–Present · Appalachian State University
Connecting industry experience with future talent
Serves on the board of the Brantley Risk Management School at Appalachian State University’s Walker College of Business and chairs its Employee Benefits subcommittee. Contributes commercial and industry expertise to benefits-related academic initiatives and the development of the next generation of insurance professionals.
What this brings to an advisory engagement
A perspective that considers both execution and oversight: challenging strategic assumptions, connecting growth priorities to the organization’s purpose, and helping leadership work through decisions with governance accountability in mind.
Leadership
Jon Trevisan
President, Devonwood Advisors
An operator’s understanding of growth, with a view across the employee benefits ecosystem.
Jon brings more than 30 years of leadership at national insurance companies and global brokerage and consulting firms. He has served on more than 15 national advisory councils for healthcare and group insurance companies.
In his leadership roles, Jon evaluated hundreds of companies while seeking to expand client offerings. He assessed each through the lens of the broker, the employer client, and the end user—considering how an offering would reach the market, meet a client need, and deliver value to the people using it. Some of those evaluations led to strategic partnerships.
His perspective connects strategy to the realities of distribution, buyer decisions, partner economics, and organizational execution.
Connect with Jon on LinkedInPrudential
2024–2026Head of Distribution
Led a 280-person organization managing a $5.8B group insurance premium portfolio and generating $500M+ in annual new sales. Exceeded plan in sales, net revenue growth, and persistency each year of tenure.
McGriff
2017–2023National Practice Leader, Employee Benefits
Led the national employee benefits practice, with $270M in annual EB revenue. Built specialty practices and integrated four brokerage operations into a unified national platform.
WTW
1996–2017National brokerage & practice leadership
Served as North American Health & Benefits Chief Broking Officer and National Mid-Market Practice Leader. Managed a $4B premium placement operation and directed national carrier relations.
The working approach
Start with the decision.
Work toward action.
Advice should help leadership make choices and move the business forward. The starting point is the issue you need to resolve.
Understand the business
Clarify the opportunity, the buyer, the commercial model, and the constraints. Identify where an outside perspective will be most useful.
Challenge the assumptions
Examine the strategy, economics, positioning, and route to market. Work through the tradeoffs before committing time and capital.
Define the next moves
Translate the discussion into priorities and practical steps that leadership can act on, with a clear view of what needs to happen first.
Start a conversation
What are you
working through?
A growth opportunity. A distribution challenge. A business model that needs a closer look. Share a little about your company and the decision in front of you.