C. John Keane, Jr., founder and president of the Keane Insurance Group, was honored as an inductee to the Webster Groves High School Wall of Fame on September 14, 2013 at the induction ceremony and dinner held at the St. Louis Soccer Park. Mr. Keane was selected for the prestigious award because of his charitable work in helping care for orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti after the 2010 earthquakes as well as his success in the medical professional liability insurance business and the healthcare industry.
Keane established the Haiti Orphan Project (HOPE) in 2010 to help provide food, shelter, education, and spiritual and medical care for children who had lost their homes or families. Through fund raising efforts and personal donations, Keane has built a children’s home called, Village de Vie, which means, “Village of Life,” north of Port au Prince. Traveling to Haiti at least 4 times each year has provided Keane an opportunity to oversee the work being done on the village and to personally get to know the children it serves. In addition, more than 20 employees of the Keane Insurance Group have been able to visit the children in Haiti, thanks to Keane’s arrangement of quarterly trips. The goal for the village is to one day house up to 100 children and to provide education for up to 250 children at a time. His latest initiative, HOPE Medical Project, seeks to provide medical and dental care to the orphanages as well as the wider community in Haiti. Keane has been taking physicians, dentists and nurses to care for those in need over the last 2 years.
Keane’s business success has come through serving the medical community and healthcare providers here at home, by providing medical professional liability insurance to doctors, surgery centers and hospitals. Established in 1995, the Keane Group has steadily grown and now has over 4,000 physician and hospital clients in 46 different states. With offices in Kirkwood, Chicago, Kansas City, and Austin, the Keane Group is one of the largest independent brokers of medical malpractice insurance in the country. Much of the agency’s growth can be attributed to Keane’s innovative approach, building one of the industry’s first online malpractice insurance quote websites, eQuoteMD. Keane also established an electronic medical records company which was recently sold to a national healthcare corporation.
In response to receiving the honor of induction into the Wall of Fame, Keane said, “I am humbled to be listed among the current and previous inductees.” He added, “The values that have helped me in business: Hard work, honesty, and service, are values that I learned from my family and from the teachers and coaches in Webster Groves.”
Keane was inducted into the Wall of Fame this year along with his brother, Jeff Keane, founder of Coolfire Media in St. Louis, David Peacock, former president of Anheuser-Busch, and David Hinson, National Director of the Minority Business Development Agency for the U.S. Department of Commerce, as well as 7 other outstanding leaders in the areas of business, medicine, science, and politics. Past inductees include Russ Mitchell, William Webster and Don Breckenridge. The awards were presented by Webster Groves School District Superintendent, Dr. Sarah Riss, Webster Groves High School Principal, Dr. Jon Clark, and Director of Alumni Relations, Patricia Voss.
The Webster Groves High School Wall of Fame was established in 1989 as part of the Renaissance Program to recognize the accomplishments of its graduates. So far, 72 alumni have been inducted into the Wall of Fame. Nominations can be submitted through the Alumni Relations website.