People & Places

Kay W. McCurdy

The Board of Directors of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. elected Kay W. McCurdy to serve on its board of directors.

Bernhard Steves

McCurdy began her career in 1975 as an attorney at Lord, Bissell & Brook in Chicago and has more than 30 years’ experience in their firm’s general corporate, finance and mergers and acquisition areas. She earned her bachelor of administration from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., and her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. In 2004, McCurdy received the Leading Lawyer in Banking Law honor from Leading Lawyers Network and in 2005 was selected as an Illinois Super Lawyer in Corporate Finance.

Christopher Nickele

McCurdy currently serves as a director of Trek Bicycle Corporation in Waterloo, Wis., and a director of the WBEZ Alliance Inc., Chicago’s public radio station.

Charles Makey II

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, is headquartered in Itasca, Ill., has operations in seven countries and does business in more than 110 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

Linda Pratt

Bernhard Steves and Stuart Hanfling have joined Colemont Insurance Brokers. Steves and Hanfling are recognized as the country’s leading product recall, contamination, and food borne illness insurance specialists and will be responsible for developing Colemont’s new Product Recall Team.

The team brings years of experience from both the underwriting and specialty brokering disciplines. They have worked with some of the largest companies in the United States, including numerous Fortune 500 companies, to address product recall, contamination and food borne illness exposures.

Prior to joining Colemont, Steves and Hanfling headed up Swett & Crawford’s Specialty Team focusing on recall and contamination insurance and were responsible for building it into the largest facility of its kind in the country.

Steves is a graduate of the University of Arizona and holds a master’s in International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management.

Hanfling is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Both are licensed surplus lines brokers and members of the Illinois Surplus Lines Association.

Colemont Insurance Brokers is a wholesale specialty insurance broker with 400 insurance professionals in 15 offices across the country and placed $1 billion in gross premium last year.

Conseco Inc. has named Christopher J. Nickele executive vice president for new product development of the company.

As executive vice president, Nickele will be responsible for new product development and management on an enterprise-wide basis, overseeing activities at Conseco Insurance Group, Bankers Life and Casualty Company, and Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company.

Nickele joins Conseco from Lincoln Financial Group, where he was vice president and business line leader, general manager and FPP Director for Lincoln’s Term line of business. He has also held other key actuarial positions at First Penn-Pacific, Zurich Kemper Life, and Conseco’s Bankers Life and Casualty unit. He holds a degree in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame.

Conseco Inc.’s insurance companies specialize in Medicare supplement, long-term care, cancer, heart/stroke and accident policies.

Merchants Insurance Group has promoted Charles E. Makey IIto vice president of its central states regional office in Columbus, Ohio.

Makey will be responsible for all regional oeprations in Ohio and Michigan, overseeing underwriting, sales and marketing staff in the Columbus office, and responsible for the growth and profit of the expansion states.

Makey has been with Merchants since 1996, first as director of sales, then as assistant vice president/regional manager of the New England regional office in New Hampshire.

Merchants Insurance Group, based in Buffalo, N.Y., provides personal and commercial insurance through more than 500 independent agents throughout the Northeast and Midwest.

Integro has appointed Linda Pratt principal, client services for the company’s Chicago office.

Pratt has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, most recently serving as SVP Risk Management Casualty Team Leader, Casualty Client Advisor and Multi-Lines Placement Specialist for Marsh’s Chicago office. She has also held positions with Travelers, Aetna and Corroon & Black.

Integro, through its subsidiaries, is an insurance brokerage and risk management firm specializing in the insurance and risk management needs of large and/or complex institutional risks. Headquartered in New York, Integro has offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Bermuda, Toronto and Montreal.

ACE USA appointed Patricia Rindels as branch manager of its new Cleveland branch office, which will serve Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky. Rindels will work closely with brokers and clients in Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky to cultivate relationships and expand ACE USA’s local presence. She also will oversee the branch’s production plan, distribution, product sales and marketing, and general operations.

Rindels most recently served as business development manager for ACE USA International & Specialty Group, where her responsibilities included sales and marketing, with an emphasis on cross-divisional sales opportunities, in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. She has 35 years of experience in the commercial insurance industry, including sales, underwriting and management positions at ACE USA and an ACE predecessor company, Continental Insurance, General Accident, Royal Insurance and St. Paul.

ACE USA is the U.S.-based retail operating division of the ACE Group of Companies, headed by ACE Limited. Through its underwriting companies, ACE USA provides insurance products and services throughout the U.S.

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