People

Miami insurance agent Alex Soto has been inaugurated as the new president of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”), with Robert E. Fulwider assuming the office of president-elect and C. Brett Nilsson assuming the vice president role.

Soto is president of Miami-Fla.-based InSource Inc. He has been active in the Big “I” nationally and in the Florida Association of Independent Agents during his 34-year career as an independent agent. He is a past chairman of the FAIA and also a past director on IIABA’s national board. He has served as chairman of the Big “I” Communications Committee, Branding Task Force and other committees.

Fulwider is principal and president of the Ray Wuestenberg Agency Inc. in West Liberty, Iowa, and of the Fulwider Agency Inc. in West Branch, Iowa. He also is president of Bob Fulwider and Associates, a life and health financial-planning agency in eastern Iowa. He is a past president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Iowa and currently sits on its Education Committee.

Nilsson is senior vice president for The Buckner Co., based in Salt Lake City. Nilsson was president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Utah from 1992-’93. He also was a director on the Big “I” national board for nine years. Nilsson was chairman of IIABA’s Finance Committee, which he chaired from 1999-2003, and served on IIABA’s Communications Committee.

Strategic Independent Agents Alliance promoted Bill DeChard to executive vice president for marketing and consolidations. He will serve as a senior marketing officer responsible for distribution of services and products.

DeChard joined the New Hampshire-headquartered SIAA three years ago as a member of the SIAA senior management team with the task of working on the recruitment of agencies. He previously worked as a retail producer, Florida surplus lines agent and owned a retail agency.

Praetorian Financial Group, a U.S. specialty insurer based in New York and subsidiary of Hannover Re, appointed Jason G. Holmes as senior vice president and property practice leader. Before joining Praetorian, Holmes was at GEP II, an affiliate of Global Excess Partners, where he was responsible for underwriting all lines of property business.

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Zurich Insurance promoted John LaGrassa to senior vice president and director of ceded reinsurance. He will be responsible for all of Zurich’s ceded reinsurance functions in North America. LaGrassa also will have governance responsibility for treaty, captive and facultative reinsurance. LaGrassa joined Zurich in 2003.

On the heels of its fifth anniversary, Mystic Capital Advisors Group LLC out of New York announced the newest member of its investment banking team: Allen Go, a senior associate. Go is relocating from Philadelphia to become a part of Mystic Capital’s New York City office. He will primarily focus on North American-based insurance transactions.

ACE Bermuda appointed Anup Seth as managing director of ACE European Markets. He will assume responsibility for the general day-to-day management of ACE’s Dublin-based operation. Seth started his career with ACE in 2001 and has held various actuarial, modeling, reserving and management roles.

Colemont Insurance Brokers opened a new office in Phoenix, with Marc Adler and Tim Downey managing the new office as senior vice presidents. Colemont-Phoenix is a full service wholesale brokerage office that will be a part of Colemont’s Southern California operations.

Prior to joining Colemont, Adler and Downey founded Adler Downey of Arizona Inc. in 1998 and grew the company to more than $80 million in premium. Adler has spent his career in insurance, working as a company underwriter before joining the surplus lines industry in 1988. Downey worked as a Lloyd’s broker in London before returning to the United States to work as a program manager and surplus lines broker.

Arrowhead Wholesale Insurance Services Inc. in San Diego appointed Dave Chipp marketing representative. He will be responsible for expanding the company’s market saturation through appointing additional producers, training new and existing producers on Arrowhead Wholesale’s commercial and personal lines markets, and conducting agency visits. He previously was account executive for the company in charge of marketing, accounting, production and customer service for Arrowhead Wholesale High Value agents.

WKF&C Agency Inc., an excess and surplus lines managing general agent in New York, added a regional office in Southern California. Bill Kropp has been hired as vice president and will spearhead the operation from the new offices in Woodland Hills.

Kropp is a property specialist who will be writing small, medium and large property accounts. He will also be responsible for all activities for the new California office. He will be handling both new and renewal business for: California, Arizona, Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Crump Insurance Services Inc. is opening a new branch office in Denver to be headed by Joe Benkelman, whose expertise is large, complex property casualty risks with a heavy emphasis on the residential construction business. Benkelman has 16 years of experience as a broker and branch manager. Most recently, he was vice president and a top producer for a national wholesale broker.

Oregon Mutual Insurance Co. named Steven L. Patterson as vice president-general counsel. In that position, Patterson will implement “best practices” in the legal area with all corporate OMI divisions in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Patterson has more than 20 years serving in professional, legal, legislative and regulatory disciplines within the insurance industry.He most recently worked as Texas counsel for State Farm Insurance. Oregon Mutual Insurance Co. sells property and casualty insurance in four western states: Oregon, California, Idaho and Washington.