People

Zurich Financial Services Group has appointed Maine Insurance Superintendent Alessandro A. Iuppa as head of Government and Industry Affairs for General Insurance, and as chief government affairs officer, North America. Both appointments are effective Jan. 15, 2007. Based in Washington, D.C., Iuppa will represent Zurich with various governmental and industry bodies at the federal and state levels in the U.S., as well as globally for general insurance.

Iuppa is currently Maine Superintendent of Insurance. He is just ending a term as president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Iuppa also serves as chair of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), representing the U.S. Within the NAIC, Iuppa also served on the International Insurance Committee.

West Virginia workers’ compensation writer BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. announced five new members to its underwriting team. Daniel Feigel will serve as an underwriter for the Coal Business Team. He previously worked as a coal underwriting specialist with Kentucky Employers’ Mutual Insurance located in Lexington.

BrickStreet also added the following underwriters to its staff: David Persinger; Sara Telisko; Charles Waugh and Michael Shafer.

Two investigators with the North Carolina Department of Insurance, Chet Effler of Marion, N.C., and Martha Ann Ford of Chester, S.C., have been honored for their work on insurance fraud cases in 2006.

Effler received an award from Travelers Insurance Co. and Ford was commended by the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Insurance Commissioner Jim Long was on hand at the event to congratulate the two law enforcement officers.

A DOI investigator since 2004, Effler was a detective sergeant with the Marion Police Department and then a state magistrate in Marion before joining the DOI. During 2006, he has achieved five convictions of individuals involved in insurance fraud and secured recoveries and restitution of $113,000. He recently headed the investigation into a large staged accident ring that resulted in the arrest of 10 people in the Shelby area.

Ronnie Dean and Walt Woloszczuk, special agents with the National Insurance Crime Bureau, presented Ford her award. Her work, he told her, “resulted in over $2 million ordered in restitution and unknown millions of dollars in savings to the insurance industry. Your initiative, your leadership and attention to detail were a major component in the successful resolution of these cases. These cases literally could not have been successful without your efforts.”

Burns & Wilcox, the Farmington Hills, Mich.-based national specialty insurance wholesaler, has bolstered its team with the addition of Buzz Harrison, who joins the company’s new Greensboro, N.C. office as a broker. Harrison has 30 years of experience in commercial lines, specializing in hard-to-place risks. At the Greensboro office, Harrison will concentrate on commercial lines including directors and officers, errors and omissions, property coverages, environmental, products liability, contractors and umbrellas. Previously, Harrison worked for Delaware Valley Underwriters Agency in Greensboro, where he served as vice president.

The newly opened Greensboro office will initially concentrate on commercial lines and will open up the market in northern North Carolina, as well as in Virginia.

Workers’ compensation insurer SeaBright Insurance Co. is moving forward with plans to establish a new regional office in Atlanta. This new office will have responsibility for the newly created southeastern region, comprised of selected southeastern states formerly served by its Houston office, which will now focus solely on the Gulf states. SeaBright’s Tampa office now reports to Atlanta.

Joe Geracie has been named senior resident vice president and will lead all operations in the new region. Geracie comes to SeaBright having worked his entire 32-year career in this region.

John Campbell and Mark Bradway have joined PWIB, a wholesale insurance broker headquartered in Atlanta. Both will be located in the New York, N.Y., office. Campbell has been named assistant vice president in the property department and Bradway has been named financial service broker.

Campbell has been in the insurance industry for 23 years on both the retail and wholesale side. He comes to PWIB from Privett Special Risk Services where he was vice president.

Bradway has been in the insurance industry since 1999. He was a producer at Bisys/Tri-City before joining PWIB.

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