People & Places

Rick Stasi

Dublin, Ohio-based Frank Gates Cos. has promoted Rick Stasi to chief operating officer of its alternative-risk division. He will oversee the management, administration, marketing and client services for Frank Gates Alternative Risk programs, which include Atlantic Gateway International Ltd., a fully owned rent-a-captive facility in Bermuda. Stasi has served as vice president and has earned the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter and Associate Loss Control Management professional designations.

Roger McManus

Roger McManus was recently elected to the board of directors of Westfield Insurance. McManus serves as the president of Westfield Insurance, a leading regional insurance group. He has spent his entire insurance career with Westfield, beginning as a trainee in 1976. Throughout his 28-year career, McManus held various leadership positions within the company, including executive vice president of administration and senior vice president of information systems, Westfield Life and staff operations.

Charles McCaig

McManus currently serves as board director for the Insurance Information Institute, board member of Westfield Financial Co., trustee at Heidelberg College and member of the Medina County University Task Force.

Kerry Guthrie

Chubb chief information officer Charles McCaig was designated the new chair of ACORD‘s board of directors and Barbara Koster, CIO of Prudential Financial, was chosen to be the chair-elect. ACORD, the Agent-Company Organization for Research and Development, works to develop information standards for independent insurance agents and carriers.

Brendan O’Neill

Responsible for information technology, McCaig has been with Chubb since 1991. He chaired the operations committee for the ACORD board of directors. Now he oversees the use of information technology company-wide. Koster heads the formulation of policies, the establishment of standards including the architectures and development of guidelines and management practices.

Other new directors on the ACORD board include Lawrence Brandon of American Institute for CPCU and John Chu, senior vice president for e-business and technology with Hartford Financial Services Group.

Selective Insurance Group Inc. appointed Kerry Guthrie, of Sparta, N.J., to executive vice president and chief investment officer. He was previously senior vice president and chief investment officer. Guthrie was named assistant vice president in 1992 after joining the firm as an investment analyst in 1987. Promoted to vice president in 1996, ultimately promoted to senior vice president and chief investment officer in August 2002.

Anthony Martella Jr. of Lafayette, N.J., will move to senior vice president of Selective’s actuarial reserving department. He had been vice president of the department. Martella joined Selective in 2000 as vice president and associate actuary. Before coming to Selective, he was an assistant vice president with now defunct Reliance Insurance, based in Philadelphia.

Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based provider of property/casualty insurance and reinsurance, appointed Brendan O’Neill to its board of directors.

O’Neill served as chief executive officer of ICI PLC, a specialty chemicals company, from 1998 to 2003. Prior to that, O’Neill was managing director of Guinness Brewing Worldwide from 1993 to 1998, where he helped re-establish its brand image on a global basis. O’Neill held numerous finance roles early in his career at Ford Motor Co., BICC Ltd. and Midland Bank PLC. He currently serves on the boards of Tyco International Ltd. and Rank Group PLC.

Insurance holding company Cincinnati Financial Corp. announced that the boards of its subsidiary companies appointed directors, officers and counsel at their regular meetings on Feb. 5, 2005. New appointments to boards of all three property/casualty insurance subsidiaries and the life insurance subsidiary included three current directors of the parent company: William F. Bahl, chairman of Bahl & Gaynor Inc.; W. Rodney McMullen, vice chairman of Kroger Co.; and E. Anthony Woods, chairman of Deaconess Associations Inc.

Also appointed to the board of the Cincinnati Life Insurance Co. was Glenn D. Nicholson, senior vice president and senior marketing officer of the life insurance subsidiary. The president of CinFin Capital Management Co., Kenneth S. Miller, was appointed to the board of the asset management subsidiary. He also serves as chief investment officer and vice president of the parent company.

Chicago-based Specialty Underwriters’ Alliance Inc., a commercial property/casualty insurance holding company, has appointed Paul Philp to its board of directors. Philp has held numerous senior executive positions throughout his career. He is currently the principal of Willowbrook Innovation Associates, an insurance consulting firm. Prior to Willowbrook, he served as president and CEO at AscendantOne Inc., a technology company offering policy administration solutions to the insurance industry.

Kirk Galasso was named Progressive Insurance Co.’s territory sales manager of the quarter for both Illinois and Missouri in the third quarter of 2004, the company announced in a recent newsletter to agents. Galasso has been with the auto insurance giant for more than two years, calling on agents in North Chicago, Lake and McHenry counties.

San Francisco-based Woodruff-Sawyer and Co. appointed Susan Stone vice president and account executive with the firm’s real estate practice. Stone’s role will be to develop new business opportunities and to provide strategic consulting and brokerage services to Woodruff-Sawyer’s real estate clients.