People

The Main Street America Group board of directors promoted two and appointed two to officer-level positions.

The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company promoted John Thompson to vice president, operational controller and Dean Dorman to assistant vice president, actuarial. The board of directors also appointed Tim Cotton to assistant secretary, director, claims technical and Bruce Fox to assistant secretary, corporate counsel, law.

Thompson, based in the Jacksonville office, provides ongoing financial management guidance to Main Street America’s insurance operations leaders and profit center managers in the areas’ profitability measurements and financial planning. He also oversees corporate planning, budget and cost control, treasury services functions, and financial systems and operations functions.

Prior to joining Main Street America in 1999, Thompson spent 19 years at CIGNA Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa., where he held a variety of management roles including assistant vice president, property and casualty systems; assistant vice president, special risk facilities; and director, multinational financial operations.

Dean Dorman, based in the Keene, N.H. office, is responsible for managing, controlling and interpreting the actuarial analysis and research for Main Street America’s reserving program. Additionally, he is the primary in-house resource, and interface with consultants, for the company’s commercial lines and personal lines predictive modeling initiatives.

Dorman’s reserving duties entail the valuation of liabilities, calculation of reserves, testing of reserve adequacy, asset/liability matching, surplus evaluation, projections of operating gains, cash flow analysis and other financial analysis and reporting for financial statements and forecasts for Main Street America.

Prior to joining Main Street America in 2001, Dorman held several actuarial roles at Liberty Regional Agency Markets, Keene, N.H., including associate actuary – loss reserving and personal lines actuarial manager. His property-casualty industry experience also includes tenures at Guaranty National Insurance Co., Englewood, Colo.; Merchants Insurance Group, Buffalo, N.Y.; and The Travelers Companies, Hartford, Conn.

Cotton, based in Jacksonville, provides strategic direction for the corporate claim technical areas. His responsibilities include controlling average payments and loss adjustment expenses. Cotton also oversees the determination of adequate and consistent reserves.

Prior to joining Main Street America in 2003, Cotton was a claims manager at GMAC Personal Lines Insurance in both its Jacksonville, Fla. and Detroit, Mich., operations. His property-casualty insurance experience also includes several claims management roles at State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company in its Florida territory.

Fox, based in Jacksonville, provides legal advice, counsel and assistance to all company personnel on matters affecting corporate interests of The Main Street America Group and its subsidiary companies. He is accountable for leading the initiative for obtaining new and expanding existing state licenses for Main Street America’s companies.

Prior to joining Main Street America in 2003, Fox was director of legal services for the contract negotiation and benchmarking services division of AMR Research Inc., Boston, Mass. His legal experience also includes roles as managing attorney at American International Group, Boston, and senior trial attorney at two Boston-area law firms.

The Progressive Corp. has named Larry Bloomenkranz as chief marketing officer. Bloomenkranz joins Progressive from United Parcel Service, which he joined in 1989 as international advertising manager. He went on to become director of International Brand Communications before assuming the position of vice president of Brand Management, Advertising and Sponsorships. In that role, he was responsible for global brand strategy, identity and advertising, as well as enterprise-wide sponsorships and events.

New York-based Valiant Insurance Group Inc. has hired James E. Bradley as vice president in charge of Valiant’s Lawyer’s Professional Liability Insurance program for small-size firms.

Bradley, who will be based in Albany, formerly served as vice president with Aon Affinity Insurance Services in Latham, N.Y. During his career, he’s also held a variety of management positions at JLT Services Corp., A.W. Lawrence Group, Marsh & McLennan Inc., Alexander & Alexander Inc. and Wausau Insurance Co.

Two others have joined Valiant to support Bradley: Diane Nordby, who joins Valiant as assistant vice president and underwriter, and Rachel Austin who joins as assistant underwriter.

Nordby has been a professional liability underwriter at Aon Affinity Insurance Services and JLT Services Corp. for nearly 20 years, and has extensive experience building profitable books of specialty E&O business, Valiant said.

Austin has more than nine years of experience in the property casualty program insurance arena, most recently at Aon Affinity Insurance Services.

Robert Courtemanche has been named chief executive officer of ACE Private Risk Services. Courtemanche, based in Madison, N.J., will direct the overall growth and profitability of ACE’s personal insurance lines, including ACE Recreational Marine and Private Risk Services, which provides specialty coverage for affluent individuals and families.

In addition to his North American responsibilities, Courtemanche will partner with the ACE Overseas General leadership team in leading ACE’s expansion into the high-net-worth businesses across the globe.

Courtemanche has more than 20 years of personal lines insurance industry experience, with a special focus affluent clients. He joins ACE from Fireman’s Fund, where he served as president of its Personal Insurance business. He previously served as senior vice president of American International Group’s Private Client group.

Gov. Phil Bredesen appointed two new members to the Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Advisory Council. Katherine D. Boyte, of Nashville and Bruce D. Fox of Knoxville will serve on a team whose duty is to provide information, research and recommendations concerning workers’ compensation issues to the Tennessee General Assembly, the Department of Commerce and Insurance and the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Topics Property Casualty Professional Liability