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Willis Group Holdings extended the contract of its chairman and CEO Joseph J. Plumeri until July 7, 2013. His previous agreement was set to expire on the date of the company’s annual meeting in April 2011.

Global property/casualty insurer Chartis Inc., formerly AIG, named Thomas Scherer senior vice president and general counsel, responsible for worldwide legal operations. Most recently, Scherer worked for seven years at Swiss Re Group, where he served as special litigation counsel and chief compliance officer. While at Swiss Re, he also was chief operating officer and general counsel for the Financial Markets Division and group deputy general counsel. Prior to Swiss Re, Scherer worked at Morgan Stanley in New York and in Hong Kong.

New York-based XL Insurance expanded its U.S. Aviation underwriting team with an aviation branch office in San Francisco, and by adding to its New York-based underwriting staff. In San Francisco, Mark Sacco is officer, class underwriter. XL Insurance also added Karl Jorda as assistant vice president, class underwriter to its New York-based underwriting team.

Jorda has more than 20 years of aviation insurance experience, most recently working as chief underwriting officer – aviation for Britt Paulk. His career also includes underwriting management positions with AXA and United States Aircraft Insurance Group.

Sacco comes from Marsh, where he worked for three years as a vice president in the aviation group. Prior to this position, he spent more than nine years as a general aviation underwriter with United States Aircraft Insurance Group (USAIG) in both Denver and San Francisco.

Alan Schaffer was named vice president of business development at Vanorsdale Insurance Services based in San Diego. Schaffer is the youngest person in the firm’s 60 years history to become an owner, at age 32. He joined Vanorsdale five and half years ago with four years experience working at two smaller insurance brokerages in San Diego.

San Francisco-based Woodruff-Sawyer & Co. named Bruce Okrepkie vice president for the Construction Practice in San Francisco’s North Bay.

Okrepkie started his career as a branch manager for a regional office of San Francisco Federal Savings & Loan. In 1984, he joined Ellingson & Jones/ABD/Wells Fargo Insurance as bond department manager. At Wells Fargo Insurance he handled the surety operations for California and Oregon.

Gallagher Benefit Services Inc. in Greenwood Village, Colo., the employee benefits broker and consultant subsidiary of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., hired Che Yi as senior client consultant with Gallagher Benefit Services,

Yi worked for six years as a consultant with an international human resources and benefits consulting firm in Los Angeles and Denver. He has more than 16 years of employee benefits experience. He also has held a chief administrative office position with a health care center in Pasadena, Calif.

The Engineering Contractors Association (ECA) appointed Joe Costamagna, account executive at San Francisco’s Woodruff-Sawyer & Co., to its board of directors. Costamagna joined Woodruff-Sawyer’s Construction Practice as an account executive in San Francisco’s North Bay in 2009. His focus is on account management, consulting and business development for construction clients.

The Northern California Engineering Contractors Association provides political advocacy, training and education for its member companies, while contributing expertise and labor to local charity projects, primarily in the North Bay counties. In his new role, Costamagna will work with fellow board members to drive decisions on the association’s direction, membership services, and contribution to local construction projects for nonprofits.

Lockton promoted Peter Hall to managing director of its 16-strong Cargo practice. He has 20 years of experience servicing clients in the global cargo insurance market. Hall replaces outgoing Managing Director Brian Murphy, who has become a consultant to Lockton.

Topics USA New York Underwriting Aviation Construction Human Resources