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Heffernan Insurance Brokers headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., hired Keith W. Newell as senior vice president, Southern California Construction Practice Leader in its Los Angeles office. Newell will expand Heffernan’s construction insurance portfolio and provides more than two decades of surety bonding experience to the firm’s Southern California clients. Prior to joining Heffernan, Newell was president of Allied North America Insurance Brokers of Los Angeles LLC. He has 10 years of experience as an underwriter and manager at leading national surety companies.

San Francisco-based Woodruff-Sawyer & Co. named Matt Healy vice president, executive benefits and succession planning. He will work with clients to protect and preserve their personal and business assets. For more than 20 years, Healy has been using his insurance and legal expertise to help clients make informed decisions regarding complex estate, business and insurance planning issues. Before joining Woodruff-Sawyer, he was a regional specialist at TIME Financial Services.

K. Patrick Armstrong joined the executive team at New York-based ReSource Pro as a business process consultant. Armstrong will work with insurance agencies, brokers, MGAs and carriers to implement insurance process outsourcing. Patrick joins ReSource Pro with 20 years of insurance experience, most recently as vice president and principal of L.V. Toole Insurance Agency Inc. of Lee, Mass. Prior to that, he was a reinsurance broker with PWS (USA) Inc. in New York. Armstrong, who will maintain executive sales responsibility for a significant portion of the United States, will be based in Dayton, Ohio.

National insurance program administrator Thomco of Kennesaw, Ga., promoted John Clark and Monica Clark (not related) to senior vice president positions.

John, previously vice president of Specialty Programs, has taken over the Tanning Salon Division and elements of the firm’s Fitness Club business, in addition to prior duties.

Monica, previously vice president of Healthcare and Social Services, added Childcare and Schools to her responsibilities. Each has more than 19 years employment with Thomco.

ACE Westchester, the Philadelphia-based wholesale-focused P/C operation of the ACE Group, appointed Bruce Kessler president of ACE Westchester Casualty and Specialty Lines. Based in Atlanta, Kessler will lead efforts in business development, strategic direction and implementation of underwriting strategy and product development of all casualty, environmental, transportation, and management and professional liability products and services. Kessler is a 28-year veteran of the insurance industry, having most recently served as executive vice president and chief underwriting officer, Insurance-North America, at ACE. He has also held a number of senior underwriting positions with American-Re Insurance Co., NAC Reinsurance Co. and General Reinsurance Co.

Travelers promoted Bill Cunningham to executive vice president of its Business Insurance segment. Cunningham began his career with Travelers in 1987 in Commercial Accounts and has held a number of positions, including leadership roles in the Travelers Construction, National Accounts and Commercial Accounts businesses. He succeeds John Albano, who will take on a part-time role at Travelers.

Mark Little was hired by San Diego-based Cavignac & Associates as surety account manager. Little brings to Cavignac & Associates five years of experience in the construction and surety industry. In his new position, he is charged with supporting and expanding the bond services provided to the agency’s construction clients. His employment background includes having served four years as a surety underwriter for a national surety company. Most recently, he worked with a contracting/consulting firm for which he coordinated projects, consulted with clients, programmed automation software, and trained the clients’ employees on various hardware and software interfaces.

Topics Agencies Reinsurance Construction