People

Juan Andrade stepped down as Commercial Markets president at The Hartford to join Ace as president of the insurers’ Global Personal Lines and Small Commercial Insurance division. He will assume the new position with Ace in December. Andrade joined The Hartford in 2006, after holding senior management positions with The Progressive Corp. He began his career at AIG.

Professional services firm Towers Watson named Sean P. McDermott director of P&C consulting services.

McDermott, who is based in the company’s Philadelphia office, is responsible for expanding the company’s presence in the P&C insurance market, with a focus of helping Towers Watson’s clients better understand and address the complex issues that arise in an acquisition.

Prior to joining Towers Watson, McDermott was executive vice president and chief actuary for AXIS Insurance, where he coordinated worldwide actuarial services. He has domestic and international experience in all major casualty, professional and property lines of business, and was a member of the AXIS Insurance management team. Before joining AXIS, McDermott was senior vice president & actuary at American Re-Insurance (now Munich Re).

Liberty Northwest, a Liberty Mutual Agency Markets regional company, appointed Danny R. Schamma to vice president, finance. He will direct the business planning process, oversee financial reporting and analysis, and develop and implement strategies for expense management. He will be based in the company’s home office in Portland, Ore.

Schamma has more than 20 years of financial management and analysis experience in the property and casualty insurance industry. He began his career with Liberty Mutual Group in 1988 as a credit analyst in Williamsport, Pea. From 1998 to 2009, he was the division finance manager for Liberty Mutual in Columbus, Ohio.

EPIC (Edgewood Partners Insurance Center), a retail property, casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage, added Bill Merget and Mike Ryan as principals in the firm’s branch office in Petaluma, Calif. The pair bring to EPIC a combined 35 years of experience in commercial property/casualty insurance and risk management, focused on the needs of North Bay business and industry including wine making, construction, nonprofits and the public sector. They will share responsibility for all operations in the North Bay, including strategic planning and management; new business development; strategic market and vendor relationships; and overall client satisfaction. The new North Bay office will become a part of EPIC’s Bay Area Division, which now includes offices in San Francisco, San Mateo, San Ramon and Petaluma.

Prior to joining EPIC, Merget and Ryan spent many years serving North Bay clients at ABD Insurance and Financial Services in Petaluma, Calif., now a part of Wells Fargo Insurance following an acquisition in 2007.

Construction insurance specialists Sherri Lund-Fery and Dave Van Gordon joined the Elliott, Powell, Baden & Baker Insurance team. Lund-Fery and Van Gordon are both Certified Insurance Specialists in Construction (CISC) and come to EPB&B with more than 20 years experience insuring residential and commercial builders and trade contractors throughout the Northwest. Together they will lead a new Construction Insurance Unit for EPB&B.

Elliott, Powell, Baden & Baker is an independent insurance agency that provides specialized insurance products and services to Northwest consumers.

Signature Select LLC, a retail insurance broker subsidiary of The IMA Financial Group Inc., expanded its personal lines insurance practice in Denver. Nate Bell joined the company as development executive, and Debbie Marmitt came on board as private client advisor.

Bell is a seasoned personal lines broker with 10 years of insurance sales, marketing and agency management experience. He was most recently a managing partner for a Portland, Ore., insurance company.

Marmitt has more than 20 years of insurance experience including significant sales and account management experience at several leading insurance agencies. She specializes in assisting high-net-worth clientele.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry recognized SCF Arizona President and CEO Don Smith for his vision for positive change in public policy by awarding him its Transformational Leader Award for 2010.

Under Smith’s 10-year leadership, the 85-year-old State Compensation Fund was transformed into SCF Arizona, the state’s largest Arizona-based insurance company. Smith took on all aspects of the corporate entity and changed every part of the company, according to the organization. SCF Arizona is now the state’s largest workers’ compensation insurer, providing coverage to more than 35,000 active policyholders and some 500,000 employees statewide. It holds $3.4 billion in assets and employs more than 500 people.

Smith fundamentally changed the way SCF Arizona does business by updating outmoded computer systems as well as changing from a general services company responding to questions and concerns to a customer-facing company working to anticipate future customer needs.

Anderson & Murison Inc. made two promotions in its Personal Lines Department. Kris Pappas is vice president – personal lines. She has been with A&M for more than 12 years, and has led the expansion of A&M’s personal umbrella business. Monica Reyes is now a manager with responsibility for underwriting homeowners and dwelling fire business. She joined A&M in 2003.

Unified Investigations & Sciences Inc. of Sacramento, Calif., added Thomas Derby to its team of professional origin and cause investigators. He resides in Altadena, Calif., and will provide investigative services to clients throughout California. Derby joins UIS following a career as a firefighter, peace officer, and training office and fire investigator with the city of Los Angeles Fire Department. He also served in the U.S. Navy and was honorably discharged. He is a member of the California Conference of Arson Investigators.

EPIC (Edgewood Partners Insurance Center) appointed Dana Liedel to an executive leadership role in the firm’s Employee Benefits Consulting Practice.

Liedel joined EPIC as principal and corporate development officer in November 2009. She now will be responsible for strategic planning and management; new business development; building EPIC’s Employee Benefits brand; strategic market and vendor relationships.

Leavitt Insurance Agency of San Diego, a Leavitt Group affiliate, hired Matthew Martinez as a licensed insurance agent. Before joining the agency, Martinez completed an extensive training at the Leavitt Group’s headquarters in Cedar City, Utah. Previously, he was vice president of employee benefits for Lawson-Hawks Insurance Services.

Colorado Casualty, a Liberty Mutual Agency Markets regional company, appointed Diane Nance-Ona as territory manager for Nevada. She will implement operational strategies and marketing plans to enhance existing agency relationships and identify prospects for agency expansion and commercial lines new business growth in Nevada.

Nance-Ona comes to Colorado Casualty from The Hartford, where she was a sales representative since 2007. She has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry.

Utah’s Labor Commission appointed Ron Dressler director of the agency’s Industrial Accidents Division. The division monitors and administers Utah’s workers’ compensation program and makes sure businesses comply with requirements to provide workers’ compensation insurance. It also helps injured workers resolve disputes. Dressler was previously the division’s deputy director and was its policy coordinator. Before working in state government, Dressler worked as a lawyer in a private practice in Utah and Ohio. A focus of Dressler’s new position will be to move the division toward more automation and improved efficiencies.

San Diego-based risk management firm Cavignac & Associates named Gerrit (Gary) Brouwer surety department manager.

A 29-year veteran of the surety bond industry, Brouwer will serve as the primary liaison between the agency’s surety accounts and surety companies, responsible for ensuring that clients’ bond underwriting needs are expertly met and that business relationships with surety companies are well maintained. He also will be tasked with developing and supporting new business and marketing the agency’s surety bond services.

For the past 15 years, Brouwer has served as senior surety underwriter for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. in La Mesa, Calif. She also previously worked for Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., Insurance Company of the West and Continental Insurance Co.

Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Scottsdale Insurance Co. appointed John E. Goodloe as senior vice president of brokerage. Goodloe has 27 years of experience in the specialty lines, reinsurance and wholesale brokerage business. He most recently served as president of Facultative Resources Inc. and prior to that president of the Admiral Insurance Excess Division.

Topics Agencies Workers' Compensation Market Property Casualty Construction Casualty Arizona