People

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) elected Louisiana Insurance Commissioner James J. Donelon as Secretary-Treasurer for 2011. Donelon is presently serving on the Executive Committee of the NAIC and is chairman of its Surplus Lines Task Force. He will assume the role on Jan. 1, 2011.

Donelon joined the Louisiana Department of Insurance in 2001. He became Louisiana Insurance Commissioner in February 2006 and has been elected twice to the position. A retired State Judge Advocate for the Louisiana Army National Guard, Donelon previously served as chief deputy commissioner and executive counsel at the department. He is also a former Parish Council chairman for Jefferson Parish and a Louisiana state representative, where he chaired the Committee on Insurance.

Higginbotham & Associates appointed Walker Steward a vice president in its Austin office. Steward is a commercial property/casualty insurance agent with experience in brokerage and sales. He brings with him an established client roster.

Steward was most recently an account executive at Wortham Insurance & Risk Management in Austin, where he brokered property/casualty coverage lines for all business sectors. Before joining Wortham, he worked for the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C., as a trade specialist for commercial service activities in Canada and Mexico.

He is a licensed property/casualty general lines agent and completed Chubb Producer School in Atlanta and Travelers Producer School in Richardson, Texas.

Steward will complete Higginbotham’s Producer Mentor Program, an insurance sales training course that supports individuals in building profitable books of business.

Coface North America appointed Lou Guarini as senior agent/credit management specialist in its Houston office. Guarini brings many years of experience to this position. He began his career with Prudential Insurance and also worked with Dun & Bradstreet in various marketing and management positions. Previous to joining Coface, Guarini was the senior vice president for a national specialty broker for credit insurance. In his new position, Guarini will specialize in credit insurance, factoring, commercial collections and credit reports.

In anticipation of the previously announced retirement of Chief Operating Officer John J. Degnan on Dec. 31, 2010, John D. Finnegan, chairman, president and CEO of The Chubb Corp. announced several management appointments, effective Jan. 1, 2011:

Paul J. Krump, currently executive vice president and chief underwriting officer, will become president of Commercial and Specialty Lines. He will also assume direct responsibility for the Accident business.

Dino E. Robusto, currently executive vice president and chief administrative officer, will become president of Personal Lines and Claims. He will also continue to oversee Information Technologies, Communications, Corporate Development and Innovation.

Harold L. Morrison, executive vice president and chief global field officer, will continue in that role and will assume the additional title of chief administrative officer, in which capacity he will supervise Human Resources and Administrative Services. Morrison will report to Krump and Robusto.

Krump, Robusto and Morrison will serve on the company’s Executive Committee together with Finnegan and Richard G. Spiro, executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Skip Cooper, president of AmWINS, was appointed CEO of Colemont Global Group Ltd. (CGGL) and Colemont Insurance Brokers Ltd. (CIBL), announced the AmWins Group Inc. Jeremy Underwood, currently non-executive director of CIBL, also returned to CIBL on a full-time basis as chairman of CIBL and will work closely with Cooper to oversee Colemont Global Group’s London and International operations.

Surinder Beerh, who formerly served as CEO of Colemont Global Group and CIBL, left to pursue other interests.

Topics Agencies Louisiana Property Casualty