People

Westfield Insurance, headquartered in Westfield, Ohio, selected Dennis Baus to lead the company’s surety operations. Baus assumes the national surety leader responsibilities on Jan. 1, 2012, replacing Rick Kinnaird who is retiring after 30 years with Westfield.

Baus is a 30-year member of the Westfield Surety business unit. He has broad experience in surety underwriting, marketing and management. He currently serves as a Westfield division surety leader, directing home office and field underwriting and surety agency relations for one of four surety regions.

Active in the industry, Baus serves as chair of the National Association of Independent Sureties. He participates in the Surety and Fidelity Association of America as a member of their government affairs and joint trade government affairs liaison committees. Baus is a member of the National Association of Surety Bond Producers, and participates in numerous local and state contractor and related trade associations.

Zurich appointed Mary Merkel as regional chief underwriting officer for Zurich in North America. Merkel replaces Tim Carter, who has left the company.

Merkel joined Zurich in 1982 and has held a number of key leadership positions, most recently as chief underwriting officer for General Insurance Casualty. Prior to joining Zurich, she served in various underwriting roles at Royal Insurance Co. Merkel holds a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation.

Vicki Cota has been named underwriter/broker at Gumtree Wholesale Insurance Brokers Inc. in its Springfield, Mo., office. She previously served as professional liability underwriter for Bohrer-Croxdale & McAdoo Inc.

Cota will place directors and officers liability, employment practices liability, allied medical, professional liability and environmental liability for insurance brokers across Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee and Missouri.

With more than 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, Cota has held numerous positions in wholesale and commercial insurance capacities.

Cota is a member of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society and is a licensed property and casualty insurance agent.

Gumtree Wholesale Insurance Brokers Inc. is a specialty wholesaler of property and casualty and employee benefit insurance products with locations in Missouri and Mississippi.

America First Insurance, a Liberty Mutual Agency Corp. regional company, has named Tiffany Reiner vice president, underwriting.

With more than 15 years of commercial insurance experience, Reiner will have overall responsibility for America First Insurance’s corporate and regional underwriting services and strategies towards increasing growth and profitability in the company’s six-state territory.

Most recently, Reiner was vice president, commercial lines product management for Liberty Mutual Agency Corp., where she led the business owners, farm, and small commercial package lines of business.

Prior to joining Liberty Mutual, Reiner worked for Ohio Casualty Group for nine years in various commercial lines capacities, including assistant vice president, commercial lines product management

America First Insurance offers insurance products in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

Willis North America, a unit of insurance broker Willis Group Holdings, appointed Michael Liss as national partner of its Midwest region. He is based in Chicago.

Liss has served as managing partner of Willis’ Chicago office since 2006. He will report to Todd Jones, president of Willis North America. Liss has more than 28 years of industry experience.

Prior to joining Willis he served as executive vice president and branch manager at Wachovia Insurance Services. He has also held leadership roles at Marsh USA, Johnson & Higgins and The Hartford Group.

Willis’ Midwest region includes 10 offices and 750 associates in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Kansas.

Chicago-based Ryan Specialty Group (RSG) announced that Nicole Haggerty has been named president and Reza Khan executive vice president of ThinkRisk Underwriting Agency, one of RSG’s underwriting companies.

Prior to joining ThinkRisk, Haggerty was senior vice president and national errors and omissions practice leader for Allied World U.S. She has 20 years’ experience in the insurance industry, most of which have been in the professional and management liability lines.

Khan, formerly with Allied World U.S., is credited with developing its national business development practice. He most recently served as vice president of Allied World’s U.S. programs division. He has 28 years’ underwriting and business development experience in the insurance industry, primarily in the professional lines sector.

Ryan Hobbs has joined the executive team at insurance software company Applied Systems in University Park, Ill., as senior vice president of corporate development.

Hobbs will be responsible for business strategy and merger and acquisition initiatives at Applied Systems, a major provider of insurance agency and broker management software in the United States and Canada.

Since 2004, Hobbs had been vice president of corporate development at Intergraph Corp., a company that develops engineering and geospatial software.

In his new role, Hobbs reports to newly-named CEO Reid French, who also came from Intergraph.

Ironshore Inc. has named Rick Wood to serve as vice president of wholesale casualty. Wood will be responsible for the production of primary and excess surplus lines business with wholesale brokers nationwide, reporting to Tim McAuliffe, president of Ironshore specialty casualty. Wood is based in St. Louis.

With more than 30 years insurance industry experience, Wood most recently was regional vice president, specialty casualty, with ARCH Insurance Group in Chicago. He also has held various underwriting and account management positions for excess surplus lines for CNA Insurance and AIG.

Craig Johnson has joined Holmes, Murphy & Associates as senior consultant — client services and Jeff Shald has been named vice president in the company’s Nebraska division.

Before joining Holmes Murphy, Johnson served as wellness and safety manager at Duncan Aviation, Lincoln. He serves on the advisory board of the Nebraska Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity (NPAO) Plan. He earned his M.A. in health and wellness management from the University of Nebraska.

Shald brings more than 20 years of expertise in risk management, insurance program design, marketing and placement, claims and loss control.

His experience also includes claims investigation, litigation management and claim supervision. His professional designations include Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) and Accredited Advisor of Insurance (AAI).

The Iowa Council of NAIW dba International Association of Insurance Professionals (IAIP) has elected its representatives for the next term. They are as follows: Iowa Council Director-elect Michele Sparks of LaMair-Mulock-Condon Co, W. Des Moines; Membership Chair Joyce Nelson of Trissel, Graham & Toole, Davenport; Public Relations Chair Desiree Meyer of Reynolds & Reynolds, Des Moines; Delegate to Regional Nominating Committee Paula Dishman of Holmes, Murphy & Associates, West Des Moines; and Alternate Delegate to Regional Nominating Committee Phyllis Gogel of AEGONUSA/Transamerica, Cedar Rapids.

Judge Tom Stine has been sworn in to serve on the bench of the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court. Gov. Dave Heineman appointed Judge Stine to replace Judge Michael P. Cavel, who retired on Sept. 30, 2011.

The Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court is composed of seven judges who are initially appointed by the governor and who then remain on the bench for successive six-year terms upon approval of the electorate.

Chris Brock has been appointed director of communications at the Ohio Department of Insurance. In his new role, Brock oversees communication strategy and planning while coordinating communication activities for the insurance department. He previously was the department’s exchange outreach coordinator, responsible for policy and outreach for health insurance exchange planning.

Topics USA Agencies Excess Surplus Ohio Underwriting Market Missouri Casualty Professional Liability