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The Inland Marine Underwriters Association (IMUA) has voted Swiss Re America senior vice president Peter Opinante to assume the chairmanship of the board. Opinante, who served as deputy chair, fills the seat vacated by Sophia Philips who recently resigned for personal reasons.

Opinante — who was scheduled to assume the chairmanship at the IMUA’s upcoming annual meeting this May in San Diego — will now serve for an additional four months in addition to his two-year term. Over the years, he has served in a number of key positions and has been instrumental in the creation of new strategic planning efforts, IMUA said.

The group also voted Michelle Hoehn, vice president of inland marine product and underwriting at Travelers, to serve as deputy chairperson and Bill Rosa, vice president at XL Group, to serve as vice chairman.

Hartford Financial Services Group announced three senior management appointments, including Tom Tucker as chief underwriting officer of commercial markets and head of specialty casualty. He will report to Doug Elliot, president of The Hartford’s commercial markets division.

Tucker comes from American International Group’s Chartis, where he has been serving as chief underwriter and chief risk officer for its U.S. operations. At Chartis, Tucker was responsible for enterprise risk management oversight of the company’s global property, casualty, professional and financial lines, as well as global risk finance. He is a P/C insurance veteran with 35 years’ industry experience.

At The Hartford, Tucker will oversee underwriting across commercial markets and lead The Hartford’s specialty casualty segment, which includes national accounts, captive and specialty programs and Hartford financial products.

The Hartford also announced two additional senior leadership appointments:

Gary Thompson will now lead middle market sales and distribution, in addition to his previous responsibilities as head of middle market product and underwriting. He will focus on diversifying the book of business and targeted industry segments. He has held senior level positions in both underwriting and field sales throughout his more than 35 years with The Hartford, serving most recently as executive vice president of specialty commercial and chief underwriting officer for commercial markets.

Also, Mike Concannon will serve as head of The Hartford’s group benefits segment, succeeding Ron Gendreau who will retire later this year after a transition period. Concannon will focus on restoring core profitability and broadening the segment’s core business, as well as expanding with new and emerging opportunities. Since joining The Hartford in 1995, Concannon has held senior leadership positions. Most recently, he served as executive vice president of sales and distribution for P/C and group benefits businesses.

General Re Corp. in Stamford, Conn. announced that Patricia H. Roberts will retire as president and CEO of General Star Management Co. and Genesis Management and Insurance Services Corp. effective March 1.

Robert M. Jones, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Genesis, will become president and CEO of both entities at that time.

Roberts will continue to serve as chairman during a transitional period into the third quarter of 2012.

Roberts joined General Reinsurance in 1977 and transferred to its subsidiary company, General Star Management a year later. She was named president and CEO of General Star’s excess and surplus lines operations in 2001. In 2004, she became president and CEO of Genesis Underwriting Management Co., which underwrites excess and large deductible insurance coverages.

Jones began his career at General Reinsurance in 1987 as a property facultative underwriter before joining Genesis in 1993. He held a variety of positions within Genesis, primarily related to the governmental and educational sectors, prior to being named chief operating officer in 2008.

Topics Excess Surplus Underwriting