People – Midwest

Jeff Menary has been named vice president of Reinsurance at Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co., located in Grinnell, Iowa, and Kurt Eaves has been named vice president of Direct Underwriting/Production.

Menary currently serves as vice president of direct underwriting/production. He has been employed with Grinnell Mutual since 1980. Menary holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC), Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Certified Risk Manager (CRM), and Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist (CRIS) designations.

Eaves currently serves as assistant vice president of commercial lines underwriting. With more than 26 years in the property-casualty insurance industry, Eaves has held key leadership positions with large insurance companies as well as with a national insurance broker. Before joining Grinnell Mutual, he served as the assistant vice president of underwriting for Indiana Insurance, part of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group. Eaves holds the CPCU and the ARM designations and is a licensed insurance agent in Iowa.

R&R Insurance Services Inc., headquartered in Waukesha, Wis., announced the transition of Stephanie Riesch-Knapp from commercial lines to the firm’s employee benefits practice as an account executive.

Riesch-Knapp has spent the last four years with R&R Insurance as a commercial lines account executive. She is part of the third generation of the Riesch family actively involved in sales and leadership roles within the agency. Riesch-Knapp also has three years of commercial underwriting experience with West Bend Mutual, prior to joining R&R.

Maggie Tirschman, account manager at Wisconsin-based M3 Insurance, has been named the 2012 National Outstanding CSR of the Year by The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research.

Employed at M3 since 2008, Tirschman supports the agency’s efforts to build and maintain effective client relationships. She works with the sales staff to place new business, process renewals and policy changes, and serve as the liaison with insurance carriers.

Tirschman is a licensed property and casualty agent in Wisconsin and currently holds Certified Insurance Service Representative (CISR) and Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designations, and will be pursuing her Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation.

Cincinnati Financial Corp., in Cincinnati, Ohio, has named Jacob F. Scherer chief insurance officer of The Cincinnati Insurance Co. Scherer currently is executive vice president of the company, a post he will retain.

Scherer’s 28 years with Cincinnati and 38 years of service in the insurance industry include experience in sales and agency relationship management, field marketing and underwriting, life insurance marketing, agency perpetuation planning and management of a family-owned independent insurance agency.

Thomas A. Joseph is leaving the company after 35 years of service. Joseph was senior vice president in charge of personal lines operations for The Cincinnati Insurance Co. and president of The Cincinnati Casualty Co. since 2008.

Chicago-based CNA Financial Corp. has appointed Andy Cohen as vice president of Field Operations. Cohen previously was with Travelers Insurance, serving as vice president, Strategy, Middle Market. In this role, he developed a multi-year plan encompassing investments in field execution, product and service development, business intelligence, operational efficiency and workforce management.

Chicago-based Rubloff Insurance Agency added Sara Neidlinger as an account executive. Neidlinger most recently worked for Marsh in the specialty practice, The Family Office Group, located in Chicago.