People – East

Bala Cynwyd, Penn.-based Philadelphia Insurance Cos. said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Maguire will be stepping aside as CEO at the end of this year. He will remain as chairman of the board.

Sean Sweeney, currently the company’s president and chief operating officer, will assume the title of president and CEO effective January 2013.

The outgoing CEO Maguire joined Philadelphia Insurance Cos. in 1996 as vice president of underwriting. He was named CEO in 2002, succeeding his father, James Maguire, Sr., who founded the company 50 years ago in 1962. Under the younger Maguire’s leadership, the insurer saw revenues grow from $460 million to over $2 billion.

Sweeney joined Philadelphia Insurance Cos. as an account executive in 1979. He opened the company’s west coast operations and was named executive vice president and chief marketing officer in 1998. Sweeney was named president and chief marketing officer in 2010 before being promoted to chief operating officer in January 2012.

Susanne Sclafane has joined property/casualty insurance media company, Wells Media Group, as senior editor. Wells Media Group is best known for its flagship Insurance Journal national and regional magazines and web site, www.InsuranceJournal.com, which is the highest trafficked property/casualty insurance web site in the world, according to alexa.com and compete.com.

In her new position, Sclafane will be in charge of improving the company’s content and services to meet the information needs of high-level property/casualty insurance company executives. Sclafane is an experienced insurance journalist who spent 16 years at National Underwriter Co., rising from staff writer to managing editor.

Most recently, she was with the professional services firm, Advisen, where she had sole responsibility for several digital journals. Prior to entering insurance journalism, Sclafane worked for the National Council on Compensation Insurance, The Atlantic Mutual Cos. and Coopers & Lybrand in actuarial consulting and supervisory positions.

Greg Thompson has assumed new responsibilities as president of Markel Specialty, a division of the Virginia-based specialty insurer Markel Corp. Thompson has been in the insurance business for 30 years. In 1979, he formed Thompson Insurance Enterprises (Thomco) with his father. He led Thomco for 32 years, growing it from a small wholesale operation to a large program administrator. Markel acquired Thomco in January 2012.

With Thompson taking on the role of president of Markel Specialty, Bob Heaphey has assumed responsibilities at Thomco as managing executive. Heaphey joined Thomco in 1998 as controller. For the past two years, he has served as CEO of Thomco and will now oversee all aspects of the Thomco business as Thompson assumes his new responsibilities.

Middletown, R.I.-based OceanPoint Insurance Agency recently promoted Douglas Mayhew to succeed Peter Colella as president and chief executive officer effective January 2013. Colella will remain with OceanPoint Insurance as a senior adviser.

Mayhew joined OceanPoint Insurance in 2005 when the firm co-founded, Narragansett Underwriting Group Inc, merged with OceanPoint Insurance Agency. Most recently, he has been serving as senior vice president, personal lines director, at OceanPoint Insurance Agency. OceanPoint is one of the largest independent agency operations in southeastern New England.

ReSource Intermediaries, a unit of N.Y.-based brokerage Integro, hired Beth Turbitt as senior vice president. Turbitt, who is based in the New York office, has been a consulting broker at ReSource Intermediaries for the past six months.

Turbitt’s 25-year industry career in underwriting companies includes a broad range of experience in alternative risk transfer, compliance, reinsurance underwriting, captive sales, reinsurance buying, Accident & Health program management, and marketing and business development.