People – South Central

Argo Group International Holdings Ltd. named Kevin J. Rehnberg to head its U.S. operations. He is based in Argo’s San Antonio headquarters.

Previously, Rehnberg served as executive vice president for specialty lines at OneBeacon Insurance where he oversaw its existing specialty underwriting operations while acquiring and building out new lines of specialty business.

Rehnberg has held similar senior executive positions at The St. Paul Travelers Cos., Liberty International and The Chubb Corp. Most recently, Rehnberg served as CEO of Consultants in Laboratory Medicine of Greater Toledo Inc.

Argo Group is an international underwriter of specialty insurance and reinsurance products in the property/casualty market.

Dallas-based Lockton Dunning Benefits has expanded its health and welfare benefits consulting team with the hire of Robert Allday as senior vice president. Additionally, Larry Childress has been promoted to senior vice president.

Allday has more than 20 years of health care experience. He previously served in leadership positions with Eagle Hospital Physicians, Accuro Healthcare Solutions, United Surgical Partners International and Concentra.

Childress has more than 17 years of experience with employer health and welfare plans, including more than 12 years with Lockton Dunning Benefits.

Childress served previously as a team lead and will continue to lead the mergers and acquisitions due diligence practice.

Brandon Finks joined insurance brokerage Roach Howard Smith & Barton as a commercial sales executive for property/casualty insurance.

Finks began his career as a certified insurance claims adjuster with AIG and has more than seven years of experience in commercial insurance.

Finks has experience in commercial roofing, which gives him a unique insight into the risk management needs of contractors. He specializes in oil and gas, commercial roofing, and a variety of other industries.

RHSB has offices in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, and is a member of Assurex Global.

Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC (MMA), a subsidiary of insurance broker Marsh Inc., appointed Anthony Gruppo as regional CEO for MMA’s Southwest Hub. He is based in Houston.

Gruppo brings 30 years of insurance industry experience to MMA as a sale leader, property/casualty and employee benefits broker and risk management consultant.

He joins MMA from USI, where he most recently served as Southeast regional employee benefits leader and president of the Fort Lauderdale office. He previously was the property/casualty and employee benefits sales leader for USI Southwest in Houston.

LevelFirst, a diversified wholesale broker and managing general agency headquartered in Dallas, announced that Wade Wrobel, Jason Victor, Joanne Dodd and Lori Conway have joined the company in senior production roles.

Victor and Conway are based in Houston. These experienced producers will allow LevelFirst to continue its growth strategy, and better serve and support retail agents in the Houston area.

In addition, Krist Gift has joined the firm as assistant underwriter and Dorothy Martinez has assumed the role of support supervisor.

LevelFirst now has offices in Dallas, Houston and Austin.

XL Group plc’s reinsurance operations opened a Dallas office led by Dean Wolfe, who was recently promoted to manager of XL’s newly created property facultative western region.

Wolfe, who has more than 15 years of industry experience including seven years in XL’s Atlanta, Ga., office, will be responsible for XL’s reinsurance underwriting operations in Dallas, as well as in Walnut Creek, Calif.

Prior to joining XL, Wolfe was based in Chicago, where he held progressively senior underwriting roles at various reinsurance companies including CNA Reinsurance.

Baton Rouge, La.-based Access Home Insurance Co. (Access Home) announced that Michael Toffoli, Rusty Ruiz and Kerri Jones have joined the company as executive vice president, Louisiana marketing representative and South Carolina marketing representative, respectively.

Access Home offers homeowners and dwelling fire coverage in Louisiana, and plans to enter South Carolina later this year.

Phil Basso joined The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers as senior vice president for Leadership and Management Resources.

Basso is responsible for providing member firms with leadership development, management support and human resources initiatives, as well as consulting, training and development.

He comes to The Council after nearly 10 years with the American Public Human Services Association in Washington, D.C. Earlier in his career, he worked at Seahawk Consulting, Capital One, Gateway, LexisNexis, CitiCorp and Frito Lay.