People – Southeast

Andrea Mills has joined American Equity Underwriters (AEU) in Mobile, Alabama as senior vice president and director of Strategic Business Development.

AEU is a division of wholesale broker AmWINS Group, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. AEU specializes in workers’ compensation insurance coverage under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. Mike Lapeyrouse, president and CEO of AEU, made the announcement.

Mills has been a broker for 25 years and for the last eight years has served as vice president and client advocate at Willis in Mobile.

Michelle Mesina has been appointed executive vice president of human resources at Chicago-based Ryan Specialty Group LLC (RSG). As executive vice president of human resources, Mesina will be responsible for recruitment and employee relations, talent management, compensation and benefits as well as managing RSG human resource activities.

Mesina has been with RSG since June 2010 in the role of human resources director. Immediately prior to joining RSG, Mesina was with United Airlines. Her career experience also includes Sprint and Cerner Corp.

Wholesale insurance broker AmWINS Group Benefits has opened a voluntary benefits division to offer supplemental benefits including life, dental, vision, accident, short-term disability, critical illness, cancer and medical gap insurance. The practice will specialize in employer groups with 50 to 1,000 lives, and also work with groups managing up to 200,000 lives.

The practice will be led by Robert Shestack, who joined AmWINS Group Benefits earlier this year. Shestack previously held the positions of managing director and national practice leader at Marsh US Consumer and Marsh & McLennan Agency The Trion Group.

Joseph G. Shores, president of Berkley Select, will undertake the additional responsibility as president of Monitor Liability Managers, according to parent company W.R. Berkley Corp. in Greenwich, Conn.

Shores succeeds Sandra C. Nelson, who the company said will be involved in other activities within the corporation’s group of companies.

Based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, Monitor Liability Managers is an underwriting management company specializing in executive and professional liability insurance.

Shores has 25 years of experience in the insurance industry with significant specialty, professional liability and excess lines experience. He joined W. R. Berkley Corp. in 2007 with the launch of Berkley Select, and will remain Berkley Select’s president in addition to his new responsibilities at Monitor.

Prior to joining W. R. Berkley Corp., Shores was responsible for regional specialty lines underwriting operations at another national property/ casualty insurer, including the executive management of a significant professional liability operation.

Monitor’s public company directors’ and officers’ liability business will report to Berkley Professional Liability, which is under the direction of John Benedetto, president.

Elizabeth “Libbie” Bock has joined Kemper Corp. as the chief financial officer for its Property & Casualty Group.

In her new role, Bock will report to Denise I. Lynch, Kemper’s Property & Casualty Group executive, and will be responsible for all aspects of the group’s finance functions including operations, reporting, control, planning and analysis, financial management and competitive analysis.

Bock brings with her more than 11 years of experience in financial leadership roles, most recently with Experian. For seven years, she held various financial leadership positions at The Hartford. Prior to that, she was a senior consultant with Towers Perrin. Bock has also served as coordinator for International Affairs, in the Office of the Governor for the Mie Prefectural Government in Japan.