People – Midwest

The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies named John Bykowski, president and CEO of SECURA Insurance in Appleton, Wis., as the recipient of the 2013 Chairman’s Award during its 118th Annual Convention in Seattle.

Bykowksi is a former NAMIC chairman. He has also served as the head of the board of trustees for NAMIC PAC and on several NAMIC committees. Bykowski joined SECURA as president and CEO in 1997. A Marquette University graduate, he has worked in the property/casualty insurance industry for 40 years.

Insurance brokerage firm, Hylant, based in Toledo, Ohio, appointed Matthew Dills as executive vice president of talent management. Dills comes to Hylant from Ohio-based First Solar Inc., where he was most recently global vice president of human relations. Prior to First Solar, Dills held HR positions at University of Toledo and Owens Corning, both located in Ohio.

SECURA Insurance promoted Marty Arnold to senior vice president – underwriting and Amy DeHart to vice president – actuarial services.

Arnold will oversee the company’s commercial, personal, farm-ag, and specialty underwriting departments, as well as reinsurance, research and development, and risk management. He joined SECURA in 2000 as chief actuary. He previously was with The St. Paul Companies.

DeHart joined the company in 2000 as an actuarial consultant. She subsequently was promoted to manager – pricing and then director – pricing. Before SECURA, she spent five years with Sentry Insurance as an actuarial analyst. DeHart is a fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society.

Wells Fargo Insurance, part of Wells Fargo & Co. announced that Barton Bates, Tony Evans and Stephen Zimmer joined its Midwest insurance team.

Bates leads the commercial lines service teams in Chicago and provides insurance placement assistance to the Midwest region as the regional placement leader. Bates most recently served as Chicago placement officer at Willis of Illinois.

Evans was named senior sales executive and will manage customers within Wells Fargo’s risk management solutions segment. Evans was most recently president of Hylant’s Chicago operations.

Zimmer was named the new national property practice leader and will focus on the design and negotiation of property insurance placements. Zimmer was most recently senior vice president and national brokerage property placement leader for Marsh.

Managing general agency J.M. Wilson announced one promotion and one new hire in the Midwest.

Amanda Montgomery has been promoted to transportation underwriter in the company’s Portage, Mich., office. Montgomery was hired at J.M. Wilson as an assistant property/casualty underwriter in 2012. She previously held customer service positions with TruGreen and PNC Bank. She has more than 10 years of customer service experience.

Marc Gehrke has been added as P/C underwriter in J.M. Wilson’s Madison, Wis., office. Gehrke’s most recent experience was an underwriting position with QBE. He has served at as an assistant underwriter NSI. He currently holds his INS (Certificate in General Insurance) designation and is working towards the completion of his AU (Associate in Underwriting) designation.

Rockhill Insurance Group, based in Kansas City, Mo., hired Doug Goode as chief operating officer. Goode has more than 25 years of industry experience and most recently was a senior vice president with QBE North America. He previously spent time at Rockhill helping to form the company during its start-up mode.

Topics Ohio