People – Southeast

Van Wert, Ohio-based Central Insurance Companies announced several promotions.

Keith Moore is now senior vice president of the southeast region. He will continue to oversee the day-to-day operations of the southeast regional office in Alpharetta, Ga., including claims, commercial lines underwriting, personal lines underwriting, and marketing.

During his 35-year career with Central, Moore has held positions as a claim service representative, marketing manager, claims supervisor, claims manager, and regional manager.

Todd Simpson was promoted to assistant vice president of claims. Simpson has been employed by Central for 13 years. He has held positions as a claims attorney and claims operations director.

John White has been promoted to senior vice president of information technology. White has accountability for all information technology at Central including software development, hardware infrastructure, disaster recovery, and IT operations. White began his career with Central in 1979 as a programmer and was steadily promoted to various positions in the department including leading the first agency/company interface efforts before being named vice president of information technology in 1999.

Lighthouse Property Insurance Corp. announced its president, Ronald Chapman, will retire in July. The company said Patrick White, a director and owner of Lighthouse since 2010, will succeed Chapman as president.

Chapman has held the position of president since Lighthouse’s founding in 2008. After his departure from Lighthouse, he will continue to provide select consulting services and serve as a director for the company.

The company said this is the latest phase in Lighthouse’s long-term executive transition plan, initiated early last year.

Lighthouse, headquartered in Orlando, Fla., specializes in home, condo, renters and dwelling fire insurance.

Russell Bond & Co. Inc., an insurance wholesaler based in Buffalo, N.Y., announced Philip C. Wilson has joined the firm as a broker. Based in Nashville, Tenn., Wilson will focus on providing services for retail brokers located in Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Wilson brings 33 years’ experience in the property/casualty insurance industry.

Markel Corp. announced that Troy Williams has joined the medical malpractice team as director of Medical Professional Liability. Williams is based in the Deerfield, Illinois office; his responsibilities are countrywide.

Williams is an experienced medical malpractice underwriter, having worked at CNA and St. Paul Companies most recently. He will report to Fran O’Connell, managing director of Markel’s Medical Product Line, which O’Connell said will be expanding.

Specialty insurer Ironshore Inc. said it has formed a Group Executive Leadership Committee to address the short and longer-term issues surrounding business prioritization, organizational development and improvement initiatives. The committee represents senior management responsible for various organizational functions within its group of companies worldwide: Kevin H. Kelley, CEO; Shaun Kelly, president and CEO of U.S. Operations; Mitchell E. Blaser, chief operations officer, CEO of Ironshore Bermuda, IronServe and Iron-Starr; Joe Roberts, chief financial officer of Ironshore Inc.; Mark Wheeler, CEO of Ironshore International; and Paul. S. Giordano, general counsel, secretary, and chairman of Diversified Credit Business.

CEO Kelley said the committee will focus on the “growth of the business and ensure execution and accountability of organizational priorities.”

Pacific Specialty Insurance Co. has elected John Chu as president and chief executive officer. Chu continues to serve as chairman of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based property/casualty insurer, a position he has held for two years.

Chu succeeds Brian S. Cohen, who resigned to pursue other opportunities.

Prior to becoming CEO, Chu was an operating partner with Altamont Capital Partners and Golden Gate Capital. He currently sits on the boards of directors of Wedbush Securities and FirstBest Systems, as well as Accenture’s board of advisors.

Chu was previously senior vice president, e-Business and Technology, for The Hartford’s property/casualty operations, responsible for technology strategy and operations. He had served as vice president, Strategic Business Development and as chief financial officer for The Hartford’s personal lines division.

Before that, he was a managing consultant for (now Towers Watson. Earlier in his career, Chu served as vice president with Lehman Brothers Asia and also held several positions with PepsiCo Foods International, including director for PepsiCo’s Asia-Pacific operations.

“Our strong commitment to our independent agents and brokers will always be the foundation of our strategy, and I look forward to working closely with our key partners,” Chu said.