People – Midwest

Leavitt Recreation & Hospitality (LRHI) added Ali Larson and Marvin Aga as commercial insurance producers focused on outdoor recreational businesses including campgrounds, RV parks, resorts, hunting lodges and ammunition manufacturers.

Larson has experience in property, auto and life insurance.

Aga, who has a degree in business administration from Black Hills State University in Spearfish, S.D., is a member of the Wisconsin Association of Campground Owners (WACO), the Ohio Campground Owners Association (OCOA), and the collegiate business organization, ENACTUS.

Aga’s territory will include Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Larson will service Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Jerry Hourihan has been named president of American International Group’s (AIG) private client group for the United States and Canada. Hourihan will report to Ralph Mucerino, CEO of Consumer Regional, Americas.

Most recently, Hourihan served as executive vice president and chief marketing officer for AIG Personal Lines in the U.S. and Canada. He joined AIG Private Client Group in 2002 as a zone manager for the division’s Eastern zone. He also managed strategic sales for AIG’s Office of the Customer, and previously served as the division’s national sales and marketing manager.

Before joining AIG, Hourihan spent 16 years with Chubb in a number of management positions.

Alan Gellman joined Esurance, the direct-to-consumer insurance company, as chief marketing officer.

Gellman will oversee all of Esurance’s marketing and advertising efforts, including direct marketing, online and offline advertising, search, brand partnerships, communications and customer experience.

Esurance is owned by Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate Insurance.

Most recently at Wells Fargo in San Francisco, Gellman spent the past 10 years in various executive marketing roles. Previously, he led strategy, research, and analytics for Wells Fargo’s consumer credit group, where he established a customer engagement strategy.

Gellman began his marketing career in advertising before moving to consumer packaged goods with General Foods, Kraft and ConAgra. Later, he spent six years with Blue Shield of California leading consumer marketing and then building and leading its e-business division.

Russ Durst has joined SIA of Northern Ohio (SIANO) as regional vice president. Durst’s primary duty in this role will be to identify and appoint growing independent agencies in the northern Ohio area.

SIANO is a master agency for SIAA and has been helping agents in the area grow independent insurance agencies for 13 years.

Prior to joining SIA of Northern Ohio Durst worked as a personal lines sales executive with Travelers and as an agent with Liberty Mutual.

Columbia Insurance Group (CIG), headquartered in Columbia, Mo., welcomed Scott Mackey to its executive team in the newly created role of vice president of underwriting.

Mackey is a seasoned insurance professional with 30 years in marketing and underwriting roles with both regional and national carriers. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated solid leadership skills and a passion for innovation – two important factors that align with the core values of CIG.

CIG has five locations: Atlanta, Ga.; Austin, Texas; Columbia, Mo., Omaha, Neb.; and Salina, Kan.

ACE Group appointed David Charlton president of the property and casualty and micro-business division for ACE Commercial Risk Services. He will lead ACE’s expansion efforts into the property/casualty package and the micro specialty lines market for select small businesses.

Charlton joins ACE with 26 years of insurance experience in the small commercial market. Charlton joins ACE from United States Liability Insurance Co., where he most recently served as executive vice president and chief underwriting officer.

In his new role, Charlton will report directly to Juan C. Andrade, ACE Group executive vice president and global head of Personal Lines and Small Commercial Insurance. Charlton will team with David Lupica, division president, ACE Commercial Risk Services, in the small commercial arena by developing package and specialty lines capabilities for ACE’s smaller commercial lines customers.

Andrade said that in the four years since ACE decided to diversify into the small commercial space and created ACE Commercial Risk Services (CRS), this business has grown “rapidly and profitably” and its small business specialty products are now sold nationally through retail agents and brokers and wholesalers.