People – Midwest

Pete Lahn has been appointed senior vice president of Legal, as well as secretary and general counsel for Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co., in Grinnell, Iowa. The appointment is effective Dec. 19, 2014.

Lahn brings more than 25 years of legal and property/casualty experience to his new role, including 19 years in Grinnell Mutual’s Legal department. He has served the company as counsel, senior counsel, assistant general counsel, and most recently, associate general counsel.

Lahn replaces Dennis Day upon his retirement in December. Day has worked for Grinnell Mutual more than 32 years.

Commercial property and casualty insurer Zurich North America, named Marcus Cooper the commercial markets regional leader for its southern region. He is based at Zurich’s North America headquarters in Schaumburg, Ill.

Cooper, who resides in Naperville, Ill., joined Zurich in October 2007 and most recently served as regional executive for the Midwest region in marketing, distribution and regional management (MD&RM).

The company named Sabrina Hart as the new regional executive for the Midwest region in MD&RM, effective Oct. 16. Hart’s office will be in Chicago.

She will lead the Zurich regional leadership team in achieving profitability and growth targets for the Midwest region. She also will have responsibility for leading the Midwest MD&RM staff in delivering on new and renewal business as well as customer and distribution strategies. Additionally, Hart will work directly with select brokers to provide effective insurance and risk management solutions for the company’s Midwest customers.

For the past three years, Hart has been Zurich’s chief underwriting officer in global corporate in North America.

New Berlin, Wis.-based independent insurance broker, HNI, added Heidi Driscol and Sean Casey as account managers in the company’s Grand Rapids, Mich., office.

As account managers, Driscol and Casey are day-to-day contacts for HNI clients.

Tom Welch, president and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based Grange Insurance, is retiring in January 2015. John Ammendola, executive vice president and chief property and casualty officer, will assume the president and CEO position effective Jan. 1.

Welch has been with Grange Insurance since 2001 when he joined as president of the Grange Life Insurance Co. and later served as vice president and chief financial officer until being named president and CEO in 2011.

Ammendola joined Grange in 2010 as president of personal lines and became chief property and casualty officer in 2013. Under his direction, the personal lines business returned to profitable growth and the company began to diversify its portfolio through continued investments and growth in its commercial lines business.

Ammendola previously served as senior vice president of sales and marketing at Kemper Insurance Co. He also held senior vice president positions at Safeco Insurance Co. Ammendola started his insurance career with GEICO, where he served in claims, sales and underwriting leadership roles.

Grange Insurance and its affiliates serve policyholders in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Mary Johnson has been appointed chief of investigations at the Missouri Department of Insurance. She has been the chief investigative auditor for the Missouri Attorney General’s Office since 2007.

Johnson’s duties included investigating fraud, supervising auditors and ensuring federal performance standards were met.

OneBeacon Entertainment (OBE), a member of OneBeacon Insurance Group, has opened an office in Chicago, Ill., led by Mark Stuckel.

Stuckel comes to OneBeacon with 35 years of underwriting experience, much of which was spent serving in various underwriting and management roles at Zurich North America. Over that time, he has specifically focused on the entertainment insurance segment, with a particular expertise in the casino and gaming sector.

Aon plc named Andy Weitz as senior vice president of global marketing and communications.

Weitz was most recently president and CEO of the U.S. region for Hill + Knowlton Strategies, a global business advisory firm serving corporations, non-profits and associations, including Aon.

In this newly created role, Weitz will lead Aon external corporate communications and oversee corporate citizenship. He will also be responsible for defining Aon’s content marketing strategy and building an integrated approach to product marketing.

Weitz will report to Phil Clement, Aon’s global chief marketing and communications officer, and will serve as a member of the company’s executive leadership team.

Topics Aon