People – East

Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy has appointed Katharine L. Wade as new commissioner of the Connecticut Insurance Department.

Wade succeeds Thomas B. Leonardi who stepped down from the post in December to join New York investment banking advisory firm Evercore Partners.

Wade has over 20 years of experience in the insurance sector, having served with the Cigna Corporation beginning in 1992. Most recently, she served as the company’s vice president of public policy, government affairs and U.S. compliance, where she was responsible for leading a team to coordinate all federal and state legislative and regulatory affairs, public policy, and compliance operations for health, group life, and disability businesses.

The Massachusetts Insurance Federation has named John P. Murphy as its new executive director. He succeeds James T. Harrington, who retired from the post in February.

As executive director, Murphy will manage the Boston-based insurance association’s advocacy on pertinent public policy issues before the legislative and executive branches. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the property/casualty insurance industry. Murphy most recently served as director of state affairs for the Northeast Region of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), a position he has held since 2012.

Insurance broker SterlingRisk hired Joanne Krush as chief financial officer of the firm. Krush is based in SterlingRisk’s Woodbury, New York, headquarters. She succeeds Mark Landisman who recently left the post.

Krush was most recently senior vice president of finance for Hub International where she was responsible for all management and financial reporting, annual budgets, financial forecasting, internal and external audits and acquisition integration for the Northeast Region. Prior to Hub, she was senior vice president of finance at Aon/Berkely Travel.

Vermont Mutual Insurance Group in Montpelier, Vermont, announced Group President and CEO William A. Catto will retire from the company in June. The company said it expects to announce Catto’s successor after its board meeting in mid-April.

Catto’s career in the property/casualty business spans more than 40 years. Prior to joining the Vermont Mutual Insurance Group in 1995, he was president of the Granite Mutual Insurance Company in Barre, Vermont, which is now an affiliated member of the Vermont Mutual Insurance Group. After 17 years as executive vice president for the Group, Catto was elected president of the Group companies in 2012 and CEO in 2013.

Christopher Y. Russell has joined the Liberty Mutual Insurance office in Washington, D.C., as senior public affairs officer, focusing on federal issues.

Russell brings federal public affairs experience, having spent 14 years working for the U.S. House of Representatives where he was policy director of the Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee from 2009-2015.

Insurance broker Lockton hired Michael Appaneal as vice president in the Philadelphia office. In his role, Appaneal will focus on advising clients on their employee benefits programs, in addition to offering services for property/casualty insurance clients.

Appaneal has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance industry providing benefits and risk management services for clients while leading sales teams. During the past 17 years he worked for Standard Insurance, most recently serving as regional sales vice president, after beginning his career at Unum Life Insurance Company.

Magna Carta Companies hired Kevin W. Leong as vice president and chief claims officer. In his new role, Leong will lead Magna Carta’s national claims division. He is based in Magna Carta’s New York headquarters office.

Leong has more than 25 years of industry experience, having served in a progression of claims technical, managerial and leadership positions during his career. His prior assignments included Allstate, Nationwide and Country-Wide Insurance. Leong joins Magna Carta from Leading Insurance Services/LIG Insurance in New Jersey.

Beecher Carlson Insurance Services, a specialized large account insurance broker, expanded its National Healthcare Practice with the hiring of Tim Folk as managing director and Christopher Rieser as senior vice president.

Folk and Rieser will work out of Beecher Carlson’s Philadelphia office. Both previously worked with The Graham Company in Philadelphia, where Folk was vice president and ran the Health & Human Services Division and Rieser was producer.

Meanwhile, The Graham Company named Vice President Carl M. Bloomfield to replace Folk as new leader of the Health & Human Services Division. Bloomfield joined The Graham Company in 2006 and previously served as co-chair of the Construction Division.

Topics New York Vermont