People – Midwest

Jim Clay, chairman and CEO of the Ohio-based insurance and financial services company, Westfield Group, has been named chairman of the private sector business development group, Team Northeast Ohio (Team NEO).

Team NEO is a regional collaboration of Northeast Ohio’s major businesses, foundations, chambers of commerce, economic development organizations and JobsOhio.

Clay succeeds Ward J. “Tim” Timken, Jr., chairman, chief executive officer and president of TimkenSteel Corp. and David T. Abbott, executive director of The George Gund Foundation, who served as interim co-chairs during the organization’s transition to begin to implement the regional strategy

Clay is a trustee of the Property & Casualty Insurers Association of America and co-chairs the Insurance Industry Resource Council, Ohio’s workforce initiative to support the industry’s domestic carriers.

Michigan-based Fremont Insurance Co. announced staff additions and promotions to meet increasing demands for commercial lines products.

Fremont promoted Debb Koepplinger to territory sales manager and hired Deborah Miller and Jeffrey Cram as senior commercial lines underwriters.

In addition, Fremont is creating a product development unit spearheaded by Tim Keating, promoted from his current role of commercial underwriter.

Miller has more than 23 years of commercial lines experience, with agency sales and management experience. She has earned her CPCU, CIC and CPSR designations and is a licensed P/C producer.

Cram joins Fremont Insurance with 26 years of experience in the industry, as both a commercial lines producer and a commercial underwriter. He has completed his CIC designation, and has been a licensed P/C producer since 1986.

Koepplinger previously served as a senior commercial lines underwriter at Fremont. She has earned the CISR and CPIA designations.

Keating has 18 years of commercial underwriting experience, 14 of which are with Fremont Insurance. He will be primarily responsible for the development of new products and enhancements, specialty products and affinity programs while also coordinating pricing reviews.

Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) Director Mike Zimmer appointed Mark Long as director of the Michigan Workers’ Compensation Agency (WCA).

Long, who had been serving as administrator for the WCA’s Funds Administration, replaces Kevin Elsenheimer who will focus on his responsibilities as LARA chief deputy director.

Long previously served as department manager in the Michigan Administrative Hearing System and his positions at the WCA include department manager and mediator. In addition, he worked as a claims examiner for the Accident Fund of Michigan.

Bryan Lewis has been named director of sales for St. Paul, Minn.-based CHS Insurance, an agribusiness insurance broker and full-service insurance subsidiary of CHS Inc.

Lewis will have responsibility for the property/casualty and group benefits sales teams, and will oversee the group’s safety resources division.

Lewis has more than 16 years of experience in various roles at CHS Inc., most recently as sales director for the wholesale propane business.

Lewis has been active in a number of national and regional propane industry associations, include the Propane Education & Research Council.

CHS Insurance Services is licensed across the United States and represents major carriers in 70 markets.

Chicago-based JLT Specialty Insurance Services Inc. (JLT Specialty USA) appointed Chris Najim as senior vice president of analytics and consulting.

Najim will work alongside JLT Specialty brokers and other client facing professionals to provide clients with insurance program analytics needs — including retention and limit analysis for a variety of different risk classes.

Since 2007 Najim served as vice president and senior actuary at Swiss Reinsurance America Corp., where he performed pricing analyses for regional and national treaty accounts across both property and casualty lines of business. Previously, Najim was an associate actuary at Safeco Personal Insurance.

He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

JLT Specialty USA is a subsidiary of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc. (JLT).

Chicago-based CNA appointed Lisa Lantero to vice president for architects, engineers and contractors design liability and real estate professional liability businesses.

Lantero joined CNA in 2009 as senior litigation counsel in CNA’s claim legal exposure management unit. Most recently, she served as assistant vice president, architects, engineers and contractors design liability.

Lantero earned her JD from DePaul University’s College of Law.

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