People & Places

National

QBE North America has promoted Steve Gransbury to head of Specialty Insurance, a new group of existing QBE businesses, and promoted Tara Krauss to head of Accident & Health.

The Specialty Insurance unit Gransbury now leads consists of QBE’s Accident & Health, Aviation, and Trade Credit & Surety practices. QBE Specialty Insurance is part of QBE North America’s Specialty & Commercial organization.

Previously, Gransbury had been leading Accident & Health, the largest of the three businesses. Krauss has been promoted to replace Gransbury as the leader of QBE Accident & Health. Krauss had already been leading many of these growth and technical initiatives for several years in her most recent role as senior vice president of underwriting operations for Accident & Health.

Gransbury joined QBE in 2009 when the company acquired SLG Benefits & Insurance, a program management company co-founded by Gransbury. With 25 years of experience in the insurance, reinsurance and captive industry, Gransbury is a member of the QBE North America Underwriting Committee, National Leadership Team and a past North America representative to the QBE Global Underwriting and Distribution Forum. He began his insurance career as an independent employee benefits consultant. In 1996, he joined LDG Insurance Underwriters, which was later acquired by HCC Insurance Holdings.

Krauss has 24 years of industry experience. Since joining QBE in 2009, she has held several leadership roles with increasing responsibilities. She was named vice president of underwriting operations for Accident & Health in 2013 and then promoted to senior vice president in 2017. Prior to joining QBE, Krauss held various underwriting positions with HCC Insurance (formerly LDG) and SLG Benefits & Insurance.

East

SUITELIFE Underwriting Managers, a managing general underwriter for full-service hotels, premier hotels, boutique hotels, condo-hotels, resorts and hotel management companies, has hired Zach Gentile as an underwriter.

SUITELIFE is a Series of RSG Underwriting Managers LLC (RSGUM).

As underwriter, Gentile will be responsible for writing new and renewal business and building a profitable book for SUITELIFE. He will also be responsible for developing business relationships with key hospitality brokers on the East Coast.

Gentile comes to SUITELIFE from Willis Towers Watson, where he served as a middle market client manager focusing on higher education, public entities, manufacturing and real estate. He started with Willis Towers Watson as an assistant client manager.

Equisoft, a global provider of digital business solutions for the insurance and wealth industries, appointed David P. Nicolai as vice president of Insurance Solutions USA in its Philadelphia, Penn., office. He brings more than 25 years of technical and business experience in the enterprise insurance software and services space to this role.

In his new role at Equisoft, Nicolai will be leading U.S. sales for insurance products and services, working closely with insurance carriers and distributors to help them drive increased growth by enabling acceleration of their digital end-to-end solutions and platform modernizations.

Previously, he served as a senior executive at FINEOS, a global core insurance technology vendor, where he oversaw all business development activities in North America and helped drive major corporate initiatives. He also has held various senior roles with insurers and technology vendors.

Southeast

The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers hired David Barkasy to establish a presence for the company in South Carolina.

Barkasy, who has been in the insurance field for more than 20 years, joins the team as a producer and is based in Charleston, S.C. Barkasy previously worked in commercial insurance for firms including USI, C.T. Lowndes & Company, and Mark Edward Partners. Throughout the years, he’s created a niche in the education, transportation and manufacturing industries.

Rick Leonard, former director of Sales and executive vice president with SUNZ Insurance, has been appointed president of the company.

Leonard has been with SUNZ, a national provider of workers’ compensation insurance, for nearly 10 years and initially joined as Broker Relations executive. Leonard became director of Sales, where he was a part of the growth of the company.

Leonard’s background consists of retail broker experience, field sales, marketing, loss control and client relations. He has more than 18 years of experience in the insurance industry and has been managing a sales team within SUNZ.

DUAL Specialty Underwriting (DSU), the Management Liability division of DUAL North America, has added Heather Black as a senior underwriter. Black will be located in Nashville, Tenn.

Black brings nearly 18 years of experience in the insurance industry with the majority in management liability. Her career began at Chubb Specialty Insurance as a renewal underwriter and she has served in underwriting, management, and product and business development roles.

Black most recently held the position of broker with RT Specialty’s Professional & Executive Liability division.

South Central

Overhaul, an Austin, Texas-based supply chain visibility and risk management technology provider, added former senior vice president of Great American Insurance Group, Lloyd J. “Pat” Stoik, as chief risk officer.

In his new role as chief risk officer, Stoik will provide leadership for Overhaul’s short- and long-term vertical business strategy aligning technology with insurance, as well as continuing to expand the company’s risk management solutions.

Stoik has 35 years of underwriting and broker experience. Prior to his role at Great American Insurance Group, Stoik spent 27 years with the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies in numerous senior leadership positions, including senior vice president of Global Marine with extensive experience managing a global portfolio of business.

Denver-based CAC Specialty added Robert Regueiro as senior vice president and marketing account executive in its Financial Lines Practice in Houston.

Prior to joining CAC Specialty, Regueiro most recently led McGriff’s Executive Risk Advisors team in Houston. He specializes in public company directors and officers liability, cyber risks, employment practices liability, fiduciary liability and commercial crime lines of cover.

Houston-based CrossCover Insurance Services, a managing general underwriter (MGU) of middle-market commercial properties, expanded its leadership team with the appointments of Brett Dupre, director of Specialty and Underwriting; Sam McBirney, director of General Property; and Mason Rudloff, director of Technology.

Dupre, McBirney and Rudloff are all former AmRisc executives. Dupre served as CEO of Wholesale at AmRisc and served previously at FM Global, where he was responsible for the corporate direction of high-hazard occupancies. McBirney, a former Partner at AmRisc, served as president of its largest division, General Property. Rudloff spent the past 15 years at AmRisc, where he was the architect of its underwriting systems while leading a 33-member IT team.

Midwest

Berkley Fire & Marine, headquartered in the Chicago area, promoted Debra Brickner to vice president of Claims and hired Mark Seich as vice president of Marketing, Sales & Distribution.

Brickner has 15 years of industry experience working with marine claims and most recently served as senior director of claims. She joined Berkley Fire & Marine in 2016. As vice president of claims, she will oversee the day-to-day operations of the claims unit and guide the development of claims services.

Prior to joining Berkley Fire & Marine, Brickner managed inland marine claims for a U.S. insurance group for more than 10 years.

Seich has 13 years of experience with national and regional carriers in the industry. Prior to joining Berkley Fire & Marine, he served most recently as regional vice president and has held various sales and marketing-oriented roles with U.S. insurance carriers. As vice president of Marketing, Sales & Distribution, Seich will lead all marketing and sales driving initiatives through the field teams and online distribution channel.

The Central Insurance Companies, based in Van Wert, Ohio, promoted Jocelyn Pfeifer to senior vice president of Underwriting.

Pfeifer will lead the company’s underwriting organization including Commercial Lines Underwriting, Personal Lines Underwriting, Loss Control and Underwriting Operations. She will be focused on executing Central’s strategy to provide its agency partners with a more robust suite of specialized products to market in Small Commercial, Middle Market Commercial, Programs, Affluent Personal and Middle Market Personal Lines.

Pfeifer joined Central in 2003 as a personal lines underwriter in Central’s Southwest regional office. She held several underwriter and supervisor roles in both personal and commercial lines during her career with Central, including the role of commercial lines manager in the Southwest office. For the past two years, Pfeifer has led the Northeast regional office as regional vice president.

West

Aspire General Insurance in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., promoted Tyler Nicholson to vice president of marketing and Brad Hinkle to chief claims officer.

Nicholson joined Aspire in 2016. He was previously with Vertafore and was with FSC Insurance Solutions before that.

Hinkle joined Aspire in 2015. He was a vice president with Aspire before his promotion. He was previously with Alliance United Insurance Co.

The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers named Clint Phillips to head its new Bakersfield, Calif., office and named Melissa Merrick as director of agency integration and onboarding.

Phillips has 19 years of experience in the Bakersfield area, where he has specialized in the construction and oil and gas industries. He was most recently at Walter Mortensen Insurance. Merrick is located in the Los Angeles, Calif., office. Merrick will be heading the agency partners and producer integration and onboarding team. She was previously with Newfront Insurance.

Lockton Pacific Series named Thomas Ricks as vice president of data analytics. Ricks is based in Lockton’s San Francisco, Calif., office.

Ricks was previously a vice president with Aon. He started his career with Blue Shield of California. Lockton Pacific Series has eight offices throughout the Western U.S., including Portland, Sonoma, San Francisco, Sacramento, Encino, Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego.

Topics USA