People & Places

National

Insurer Beazley added Russ Cohen and Bala Larson to its global Cyber Services team.

Cohen has been appointed head of U.S. Cyber Services, and Larson has been promoted to head of Client Experience.

Cohen will oversee risk management and incident response functions in the U.S., while Larson will work on delivering services to cyber clients.

Cohen has been involved in cyber losses and business interruption for over 25 years, most recently at Chubb. He has served as vice president of Cyber Services at Chubb since 2015, and before that as an enterprise security architect.

Larson joined Beazley in 2007 as a middle market specialty lines underwriter. Currently she manages the Northwest region while also underwriting strategic large accounts for the region’s top broker partners. Her experience also includes work as a broker at Marsh.

Cohen will be based in Philadelphia, while Larson will be based in San Francisco.

New York-based Parametrix Insurance, a provider of cloud downtime insurance, appointed Hiscox veteran Rick Wong as head of insurance.

Wong will lead the Parametrix team focusing on broker relations and the development of the broker channel.

An insurance industry executive of 18 years, Wong held underwriting, broker relations, and leadership roles at Hiscox USA for 13 years.

Downtime insurance covers financial losses for businesses when outages of the cloud or e-commerce platforms occur.

Wholesale broker Burns & Wilcox added Jason Scheurle as national product leader, Cannabis. In this role, Scheurle is responsible for developing and expanding the company’s business portfolio of cannabis products nationwide.

Based in Philadelphia, Scheurle joins Burns & Wilcox after serving as Head of Cannabis Underwriting at Huckleberry, a digital provider of small business insurance. Previously he spent six years at Hudson as a senior underwriter, where he specialized in excess and surplus lines business for binding and middle markets, including cannabis. He also spent more than a decade at United States Liability Insurance (USLI) with a focus in personal, commercial and liquor liability.

East

Rock Hill, New York-based program manager Irwin Siegel Agency (ISA) added two to its executive management team.

Jennifer Johnston joined the company as vice president of Underwriting in ISA’s newly formed Excess & Surplus division, and Karen Skiba comes onboard as assistant vice president of Claims.

Johnston will lead the development of ISA’s new E&S program, focusing on underserved and loss sensitive human service organizations.

Skiba joined the claims team with 20 years of experience. She is responsible for the daily operations of the claims division, third party administrator management, and claims benchmarking and analytics. Skiba previously worked at Cabot Risk Strategies, Alan Gray LLC and, for more than 15 years, in various claims capacities at AIG.

ISA is a Ryan Specialty Group managing general underwriter focused on the human and social service industry. RSG acquired ISA in 2018.

Workers’ compensation carrier The MEMIC Group hired Bill Newton to serve as director of Financial Reporting and L.C. Cosey to serve as Small Business Express production underwriter for the Southeast region.

Newton has more than 13 years of experience in accounting and finance roles, most recently reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission on behalf of publicly traded companies. Newton also spent three years in financial accounting for an insurance company and three years in public accounting at Baker Newman Noyes, the Portland-based firm.

Cosey has more than a dozen years of experience in insurance underwriting, most recently as senior field underwriter for middle-market businesses at Builders Insurance Group of East Providence, R.I. Cosey also served as director of sales and marketing for Smart Choice Agency in the Southeast, and as senior underwriter in Georgia and Tennessee for Atlas General Insurance.

McGriff hired Jim O’Neill as a senior vice president and New York City-based producer in the firm’s Executive Risk Advisors group.

O’Neill joins McGriff with nearly 40 years of experience as an underwriter and broker working with large multinational companies and investment banks. His expertise ranges from standalone single-coverage risk transfer programs to fully integrated and blended deals. O’Neill also has experience in wholesale distribution and product development.

O’Neill is a past presenter on gaming industry topics, including legal, regulatory and social issues. He also has served as a panelist at the Professional Liability and Underwriting Society’s Directors & Officers Liability conference.

Midwest

National Interstate Insurance Co., a member of Great American Insurance Group, promoted Shawn V. Los to president and chief operating officer.

Los joined National Interstate in 2001 as an underwriter trainee, and most recently served as executive vice president. During his 20 years with the company, he has held numerous management and executive positions within National Interstate and its subsidiary, Vanliner Insurance Co.

Based in Richfield, Ohio, National Interstate offers insurance products and services, including alternative risk transfer programs, focused on the transportation industry.

Rockford Mutual Insurance Co. promoted Kirsten Lyons to commercial underwriter trainee. In her new role, she will focus on learning commercial underwriting guidelines and best practices.

Rockford also promoted Michelle Christiansen to assistant manager – internal marketing operations. In addition to working on contracts and agency functions, she will now be responsible for internal marketing functions such as advertising, communications and digital marketing initiatives.

Rockford Mutual Insurance Co. was founded in 1896, writing primarily automobile, homeowners, farmowners, and commercial multi-peril in Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Zurich North America named Trey Martino regional vice president for the Midwest region of its U.S. middle market unit. He is based in Zurich’s Chicago office.

Martino is responsible for driving the success of Zurich’s middle market book of business in the region, including cultivating distributor and customer relationships and developing underwriting talent.

He joins Zurich from Sompo International, where he most recently served as head of Asia-Pacific for Global Risk Solutions. His prior roles at Sompo International include global head of global risk solutions private equity and regional underwriting executive. Martino also previously held leadership roles at Blackboard Insurance and Travelers.

The Claro Group added Kate Lattner as a managing director in its growing disputes and investigations practice.

Based in Chicago, Lattner has nearly 15 years’ experience providing expert forensic accounting, dispute consulting and damages analyses in complex litigation, commercial disputes, restructuring and bankruptcy matters, and fraud, internal and white collar investigations. Her work primarily involves breach of contract issues, lost profits, forensic accounting, working capital adjustments and earn-out analyses, intricate asset tracing analyses and solvency and fraudulent conveyance issues.

South Central

Alliant added James “Jimmy” Madigan as senior vice president within its employee benefits group.

Based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Madigan has nearly two decades of experience as an employee benefits consultant, working with organizations across a range of industries and sizes.

Prior to joining Alliant, Madigan was senior vice president with a global insurance and employee benefits consulting firm.

BXS Insurance, Inc., a subsidiary of Cadence Bank, named Von E. Breaux as its Texas region’s chief development officer.

Breaux will oversee BXSI’s expansion from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area throughout the I-35 corridor and Texas Triangle marketplace.

Prior to joining BXSI, Breaux was the president and CEO of Sleeper Sewell Insurance Services and ANBTX Insurance Services Inc. Over the course of his three-plus decade career, he has developed expertise in executive management in agency operations, sales, mergers and acquisitions, regional and national sales, sales management, international and domestic marketing, sales and business development, underwriting, project management, strategic planning and product development.

West

Victoria Roach has been appointed by the California FAIR Plan‘s executive committee to serve as the association’s next president.

Roach succeeds Anneliese Jivan, who has been president of the FAIR Plan since 2009 and is retiring.

Roach joined the FAIR Plan in 2019 and most recently served as senior vice president of business operations.

Roach has 30 years of insurance industry experience, including experience in underwriting, human resources and technology. Prior to joining the FAIR Plan, Roach was director of underwriting and director of product management at Farmers Insurance.

Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler named Michael Wood the agency’s new chief deputy commissioner.

Wood joined the office in October 2021 after serving as administrator for Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Oregon. Before his time in Oregon, Wood worked at the Washington Department of Labor and Industries and the state Legislature.

Wood replaces former Chief Deputy Commissioner Mark Dietzler, who resigned to return to the private sector.

The Liberty Insurance Brokers named Sonia Ahuja chief operating officer.

Ahuja has more than 25 years of experience in the industry, with prior stops at Venbrook Insurance Group, Farmers Financial Services, Cetera Financial Group, Wells Fargo Advisors, and AIG.

The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers is a privately held insurance broker.

Kinetic Insurance named Jose Cruz regional vice president of business development with responsibility for leading business development and broker distribution in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Cruz has more than 15 years of commercial insurance experience in business development, point of sale activities and revenue generation strategies.

Based in San Diego, Cruz will be working with agents and brokers to present the benefits of Kinetic’s wearable technology.

Prior to joining Kinetic, Cruz was a business development executive with commercial insurance carriers and brokers, including WCF Insurance, Pacific Compensation Insurance Co., Willis, and Atlas General Insurance Services.

Kinetic Insurance, backed by Nationwide, offers workers’ compensation coverage

combined with a technology-driven approach to worker safety.

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