People & Places

National

Chubb has promoted Ana Robic and Ben Rockwell to senior vice presidents of Chubb Group.

Robic currently is division president, North America personal risk services, and Rockwell is division president, North America middle market. Each will retain their current responsibilities.

Robic was named to her current position in 2021 and previously served as chief operating officer of the business, which she assumed in 2017. Prior to that, Robic was executive vice president, national commercial insurance leader, for Chubb in Canada. She joined Chubb in 1999.

Rockwell was appointed division president, North America middle market, in 2019 after his time as chief underwriting officer of North America commercial insurance. Rockwell began his career with Chubb in 1997 as a casualty claims representative and in 1999 became an underwriter.

Jason Ranucci has been named head of North America lower middle market and will have overall responsibilities for the strategy, underwriting, and P&L for the lower middle market segment. Ranucci was global chief underwriting officer of small commercial and will continue these underwriting responsibilities.

Ranucci succeeds Jeffrey Updyke, who was named to the newly created position of executive vice president, North America commercial insurance and digital distribution.

Updyke will be charged with expanding Chubb’s reach and influence in the lower middle market and small commercial segments through the insurer’s broker distribution partners.

John DePeters has been appointed chief underwriting officer, small commercial. He joined Chubb (then ACE) in 2013 as a casualty underwriter.

Gallagher appointed Jonathan Eaton to executive director, responsible for overseeing wholesale to other non-specialist brokers and working with Gallagher offices in the U.S. to support cargo client retention and new business growth.

Eaton joins Gallagher from Howden with more than 30 years of experience. He has also worked for broker RKH Specialty and insurers XL Catlin, Aviva, and AIG.

The Hartford, headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, appointed Michael Fish as head of group benefits, succeeding Jonathan Bennett, who will retire at the end of 2024 after 25 years with the company.

Currently chief operating officer for group benefits, Fish joined The Hartford in 2004 and previously served as head of group benefits product and strategy. He also led the Group Benefits underwriting organization. Before joining The Hartford, Fish worked in various leadership positions for Unum Group.

The Hartford also named H. Clay Bassett Jr. global chief underwriting officer and head of reinsurance. Bassett currently serves as deputy global chief underwriting officer and head of Navigators Reinsurance, a brand of The Hartford. He joined the company in 2019 with the acquisition of The Navigators Group Inc., where he was the chief underwriting officer.

Bassett succeeds M. Ross Fisher, who will retire at the end of 2024 after more than two decades with the company.

Fish and Bassett will transition to their new roles by Oct. 1.

East

AXA XL, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, appointed Joseph Madigan as chief underwriting officer for its North American environmental insurance business for the middle market.

Madigan joined AXA XL’s environmental insurance business as an environmental underwriter in 1998 and previously served as head of environmental for the east region for AXA XL, Americas and environmental executive underwriter and environmental regional manager, Canada and Central U.S. He is based in AXA XL’s Exton, Pennsylvania, office and reports to Matthew Waters, head of middle market, Americas.

Program administrator Tara Hill Insurance Services of New York added Richard Edsall as senior vice president.

Edsall was most recently senior vice president of commercial management liability at Argo Pro. Prior to Argo he managed D&O products for financial institutions at Chubb.

At Tara Hill, owned by Ambac Financial Group, Edsall will be responsible for developing an excess and surplus portfolio focused on private management liability and miscellaneous professional liability coverages for small to medium-sized risks.

Midwest

Leif Assurance, headquartered in St. Louis, promoted Robert Worden to sales manager. Worden will also serve as the commercial lines sales manager for Leif’s sister company, Powers Insurance & Risk Management.

Worden has 30 years of experience in the insurance industry. He previously worked as the company’s construction risk advisor. Before joining Leif Assurance, he worked as senior vice president of insurance sales at Bremer Bank.

Valley Insurance Agency Alliance (VIAA), headquartered in St. Louis, hired Carly Sherman as a book management coach. Sherman is focused on improving personal lines production profitability with strategic and regional partner carriers.

Sherman previously worked as an agency manager with DAS Insurance Company, an insurance broker with Weiss Insurance Agency, and an inside sales representative with Graybar. She is also the current owner of Create by Carly, a custom gift company.

Ohio Bar Liability Insurance Company announced that John R. Tribble is joining the company as president and CEO.

Tribble has held a variety of positions during the past eight years with Church Mutual Insurance Co.

His accomplishments include establishing a diversity and inclusion program at Church Mutual, resulting in greater customer engagement, expansion into markets driving additional growth and profitability, exceeding combined ratio and premium goals at CM Regent, and increasing the number of agents and the customer base for the Company.

Tribble has also served in vice president positions with the Hertz Corporation and Liberty Mutual/America First Insurance Co., and in associate vice president and claim officer roles at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

Encova Insurance, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, named Michelle Shaver as senior vice president, small business, commercial lines, and Carrie Lowe as vice president, package lines underwriting.

Shaver most recently was a small business leader for Chubb Insurance. She also previously served as head of home office underwriting, chief underwriting officer at Farmers Insurance Co.

Lowe previously served as vice president, commercial lines project and program management at Westfield Insurance.

South Central

Brandon Rice joined Alliant Insurance Services, headquartered in Irvine, California, as a vice president for its employee benefits group.

Rice is based in Dallas. He most recently served as vice president at Lockton Companies, where he worked for over 18 years in roles including assistant vice president and senior account executive.

Southeast

Stacks Insurance Brokerage in Lighthouse Point, Florida, has named Kenny Bordman partner and president of commercial insurance.

Bordman has more than a decade in commercial insurance, preceded by years in the U.S. Army and law enforcement.

Taylor Stack is agency principal at Stacks, which has offices in the Tampa Bay area; Charleston, South Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Austin and Houston, Texas; and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The agency is independent and offers a range of coverage products, including coverage for high net worth individuals; boats and yachts; commercial marine and commercial auto; and commercial building insurance and wedding insurance.

West

Intact Insurance Specialty Solutions, the brand for Intact Financial Corporation’s U.S. insurance company subsidiaries, headquartered in Plymouth, Minnesota, hired Erik Janssens as senior vice president of West Coast Commercial Surety.

Janssens is responsible for underwriting, strategy, and the profitable growth of Intact’s commercial surety business in the west coast region.

Janssens has more than 25 years of experience in the commercial surety industry. He previously served as senior vice president of commercial surety for North America at Swiss Re and held key roles at Berkley Surety Group and Travelers.

Jim Odiorne will return to the Washinton Office of the Insurance Commissioner to serve as the chief deputy commissioner under Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler.

Odiorne retired in 2018 after serving as Kreidler’s chief deputy for five years. Prior to that he was deputy commissioner for company supervision from 1996 to 2013. Odiorne replaces Chief Deputy Commissioner Michael Wood, who is joining the Civil Rights Division of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

Altamont Capital Partners, based in Palo Alto, California, hired Brad Fischtrom as an operating partner.

Fischtrom has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience. He most recently served as chief operating officer at Ledger Investing and previously served as chief risk officer, global commercial and North America general insurance at AIG. At Altamont, he will advise on investments in P/C insurance.

Ali Williamson joined Alliant Insurance Services as senior vice president within the Alliant Americas division.

Based in Denver, Williamson has more than 35 years of experience in the insurance brokerage industry. Before joining Alliant, she most recently served as a global client advocate and executive vice president at WTW. She previously served as account executive/property and casualty team leader at Willis, account executive/office leader at Hobbs Group/HRH and vice president at J&H/Marsh.

MGIS, headquartered in Salt Lake City, named Jim Wrage vice president of sales and distribution.

Wrage will develop and operationalize the organization’s sales strategy and manage a team of regional sales directors and internal sales specialists.Wrage worked for more than three decades at Principal Financial Group, most recently as national vice president, benefits and protection.

Kurt Meyer will retire from his role as MGIS chief sales officer at the end of the year. Meyer previously served as vice president of underwriting and operations, group benefits.