People Moves: New Hire at Paragon; Promotions at Preferred Mutual

Connecticut’s Paragon Insurance Holdings Hires Koller

Paragon Insurance Holdings hired Duffy Koller as president of its newly formed casualty excess and surplus practice.

In this role, he will focus on construction, manufacturing and distribution, as well as premises liability on a primary and excess basis.

Prior to joining Paragon, Koller served as head of North American excess and surplus for AmTrust Financial Services.

Paragon Insurance Holdings is an insurance agency based in Avon, Connecticut.

Source: Paragon Insurance Holdings

New York’s Preferred Mutual Insurance Company Promotes Sander, Lopata

Preferred Mutual Insurance Company (PMIC) promoted R. Benedikt Sander to the role of president and CEO and Jeffrey M. Lopata to chief operating officer and executive vice president, effective January 1, 2022.

PMIC’s current CEO, Christopher P. Taft, will be retiring but will become the chairman of the company’s board of directors, replacing Robert A. Wadsworth, who will continue to support PMIC as a member of the board.

Sander, who joined PMIC in June 2019, has been serving as executive vice president of insurance operations and has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the insurance industry. In his time at PMIC, he has championed strategies to improve company growth and profitability as well as initiatives that foster strong relationships with employees, agents and business partners.

Lopata, who has been serving as executive vice president and chief strategy officer, has been a driving force behind PMIC’s strategic planning initiatives and across several key areas of the company during his 17-year tenure, including information technology, enterprise project management and the development of business strategies and services.

Preferred Mutual Insurance Company provides property/casualty insurance coverage to more than 232,000 individual and business customers through a network of more than 500 independent agents throughout New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. In business since 1896, Preferred Mutual is headquartered in New Berlin, New York.

Source: Preferred Mutual