Zurich North America Names James Engel Exec. VP to Head Customer Services

Zurich North America announced that James D. Engel has been named to the position of executive VP for Customer Services, taking on the combined responsibility for the company’s claims organization, as chief claims officer, and as head of the risk engineering organization.

Engel most recently served as chief claims officer of various Ace entities, including president of Brandywine Holdings and executive vice president of Ace USA. He’ll join Zurich North America at its headquarters in Schaumburg, Ill.

“Jim is assuming what is now an expanded role in our Services organization,” stated Frank Patalano, CEO of Zurich North America Services. “Combining the claims and risk engineering organizations under unified management gives us an opportunity to leverage these functions by more effectively managing loss costs in a concerted way and by emphasizing, even further, the focus on and importance of creating a positive experience for our customers.”