Farmers CEO: Changes Align Leadership Around Core Businesses

Jeff Dailey, chief executive officer of Los Angeles, Calif.-based Farmers Group Inc., on Tuesday announced several executive leadership team appointments he says better aligns the leadership team around Farmers core businesses.

Mhayse Samalya will become president of the Farmers’ brand, Tony DeSantis was named president of Farmers personal lines, Steve Boshoven becomes president of Farmers’ Foremost brand, David Travers was named chief operations officer and Deborah Aldredge becomes chief administrative officer.

“With these appointments, we are better positioned to be even more responsive to our customers and, ultimately, help us achieve our goal of becoming the best multi-line insurer group in the U.S.,” Dailey, who became Farmers’ CEO in 2012, said in a statement. “These changes in our leadership team align the team around our core businesses, improve decision making speed and streamline our operations and other functions for the benefit of our customers and other key stakeholders.”

As the President of the Farmers brand, Samalya will oversee all aspects of Farmers’ personal lines business, including the integration of Farmers’ 21st Century Insurance Co., as Farmers moves toward a one brand strategy. Samalya also will continue to lead Farmers’ exclusive agent distribution channel, which is composed of more than 14,000 agents and district managers nationally.

DeSantis, who has served as president of 21st Century Insurance Co., will become President of Farmers personal lines and will lead the product development, pricing and underwriting functions, with the exception of 21st Century Insurance Co. in California, which will be under Samalya.

As president of the Foremost brand, Boshoven is responsible for the company’s specialty business unit and will add responsibility for the Bristol West business unit and all independent agent distribution. Tim Madden, president of the Bristol West business unit, and Bob Sadler, who leads independent agent distribution, will now report to Boshoven.

Travers, formerly Farmers Head of service operations, will become chief operations officer, a newly created position with oversight of all operational areas, including information technology. Farmers Chief Information Officer Shohreh Abedi will report to Travers and continue to serve on CEO Dailey’s senior leadership team. Sharon Fernandez has been promoted to head of service operations, reporting to Travers.

Aldredge, formerly Farmers chief people officer, as chief administrative officer will have oversight over human resources, the University of Farmers, government and industry affairs, risk and administrative oversight for internal audit, which reports to the Farmers Group Inc. and exchange audit committees.

Farmers is a leading U.S. insurer group of automobiles, homes and small businesses and also provides a wide range of other insurance and financial services products. It serves more than 10 million households with more than 20 million individual policies through the efforts of over 50,000 exclusive and independent agents and nearly 24,000 employees.

Farmers is a trade name and refers to the business activities of Farmers Group Inc. and the Farmers Exchanges. Farmers, along with its subsidiaries, is wholly owned by the Zurich Insurance Group, and provides non-claims administrative services to the Farmers Exchanges. The Farmers Exchanges are three reciprocal insurers (Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange and Truck Insurance Exchange), including their subsidiaries and affiliates, owned by their policyholders.

Topics Agencies Agribusiness Leadership