People & Places
Willis Re appoints SVP: Willis Re, the reinsurance arm of Willis Group Holdings, promoted Ward Humphreys to senior vice president of its Life, Accident, and Health (LAH) group. Humphreys is now based in Philadelphia. Among other responsibilities, he will now oversee development of new clients in the managed care and health insurer sectors. Humphreys comes to the position with more than 20 years industry experience.
CGSC and Cooper Gay promote 2: Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC) appointed Shaun Hooper to chief commercial officer and Sam Hovey to CEO of Cooper Gay—CGSC's Lloyd's and London market broker—in succession to Hooper. The former joined Cooper Gay in almost 3 years ago and was most recently CEO of Cooper Gay. Prior to her promotion, the latter worked as CFO of Cooper Gay.
Zurich names environmental management team: Zurich announced 4 to its Site-Specific Environmental business. Robert Newmarker is now the head of business operations, Greg Tiernan is zone leader for Eastern states, Robert Hampel is zone leader for Western and Midwestern states, and Debra Hausser is financial institutions leader.
AmWINS hires COO: AmWINS Group announced Scott Purviance as its COO. Purviance has been AmWINS CFO for 11 years. In his new position, he will continue performing CFO duties along with overseeing company accounting and financial operations, mergers and acquisitions, IT and actuarial functions.
EPIC adds principal: Retail P&C firm, EPIC (Edgewood Partners Insurance Center), hired Stan Sanchez as principal in its San Francisco office. He is now responsible for providing risk management and insurance solutions to high asset base clients. Formerly, Sanchez worked as vice president at Arthur J. Gallagher for 5 years.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Austin Mutual joins Main Street America: Minnesota-based P&C carrier Austin Mutual Insurance Co. agreed to become an affiliate of The Main Street America Group. Both boards of directors approved the affiliation agreement, but it is still subject to regulatory approval from the State of Minnesota Insurance Commissioner's Office and Austin Mutual policyholders. If all goes smoothly, closing should be by midyear 2012.
