People & Places

Jerry Elliott was promoted to vice president ofsales and practice leader at BB&T Insurance Services. He joined BB&T in2006. In his new roll, Elliott will work with family riskmanagers in the personal lines division.

Worldwide Facilities welcomed AndySimkins to its Chicago office as vice president. He willexpand the company's property and inline marine lines of business.His most recent position was assistant vice president and brokerfor Colemont/AmWINS.

Peter Hutton was appointed resident managingdirector in Aon Risk Solution's New Jersey office. He willleverage his 17 years of property-casualty and employee benefitsexperience to drive middle market growth throughout the Northeastregion.

JLTReinsurance Broker chose Henry To to fill theroles of chairman and CEO of its operations in China and Hong Kong.To has 30 years of reinsurance experience in Asia and has beeninvolved in various sectors such as marine, non-marine,personal accident, motor and liability. He is well-known for hiseffors in building the agricultural reinsurance business in Chinawhen the government began subsidising the sector in 2004.

Sue Harnett was named COO for QBE's North Americaoperations. She will oversee the company's claims, informationtechnology and corporate legal teams. She joins QBE from Citigroup,where she spent most of her career as head of the company's localconsumer lending area, directed global business performancemanagement and focused on productivity and customer satisfactionimprovement for businesses in 40 countries.

Willis NorthAmerica announced appointments to strengthen its NationalConstruction Practice: Drew Vann will fill therole of surety practice leader for the company's Georgiaoperations, and will work to expand its footprint in the Georgiamarketplace. Wendy Ash has been appointedprincipal–client services of the National Construction Team in thecompany's Philadelphia office. She will oversee the team'soperations and service exisiting client relationships.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Lockton expanded its East Coast operations withthe acquisition of Strategic Insurance & Risk Solutions, aniche brokerage in Melbourne, Australia owned by industryleader Colin Smith.

Swett & Crawford acquired Griffin, aGeorgia-based Southern Hospitality Underwriters Inc.(SHU). The firm specializes in business insurance for thelimited service hotel/motel space. The acquisition complimentsSwett's growing underwriting businesses portfolio. Swett sees thepotential for a broader geographic rollout of SHU's reach as wellas the potential to add additional products to the program.

The HilbGroup announced the acquisition of The Pennoyer Group. Pennoyerwas founded in 1978 by Paul Pennoyer and is based in Crofton, Md.with an additional office in Bel Air, Md. The company providespersonal and commercial insurance solutions and a nationalspecialty niche insurance program targeting real estate agentprofessional liability.

New Programs

SeaFire Insurance Services announced the beginning ofits search for new agency partners in New Hampsire, Vermont andMaine for its exclusive auto dealer and repair insurance program.The company will consider appointments for retail agencies withscale, brand, resources and auto dealer expertise. SeaFire'sprogram provides coverage for the needs of franchised auto dealers,independent auto dealers, franchised recreational vehicle dealers,franchised motorcycle dealers and additional risks. Agents canapply for appointment here.

Allied World U.S. and TheMechanic Group Inc. entered into an agreement to provideprimary and excess liability insurance products to privatesecurity, electronic security alarm and investigation firms. Itwill be available nationwide.

Ascent Underwriting, a Managing General Agent(MGA) providing cyber risk coverage, was lauched. Ascent istargeting clients ranging from micro businesses to internationalcorporations and aims its first product suite, CyberPro, at theUSA, UK, Canadian and European markets. Coverage will be offered ona modular basis and includes comprehensive cyber risk protectionwith professional services cover.

News

Fonality has plans to integrateits web client with Box, the cloud content and collaborationservice, later this year. Users will be able to access Box filesand share them within the Fonality web client as well as all Boxdocuments they have in common with their contacts. Users can alsouse links to Box documents in chats to open them easily on theFonality web client conversation space. Box provices secure filesharing, conversation trackers and file management.

Alliance Intermediaries is a new specialty reinsuranceintermediary offering MGAs, program administrators andwholesale brokers, specialty insurance and reinsurance expertise.The firm is managed by Andrew Burger, known forhis integrity, objective advice and assistance to theindustry for more than 30 years.