People & Places

Guy Carpenter chose Tony Gallagher to fill the role of CEO of the firm's Pacific region. He will be responsible for positioning the company as a premier reinsurance provider in the region. Gallagher has served in the reinsurance industry for 17 years in a variety of positions throughout the UK, Japan and Australia.

Melanie DeVos was promoted to vice president of client services, property-casualty at Assurance. The new role is designed to bring leadership and consistency to the way the company delivers service to all of its property-casualty clients. DeVos joined Assurance 13 years ago.

Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC) announced several appointments: Shaun Hooper is president and CEO of its wholesale, reinsurance broking and underwriting operations in North America. Hooper joined CGSC in mid-2009 as head of group operations and was promoted to CEO in early 2011. He will be responsible for CGSC's prominent national brands and underwriting businesses. Mike Brennan, previously a corporate sales director and division leader, was promoted to CEO of wholesale. Michael Ruhe, also previously a corporate sales director and division leader, was appointed president of sales.

Lesley Harding was named CEO of the Willis Global Captive Practice in Europe. Harding joined Willis in 2003 and was most recently a client advocate with the company's global solutions team where her focus was developing and managing relationships with Willis' global clients in the energy industry.

Burham Benefits Insurance Services selected Richard P. Asensio as its new vice president, director of compliance. The addition allows Burnham to provide its clients with guidance and peace of mind in navigating the growing issues associated with health and welfare state and federal compliance requirements.

Paul Vredenburg was promoted to the new role of executive vice president and chief acquisition officer for AssuredPartners. Vredenburg was previously the senior vice president of corporate development for Assured. In his new position, he will work to expand the company's national footprint through strategic acquisitions of insurance agencies.

Cross Insurance welcomed Michael J. Dufour to its Augusta, Maine branch as vice president of commercial lines. Dufour spent 26 years with Willis of Northern England where he had a variety of roles including commercial lines account executive and vice president. He will help the branch's management team plan and develop strategy.

Mary Anne Budworth and Amanda Ruback joined Lockton's Chicago operation. Budworth has more than 19 years of experience and comes to Lockton from Willis, where she was assistant vice president of property-casualty insurance. Ruback has more than 10 years of industry experience. Her most recent position was treasury senior manager of risk management for PepsiCo. Inc., a Lockton client.

New Programs

Assurex Global lauched a private marketplace platform in collaboration with Businessolver to provide administrative flexibility to employers regardless of their benefit decisions in response to the Affordable Care Act in 2014. Key advantages of the platform include:

The ability to choose a defined contribution or defined benefits plan
A prepackaged set of medical and ancillary benefits for employers and their employees
Support for Affordable Care Act record-keeping responsibilities
A single-source administrative package
Marketplace business data integration
Flexible decision support tools that make employee choice easier.

R-T Specialty of Ryan Specialty Group is offering GL builder coverage and wrap solutions called NUWAY. The program addresses roots of problems with complete document tracking and archiving, OSHA compliance, preemptive customer service and quality assurance and control done on the client's schedule. Wrap advantages include:

No SIR; low deductibles
Balance sheet protection with a $50,000 total aggregate
Per-home pricing
Insured warranty provided by currently rated A+ XV carrier
Right to repair
Repair call backs and more.

Special Reports /

New Hires and Promotions at Assurance, Guy Carpenter, Willis and More - Around the Industry

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