The American Insurance Association says it has hiredtwo new staff members to augment its financial regulatory andinternational team.

The trade association also promoted two current staffmembers.

AIA continues to be the leading property-casualty industry voicein discussions on financial regulation and group supervisionof insurers at the state, national, and increasingly, internationallevels. The association deploys staff to engage proactivelyand to advocate for an efficient and effective regulatory structurethat advances private, competitive markets here and abroad thatwork for our members and their customers.

Adam Kerns joined AIA on October 1 as assistantgeneral counsel focusing on financial regulatory issues, andSteve Simchak joined AIA Nov. 26 as itsdirector of international affairs.

“Adam's public policy, corporate and financial issue managementexperience, coupled with Steve's association and trade background,make them both well-suited for their respective roles with AIA,”says Leigh Ann Pusey, AIA's president and CEO, in a statement.“The addition of these two well-regarded professionals to thealready strong AIA team will serve our members' interests, as AIAcontinues to play an increasingly influential role on insuranceregulatory and market access issues, particularly as those issuesevolve internationally.”

Kerns' current areas of responsibility include groupsupervision, group capital, enterprise risk management, corporategovernance, solvency, and climate change. Prior to joiningAIA, Kerns gained experience as director of finance in theGovernment and Industry Affairs Department at Farmers Group, Inc.,an AIA member company. He previously worked as a controller for aLos Angeles law firm, a real estate attorney for a Philadelphia lawfirm, and as an auditor for Aramark andPricewaterhouseCoopers.

Prior to joining AIA, Simchak was the program director ofthe Coalition of Service Industries (CSI), where he managed CSI'sinvolvement with the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, theInternational Services Agreement talks, and bilateral engagementwith the European Union, China, India and other countries. Hepreviously worked in the offices of Congressman J. Randy Forbes(R-VA) and Congressman Bill Shuster (R-PA).

Additionally, AIA says Phillip Carson has beenpromoted to associate general counsel and director of financialregulatory policy. Most recently, he served as assistantgeneral counsel.

Prior to joining AIA in 2003, Carson was a financial auditorwith the international accounting firm of Deloitte and later becamea tax consultant with Arthur Andersen. He was first introducedto the insurance industry while working at Allstate InsuranceCompany. He then moved to United Airlines where he was first amanager in United's tax department and later, securities counsel inUnited's law department.

Ken Stoller has been promoted to assistantgeneral counsel. Stoller joined AIA in 1998 as ananalyst/editor in AIA's Legislative Reporting Service(LRS). Most recently, Stoller served as senior counsel. Priorto joining AIA, he practiced workers' compensation law in Floridaand held a variety of positions in insurance, education and smallbusiness.