People & Places

Guy Carpenter chose Tony Gallagher tofill the role of CEO of the firm's Pacific region. He will beresponsible for positioning the company as a premier reinsuranceprovider in the region. Gallagher has served in the reinsuranceindustry for 17 years in a variety of positions throughout the UK,Japan and Australia.

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

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

Lesley Harding was named CEO of the Willis Global CaptivePractice in Europe. Harding joined Willis in 2003 and was mostrecently a client advocate with the company's global solutions teamwhere her focus was developing and managing relationships withWillis' global clients in the energy industry.

Burham Benefits Insurance Services selectedRichard P. Asensio as its new vice president,director of compliance. The addition allows Burnham to provide itsclients with guidance and peace of mind in navigating thegrowing issues associated with health and welfare state and federalcompliance requirements.

Paul Vredenburg was promoted to the new roleof executive vice president and chief acquisition officer forAssuredPartners. Vredenburg was previously thesenior vice president of corporate development for Assured. Inhis new position, he will work to expand the company'snational footprint through strategic acquisitions of insuranceagencies.

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

Mary Anne Budworth and AmandaRuback joined Lockton's Chicago operation. Budworth has morethan 19 years of experience and comes to Lockton fromWillis, where she was assistant vice president of property-casualtyinsurance. Ruback has more than 10 years of industry experience.Her most recent position was treasury senior manager of riskmanagement for PepsiCo. Inc., a Lockton client.

New Programs

Assurex Global lauched a private marketplace platformin collaboration with Businessolver to provide administrativeflexibility to employers regardless of their benefit decisions inresponse to the Affordable Care Act in 2014. Key advantages of theplatform include:

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

R-T Specialty of Ryan Specialty Group isoffering GL builder coverage and wrap solutions called NUWAY. Theprogram addresses roots of problems with complete document trackingand archiving, OSHA compliance, preemptive customer serviceand quality assurance and control done on the client'sschedule. 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.