Specialty Executives On The Move

Mr. Jordan, Berkley said, will succeed Richard P. Shemitis, who will serve as executive vice president-chief underwriting officer of the firm's Nautilus Insurance Group LLC.

The Greenwich, Conn.-based carrier said both appointments are effective immediately.

Mr. Jordan joins Vela with more than 28 years of experience as a senior executive in the property-casualty insurance industry.

Mr. Shemitis joined W.R. Berkley in 1996, helping to form Vela and serving as its president since its formation. He has nearly 37 years of insurance industry experience.

In announcing the appointments, William R. Berkley, chairman and chief executive officer, said: "We continue to enhance the executive ranks of our specialty operating units."

Mr. Jordan's background and ability, he said, make him particularly well suited for his new role at Vela, and Mr. Shemitis' "broad operational and management achievements, coupled with his extensive understanding of Nautilus Insurance Group's business, are vital attributes for this newly created position at Nautilus."

Vela underwrites excess and surplus lines casualty business with a primary focus on contractor and product liability coverages on behalf of W.R. Berkley member companies.

Nautilus Insurance Group, comprised of Nautilus Insurance Company and Great Divide Insurance Company, is a commercial E&S and specialty lines carrier. Its products are distributed exclusively through appointed general agents who are authorized in a specific underwriting territory as surplus lines producers.

Revealing another executive defection from financially troubled AIG, Zurich announced that Ty R. Sagalow, former president of AIG Product Development, has been named executive vice president and chief innovation officer for its North America Commercial Marketing unit.

The Schaumburg, Ill.-based insurer said in his new position, Mr. Sagalow will oversee all of North America Commercial's strategic product development initiatives in the United States and Canada, and will have responsibility for the business division's Proposition Development and Marketing Research departments.

Mr. Sagalow will be based in New York and will report to John Parker, chief marketing officer for North America Commercial.

The company noted that while at AIG Mr. Sagalow oversaw the development of numerous new insurance products, including directors and officers liability policies, cyber-risk insurance, identity theft, and various management and professional liability products.

Prior to his product development role, he was chief operating officer of AIG eBusiness Risk Solutions and was chief underwriting officer and general counsel of National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh.

Mr. Sagalow has written on complex and emerging risks including "D&O Insurance: A Director's Guide" (National Association of Corporate Directors) and "@Risk: The Definitive Guide to eCommerce Risk and Insurance."

"Ty's proven track record of bringing innovative insurance solutions to market quickly and efficiently fits perfectly with Zurich's commitment to meeting the evolving needs of our customer base," said Mr. Parker.

Zurich's North America Commercial and Global Corporate in North America business divisions are part of Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich), an insurance-based financial services provider with subsidiaries and offices in North America and Europe as well as in Asia Pacific, Latin America and other markets. The Zurich Group is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

Liberty International Underwriters, a division of Liberty Mutual Group, announced in mid-January that the company has hired casualty program expert Joe Peloso to expand LIU's casualty-driven program business.

As vice president of liability programs based in New York, Mr. Peloso will oversee all of LIU's non-professional liability program operations in the United States.

David Cohen, president of Liberty International Underwriters U.S. and chief underwriting officer of the global casualty division, said, "One of our main goals for 2009 is to diversify the reach of our program business," explaining by hiring Mr. Peloso, a 25-year veteran of the program business arena, LIU "will have the ability to be a market for a much larger array of business, giving brokers a stable and tested insurer with which to place their clients' business."

LIU noted that Mr. Peloso's experience includes work in both the insurance and reinsurance segments, as well as the general agent market segment.

Bermuda-based Catlin Group Limited, an international specialty property and casualty insurer and reinsurer, announced that Joseph Horan has been named chief underwriting officer- reinsurance for Catlin US.

Catlin US, based in Atlanta, oversees all of Catlin Group's U.S. operations. Mr. Horan will be replacing Andrew Englesbe who has been appointed director- reinsurance for Catlin US.

Mr. Horan was previously an executive with the Catlin US accident and health underwriting team. His background in the reinsurance field includes being one of the founders of Reinsurance Management Group, Catlin said.

In his new position, Mr. Horan will be responsible for the reinsurance operations of Catlin US, which include property facultative, property treaty, brokerage facultative, accident and health workers compensation, and Latin American/ Caribbean underwriting units, the company said.

Ironshore announced that two executive defectors from AIG Environmental–Joe Boren and John O'Brien–joined the company as leaders of a newly established Ironshore environmental insurance facility.

Mr. Boren, who was chief executive officer at AIG Environmental, will become CEO of the new Ironshore unit, which is to be based in New York. Mr. O'Brien, previously president and chief operating officer of AIG, will be president.

The moves came just two weeks after three other environmental experts from AIG Environmental in Chicago–Adrien Robinson, Gregory Heidemann and Patrick Crotty–defected to join Navigators Environmental, a Chicago-based specialty unit of New York-based Navigators.

In early December, Ironshore also announced that it snagged two other senior management leaders from financially troubled AIG–Kevin Kelley, the former CEO of AIG's specialty insurer, Lexington Insurance, and Shaun Kelly, who had been Lexington's president and COO.

Kevin Kelley became Ironshore's new CEO, replacing founding CEO Robert Deutsch, who is now president.

Shaun Kelly took on the role of CEO of Ironshore's U.S. Operations.

The day before Ironshore announced that it hired Mr. Boren and Mr. O'Brien, AIG said Russell Johnston had been appointed to fill the CEO slot vacated by Mr. Boren.

Mr. Boren had worked at AIG Environmental for the last 13 years. Mr. O'Brien had been with AIG for the last 17 years.

Ironshore said its new unit will write a wide variety of environmental and casualty products with focus on middle market commercial risks. The products will serve wholesale and retail markets and will include products for contractors, fixed facilities including real estate, professional service companies and manufacturing operations.

Mr. Boren will report to Shaun Kelly.

Also reporting to Mr. Kelly will be Geoff Smith, another AIG alumnus who joined Ironshore as Worldwide Head of its newly launched Excess Liability facility in mid-January.

In his role, Mr. Smith will provide global strategic direction and consistency across all of Ironshore's platforms writing this product set, Ironshore said. In addition, a new unit will be established to write catastrophic excess casualty insurance for Ironshore Bermuda, targeting Fortune 2000 and other clients purchasing cat excess coverages.

Like the environmental executives, Mr. Smith will be based in New York.

Mr. Smith has 24 years of liability underwriting experience in the insurance and reinsurance markets. Since December 2000, he had been the president of AIG Cat Excess Liability, and from February 1998 to December 2000, he was a vice president at General Reinsurance Corporation in the National Account Casualty Treaty area.

Prior to that, he served as vice president and Excess Casualty Product Line Manager for AIG Cat Excess Liability from 1995 to 1998. Before joining AIG in 1995, he was a vice president at Zurich Reinsurance Center as the manager of its New York facultative branch operations.

He began his career in 1985 as a casualty facultative underwriter with General Re in Dallas and New York and served in that role until he joined Zurich in 1994.

Ironshore, which started its life as a Bermuda-based commercial property insurer in late 2007, has since formed IronPro to enter the management liability arena; IronBuilt to serve the construction market; IronHealth, specializing in health care liability; and IronSelect, an excess casualty division.

The company also entered the Lloyd's market, buying Pembroke Managing Agency and Syndicate 4000 in a deal that closed in early September of last year.

In addition, in mid-December, Ironshore acquired the assets of Marine Re, a reinsurance specialist in hull and cargo for commercial and pleasure craft.

New York-based Navigators Group Inc. has appointed Reina Gregorio as president of professional liability.

The specialty insurance holding company said the action was part of an initiative to expand and strengthen its professional liability division and that Ms. Gregorio would be joined by an underwriting team consisting of Chris Alfieri and Nelson Arache in New York, and Marcia Blanco and Ursula Williams in San Francisco.

Ms. Gregorio will be based in the company's New York City office and report to Chris Duca, president of Navigators Pro, which underwrites professional and management liability on behalf of Navigators Insurance Company, Navigators Specialty Insurance Company and Navigators Syndicate 1221 at Lloyd's.

"Demand for Navigators' innovative professional liability insurance solutions has increased due to a recent flight to quality for stronger financial security," said a statement from Mr. Duca. "We are committed to excellent service for our E&O [errors and omissions] policyholders and insurance brokers. Reina and the team are an exceptional strategic fit."

The company said Ms. Gregorio most recently ran the domestic professional liability business of XL Insurance and has 27 years of insurance experience.

Separately, Navigators also announced an initiative to continue expanding and strengthening its management liability division by appointing Carl Bach, III as senior vice president of Navigators Pro International Management Liability Division.

Mr. Bach is joined by a team of dedicated and experienced international D&O underwriting professionals in the Company's London office.

Most recently, Mr. Bach was managing director of the London branch of AIG Cat Excess Liability, responsible for the excess international management liability and excess liability operations.

Navigators lost a vice president to New York-based Valiant Insurance Group, which announced that Brian Braden had joined the company as vice president-professional liability, reporting to Senior Vice President Adrian Scott.

Mr. Braden, in his most recent prior position at Navigators Pro, was responsible for development and implementation of nationwide underwriting for lawyers, accountants and miscellaneous professional liability, as well as insurance agents, brokers and information technology professional liability.

Prior to Navigators Pro, Mr. Braden served as vice president of the Management Solutions Group at Zurich NA and held similar positions at Tri-City Insurance Brokers, Inc. and Transatlantic Reinsurance Company.

He began his career 19 years ago with Crum and Forster Managers.