New Hires and Promotions at BB&T, Worldwide Facilities, Aon Risk Solutions and More - Around the Industry

People & Places

Jerry Elliott was promoted to vice president of sales and practice leader at BB&T Insurance Services. He joined BB&T in 2006. In his new roll, Elliott will work with family risk managers in the personal lines division.

Worldwide Facilities welcomed Andy Simkins to its Chicago office as vice president. He will expand the company's property and inline marine lines of business. His most recent position was assistant vice president and broker for Colemont/AmWINS.

Peter Hutton was appointed resident managing director in Aon Risk Solution's New Jersey office. He will leverage his 17 years of property-casualty and employee benefits experience to drive middle market growth throughout the Northeast region.

JLT Reinsurance Broker chose Henry To to fill the roles of chairman and CEO of its operations in China and Hong Kong. To has 30 years of reinsurance experience in Asia and has been involved in various sectors such as marine, non-marine, personal accident, motor and liability. He is well-known for his effors in building the agricultural reinsurance business in China when the government began subsidising the sector in 2004.

Sue Harnett was named COO for QBE's North America operations. She will oversee the company's claims, information technology and corporate legal teams. She joins QBE from Citigroup, where she spent most of her career as head of the company's local consumer lending area, directed global business performance management and focused on productivity and customer satisfaction improvement for businesses in 40 countries.

Willis North America announced appointments to strengthen its National Construction Practice: Drew Vann will fill the role of surety practice leader for the company's Georgia operations, and will work to expand its footprint in the Georgia marketplace. Wendy Ash has been appointed principal–client services of the National Construction Team in the company's Philadelphia office. She will oversee the team's operations and service exisiting client relationships.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Lockton expanded its East Coast operations with the acquisition of Strategic Insurance & Risk Solutions, a niche brokerage in Melbourne, Australia owned by industry leader Colin Smith.

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

The Hilb Group announced the acquisition of The Pennoyer Group. Pennoyer was founded in 1978 by Paul Pennoyer and is based in Crofton, Md. with an additional office in Bel Air, Md. The company provides personal and commercial insurance solutions and a national specialty niche insurance program targeting real estate agent professional liability.

New Programs

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

Allied World U.S. and The Mechanic Group Inc. entered into an agreement to provide primary and excess liability insurance products to private security, electronic security alarm and investigation firms. It will be available nationwide.

Ascent Underwriting, a Managing General Agent (MGA) providing cyber risk coverage, was lauched. Ascent is targeting clients ranging from micro businesses to international corporations and aims its first product suite, CyberPro, at the USA, UK, Canadian and European markets. Coverage will be offered on a modular basis and includes comprehensive cyber risk protection with professional services cover.

News

Fonality has plans to integrate its web client with Box, the cloud content and collaboration service, later this year. Users will be able to access Box files and share them within the Fonality web client as well as all Box documents they have in common with their contacts. Users can also use links to Box documents in chats to open them easily on the Fonality web client conversation space. Box provices secure file sharing, conversation trackers and file management.

Alliance Intermediaries is a new specialty reinsurance intermediary offering MGAs, program administrators and wholesale brokers, specialty insurance and reinsurance expertise. The firm is managed by Andrew Burger, known for his integrity, objective advice and assistance to the industry for more than 30 years.