People on the move in the P&C insurance industry: October 2, 2015

ALM has promoted Matt Weiner to president of Finance and Insurance Groups. Weiner has had a successful record managing the Finance Group, which includes Credit Union Times, Investment Advisory, Treasury & Risk, and Professional Publishing Division. As a proven effective leader, he has been instrumental in strengthening the digital initiatives within his businesses. Jeff Paterson, who will be leaving the company, will assist Weiner in the transition process. 

Ben Anderson has been appointed sales director of ALM Legal Intelligence, leading revenue efforts for Research and Analyst reports, ALI, Rival Edge, and newly launched Judicial Intelligence. Ben joins the Legal Intelligence team from ALM’s Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory division, where he served as strategic account manager. Prior to joining Kennedy, Ben spent seven years at Thomson Reuters in account management and sales leadership roles for research solutions for Life Sciences and Financial Services Business Intelligence. In his new role, Ben will lead the Legal Intelligence sales team of account executives and customer management executives.

Crowell & Moring LLP announced that Robert F. Cusumano has joined the firm in New York as a partner. Cusumano’s new role includes helping clients navigate a full-range of legal and regulatory issues. He will work closely with the insurance, commercial litigation, government investigations, and regulatory practices that are pillars of the firm’s New York office. Prior to joining ACE, Cusumano was a partner with Debevoise & Plimpton and before that, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Cusumano is the former general counsel for the NYSE-listed international insurance enterprise ACE, Ltd.

Swiss Re's president U.S. Property & Casualty, William Donnell, has been appointed to the nine-member Advisory Committee on Risk-Sharing Mechanisms (ACRSM) by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The ACRSM, authorized by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015, provides advice and recommendations to the US Department of the Treasury through the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) with respect to the creation and development of non-governmental, private market risk-sharing mechanisms for protection against losses arising from acts of terrorism.

Lockton Companies announced the addition of Jeff Schermerhorn as vice president of its Cyber Technology Practice. Schermerhorn will offer clients tailored programs to shelter them from the increasing threat of cyber attacks. Schermerhorn will focus on customizing professional liability and cyber liability insurance programs for clients. Based in Lockton’s Los Angeles office, he will produce tailored solutions in the most robust and cost-effective manner possible, specializing in comprehensive reviews of clients’ E&O and cyber liability exposures. Prior to his position at Lockton, Schermerhorn served as vice president of National Cyber Liability and E&O practice for Marsh & McLennan Companies.

Jamie Hunter has joined Lockton’s Mountain West operation in Denver as a property & casualty producer, enhancing the talented roster of this leading Colorado insurance brokerage firm. Lockton is the world’s largest privately held, independent insurance broker. Prior to joining Lockton, Hunter was the director of business development for McGladrey. His primary area of expertise focuses on helping companies effectively manage their risk.

Glenn Spencer has been named Chief Operating Officer of Lockton, Inc. and President of Lockton Companies in the U.S. Previously, Spencer served as U.S. Chief Operating Officer for Lockton. Neil Nimmo will transition to CEO of both Lockton Companies LLP, in the U.K., and Lockton International Holdings Ltd., succeeding Mike Hammond, effective May 1, 2016. He is currently Deputy CEO for Lockton’s international operations. Mike Hammond has been appointed executive chairman of Lockton International Holdings Ltd., the operating business for all of Lockton’s businesses outside the U.S. In addition, Hammond will also work with the Lockton Inc. Board to develop and lead the company’s strategic planning process globally. 

Liberty Mutual has appointed Robert Morelli, national accounts engineering practice leader. Morelli is responsible for the development and delivery of engineering products and services that help Liberty Mutual’s commercial policyholders better identify and mitigate critical property risks and exposures that threaten business operations. Prior to joining Liberty Mutual, Morelli was global engineering technical officer at AIG, where he was responsible for the engineering services provided to AIG’s commercial property book. He also served as engineering practice leader at XL Insurance. Morelli joins Liberty Mutual with more than 20 years of property risk engineering experience.

Marsh announced that Thomas Fuhrman has joined the company’s Marsh Risk Consulting (MRC) unit as managing director for cyber security consulting. In this newly-created position, he will be based in Washington D.C. and is responsible for expanding MRC’s cyber risk consulting capabilities and service delivery in North American and international markets. Prior to joining Marsh, Fuhrman was president of Delta Risk. He previously served as senior vice president and partner at Booz Allen Hamilton where he led a $100 million cyber security and technology portfolio. He brings to Marsh more than 20 years of experience in effectively building and leading cyber security consulting practices in both commercial and government markets.

The Main Street America Group announced the appointment of Dave Randle as president of its Southeast Region, which includes six states: Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Randle is based at the super-regional property/casualty insurance company’s corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla., and reports to Jeff Kusch, Main Street America’s senior vice president/head of field operations. Most recently, Randle was Main Street America’s director of distribution management. Randle joined Main Street America in 2008 as a surety development executive in its bonds operation and became a field marketing representative in its Southeast Region in 2010, supporting the company’s Florida independent agents. Prior to joining Main Street America, Randle held various marketing and underwriting positions at Zurich Insurance Services, Jacksonville.

Goji announced the addition of two experienced executives to its senior leadership team. The Boston-based firm has appointed Brett Kaufman as vice president of Acquisition Marketing and JT Benton as chief revenue officer. In their new roles, Kaufman will oversee customer acquisition efforts and digital marketing, and Benton will lead strategic marketing and sales partnership programs. Kaufman and Benton have partnered before. Prior to joining Goji, they spent several years building a performance-based mobile media solution for direct marketers. Both Benton and Kaufman have extensive auto insurance marketing experience. They last worked together at Baltimore-based marketing firm DoublePositive, where they built one of North America’s largest mobile-based customer acquisition platforms. Prior to joining Goji, Kaufman was the global general manager of Mobile Advertising for Clicksco, an international direct response advertising firm; Benton was the senior vice president of Sales and Corporate Marketing for LeadQual, a leading digital media and contact center services firm.

Key Equipment Finance has named Joseph Pulicano senior vice president of technology. In this role, Pulicano will lead all sales, business development, and relationship management activities for Key Equipment Finance's technology finance segment. Prior to joining Key Equipment Finance, Pulicano was managing director of BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions in Paris, France, where he led the multi-billion dollar Technology International Business Line. Previously, Pulicano was CEO of BNP Paribas Rental Solutions, which followed a successful career with IT Business Consulting and Services firms in Europe. These included leading HCL AXON’s services in travel, transport, aerospace and defense, as well as leadership roles in a variety of businesses for Logica. Pulicano is relocating from Paris to the United States and will be based out of the company’s headquarters in Superior, CO.

Willis North America (Willis) announced the appointment of Paula Bernal as public entity practice leader at Willis of Arizona. Based in Phoenix, Bernal will lead Willis of Arizona’s Public Entity Practice, having the responsibility to drive business development within Willis’s portfolio of local and national public entity clients, including school districts, colleges and local governments. She will work to align resources from across the firm’s global platform to deliver cutting edge risk management solutions and services to this sector. Bernal brings to Willis more than 15 years of experience in the insurance industry and previously served as national sales director at Travelers. Prior to her tenure at Travelers, she served as assistant vice president at PENCO.

Franklin Street has appointed Eric Smith as director of risk management and claims for the firm’s insurance division. Based out of Franklin Street’s Tampa office, Smith represents clients’ interests throughout the claims process and implements loss control strategies. Smith has more than 20 years of experience in insurance claims. He has worked in the capacity of adjuster, corporate trainer and various management roles at Liberty Mutual over a period of 12 years. Prior to joining Franklin Street, Smith worked for one of the largest privately held agencies in the country as a Claims Advocate, specializing in casualty and Workers’ Compensation claims.

Worldwide Facilities, LLC announced that Bill Craane has joined the company’s New York City office in the position of vice president & N.Y. casualty practice leader. With 15 years of experience as an Excess and Surplus Lines broker in New York, Bill offers extensive expertise and contacts to expand the office’s tools and resources.

Capgemini has been named the recipient of the Salesforce Partner Innovation Award for Financial Services. In receiving this award, Capgemini was recognized for its work with Zurich North America and the implementation of a new Underwriting Desktop to be used by Zurich’s more than 2,500 underwriting community members. The new Underwriting Desktop is the outcome of a Salesforce Service Cloud implementation by Capgemini utilizing the Service Cloud Console at more than 20 integration points. The award was presented at Dreamforce 2015 in San Francisco, Calif., the world’s largest software event. The Underwriting Desktop combines opportunity management and workflow management, providing single point of access/entry to all systems used by the underwriting community, integrates data from new and existing systems, and tailors process to business need resulting in significantly reduced new business issuance cycle times.

Alternative Service Concepts (ASC) announced the promotion of Karla Popovics to regional claims supervisor. Based in Nashville, Tenn., she will provide supervision and oversight of claim files for various clients across multiple jurisdictions. Popovics joined Alternative Service Concepts in 2007 as a senior claims adjuster where she administered multi-line claims, including: commercial general liability, auto & property, products liability, garage keepers, E&O liability, police professional liability, special handling accounts, and workers’ compensation. Popovics brings more than 30 years expertise in the insurance industry with positions at CNA, Metropolitan Insurance Company, Sentry Insurance Company and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. 

James J. Kennedy received The Griffith Insurance Education Foundation’s 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award during a ceremony at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies’ (NAMIC’s) Annual Convention, held Sept. 27 to 30 in San Diego, Calif. Candidates for the 2015 Griffith Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award were selected by The Griffith Foundation Leadership Council, which includes insurance leaders, executives and academics. Kennedy was recognized for exemplary commitments to education and for his support of the missions of The Griffith Foundation and NAMIC. Kennedy serves as CEO of Ohio Mutual Insurance Group (OMIG). Under his leadership over the past decade, OMIG has gained national recognition for its financial strength and steadfast commitment to the independent agent system, and was included in the Ward’s 50from 2009 to 2013.  

InVEST announced that Cynthia Hower, CIC, has been appointed as chair of its national board. Hower is president of Kellerman Insurance, Inc. (Kellerman) in Holton, Kansas. She joined Kellerman in 1981 to work alongside her father, Dale Kellerman, in the 52-year-old family-owned business. She is also managing broker of Kellerman Real Estate. Hower has 30 years of industry relations experience, which includes her previous position as an agent council representative for Farmers Alliance Mutual Insurance Company and Columbia Insurance Group. Hower is a past president of the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents (KAIA), past chair of the Big “I” Virtual University committee, and continues to serve in leadership roles. Prior to joining the InVEST board of directors, Hower served on the Big “I” Virtual University committee.