People on the move in the P&C insurance industry: October 23, 2015

Swiss Re announced that Urs Baertschi has been appointed president of Reinsurance, Latin America, effective Jan. 1, 2016. In his new role, he will have overall responsibility for Swiss Re's reinsurance business in the Latin America region, which includes Mexico, Central America and South America. Baertschi, who will split his time between Swiss Re's Bogota, Mexico City, Miami and Sao Paulo offices, is currently managing director, head of Principal Investments & Acquisitions Americas for Swiss Re. He has spent considerable time on Swiss Re acquisitions in Latin America and has established relationships with client executives in the region. He has been with the Principal Investments & Acquisitions unit since 2008 and worked with Securitas Capital, LLC/ Swiss Re Capital Partners and Cutlass Capital, LLC earlier in his career.

Jennifer Webb has joined the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) Capitol Hill team as federal government affairs counsel. Webb joins the association’s bipartisan lobbying team primarily as a liaison to Democrat congressional offices and will assist in formulating federal policy positions.

Hiscox announced the appointment of Rick Wong as national broker relations manager and David Bailey as Southwest regional executive for Hiscox U.S.A.

Wong previously served as regional manager for Hiscox U.S.A. In his new role, he will be responsible for developing, managing and coordinating relationships with national brokers. He will play a key role in implementing national broker strategies, as well as working with the regional business leaders and underwriters to develop local and regional broker relationships and strategies. Wong brings to Hiscox U.S.A. a wealth of insurance industry experience and has served in various roles at Hiscox for several years. In his most recent role as regional manager, Wong was responsible for managing a regional underwriting team in New York. Prior to that, he was assistant vice president for Hiscox U.S.A. and led two teams of underwriters across the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Bailey will assume his role as a key player in expanding and growing the Southwest region and will lead a team of underwriters in the region. Bailey brings more than 15 years of industry experience and was most recently the chief financial officer for Hiscox U.K. and Europe, where he was responsible for accounting, actuarial, mergers and acquisitions and analysis. Prior to that role, Bailey was finance director for Hiscox Europe, focusing on cost control, pricing, analysis and reinsurance buying, and managing the financial processes and robustness of six countries throughout continental Europe.

Goji has appointed Amit Basak as president. Basak previously served as chairman of Acclaris and General Partner at Staley Capital. In his new role, he will work directly with Goji CEO Steve Kezirian to build the nation’s leading technology-enabled property and casualty insurance agency. Basak’s background encompasses a valuable combination of general management, marketing analytics, sales, strategy and private equity investment experience – all with a focus on technology-enabled business services companies. As President, Basak will directly oversee the product, marketing, finance and analytics functions at Goji.

Assurance has added Mark Russ to its Property and Casualty division. Russ will be consulting faith-based institutions, specifically local evangelical mega-ministries, on their insurance needs. Russ, who will serve as a senior vice president, brings more than 37 years of insurance experience to Assurance. In his new role, Russ will focus on developing unique risk management programs for larger, local multi-site churches nationwide. In addition to his faith-based specialization, Russ maintains expertise in the construction, manufacturing and healthcare industries.

One Call Claims announced the appointment of Mary Anne Medina to the executive management team as director of Business Development. Medina recently served as vice president of Vale Training Solutions, where she was the first and only woman to serve in that role. She has extensive experience in claims processes redesign and developing claims handling departmental procedures and training. Her experience includes development of training, processes, and reporting, as well as working with multiple top 10 P&C Insurers and Fortune 500 companies. Her background of experience covers a wide geographic area, with both catastrophic and daily claims handling, with carriers, TPAs, self-insureds and IAs. In her new role, Medina will oversee client growth and account management with active participation in other areas of the overall strategic implementation of the development of new products and services that One Call Claims will offer to new and existing clients.  

QuanTemplate Technologies Ltd. (QuanTemplate) announced the launch of its North American operations with the appointment of Scott Quiana as president of QuanTemplate Inc. Quiana will initially build out QuanTemplate’s U.S. and Bermudian presence, taking responsibility for growth across the territories. Quiana joins QuanTemplate from Risk Management Solutions Inc. (RMS), where he spent 19 years in a variety of executive roles, most recently as managing director, Strategic Accounts. He joined RMS in 1996, where he also served as vice president and industry practice leader.

ArgoGlobal (Argo) announced the appointment of David Lang as chief operating officer. Lang brings nearly three decades of industry experience to his new role. He joins Argo from Lloyd’s where he most recently served as chief data officer. He joined Lloyd’s in 2011 as head of Claims and was responsible for leading the implementation of the Claim Transformation Programme. David was also chair of the Lloyd's Capital and Planning Group, which was responsible for agreeing the syndicate business plans and syndicate capital requirements for the market on behalf of the Lloyd's Franchise Board.

American International Group Inc. (AIG) announced new leadership appointments in its Commercial Insurance business, including Commercial Chief Underwriting Officer, as well as the newly established roles of Global Head of Cyber, and Presidents of Credit Lines and Portfolio Solutions.

Madhu Tadikonda was appointed commercial chief underwriting officer. In his new role, Tadikonda will oversee the chief underwriting officers in Commercial Insurance’s global product lines and ensures that AIG is focused on driving well-coordinated underwriting solutions across the business. Drawing on his science background, he will also oversee deployment of underwriting tools that harness AIG’s substantial data assets and capabilities.

Tim Carter was appointed president, Portfolio Solutions. In his new role, Carter is responsible for portfolio insurance solutions for AIG’s Commercial Insurance clients, including small business, programs, assumed reinsurance, and managing general agents. His focus is to bring together AIG’s deep product expertise to deliver compelling solutions for these important client segments.

Tracie Grella was appointed global head of Cyber. In her new position, Grella is responsible for the expansion of AIG’s full cyber risk insurance capabilities across AIG product lines. She will lead efforts to innovate solutions and deliver expertise to help clients manage and mitigate this evolving risk. Grella has served as Global Head of Professional Liability since 2011. Prior to that, she served as president of Specialty Professional Liability.

Donna DeMaio was appointed president, Credit Lines. In her new capacity, DeMaio will oversee a newly-organized business line that includes AIG’s mortgage insurance business, United Guaranty Corporation (UGC), as well as political risk, trade credit, and surety. DeMaio’s banking background and mortgage expertise makes her uniquely qualified to lead AIG’s credit business.

Willis Group Holdings announced the appointment of Alex Clayton as head of Construction for Willis GB, the operating segment that includes Willis’s specialty, facultative and retail insurance businesses in Great Britain. Based in London and working alongside the existing construction leadership team, Clayton’s new role will be focused on leading the local construction team and overseeing the risk management and broking requirements for all of Willis’s major construction industry clients. Clayton has experience of leading a number of high-performing specialty teams at Willis, including in terrorism, general liability and property. In his current capacity, he heads up the Latin American and Caribbean property team out of London. Clayton assumes his new role on Nov. 1 but will continue with his current responsibilities until the end of the year.

The Insurance Center for Building Materials (ICBM) announced that expert lumber underwriters, Rick Zorman and Phil McCown, have joined its team. Both Zorman and McCown have significant expertise in the risks associated with lumber companies and will expand the firm’s capabilities for this unique and complex market.  

Zorman has extensive experience in heavy manufacturing and mill operations and joins ICBM from Pennsylvania Lumbermen’s Mutual (PLM), where he was a Lead Underwriter for its Heavy Manufacturing (SPP) Division. Prior to that, Zorman served as a Senior Underwriter at Indiana Lumbermen’s Mutual and was a 19-year veteran underwriter at Lumbermen’s Underwriting Alliance (LUA).  

McCown has 27 years of underwriting experience, and is recognized for his expertise in coverages, products and creative solutions for hard to place risks. He spent 14 years at Fireman’s Fund and also worked at CNA Insurance, St. Paul Travelers and Chubb before joining Indiana Lumbermen’s Mutual in 2009. McCown was the ILM Western Region Underwriter up until 2014, where he went on hiatus until joining ICBM.

CTEH has appointed Cmdr. (Ret.) Joseph J. Leonard, Jr. Leonard is a Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP), creating the U.S. Coast Guard's only Type-1 Incident Management Assistance Team. At CTEH, Leonard serves as a senior consultant offering a full-range of incident management services, including:

• Exercise design, development, and execution,
• Training (NIMS, oil spill/hazardous materials response, severe weather preparedness, crisis communications, disaster recovery, debris removal, etc.),
• Plan development and validation,
• Business continuity/continuity of operations (COOP) consultation and support,
• Incident/event management, support, and coaching (surge staffing as needed).

Lockton has named Justin VanOpdorp as the insurance broker’s first chief analytics officer. VanOpdorp has led the creation and development of Lockton’s property and casualty insurance analytics team since arriving in 2006. As chief analytics officer, he will have global responsibility for business intelligence and analytics that help Lockton clients improve their businesses.

Mark Moitoso, a 25-year veteran of Liberty Mutual Insurance, has been named senior vice president and analytics practice leader. He will lead Lockton’s Property and Casualty Analytics team in leveraging industry-leading analytics and provide actionable advice to clients on their property-casualty insurance programs and claims. Moitoso most recently has been executive vice president and general manager of National Accounts for Liberty Mutual in Boston. VanOpdorp joined Lockton in 2006 and has more than 20 years of actuarial and analytical experience. He has played a key role in the creation and development of Lockton’s Analytics team, which provides clients with insights on total cost of risk, claims, risk finance, reserving, dynamic capital modeling, and predictive modeling.