Business Moves

ISU, Webb, Ken Hargis, Cox & Kimball, Darlage

ISU International added four new member agencies in the Midwest: ISU Insurance Services The Webb Agency of St. Charles, Mo.; ISU Insurance Services Ken Hargis Agency of Terre Haute, Ind.; ISU Insurance Services Cox & Kimball of Bedford, Ind.; and ISU Insurance Services Darlage & Associates of Seymour, Ind.

ISU International is a national network of more than 90 independent agencies with offices nationwide and combined annual premiums in excess of $1 billion.

Ryan Specialty Group

Ryan Specialty Group (RSG), created by Pat Ryan, founder and retired chairman and CEO of insurance broker Aon, launched a second subsidiary: Ryan Specialty (Europe) Limited — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ryan Specialty Group. Ryan Specialty (Europe) Ltd. is a U.K.-based managing general underwriting agency specializing in financial lines products, including directors and officers, financial institution and professional liability products.

The U.K. company is lead by Malcolm Nightingale and Adam Barker. Barker, the general and underwriting counsel, formerly worked for HCC Global Financial Products in London. Nightingale, chief underwriting officer, has written business in the U.K., Europe and all over the world during the span of his almost 50-year career.

Ryan also announced the addition of another leader, Timothy W. Turner, to the RSG management team as a managing director. Turner was the president of CRC Insurance Services Inc., a large wholesale insurance broker in the U.S. producing more than $3 billion in annual premium.

The company said its overall management team has more than 250 years of collective experience; it includes several former Aon executives.

Ryan Specialty Group’s first subsidiary, ThinkRisk, was announced in December and is based in Kansas City. ThinkRisk provides underwriting and claims management services in an evolving marketplace – media, technology, advertising, privacy and network security. Ryan serves as chairman of ThinkRisk, and the company is led by CEO Leib Dodell. From 2004 through 2009, Dodell was president and CEO of Media/ Professional Insurance (a subsidiary of Axis Capital), an underwriter of specialty errors and omissions insurance. The former national practice leader at Marsh for media and intellectual property, Chad Milton, is now executive vice president of ThinkRisk.

Ryan founded Aon at age 26. Under Ryan’s leadership, the company expanded through organic growth and acquisition, and in 1987 changed its name to Aon Corp., which today operates with more than 500 offices in 120 countries. Ryan recently stepped down after 14 years as chairman of the board of trustees of Northwestern University, where he continues to serve as a trustee. He is also an owner/director of the Chicago Bears Football Club and chairman of World Sport Chicago.

Applied Systems (ASCnet)

Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet), the user group of Applied Systems insurance agency management software, is planning to relocate by year-end 2010 to the Chicago area. Prior to the move, ASCnet will hire a permanent CEO to succeed interim CEO Rick Morgan.

The association has called the Orlando, Fla., area home since the mid-1980s. In a letter to members, Lisa Parry Becker, chair of ASCnet, said the move is part of a multi-year effort to centralize ASCnet’s activities throughout North America as well as sharpen the group’s value to members.

Most ASCnet leaders must travel greater distances to get to Florida, resulting in higher governance costs, Parry Becker said. The association headquarters is distant from many local chapters and members throughout the United States and Canada. Locating to the Chicago area means the association can centrally locate leadership and training conferences.

Parry Becker said ASCnet’s relocation also brings it closer to a key stakeholder, Applied Systems, also based in the Chicago area.

ASCnet intends to have the permanent CEO in place by June 1.

Topics Europe Aon