People and Places

Brian Corbett

Westfield Center, Ohio-based Westfield Insurance has named Brian G. Corbett executive of personal lines and nonstandard auto. His responsibilities include managing the profitability and expansion of Defender, the company’s nonstandard auto program. In addition, he is accountable for the development and maintenance of all private passenger auto programs, including pricing, rules and forms.

Corbett previously served as director of private passenger auto. He began his career at Westfield nearly 20 years ago as a marketing trainee. Since that time, Corbett has served as a marketing manager in Aurora and St. Charles, Ill., an underwriting manager in commercial and personal lines and a project manager for strategic personal lines support projects.

Meanwhile, Frank A. Carrino was named corporate counsel and secretary at Westfield Group. He assumes responsibility for all corporate legal matters as head of the corporate legal department. He also serves as secretary to the Ohio Farmers Insurance Co. Board of Directors.

Benjamin McKay

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America announced that Benjamin J. McKay III, former chief of staff for U.S. Representative Katherine Harris (R-FL), will serve as the new director of federal affairs in its Washington, D.C., office.

Before working for Rep. Harris, McKay served for over a decade as senior staff in both the Florida House and Senate. His tenure included service to legislators on the insurance committees of both chambers, including the vice chair of the Banking and Insurance Committee in the Senate and a member of the Property/Casualty Subcommittee in the House. He also served as deputy secretary for International and Legislative Affairs at the Florida Department of State under the Harris administration and was promoted to chief of staff for the agency where he presided during the 2000 election.

Brian Cohen

Brian S. Cohen has been named senior vice president and chief marketing officer by exclusive agent carrier Farmers Insurance Group. He will be based in the company’s Los Angeles office and will be responsible for the company’s marketing and sales efforts. Most recently, Cohen served as president of Farmers Financial Solutions LLC, where he was responsible for starting up Farmers’ financial services division. He joined Farmers in 1997 as vice president of corporate development after a career in securities law.

John McDowell

Global insurance broker Willis Group named John McDonnell as new director of its Japan services business in North America. He joins from Marsh, where he worked for the last 10 years, most recently as managing director of its New York Japanese operation. This is a return to Willis for McDonnell as he worked in Willis’ casualty unit from 1990 to 1994. In his new capacity, McDonnell will continue Willis’ focus on providing risk management services and solutions to Japanese corporations worldwide, the company said in a statement.

Barbara Deas

ACE Westchester Specialty Group, the U.S.-based wholesale focused property and casualty operation of the ACE Group of Cos., has named Barbara Deas to run its new environmental risk division based in Atlanta.

With more than 35 years of diverse insurance industry experience, Deas joins ACE Westchester from Gulf Insurance Group, where she most recently served as managing vice president of the environmental division. She previously served as Southeast regional manager with Kemper environmental and assistant vice president with United Capital’s environmental division. The new division will distribute products through wholesale brokerage firms throughout the United States. The retail brokerage distribution of environmental insurance products will continue to be conducted by ACE USA’s environmental risk division.

Mickey Webb, the vice president of employee benefits for Associated Financial Group in Minnetonka, Minn., has been named chair of the employee benefits practice group of RiskProNet International, a network of 28 independent insurance brokers across the United States and Canada. She succeeds Sean LaBorde, the vice president of sales and employee benefits at Mortenson, Matzelle and Meldrum Inc., in Madison, Wis. Webb joined CFS Insurance Services in the accounting department, serving as controller before moving to the employee benefits position four years ago. CFG became part of Associated Financial Group in 2003.

Associated Financial Group serves the financial and insurance needs of more than 2,000 clients. It handles a full range of employee benefits products and services, as well as general commercial liability and special professional liability for businesses throughout the United States and Canada.

James A. Fowler and John D. Keyes have joined Chicago-based Noodle Specialty Brokers, the newly formed division of InsuranceNoodle Inc., as senior vice presidents of underwriting.

Fowler was most recently executive vice president of XL Programs for XL Capital, where he started the workers’ compensation program unit. He will focus on strategic analysis, planning, underwriting and marketing support for workers’ compensation product development. Prior to XL Capital, he held top management positions at Reliance National Insurance Co., Zurich American Insurance Group, American International Group and the Hartford Insurance Group.

Prior to joining NSB, Keyes was an underwriter for commercial lines at SHG Insurance Services. His past positions include account manager for commercial lines with Transcom, senior national account broker at Aon and account manager for commercial lines with Swett and Crawford. Keyes will manage and underwrite both property/casualty lines. In addition he will develop new products for InsuranceNoodle producers and other distribution channels around the country.

Topics USA Chubb Japan