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Ryan Specialty Group LLC has named Charlie Rosson senior vice president.

Rosson is based in San Francisco, Calif. He will work to develop RSG penetration with brokers on a national basis.

He has 23 years of experience in the insurance industry. He was most recently the CEO of Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

RSG is an international specialty insurance organization.

The American Insurance Association has named Jeremy Merz vice president of state affairs for Western region.

Merz was most recently a lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce. He was an associate with Downey Brand LLP prior to joining the CalChamber.

AIA is a property/casualty insurance trade organization.

Heffernan Insurance Brokers has named Paul Matlock assistant vice president in its commercial lines department of the Petaluma, Calif., office.

Matlock has more than 10 years of sales experience. He was most recently with Coding Pixel as president of business development.

He began his career at Wells Fargo holding various roles in business banking.

Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Heffernan has offices in San Francisco, Petaluma, Menlo Park, Los Angeles and Orange County, as well as in Portland, Ore. and St. Louis, Mo.

San Francisco, Calif.-based Woodruff-Sawyer & Co. has named 10 new partners to the firm.

The partners represent various product lines, from property/casualty to management liability to employee benefits, and are located at the firm’s San Francisco, Southern California, Northwest and New England offices.

The new partners are:

Dan Berry, senior vice president in the private equity and venture capital group and corporate executive protection services;

Jim Lopiccolo, senior vice president in corporate and executive protection services;

Wade Pederson, senior vice president and account executive in property/casualty and corporate and executive protection services;

Kathy Prosser, senior vice president and national employee benefits practice leader;

Jeff Slay, senior vice president in Southern California;

Casey Soares, senior vice president and property specialist;

Sheila Villaroman, senior vice president in employee benefits.

Woodruff-Sawyer has offices throughout California, and in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Hawaii and New England.

JLT Specialty USA has named Paul Cohen senior vice president.

Cohen will work out of Orange County, Calif., with JLT’s global fine art and jewelry and practice with a focus on clients in the U.S.

Cohen has more than 20 years of experience. Cohen comes from Willis Towers Watson.

JLT Specialty USA is the U.S. platform of the specialty business advisory firm Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group.

Arch Insurance Group Inc. has named Matthew Parsons the regional vice president for its U.S. construction division for the Western region.

Parsons will be based in the company’s San Francisco, Calif., office.

Parsons was most recently an underwriting manager for Liberty Mutual.

Arch Insurance Group is a member of Arch Capital Group Ltd., a Bermuda-based company.

Sedgwick LLP has named James J.S. Holmes an office managing partner in Los Angeles.

Holmes is an experienced trial attorney and litigator, representing media and entertainment entities, as well as insurance carriers insuring those companies. He defends clients in intellectual property matters, including: trademark; trade dress; trade secrets and copyright infringement; misrepresentation of likeness; unfair competition; and breach of contract actions.

He has been a partner in the firm since 1994.

Sedgwick provides trial, appellate, litigation management, counseling, risk management and transactional legal services to companies.

Greenberg Traurig LLP has added Bill Gausewitz as a shareholder to its government law and policy and insurance regulatory and transactions practices in the firm’s Sacramento, Calif., office.

Gausewitz focuses his practice on administrative law, insurance regulation, title insurance and appellate law.

Gausewitz has more than 20 years of experience drafting and backing California state legislation and serving in a number of positions within the Legislature. Gausewitz joined the firm after a stint with Michelman and Robinson. He most recently served in state government as counsel to the insurance commissioner of the California Department of Insurance. He previously served as director of the California Office of Administrative Law.

Greenberg Traurig is an international law firm with 38 offices in the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

LP Insurance Services Inc. has added John Flueckiger to the southern Nevada employee benefits sales team.

Flueckiger is responsible for developing new business relationships as well as retaining and servicing existing clients.

He was most recently the director of sales for the Las Vegas PGA tournament, and before that he was an agent/partner at Bixler Insurance Inc.

Reno, Nev.-based LP has additional offices in Elko, Las Vegas, and Gold River/Sacramento and Truckee, Calif., as well as Phoenix, Ariz.

USI has named Jeff Lang practice leader for the Southern California commercial insurance division.

Lang is based in USI’s Woodland Hills regional office. He will focus on growth strategies, client service and retention, talent acquisition and building USI’s brand in the California marketplace.

Lang has more than 20 years of experience in property/casualty brokerage and five years as an insurance company and TPA executive.

Lang was a vice president with Chubb Insurance Co. prior to joining USI. He has also spent time with other insurance agencies including Bolton & Co., Wells Fargo Insurance Services and Marsh Inc.

Valhalla, N.Y.-based USI operates out of 140 local offices serving every state.

Crystal & Co. has named Scott Weiss a managing director in its commercial property/casualty department and a team leader for Northern California.

Weiss’ responsibilities include the development, administration and execution of account service strategies.

He maintains a primary client management role for both middle market and risk management accounts, with a major focus on the real estate and hospitality business sectors.

He was formerly an executive vice president at Krauter & Co.

Crystal & Co. is a New York-based risk and insurance advisor.

Deborah A. Whitcomb, a workers’ compensation administrative law judge in Stockton, Calif., has been appointed to serve on the Workers’ Compensation Ethics Advisory Committee.

Whitcomb was appointed by George Parisotto, acting administrative director of the California Division of Workers’ Compensation.

Whitcomb will fill the position designated for a workers’ comp administrative law judge, replacing Tim Haxton.

The ethics advisory committee reviews ethics complaints from the public against workers’ comp administrative law judges, and then makes recommendations to the administrative director and the DWC court administrator.

The committee meets quarterly and members serve without compensation.

Regulation require the committee to include three members of the public representing: organized labor; insurers and self-insured employers; an attorney who formerly practiced before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and who usually represented insurers or employers; an attorney who formerly practiced before the appeals board and who usually represented applicants; a presiding judge; a workers’ comp administrative law judge; and two members of the public outside the workers’ comp community.

Michael McRaith, who has served as director the Federal Insurance Office since its creation in 2011, is resigning his post as of Jan. 20. as the Trump Administration begins.

McRaith announced his plan to leave the agency during a Jan. 4 meeting of an FIO advisory panel.

McRaith, a former director of the Illinois insurance department, was named to the FIO post by President Obama in March 2011.

The FIO was created by 2010’s Dodd-Frank Act. The federal agency has authority to monitor insurance markets and insurance regulation but has no regulatory power itself; that remains with the states.

The FIO operates from within the U.S. Department of Treasury and is charged with advising Congress on insurance markets, helping to lead U.S. efforts on international insurance issues, and advising various federal entities on insurers’ systemic risk exposure.

Topics California USA Agencies Legislation Workers' Compensation Excess Surplus Property Property Casualty Casualty