People

Massachusetts agency Provider Insurance has hired Sharon Cardoso as personal lines account manager. She will be responsible for acquiring new clients and expanding existing client accounts in the personal lines division which includes managing auto, home and umbrella policies in the agency’s Woonsocket, Rhode Island office. She has six years of experience, specializing in Massachusetts and Rhode Island auto insurance, retention, sales and customer service.

Pennsylvania-based Keystone Insurers Group named Elizabeth Schenk as vice president of sales and marketing. She is a 22-year insurance industry veteran and previously served as marketing consultant for Ohio Casualty/Peerless and as a territory manager with W.R. Berkley Corp. She is an experienced commercial lines underwriter and agency producer, as well.

The New York Insurance Association elected new officers and directors. Richard Zick, president and CEO of Utica First Insurance Co., will serve as chairman. Other officers are First Vice Chair Jeffrey Rice, president and CEO of Wayne Cooperative Insurance Co.; Second Vice Chair Bernard Turi, vice president, associate general counsel and claims attorney for Utica Mutual Insurance Co.; and Treasurer Marlene Benton-Sherwood, president of Fulmont Mutual Insurance Co. In addition, there were several directors elected for three year terms: Steven Coffey, president and CEO of Broome Co-Operative Insurance Co.; Nicholas Masi, government affairs representative for Farmers Insurance Group; Louis Masucci, vice president underwriting for Magna Carta Cos.; and Norman Orlowski, vice president/treasurer of Erie and Niagara Insurance Association.

The Connecticut Chapter of the National Association of Insurance Women has named Cynthia Bruce, an underwriter at E&S broker S.H. Smith & Co., as its Connecticut professional underwriter of the year. Bruce specializes in underwriting workers’ compensation insurance. She joined S.H. Smith & Co. in 2005.

Insurer XL appointed David S. Hewett as executive vice president and William J. Mills Jr. as senior vice president to lead its surety division. Hewett joins XL from Zurich where he served as executive vice president and head of it North American domestic surety unit. Prior to his tenure at Zurich, Hewett was vice president with USI Holdings and has held underwriting positions within USF&G. Mills, a 20-year industry veteran, joins XL from Zurich’s contract surety group. In addition to various senior management positions at Zurich Surety, he also held various management positions with St. Paul Surety Seaboard Surety. Both will be based in Baltimore.

John Mina has been appointed managing partner at Willis of Maryland Inc. Mina will be responsible for business development for Willis’ Washington, D.C.-based insurance brokerage operations. He will be based in Maryland. Mina has been with Willis for the past 18 years; most recently he served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Willis of New York Inc.’s retail operations. He has also held other roles at Willis including leader of New York’s mid-market segment, client advocate and international team leader.

Insurance broker Marsh appointed James N. Michel as a senior vice president in its Global Rail Practice. Michel, who will be based in Washington, D.C., has over 35 years’ experience in rail design and operations, with specialties in operational analysis, risk assessment, and safety evaluation for rail organizations. In his new role, he will act as a key railway operations and safety adviser to Marsh clients. Michel joins Marsh from HNTB Corp., an architecture, engineering, planning, and construction services company. He previously spent 22 years with Amtrak.

Michael Hayes will join Pennsylvania’s NSM Insurance Group as the director of its Staffing Lines Program. The program serves the staffing lines industry in all 50 states. Hayes has 20 years experience with workers’ compensation and staffing having served with All Risks and World Wide Specialty Programs.

Topics New York Underwriting