People & Places

Charles Cushner

Kathleen Lawler

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York Inc. recently announced the addition of three new staff members. Kathleen A. Lawler is IIABNY’s new director of education, Bruce H. Barry fills the newly created communications specialist position and Katie E. Palmer has joined the trade association as a support specialist.

Alicia Cantavella

Bruce Barry

IIABNY, which represents more than 1,900 agency locations, currently employs 31 at its new Widewaters Parkway headquarters in DeWitt.

Phyllis Robinson

Diane Koken

Lawler is a 17-year veteran of the industry and a former executive at St. Paul Travelers in Syracuse. While employed by the insurer, Lawler was most recently responsible for agency sales and growth management in New York’s central and southern regions. At IIABNY, she will be responsible for IIABNY’s statewide education program.

Lawrence Bascom

Alessandro Luppa

Barry had served at IIABNY as a communications intern since May while attending the State University of New York at Oswego. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in public relations, Barry was hired to help coordinate media relations and maintain the association’s newsletter and other communications vehicles.

Elliott Feldman

Joel Ario

Palmer recently joined IIABNY as a support specialist and is responsible for providing clerical assistance to the staff. She is also a part-time student at Syracuse University’s University College, studying organizational leadership.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners elected four officers for 2005 during the NAIC Winter meeting in New Orleans. Members elected Pennsylvania Commissioner Diane Koken as president, Maine Insurance Superintendent Alessandro Luppa as president-elect, Oregon Insurance Administrator Joel Ario as vice president, and Kansas Commissioner Sandy Praeger as secretary-treasurer.

Koken currently serves on several key committees, including chair of the internal administration subcommittee, the market regulation and consumer affairs committee; the financial condition committee; the government affairs task force and the speed to market task force. She is also a member of the National Insurance Producer Registry board of directors. Koken’s tenure as commissioner began in August 1997, when former Gov. Tom Ridge appointed her acting commissioner.

Luppa was appointed Maine’s superintendent of insurance in 1998 and was re-appointed to a second term in 2004. He is chair of the NAIC’s reinsurance task force and vice chair of the capital adequacy task force. At the 2004 International Association of Insurance Supervisors annual meeting, Iuppa was elected to serve a two-year term as chair of the IAIS executive committee.

Ario currently is vice chair of the internal administration subcommittee and chairs the NAIC’s market regulation/consumer affairs committee and the statistical information task force. He also serves on the government affairs task force and the speed to market task force and chairs the NIPR board of directors. Ario has been with the Oregon Insurance Division since 1995, where he has been serving as insurance administrator since 2000.

Praeger chairs the health insurance and managed care committee and serves as vice chair for the NAIC Midwestern zone, the government affairs task force and the privacy issues working group. Praeger was elected Kansas commissioner 2002. She was previously elected to the Kansas Senate in 1992, 1996 and 2000.

The Lighthouse Companies of Annandale, Va., named three new program directors. Aaron DiCaprio will head StaffPak, the Lighthouse insurance program endorsed by the National Association of Personnel Services and the recommended insurance program for members of the Employers Services Assurance Corporation.

Rob Rigsby became program director of Eldercare, which offers a range of insurance products for those that provide services to the elderly.

Peter Stanislaw is now program director of Lighthouse Professional Liability, which provides brokers access to virtually all types of professional liability, management liability and miscellaneous professional liability.

DiCaprio previously worked as a business consultant for Team America Human Resources, a national professional employment organization in Bethesda, Md. He also practiced employment law and insurance defense litigation in the District of Columbia with Mooers & Associates and O’Riordan Bethel LLP.

Rigsby joins The Lighthouse Companies after serving as chief executive officer of URM Group, a California risk management company specializing in the alternative risk market. He also served as executive director of Association Healthcare Districts and senior examiner with California Casualty.

Stanislaw was president of the Hillers & Wagner Agency Inc. prior to joining Lighthouse.

The Maryland Insurance Administration has hired Brett S. Lininger as director of government affairs. Lininger will serve as an agency liaison to both state and local government on insurance matters. He most recently was a legislative analyst with insurance company Aegon USA Inc. Lininger, a Maryland native, holds a degree from Towson University and is completing his law degree at University of Baltimore School of Law.

Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co. in New York announced the promotions of several executives. Susan Campbell and Curt Goetsch were promoted to senior vice president; Diane DeSanti, Kent Schickling, and Claudia Wetteland to vice president; Mark McConnell, Joe Minnella, John Raeihle, Kathy Spinella and David Uber to assistant vice president.

Connecticut-based Trumbull Services LLC/b>, a provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) and technology services to the property and casualty industry, has hired Betsy Enloe as chief operating officer. Enloe comes to Trumbull from The Hartford where she spent 19 years in a variety of roles, most recently serving as the assistant vice president of the Strategic Business Development Organization supporting the mergers and acquisitions function.