People

New York Superintendent of Insurance Eric Dinallo announced the appointment of 11 senior executives to positions on the Insurance Department’s leadership team.

Kermitt J. Brooks has been named first deputy superintendent. As second in command, he oversees all the deputy superintendents and the department’s operations. In addition, he has responsibility for the Life Insurance Bureau. Brooks has 15 years legal and management experience. He was most recently deputy attorney general for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and led the investigation into employee benefit insurance. Before that, he was a counsel at MetLife and an associate in the commercial litigation group at Nixon Peabody LLP.

Susan Donnellan is deputy superintendent for policy and chief ethics officer. Donnellan joined the department as deputy general counsel in July 2000, and served as general counsel and deputy superintendent from May 2006 to January 2007. Prior to that, Donnellan served as associate general counsel of the Life Insurance Council of New York and before that was with Swiss Re Life Company America.

Robert Easton is deputy superintendent and general counsel. He came to the department after six years at the New York State Department of Law. A two-time recipient of the National Association of Attorneys General “Best Brief” Award, he drafted amicus briefs filed with various appeals courts, including five on behalf of the insurance department.

Dr. Hampton Finer is the senior policy advisor and chief economist. He joined the department from the attorney general’s office, where he directed economic analysis activities. He was the lead economist in a number of cases, including the mutual fund market timing investigations and a multi-billion dollar health insurance merger review. Finer was previously a staff economist at the Federal Trade Commission and a lecturer at Cornell.

Michael Moriarty is the deputy superintendent for property and capital markets. Moriarty began in the department in 1979, and has served in a number of positions, most recently as the director of the Capital Markets Bureau. He was the 2005 recipient of the NAIC Robert Dineen Award for Outstanding Service and Contribution to the State Regulation of Insurance.

David Neustadt is the director of communications. His government and media experience includes the last four years as communications director for the state comptroller. Neustadt served more than a decade in the New York City comptroller’s office where he was press secretary. He was also assistant commissioner for public information at the New York City Human Resources Administration.

Troy Oechsner is deputy superintendent for health. Oechsner is also an adjunct professor at Albany Law School. Before joining the department, Oechsner served the attorney general’s office for almost 14 years, where he directed litigation against health plans, drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers, doctors and hospitals.

Louis W. Pietroluongo is deputy superintendent for disaster preparedness and fraud investigations. Pietroluongo joined the department in 1998 as a deputy superintendent and served as first deputy superintendent from April 2002 to January 2007. He served as acting superintendent in January 2007. Prior to joining the department, Pietroluongo served for 32 years with the New York City Police Department, where he rose to the rank of deputy chief.

Stacey Rowland is assistant deputy superintendent for intergovernmental and legislative affairs. She had been an assistant attorney general since 2003. For the decade prior to that, she was assistant counsel to the state comptroller, where her duties included assisting in the development of the legislative agenda and maintaining relationships with state and local elected officials.

Bruce Topman is the executive director of the Workers’ Compensation Reform Task Force. From 2001 to 2006, he served in the attorney general’s office, most recently as assistant attorney general and senior enforcement counsel in the Investment Protection Bureau. There he supervised several of the bureau’s high profile cases into analyst conflicts and market timing, including initiating the Merrill Lynch case that led to the industry-wide examination of research analyst conflicts of interest, structural reform of investment banks and a $1.4 billion global settlement. Topman was a partner at Webster & Sheffield.

And Zachary S. Weiss has been named special counsel. His duties include performing special projects assigned by the superintendent. Weiss previously served in the Office of the New York State Attorney General since 1999. In 2005, as counsel to the Criminal Division, he directed the grand jury investigation into bid-rigging at Marsh & McLellan that resulted in 20 convictions.

James A. Sweeney Jr. has been appointed vice president, Liberty Mutual Agency Markets, and manager, Systems Development Planning and Management for this Liberty Mutual Group strategic business unit. Sweeney will work with information technology resources of Liberty Mutual Agency Markets.

Prior to joining Liberty Mutual, Sweeney served since July 2004 as second vice president with Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America. Sweeney also formerly served as an associate partner at IBM Business Consulting Services and as a senior manager with Ernst & Young LLP.

Chicago-based Aon Corp. reported that David P. Bolger, executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer, will leave the company after the appointment of his successor. Bolger will remain with Aon while a search for his successor is conducted. The company is commencing a search for a new CFO mmediately.

Wholesale broker NAPCO has announced that Keith C. Johnson has joined the firm as a placement associate in its Edison, N.J., corporate office. Johnson will work to develop new business opportunities and relationships as well as new programs and services for retail clients. He comes to NAPCO after having served in the U.S. Air Force for the past 12 years where he achieved the rank of major.

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America has appointed Paul Magaril as regional manager and counsel of its New York office in Albany. Magaril will handle state legislative and regulatory issues. Magaril spent seven years as legislative counsel for the New York State Insurance Fund. He also served with the Manufacturers’ Association of Central New York and the New York Chamber of Commerce/New York City Partnership.

Topics New York