People and Places

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, an Aon spokesman told Insurance Journal. The company is commencing a search for a new CFO immediately.

Bolger joined Aon in January 2003. Prior to joining Aon, he served in various senior positions in Bank One Corp. and its predecessor companies, including American National Bank and First Chicago Corp.

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 (formerly PwC Consulting), and as a senior manager with Ernst & Young, LLP.

Melissa Champany of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents recently received the 2006 InsurPac Young Agent Award at a luncheon in Washington, D.C. Champany was recognized for her efforts in launching a 2006 educational campaign aimed at young Florida agents and increasing young agent InsurPac participation by 300 percent.

Champany, FAIA’s Young Agent Coordinator, heads up the Young Agents Council, a program designed to help agents develop leadership skills, participate in legislative advocacy, train for sales and management positions and communicate ideas. Champany became a licensed insurance agent in 2000 while working for an FAIA member agency.

In addition to Champany, the state of Florida received the Inaugural InsurPac National Championship Award for leading the country in total dollars raised for InsurPac.

Hull & Co. Inc. has announced the retirement of a longtime employee based at the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., branch. Ed Calabrese, president and chief operating officer will retire from the Florida-based wholesale broker and managing general agency on June 30 with more than half a century in the insurance business under his belt.

“After 32 wonderful years at Hull & Co., and over 50 years in this great industry, it is time to hang up my hat and smell the flowers,” Calabrese said. “In August my family and I have rented a villa in the Tuscan Hills of Italy and this will be the first of many such trips for Mary and me in the years to come.”

Calabrese began his career in New York City with the Continental Casualty Co. after serving in the Korean War with the U.S. Marine Corps. Chairman Dick Hull said, “Ed has been my ‘right arm’ for many years here at Hull and Co.” The duo’s business relationship goes back to Calabrese’s post-Continental days when the veteran brokered business to Hull while working at Frank B. Hall.

Upon Cabrese’s departure, Mike Riordan will be named president and CEO of Hull and Co. Inc. Riordan will remain in the St. Petersburg, Fla., office. Bob McGrew will move to Fort Lauderdale to assume the role of executive vice president and will take on the duties of the chief operating officer.

Marsh Inc. has established a dedicated Renewable Energy Team and named Susan K. Stokes and Tom Sexton as its co-leaders. The team will work with the firm’s Global Marine and Energy Practice and the Power and Utilities Industry Practice.

Stokes, who is based in New York, will be responsible for the Renewable Energy Team in the Americas while Sexton, who is based in London, will be responsible for Marsh’s Renewable Energy in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

During the past decade, Marsh has been involved in onshore and offshore wind projects, ethanol and biodiesel plants, solar energy projects, hydro-electric power generation, wave, tidal and other renewable energy operations.

Insurance broker Beecher Carlson has appointed Kevin L. Gabhart as managing director. Operating from the company’s Nashville, Tenn. office, Gabhart will focus on the development and management of health care accounts.

Prior to joining Beecher Carlson, Gabhart served as president and chief operating officer of Aon Risk Services Inc. of Tennessee. He also led Aon’s Nashville health care team.

Countrywide Insurance Group named insurance industry veteran Steve Cardinal as president and chief operating officer of Countrywide Insurance Services. As a member of Countrywide Insurance Group’s executive team, Cardinal will oversee all aspects of Countrywide Insurance Services, a full-service agency that offers homeowners, auto insurance, renters, personal umbrella, and life insurance products to consumers and makes available a wide variety of commercial insurance products and services to businesses.

Cardinal will head new efforts to hire agents in branches and call centers in an agency expansion that will expand access to Countrywide’s products and services to businesses and general consumers across the country.

Prior to joining Countrywide, Cardinal was with Allstate Insurance Co., where he led a region that included 3,000 insurance professionals and 120 financial services agents. He brings 16 years of agency sales and agency management experience, having served in several sales and leadership positions at MetLife, as well as Allstate.

Insurance broker Hilb Rogal & Hobbs Co. of Richmond, Va., has hired Mary S. Botkin as senior vice president and healthcare industry practice leader. Botkin will be responsible for helping grow revenues by working with the practice’s steering committee, other practice members, and HRH branches.

Botkin joins HRH from Alliant Insurance Services, (formerly Jardine Lloyd Thompson, LLC), where she was president of the healthcare division. Prior to working at Alliant, she served with Aon Risk Solutions from 1998 to 2003 as well as Marsh, Inc. from 1991 to 1998. Botkin is a specialist in creative risk financing structures, and in the creation of captive insurance companies. In 2006, she was recognized by Business Insurance as one of the industry’s “Women to Watch.”

Topics Florida Aon