People

Atlanta, Ga.-based Beecher Carlson, a commercial insurance brokerage firm, appointed Steve Denton as president. Denton has served as the chief operating officer since July 2006. In his expanded role, Denton will plan and direct the execution of Beecher Carlson’s client services and growth initiatives.

Denton has also been elected to Beecher Carlson’s board of directors. He originally joined Beecher Carlson in 2004 as managing director.

Tom Golub remains as chairman and CEO of Beecher Carlson.

Denton has more than 20 years of experience in commercial insurance and risk management. Prior to joining Beecher Carlson, he held several senior management positions at Aon Risk Services. He also worked at Marsh and began his risk management career at Ford Motor Co. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia where he earned a BBA in Risk Management and Insurance.

Swett & Crawford appointed Meredith Dyson as senior vice president. Dyson, who will assist the company with its marketing efforts and other related activities, will be based in New York.

Most recently, Dyson was with Mercator Risk Services Inc. as senior vice president and Northeast property manager. She began her career in 1990 at Marsh & McLennan Inc. in the risk management property division. After becoming assistant vice president in 1994, Dyson moved to the global broking property division in 1996. She was promoted to vice president in 1998.

Later that year, Dyson moved to Aon Specialty Re, the facultative reinsurance division of Aon Corp., and in May 2000, she returned to Marsh Inc. as an account executive in the Japan client service group. She joined the global division of Marsh Inc. in July 2001, where her specialty was the marketing of risk management accounts to the wholesale marketplace.

Prior to working for Mercator, Dyson was a founding associate of RMC2 LLC, a start-up wholesale insurance brokerage. RMC2 was sold to American E&S in July 2003.

Robert Swayze, executive vice president of Eustis Insurance & Benefits in New Orleans, has been elected president of RiskProNet International, a network of 26 independent insurance brokers throughout the United States and Canada.

Three new board members also have been elected. They are Gerry O’Connor, senior vice president of Old National Insurance in Indianapolis; Bradley Potter, vice president of operations of BFL Canada in Vancouver; and Phil Marsh, senior vice president of Wick Picher Insurance, Inc. in Phoenix.

Colemont Insurance Brokers, headquartered in Dallas, hired Peter Kestenbaum as assistant vice president and business development manager of the company’s Atlanta office.

Prior to joining Colemont, Kestenbaum served as an executive manager for AmPac Carolina Lending and as business development manager for American International Group.

Charlotte, N.C.-based LMC Capital LLC, named Patrick Vaughn as managing director. He will lead LMC’s mergers and acquisitions practice for insurance technology and services companies.

Previously, Vaughn was a managing director at Triarch Partners, a Charlotte, N.C., boutique investment bank, where he led the firm’s technology mergers and acquisitions practice. Prior to Triarch, he was president and CEO of Market Velocity Inc., a technology services company formed by the merger of Atlanta-based TradeUps and Charlotte-based MoonBuzz Inc, which Vaughn founded in 1999.

California-based Maverick Commercial Insurance Services, an independent insurance wholesale operation, announced the opening of an Atlanta office. John M. Voelker will join as branch manager of Maverick’s East coast operations.

Voelker brings more than 15 years experience in wholesale specialty and surplus lines insurance. His insurance career includes six years at AIG in Atlanta and Los Angeles as vice president of AI Entertainment as well as president and general manager of South Eastern Risk. He has worked as a retail broker with Marsh and most recently as a surplus lines broker in the Atlanta area.

Voelker will be in charge of Maverick’s workers’ compensation program for bars and taverns in the states of Fla., Ga., Tenn. and La. He will also head the company’s homeowner association package program.

In addition to these programs, Voelker will be responsible for the expansion of Maverick’s property and casualty business in the East coast focusing on hard-to-place general liability for contractors e.g., artisans, general contractors, wraps, as well as excess and umbrella coverage including transportation excess.

XL Capital Ltd. announced that Clive R. Tobin will retire effective April 1 from his role as chief executive of the company’s insurance operations. He will continue to assist XL with strategic opportunities in emerging markets.

David B. Duclos, currently COO of XL’s Insurance Operations, has been named to succeed Tobin as chief executive.

Tobin’s new official title is vice chairman of XL Insurance Ltd. He will initially work with Duclos during the transition, concentrating on the continued development of the company’s joint venture in Brazil, which he spearheaded in 2006.

Duclos has 28 years of experience in the insurance industry. He joined XL in October 2003 after three years at Kemper Insurance Company in various senior level positions. Prior to Kemper he spent 21 years at CIGNA Corp., which included a variety of regional and national management roles in the field and home office.

Bermuda-based Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. announced that Robert Needle will join the group, as executive vice president excess casualty and professional lines, subject to approval by the Bermuda Department of Immigration.

Needle began in the legal field focusing on insurance matters. He then joined Alexander & Alexander and Aon where he served in various senior executive capacities over a 27-year period. Most recently he served as an attorney with Gibbons P.C., as counsel in the insurance practice group.