People

The Nonprofits Insurance Alliance Group in Santa Cruz, Calif., appointed Kim Aday to vice president finance/treasurer. Aday joined the group in 1997 in the position of accountant. In early 2001, she was promoted to controller.

H.W. Kaufman Financial Group/Burns & Wilcox promoted five executives to the position of vice president to grow the company’s national reach.

Christopher Zoidis was promoted to associate vice president. Zoidis continues in his position of director of corporate development and Special Risk Division — International.

Jeffrey Diefenbach was appointed vice president in Indiana. He continues in his role as manager of the company’s Indianapolis and Chicago offices. Diefenbach also has assumed responsibility as manager of the company’s Milwaukee, Wis., office.

James Epting was appointed vice president in Georgia. Epting also retains his role as manager of the Atlanta office.

Karen Toler was appointed vice president in North Carolina. She retains responsibility for managing the Morehead City, N.C., office.

Reid Wilson was appointed vice president in Utah. He continues in his role as manager of the Salt Lake City office, as well as the company’s Reno, Nev., and Las Vegas offices.

Markel Insurance Co. reported that Barrett Hubbard was named vice president of Markel Risk Solutions. Hubbard has held several senior management positions at Markel, most recently as vice president of Markel Re. He was managing director and established the Toronto, Canada, branch of Markel International. He also served as vice president of Marketing at Markel Insurance Co.

MRS also promoted Steve Glancey to vice president and underwriting manager. Glancey joined Markel Insurance Co. in 2005 as associate vice president, divisional underwriting officer. Before joining Markel, Glancey was chief casualty underwriter for Zurich Middle Markets, Zurich North America.

Crump Insurance Services appointed Amber Osgood property and casualty underwriter for the managing general agency, Binding Authority Unit of the Denver branch office. She has more than nine years of wholesale general agency underwriting experience.

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner named Adam M. Cole general counsel at the California Department of Insurance. He comes from the San Francisco-based office of the law firm Heller Ehrman LLP, where he directed litigation matters with a focus on insurance recoveries for California policyholders.

Poizner said Cole brings a blend of experience in complex insurance issues and commercial litigation on the federal and state levels.

USRisk Brokers Insurance Services Inc. announced that Joan Edwards joined its Oakland, Calif., office as branch manager, and Chris Ramos joined the office as senior underwriter.

Edwards has 30 years of brokerage, underwriting and marketing and sales experience. Most recently, she was a senior underwriter in the MGA unit of Crouse & Associates in San Francisco.

Ramos will be responsible for underwriting casualty and property risks throughout California. He comes from MJ Hall & Co.’s Napa, Calif., branch.

Zurich named Steven Bauman leader of the team developing captive strategy for Zurich’s Global Corporate in North America. Bauman will be based in New York City. He has more than 20 years of experience in corporate insurance and captive services on both the broker and company sides, most recently as senior vice president of Aon’s Captive Services Group.

Peoria, Ill.-based RLI Corp. added Brian Flynn as vice president, miscellaneous professional liability (MPL) for its Executive Products Group (EPG). Flynn will be responsible for the underwriting and management of EPG’s MPL business nationwide. He comes to RLI EPG from Ace Insurance Group, where he spent the last seven years in various underwriting and management roles. Flynn will be based in RLI EPG’s Summit, N.J., office.

Zurich Financial Services announced that Robert Landry retired as head of its Canadian operations Alister Campbell, previously senior vice president at ING, succeeds Landry as chief agent and CEO for Zurich Insurance Co. in Canada, subject to board and regulatory approval.

Marsh appointed Chris Houston as a senior consultant in its Property Risk Consulting team. He will provide property risk consulting services to clients in the London area and south of England. Houston joins Marsh from Zurich Risk Services.

R.E.Chaix & Associates announced that Jeannemarie Pettipas-Ross joined the Northern California office in Napa as assistant vice president, underwriting. Her underwriting responsibilities will include all lines with special emphasis on general liability, property and professional liability. Pettipas-Ross began her insurance career in 1990 at a workers’ compensation carrier, and has worked at Fireman’s Fund, Chubb, HRH of Northern California, and most recently as production specialist at AIG.

San Francisco-based Tri-City Brokerage, a division of Crump Insurance Services Inc., named Matt Whitelaw senior vice president specializing in directors and officers coverage. Whitelaw has expertise in all areas of professional liability, and most recently was with Carpenter Moore Insurance.

Reinsurance and risk intermediary Benfield appointed Richard Goldfarb to the newly launched Capital Markets division within Benfield Advisory, its specialist corporate finance and advisory business.

Goldfarb has experience in financial risk management, capital management and reinsurance, including the development of risk transfer solutions for insurance companies. Prior to joining Benfield, he was with Ernst & Young.

Topics California Agencies Underwriting Property Canada