People

Markel Corp. named Anthony F. (Tony) Markel vice chairman and Paul W. Springman president and chief operating officer.

Markel has been associated with Markel Corp. for more than 40 years, most recently serving as president and chief operating officer since 1992.

Springman has been serving as executive vice president of Markel Corp. since 2002. Prior to that, he was with wholly-owned Markel subsidiary Shand Morahan & Co. Inc. (Markel Shand Inc.) from 1984 to 2002, where he last served as president and chief operating officer.

The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents promoted Ted Besesparis to senior vice president of communications.

Besesparis joined PIA in May 1995 after a career as a print and broadcast journalist at the local and national level. He was national editor for Standard News, a nationwide radio network and news wire service in Washington, D.C., where he served on the White House press pool. Previously, he was a news editor for Tribune Media Inc. and spent 14 years as a news anchor and radio talk show host in Palm Beach, Fla.

Venture Insurance Programs, a national program administrator, named James M. Shaffer vice president of sales and marketing. In this position, Shaffer oversees all sales and marketing efforts across all the company’s programs, developing relationships with agents and brokers nationwide.

Most recently, Shaffer held the position of regional vice president, Midwest and Central Regions. He joined Venture in 2000 as a program manager for Venture’s Technology program and was later named vice president of program operations and vice president of the Preferred Club Program.

Prior to joining Venture in 2000, Shaffer served as assistant vice president for Commonwealth Risk Services, a Philadelphia-based alternative market specialist.

Kansas City, Mo.-based wholesale insurance brokerage Westrope established a new office in Brandon, Fla.Westrope Insurance Managers of Florida is a wholesaler providing binding authority programs and small to medium sized brokerage placements throughout Florida and surrounding states.

Alan Goldfarb, Paul Burger and George Jacobbe are leading the efforts for Westrope’s Brandon operation. Goldfarb and Burger, former executives with Morstan General Agency in Brandon, head up the binding authority and brokerage operations, respectively. Jacobbe, previous president of CBS Insurance Underwriters in Tamarac, Fla., is developing the company’s marketing and contract relationships.

Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Burns & Wilcox named Charles Coffey underwriter for the company’s Daytona Beach, Fla. office.

Coffey brings to Burns & Wilcox more than 20 years of insurance industry experience. Previously, Coffey worked as senior consultant for Edd Holder and Associates. He also worked as senior consultant for Fringe Benefits Management Co.-United Benefits.

Octavius Sample has joined the Mississippi Insurance Department as an investigator. Sample, a 10-year veteran of the Clinton Police Department, will work with John Hornback, head of the investigative division, which reports directly to the legal division and is responsible for reviewing alleged improper activities of agents and companies. The division collects evidence for the legal staff’s use in civil enforcement actions.

General Re Corp. has promoted I. John Cholnoky to president of General Reinsurance Corp. and manager of Gen Re’s global direct property and casualty operations. Cholnoky’s responsibilities will include General Re’s direct treaty, both marketing and underwriting, facultative and claims divisions.

In addition, Cholnoky has been elected to the board of directors of General Re Corp., the parent of General Reinsurance Corp. Also elected to the General Re board: Patricia H. Roberts, Steven J. Mannik and Winfried Heinen.

Zurich North America Commercial named Daniel W. Riordan president of its newly created surety, credit and political risk group. Riordan will lead an international team that develops and markets Zurich’s portfolio of surety, credit insurance and political risk insurance products to contractors, investors, international banks, multinational companies and infrastructure developers across North America and in emerging markets globally.

Riordan joined Zurich in 1997 to establish and manage its political risk and trade credit business, which is based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, he was a senior executive and vice president for insurance with the Overseas Private Investment Corp. Riordan currently serves as chairman of the investment insurance committee and a member of the management committee of the Berne Union.

Zurich also announced the retirement of William E. Cheatham, president of surety, effective Sept. 30.

Ohio Casualty, a Liberty Mutual Agency Markets regional company, has named Janet Buchanan head of the company’s new branch office in Glen Allen, Va., which the insurer anticipates will expand to a regional office in the coming years.

Also joining Ohio Casualty’s field presence in central and southern Virginia are Territory Managers Wilson Shepherd and Edward Willett; Commercial Lines Field Specialists Melisa Davis-Harris and Robert Short; Personal Lines Field Specialist Don Bogdanski; and Senior Loss Prevention Consultants Mike Lonergan and Tom Lynch.

David W. Hobbs has joined Conshohocken, Pa.-based NSM Insurance Group as director of NSM Direct, which is the brokerage firm’s retail insurance operation. Hobbs was previously president of HRH of Alabama. He has 20 years of experience.

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