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W.R. Berkley Corp. named William M. Rohde Jr. president of Acadia Insurance Co., succeeding Bill Thornton, who now is chairman of Berkley Regional Specialty Insurance Co. Walter E. Stradley remains president of Berkley Regional Specialty.
Acadia is a commercial property and casualty insurer in the Northeast. Berkley Regional Specialty, located in Scottsdale, Ariz., provides specialty insurance products to independent agencies that are associated with member companies of W.R. Berkley Corp.’s regional segment.
Rohde comes to Acadia with 23 years of experience in the property and casualty insurance industry. He most recently was a senior vice president at St. Paul Travelers, where he was employed for the past 21 years.
Thornton joined W.R. Berkley Corp. in 1990 and has been president of Acadia since 2000. Previously, he was president of Union Standard Insurance Co., another W.R. Berkley Corp. member company.
Aon Corp. appointed Peter Breitstone president and CEO of its marketing affiliate to independent agents, Agency Specialty Product Network Insurance Services Inc.
Jerry Tegan, who served as president and CEO for eight years, will be ASPN chairman.
Breitstone has 25 years of experience as an independent agent. He joined Aon in 2006, when the company purchased his environmental risk and insurance brokerage.
ASPN operates as a marketing arm for provider companies, including insurance carriers, wholesalers, managing general underwriting and specialty operations.
The International Captive Practice of Willis Group Holdings appointed Dominic Wheatley chief marketing officer and Martin Best compliance officer and chief operations officer.
Wheatley joined Willis in 1995 and became managing director of the Guernsey operation in 2003. He is deputy chairman of the Guernsey Insurance Company Management Association.
Best joined Willis Management 10 years ago, having previously served as group insurance manager for a U.K. bank. He was appointed to the board of Willis Management Guernsey in 2002 and has held the positions of compliance director and operations director.
Richard Falla is managing director for Willis Management (Guernsey) Ltd. He has been with Willis since 1989. He was chairman of the Guernsey Insurance Company Management Association in 2005.
U.S. Risk Insurance Group Inc. named Richard T. Schwartz general counsel of U.S. Risk Insurance Group Inc., and J. Brian Hobbs president of Professional Claims Managers Inc., a subsidiary of U.S. Risk and the company’s specialty third-party claims administrator.
Schwartz joined U.S. Risk Insurance Group in 1997 and has served in a dual capacity as president of Professional Claims Managers Inc., and general counsel for the parent company. Schwartz will now focus his attentions solely on the duties and responsibilities as general counsel.
Hobbs joined Professional Claims Managers Inc. in 1998 and served as senior claims counsel and most recently executive vice president. Hobbs will succeed Schwartz in the position of president of Professional Claims Managers Inc. He is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association and holds a Texas Adjuster’s License – property/casualty.
Wells Fargo Insurance Services Inc. named John Grotts senior vice president and business development manager for the company’s San Francisco Bay Area region. He will be based in the firm’s San Francisco office and will be responsible for cross-selling Wells Fargo Insurance Services in the Bay Area region. Additionally, he will lead a team of account executives in the San Francisco Commercial Lines Department.
Prior to joining Wells Fargo Insurance Services, Grotts was CEO of Willis Insurance Services of California. He also served as a regional director for Aon Risk Services.
The Los Angeles Chapter of the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (CPCU) Society installed its 2008 to 2009 officers and directors.
The CPCU officers are President Theresa Ulbricht of Marsh Risk & Insurance Services; President-Elect Robert Wilson of Aon Risk Insurance Services; Vice President Gene Calahan of Commercial Specialty Insurance Services; Secretary Reiner Braun of Marsh Risk & Insurance Services; Treasurer Rod Simonds; and Immediate Past President George Wallace of Wallace & Schwartz.
The CPCU directors are John Chesebrough of Chesebrough Associates; Eunice Downing-Jackson of Mitsui Sumitomo Marine; Jackie Huynh of AIG; Wes Kwon of ISU-UNI Insurance Services; Tessa Lucero of Marsh Risk & Insurance Services; Paul Wagner of Gen Re; Joe Wetter of Wetter Consulting & Risk Management; and Steve Yuen of CSS Insurance Services.
Conover Insurance of Kirkland, Wash., named C. Ned Anderton an account executive in the employee benefits division.
Anderton comes to Conover with more than 32 years of experience in employee benefits consultation, management and administration. He was a partner with a major independent insurance agency for the past 30 years.
Newark, Calif.-based Risk Management Solutions hired John Stroughair to head the RiskMarkets group of RMS Consulting. He will be responsible for all capital markets activities, including risk analysis of catastrophe bonds for use by rating agencies and investors, the Paradex initiative to provide parametric indices for risk transfer, and a new platform for managing insurance-linked security portfolios.
Stroughair joins RMS from Oliver Wyman & Co., where he was a managing director in the corporate risk practice.
Additionally, Matthew Grant is group executive of global client development.
He joined RMS in 1996 and has held a variety of roles in the client development group, including senior vice president for the RMS international region. Since 2006, he has been the company’s chief markets officer.
Grant will take over the role from Bill Keogh who, after 12 years, has decided to leave RMS to pursue other opportunities.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Lawson-Hawks Insurance Associates, an insurance intermediary and broker, named Laura Ramsey vice president of private client services. She will be responsible for growing the new division.
Ramsey has been an insurance broker for more than 12 years. Prior to Lawson-Hawks, she was affiliated with InsPro.
Zurich North America Commercial named Daniel W. Riordan president of its new 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. Prior to that, he was a senior executive and vice president for insurance with the Overseas Private Investment Corp. He 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, 2008.
AIG announced that Steven J. Bensinger, currently CFO and executive vice president, is now vice chairman of financial services. He will be responsible for operations across AIG’s Financial Services businesses, which specialize in aircraft and equipment leasing, capital markets, consumer finance and insurance premium finance. He will also continue his involvement in AIG’s corporate strategy and corporate development activities.
Bensinger joined AIG as treasurer in October 2002. He was elected an AIG senior vice president and named treasurer and comptroller in January 2005. He was named executive vice president and CFO in March 2005. A search is underway to identify Bensinger’s successor as CFO. He will continue in that role until the search is completed.
William N. Dooley, senior vice president of financial services, will continue to focus on AIG’s financial services businesses in his current position. Dooley will also continue as interim head of AIG Financial Products Corp. until a successor is named.
Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. named Dan R. Eudy senior vice president of the Glencoe Group, which conducts individual risk business. He will be based in Hartford, Conn.
Eudy most recently served as CEO of Industrial Risk Insurers, which he joined in 1996 as chief underwriting officer before being promoted to chief operating officer in 2000 and CEO in 2001.
Jardine Lloyd Thompson appointed Matthew Strong director of capital risks for Asia. Strong will be based in Singapore and will work closely with JLT’s Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney offices. He will develop and lead credit, political and security risk operations throughout Asia-Pacific region.
Strong has more than 15 years experience as an insurance broker.
Bermuda- based Sovereign Risk Insurance Ltd., part of ACE Ltd., named Nila Davda head of the firm’s newly established Dubai-based division.
Davda, vice president and senior underwriting officer, will relocate from Bermuda to Dubai.
Bermuda-based Arch Capital Group Ltd. promoted Mark Lyons to chairman and CEO of Arch Worldwide Insurance Group.
Lyons joined Arch in 2002 and currently serves as president and chief operating officer of Arch’s U.S.-based insurance group. Lyons will take over from Ralph Jones, who retired at the end of his five-year employment term on July 1, 2008. Lyons served as president and COO of Arch Insurance Group since June 2006.
Marsh appointed Martin Stubbs senior vice president for construction professional indemnity within its financial and professional services practice in London.
He has more than 20 years’ experience in construction professional indemnity and joins Marsh from Jardine Lloyd Thompson, where he led the design and construction PI facility.
Bermuda-based The Catlin Group Ltd. appointed Mark Newman CEO of the Asia-Pacific Region. He will be based in the Singapore office.
Newman previously held positions with Guy Carpenter and Marsh, and worked in Tokyo and Singapore for the past eight years. In his new role, he will manage The Catlin Group’s operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and Sydney.