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The Main Street America Group announced that Steve Peeters, who most recently was president and chief operating officer of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Zurich Insurance Services, has joined The Main Street America Group as vice president, commercial lines product. Peeters will be a member of Main Street America’s senior management team and report to Tom Van Berkel, the company’s chairman, president and CEO. He replaces Henry Pippins, the organization’s former head of commercial lines, who has moved into a new role as president of Main Street America’s Midwest Region.

Peeters will be responsible for all product development, underwriting standards, pricing processes and compliance for commercial lines products, which account for 55 percent of the company’s $815 million in net written premium.

For the past two years, Peeters led Zurich Insurance Services, a privately owned program administration and insurance services company linked with Zurich North America Insurance Co. Peeters was responsible for $950 million of written premium. His industry experience also includes executive roles at Zurich North America: senior vice president and chief underwriting officer, Zurich Small Business; president, East Region, Zurich Small Business; and vice president, Small Business Solutions Underwriting. Peeters also had 15-years at Hartford Financial Services Inc.

Insurance wholesaler Crump Group Inc. has named Scot H. Parnell executive vice president and chief financial officer. Parnell joins CGI from The Student Loan Corp., where he most recently was chief financial officer. Parnell rose through a series of finance positions at STU and Citi since joining in 2001. Prior to Citi, Parnell worked at MetLife and Browning Ferris Industries and Arthur Andersen. Parnell replaces Dave Obenauer, who is now president of Crump’s Property/ Casualty Insurance Services division.

Gamal Codner has joined Atlanta-based insurance agency Tanner, Ballew and Maloof Inc. as a vice president and account executive. Codner had previously been a commercial account executive with the Leavitt Group. At TBM, he will be involved with new risk management and insurance clients for the firm.

Atlanta-based specialty insurer American Safety Insurance (ASI) has hired several new underwriters at regional locations throughout the country. Among them, Shawn Buck joins ASI’s Atlanta office as senior excess casualty underwriter. Buck came to ASI from Markel and has more than 19 years experience, including 15 years at Genstar.

Travelers has promoted Bill Cunningham to executive vice president of its Business Insurance segment. He began his career with Travelers in 1987 in commercial accounts and has held positions in the Travelers Construction, National Accounts and Commercial Accounts businesses. He is also a member of the company’s management committee. He succeeds John Albano, who will take on a part-time role at Travelers.

Insurer Zurich said it is expanding its presence in the U.S. energy casualty insurance market by adding two executives to its Commercial Energy Casualty business unit. Greg Cropp, vice president of Energy Excess Casualty, joins Zurich’s U.S. Energy Excess Casualty team after nearly seven years with AIG, where he most recently served as senior vice president, Global Marine and Energy Excess Casualty. Prior to AIG, he served for 17 years at Chubb with roles including Mid-Atlantic region manager and Affinity Program marketing underwriter. Cropp’s responsibilities with Zurich will include oversight and management for the umbrella practice strategy and accountability for production, profitability, and compliance of the energy umbrella practice.

Marie Gwin, vice president of Energy Primary Casualty, assumes her new role as vice president, Primary Energy Casualty after nearly 28 years with Zurich. She began as an underwriter in commercial insurance, and most recently served as vice president and chief underwriting officer for Energy Casualty. In her new role, Gwin’s responsibilities include oversight and management for the primary casualty practice strategy and accountability for production, profitability, and compliance of the energy primary casualty practice.

Topics Excess Surplus Underwriting Casualty