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The Obama administration has officially named Illinois state insurance regulator Michael McRaith to head the new Federal Insurance Office. McRaith, currently the head of the Illinois Department of Insurance, will run the Federal Insurance Office set up under 2010’s Dodd-Frank Wall Street and financial industry reforms to monitor insurers, but not to regulate them. The FIO will operate from within the U.S. Department of Treasury and will advise Congress on insurance issues, help lead U.S. efforts on international insurance issues, and advise various federal entities on insurers’ systemic risk exposure.

In addition to spearheading the newly established FIO, McRaith’s appointment fills one of two vacant seats on the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

Tracy Sandin has joined the property/casualty insurance trade group, the American Insurance Association, as its new vice president for state affairs and strategic planning. Sandin’s career includes experience in both the public and private sectors, most recently with Intuit as senior manager for state corporate affairs based in Sacramento, Calif. Her work also includes 13 years of senior-level government affairs experience in the property/casualty insurance sector for Farmers Insurance Group and 21st Century Insurance. Sandin also previously served as director of California government relations for Atlantic Richfield Co. (ARCO) and she has held several positions within the California Legislature.

The Main Street America Group promoted four new executives and four other officers as part of its expanded management team. Mike Lancashire will serve as senior vice president in charge of claims and integrated customer solutions, Tom Frazier as vice president and chief financial officer, Dick Schultz as vice president and chief accounting officer and Cathy Parrish as assistant vice president and director of compensation and benefits. The company also appointed four new company officers, Chris Cox as director of distribution management, Karen LaPlante as director of human resources consulting, Alice Moriarty as director of claims field and Ron Profaizer as director of integrated customer solutions operations.

Paul Vredenburg has joined Assured Agencies in Lake Mary, Fla. as senior vice president of business development. Vredenburg will be responsible for identifying acquisition opportunities. He will also serve as a member of the board of directors.

Vredenburg has 16 years of experience in mergers, acquisitions and perpetuation planning for insurance agencies and brokerages. Most recently, he served as director of acquisitions at Brown & Brown since 2006. His prior experience includes senior vice president at Marsh, Berry & Co. from 2003 to 2006, director of tax and acquisitions at Brown & Brown from 2000 to 2003, and tax manager at Ernst & Young from 1994 to 2000.

Assured Agencies also announced that Eric Anderson joined the company as senior vice president. He will oversee acquisitions and operations in the Pacific Northwest, Kentucky and Indiana.

Anderson has more than 20 years of experience in overseeing retail insurance agency operations and identifying acquisitions. He joins Assured Agencies from Brown & Brown, where he most recently served as regional vice president and was responsible for retail operations in western Kentucky, southwest Indiana, Indianapolis and Seattle. He joined Brown & Brown in 2003, when his family owned independent full-service insurance agency, The Anderson Group, in Owensboro, Ky., was acquired by a subsidiary of Brown & Brown.

Assured Agencies was founded in partnership with management and GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity firm.

Marsh has appointed two veteran insurance brokers to its U.S. Construction Practice. Joining the practice are Scott Hull as managing director in Birmingham, Alabama, and Karen Reutter as senior vice president in Minneapolis.

Hull brings to Marsh nearly 20 years of contract and commercial surety construction experience. In his new role, he is responsible for expanding the firm’s construction business in the Southeast. He also has been named Birmingham office head, with responsibility for overseeing operations of the entire office. Hull joins from Willis of Alabama, where he most recently served as a senior vice president and construction team leader.

Reutter is responsible for client service, program design, and driving business development locally and regionally. She joins Marsh from Aon, where she was a senior vice president in the firm’s Construction Services Group.

PMA Companies announced that Mario Spina has been appointed to serve as the branch vice president of the insurer’s Atlanta, Georgia office. He will be responsible for PMA’s Georgia and Alabama operations and managing the agency distribution system in those states. Previously, Spina was PMA’s vice president of direct sales.

Spina began his career with PMA when he joined the companies’ claims operations in 1988. He has 16 years of sales experience with the company and led the direct sales teams for 12 years.

Topics USA Agencies Construction Alabama