People – West

Renton, Wash.-based Bell-Anderson Agency Inc. named Steven J. Tanta chief financial officer.

Tanta joined Bell-Anderson in 2009 as a sales executive.

Bell-Anderson is one of the largest regional insurance agencies in the Pacific Northwest.

Cigna Corp. named Kim Bimestefer president and general manager for its Mountain States region, including Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico.

Bimestefer will be based in Denver. She will serve as the senior leader for Cigna’s operations in the region.

Bimestefer has more than 25 years of experience in the benefits industry. Most recently, she served as president of Cigna’s Taft-Hartley and federal business segment. She will continue in this role in addition to her leadership of Cigna’s operations in the Mountain States.

Encino, Calif.-based NAS Insurance Services named Jill Linhardt as senior vice president of claims.

Linhardt has been with NAS since 1994 and is a principal. An attorney by training, she began as an underwriter with NAS and moved to the cliams in 2000. During the past 12 years, she has served as vice president of claims, overseeing the department, including coverage evaluations, communications with attorneys, insureds and reinsurance clients.

NAS is an independent underwriting manager of specialty insurance with full binding authority to underwrite on behalf of Lloyd’s of London and other carriers.

San Jose, Calif.-based EK Health Services, a national workers’ compensation managed care firm, has promoted Dr. Douglas Benner to chief medical officer.

As CMO, Benner is responsible for leading the operational management of EK Health’s physician services and medical staff administration.

Dr. Richard Thompson, who has been the CMO at EK Health for eight years, will now focus on the Next Step Medical Advisory Program as its medical director.

Benner joined EK Health in 2011 as medical products business development officer. He came from Kaiser Permanente.

EK Health Services provides workers’ compensation case management, utilization and peer review and Medicare set aside services to insurance companies, employers, for-profits and public entities.

Global law firm Mayer Brown named veteran insurance regulatory advisor James R. Woods as a partner and a co-leader of the global Insurance Industry Group.

Also a member of Mayer Brown’s corporate and securities practice, Woods will divide his time between the firm’s offices in Palo Alto, Calif., and New York.

Previously, he was a partner at Dewey & LeBoeuf, where he served as co-chair of that firm’s global insurance industry sector practice.

Woods has more than 35 years’ experience representing insurers and insurance-related entities.

Woods is general counsel to The Surplus Line Association of California, and to the Worldwide Broker Network.

He also represents the Insurance Information Institute and the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation on a pro bono basis.

Pauline Bareno joined Calabasas, Calif.-based surplus lines broker Maverick Commercial Insurance Services as senior vice president.

Bareno has more than 30 years of property/casualty insurance experience, including an underwriting and marketing background.

Her experience includes insurance companies, retail and wholesale brokerage specializing in large workers’ compensation insurance programs.