People – West

Monterey, Calif.-based Capital Insurance Group President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Cazzolla announced he will retire from the company.

Cazzolla’s retirement is to be effective at the end of the year. He will continue in an advisory role to ensure a smooth transition, the company stated.

Cazzolla has been with CIG for 21 years. He was selected to lead the firm in 1993, when CIG was a small, regional insurance company with $103 million in written premium and $60 million in surplus. Today, CIG reports more than $400 million in written premium and $300 million in policyholder surplus. Under Cazzolla’s direction, CIG began its state expansion from California and Nevada to include Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and New Mexico.

CIG employs more than 400 employees and has more than 210,000 policies in force.

Edgewood Partners Insurance Center named Michael Gonthier chief financial officer.

Elaine Andrian, EPIC’s current CFO, will now focus on merger and acquisition strategy and diligence.

Gonthier will be responsible for overseeing all finance and accounting, human resources and information technology functions across the organization.

Gonthier has more than 20 years of experience in operations, information technology, finance and administration. Prior to EPIC, Gonthier was senior vice president and chief operating officer for Crump Insurance Services.

Gonthier also was vice president and finance division CFO for BISYS Insurance Service and vice president of corporate service for BISYS Group Inc.

EPIC has nine offices across California: Los Angeles; Irvine; Inland Empire; Fresno; Folsom; San Francisco; San Mateo; Petaluma; and San Ramon. EPIC also has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York.

Novato, Calif.-based Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. named Robyn Hahn as its chief marketing officer.

Hahn is responsible for developing and executing Fireman’s Fund’s marketing and communications strategy.

Hahn has 20 years of experience in the insurance industry. She has held several marketing and sales leadership positions, most recently as vice president and chief marketing officer for the business insurance area of The Travelers Companies Inc. Prior to that, she spent 15 years at Nationwide in a variety of roles, including vice president of marketing and sales.

Fireman’s Fund is a member of the Allianz Group.

CIA-Leavitt Insurance Agency named Brenda Gilleland-Edgar an owner/partner of the firm, as well as vice president of the corporation and vice president of operations.

Gilleland-Edgar focuses on farm and ranch and banking businesses.

She began her insurance career in Nevada, before returning to Colorado where she worked for State Farm insurance for nine years.

Gilleland-Edgar joined CIA-Leavitt in 1997.

The Leavitt Group provides clients with greater a wide-range of insurance programs.

National Financial Partners Corp. P&C California has hired Sue Merk as vice president of business development in California.

Merk will focus on expanding and cultivating cross sell opportunities for NFP’s California region.

Merk has more than 25 years of commercial marketing and underwriting experience. Prior to NFP, Merk was a new business territory manager for Liberty Mutual, formerly Golden Eagle. Merk has held positions with Unigard and Great American.

NFP and its benefits, insurance and wealth management businesses provide advisory and brokerage services to companies and high net worth individuals.

Woodruff-Sawyer & Co. has tapped Gordon Zellers to be the practice leader in its newly launched Denver, Colo., office, Woodruff-Sawyer Colorado.

Zellers will focus on client relationship management and business development as he works to build Woodruff-Sawyer’s presence in the Denver marketplace.

Chris Kakel, a corporate casualty specialist, will also join the office.

Zellers has more than 12 years of risk management experience.

Kakel has 14 years of casualty experience.

Woodruff-Sawyer is an active member of Assurex Global and International Benefits Network.

Employers named Russel J. Newman chief sales officer and senior vice president.

Newman will be based out of Employers’ headquarters in Reno, Nev.

He has more than 12 years of experience in the insurance industry, and over 20 years of management experience overall.

Employers Holdings Inc. is a holding company with subsidiaries that are specialty providers of workers’ compensation insurance and services focused on small businesses engaged in low to medium hazard industries.