People – Midwest

Farmington Hills, Mic.-based Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co. hired Jayashree Ishwar as chief underwriting officer.

Ishwar will be accountable for corporate underwriting, loss control, advanced analytics and product divisions, and is the newest member of the company’s strategic leadership team.

Prior to joining Amerisure, Ishwar was the senior vice president and chief underwriting officer for Erie Insurance’s $1.6 billion commercial lines business from 2012 to 2016, and chief risk officer before that.

Illinois-based global insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. hired Christopher E. Mead as chief marketing officer.

Mead joins Gallagher from the CME Group, the futures exchange, where he served as CME’s managing director of marketing. Prior to that, he served as vice president of corporate marketing, advertising and business communications for Chicago-based CNA Financial Group.

In addition, Mead has held various marketing positions serving clients in the sports entertainment, restaurant, retail and healthcare industries.

Acrisure LLC, a national retail consulting and insurance broker based in Caledonia, Mich., named D. Michael Sherman as president.

Sherman joined Acrisure in January as a strategic advisor, bringing more than 40 years of experience in the insurance industry to the company.

Sherman will continue to report directly to Greg Williams, Acrisure’s chief executive officer. Williams, who previously held the additional title of president, will continue to be responsible for the overall oversight of Acrisure.

Sherman began his career at Dawson Insurance Inc. in 1978, ultimately serving as chief executive officer beginning in 1986. He continued as Dawson Platform chairman and CEO, following its sale to AssuredPartners in 2012. He also served as vice chairman of AssuredPartners Inc.

The Michigan Automobile Insurance Placement Facility (MAIPF) named Mark Wagenschutz as executive director.

Wagenschutz will oversee the organization’s mission to guarantee that automobile insurance is available to Michigan citizens who are unable to obtain it in the competitive market. He will also lead the MAIPF’s Help Eliminate Auto Thefts (H.E.A.T.) Program.

Wagenschutz comes to MAIPF after a 24-year career at insurance firm State Farm where he served in a variety of leadership roles.

Wagenschutz holds the CPCU, ChFC and CLU professional designations.

He succeeds Terri A. Miller, who left the position in mid-April.

Generali is expanding its U.S. global corporate and commercial operations and has hired Peter Ignell as vice president of property and construction in its new office in Chicago.

Ignell has 25 years of experience in the insurance industry. Prior to GC&C U.S.A., he served as regional property director for the Midwest, Commercial Markets at Zurich Insurance Group. Earlier in his career, he held senior property insurance management positions at several leading insurance companies including AIG.

The Italian insurer’s growth comes through its Generali Global Corporate & Commercial Arm, which launched in early 2015.

Indiana-based MJ Insurance added Aaron Parker and Jon Slusser to the risk management department in its Indianapolis headquarters.

Parker joins the MJ team as a client executive, responsible for the overall client experience — creating and executing client’s risk management plans.

Prior to MJ Insurance, Parker worked as a senior insurance manager at Texas State Office of Risk Management. He has received an Associate in Risk Management (ARM) Certification from the American Institute for CPCU.

Slusser will serve the risk management team as a consultant and provide innovative risk management solutions to clients. Slusser previously worked for State Farm as an insurance and financial services representative.

MJ Insurance established in 1964, has more than 140 employees in both Phoenix and Indianapolis.

Grinnell Re, a division of Grinnell, Iowa-based Grinnell Mutual, has launched National Reinsurance, with Rick Tjarks, assistant vice president, and Randy Dammeyer, senior account executive, tapped to lead the new unit.

The new team will focus on developing business growth opportunities in new territories, the broker market, and the broader property/casualty insurer space.

The reinsurance provider will also continue to take advantage of growth opportunities in its traditional farm mutual marketplace.