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Aon announced that Brent Rieth is the new U.S. practice leader of the Cyber Solutions Errors and Omissions/Cyber Broking team. Rieth first joined Aon in 2009 as team leader of the E&O/Cyber broking effort for multi-national clients. In December 2018, he became Central and West managing director and region leader for U.S. Cyber Broking. In his new role, he oversees the E&O/Cyber resources across the U.S., working with Commercial Risk and U.S. Broking to support Aon’s clients. He is based in Chicago.
Melville, New York-based managing general underwriter CorRisk Solutions has hired Christine DeFelice to lead its architects and engineers (A&E) professional liability team. DeFelice is based in CorRisk’s New York City office and will report to Maria V. Amelio, chief underwriting officer of Specialty Casualty, in this new role.
She comes to CorRisk with more than 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, primarily on the insurance carrier side, while specializing in underwriting architects and engineers professional liability. Her previous positions were with PL Risks Advisors, Ironshore Insurance Services, Tudor Professional and Royal Sun Alliance.
DeFelice began her professional liability career underwriting public officials, educational errors and omissions, cyber, miscellaneous errors and omissions, employment practices liability insurance and some non-profit directors and officers. Through the years, her career became focused on the A&E segment as an underwriting specialist.
Great American Insurance Group has hired Gordon M. Lewis as a divisional vice president within its Ocean Marine division. Lewis has more than 28 years of experience in numerous lines of business within the marine insurance industry.
He joins Great American from the North American branch of a large specialty insurance company, where he led the Ocean Marine team for the last eight years as vice president of Ocean Marine.
In his new role at Great American Insurance Group, Lewis will lead the division’s Northeast underwriting team in New York, N.Y., Windsor, Conn., and Boston, Mass.
Reliance Partners has added Thom Albrecht as chief financial officer and chief revenue officer. Albrecht is a 32-year veteran of the transportation space and served most recently as chief commercial officer and chief financial officer with Celadon Group.
Prior to Celadon, Albrecht’s experience included transportation consulting, equity research and M&A. He previously served as president of Sword & Sea Transport as well as managing director at BB&T Capital Markets.
During the course of his career, Albrecht has worked closely with motor carriers, freight brokers, freight forwarders, shippers and equipment companies. Reliance President Chad Eichelberger said the addition of Albrecht will allow the company to continue to grow its presence in the commercial transportation insurance space.
Reliance Partners is a commercial insurance agency with locations in Chattanooga, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala., Chicago, Austin, Texas, Milwaukee, Wisc., Sacramento, Calif., and Tampa, Fla.
Lockton Re, the global reinsurance business of insurance broker Lockton, has hired Keith Thurman to its Lockton Re Atlanta office to lead the buildout of its Workers’ Compensation practice in the U.S., working closely with colleagues both there and in the UK.
Thurman started his career at E.W Blanch Co. and was most recently at Aon. Over time, he has focused on the workers’ compensation line of business, working with a variety of carriers. His experience ranges from state funds and residual markets mechanisms to main street and specialty niche writers, including mining, forest products, and other high hazard classes such as construction and trucking. He also served as a member of Aon Re’s Workers’ Compensation Practice Group.
Thurman’s responsibilities will include developing product and content for clients and prospects ranging from state funds and regional carriers to global insurers, while bringing thought leadership and expertise in the workers’ compensation arena to Lockton’s U.S. Reinsurance offering and broker teams. Additionally, Thurman will work with Lockton Re’s Analytics and Rating Agency Advisory teams to further develop workers’ compensation capabilities and tailored products in conjunction with Lockton’s proprietary SAGE platform.
Dallas-based Boyd, Shackelford, Barnett and Dixon LLC added Wes Edison as senior vice president. Previously, Edison served as senior vice president at Marsh Wortham, a division of Marsh USA Inc.
Before 2018, when the company merged with Marsh USA Inc., Edison had served as director at Wortham Insurance and Risk Management, where he worked for more than ten years. At BSBD, Edison plans to strengthen relationships with carriers while also developing a framework for serving businesses of all sizes.
The Water Quality Insurance Syndicate (WQIS), a specialist insurer that provides comprehensive coverage in the vessel pollution insurance market, appointed John P. Phillips as senior underwriter based in Houston.
Phillips was most recently head of Marine Programs at Aspen Insurance US based in Houston and was charged with the development and management of all Specialty Marine Programs throughout the Americas. Prior to his time at Aspen, he was responsible for the start-up and management of the Houston marine branch for Liberty International Underwriters, where he later served as Hull Product Line leader for North and South America.
CAC Specialty has added Robert Regueiro as senior vice president and marketing account executive in its Financial Lines Practice in Houston.
Prior to joining CAC Specialty, Regueiro most recently led McGriff’s Executive Risk Advisors team in Houston. He specializes in public company directors and officers liability, cyber risks, employment practices liability, fiduciary liability and commercial crime lines of cover. He has experience designing and developing executive risk solutions for clients in the oil and gas industry, complex international programs, and in-depth involvement in identifying and utilizing litigation trends to help negotiate manuscript executive risk policies.
Denver-based CAC Specialty is an employee-owned risk solutions company of seasoned and proactive industry leaders.
Horace Mann Educators Corp., headquartered in Springfield, Ill., has appointed Vice President Paul Haley as chief risk officer. Haley has led risk assessments for the company’s business development efforts since 2018.
Haley will report to CFO Bret Conklin, who oversees Horace Mann’s ERM processes. Haley has 35 years of experience in the life insurance sector, holding senior actuarial positions at Genworth Financial, Colonial Life and Prudential Financial before joining Horace Mann in 2018.
Valley Insurance Agency Alliance (VIAA), a network of independent insurance agencies in Missouri and Illinois, has named Amy Russell as small commercial marketer.
Russell has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance and marketing industries. She previously worked as a commercial lines account manager for VIAA’s sister company, POWERS Insurance & Risk Management.
In her new position, Russell will handle new and remarketed small commercial insurance accounts on behalf of the alliance’s members. Russell will also provide marketing advice and support to the organization’s producers, clients and underwriters.
Specialty insurance provider, Risk Placement Services (RPS), headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Ill., has appointed Mark Gallagher to lead its National Transportation Practice. Gallagher is based in Des Moines, Iowa. He succeeds industry veteran Jimmy Proffitt, who has retired.
Gallagher joined RPS in early 2019. Shortly after, he was chosen to establish and lead a dedicated team of transportation producers, underwriters and support personnel for the North Central region. Prior to joining RPS, Gallagher served as vice president of underwriting for Truckers Insurance Associates Inc., where he started his transportation insurance career in 1996.
San Francisco, Calif.-based Coalition has named Marcin Weryk as head of business development. Weryk will support growth by driving the company’s distribution strategy.
Weryk has more than 15 years of insurance industry experience. Weryk was most recently vice president and head of cyber risk for the Western and Southern U.S. at XL Catlin. He has also held cyber and technology underwriting positions at XL Catlin and CNA.
Coalition is a provider of cyber insurance and security. Coalition provides companies with cyber and technology insurance coverage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as coverage across all 10 provinces in Canada.
Crest Insurance Group in San Diego, Calif. has named P.J. Jacquelin II to oversee its ocean marine practice. Crest has also added Hunter Vaccaro to the California branch. Crest Insurance Group of Tucson, Ariz., has named Mike McGee as vice president/producer in the commercial lines division.
Jacquelin has more than 20 years of experience in insurance and risk management. After graduating from the California Maritime Academy, he was a deck officer for commercial carriers and the US Navy. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard’s prevention department as a marine inspector, planner and public affairs officer. He later became a senior loss control specialist with Travelers and then joined The Hartford as the head of ocean marine risk engineering. He has also been a broker with Barney and Barney/Marsh & McLennan Agency.
Vaccaro previously worked as a financial consultant with Whiteboard Risk & Insurance Solutions. He was a senior analyst with JTaylor before that. McGee has a background in risk management. He has worked as a Hotshot & Helitack Firefighter and also served in the U.S. He has worked in retail management as a financial analyst and most recently as a risk management analyst/consultant for Ashton Tiffany LLC.
Crest writes insurance business throughout the Southwest and continental U.S.
Berkley Crime, a division of Berkley FinSecure, a Berkley Co., has named Brian Platt as assistant vice president and underwriter. Platt will be focused on developing stand-alone fidelity/crime business across a spectrum of businesses within the West region. He will be based in Colorado. Platt has a 16-year background as both an underwriter and broker. Berkley FinSecure provides insurance solutions to financial institutions, including bond, management liability coverages and all standard property and casualty lines.