People & Places

National

American International Group, headquartered in New York, New York, hired Edward Dandridge as executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer. During his tenure at AIG, Dandridge has served as chief marketing and communications officer of general insurance.

Dandridge has more than 30 years of leadership experience, including senior vice president and chief communications officer of Boeing and chief marketing and communications officer of Marsh & McLennan.

Patricia (Trish) Walsh will join AIG as executive vice president and general counsel, effective Dec. 1, 2023.

Walsh will report to Peter Zaffino, AIG chairman and chief executive officer, and serve on AIG’s Executive Leadership Team.

As general counsel, Walsh will be responsible for AIG’s legal, compliance, and regulatory functions, in addition to leading government affairs for the company.

Rose Marie Glazer will remain interim general counsel until Walsh officially starts at AIG.

Walsh joins AIG from technology company Stripe, where she held the position of general counsel and corporate secretary, focusing on all aspects of the company’s legal and regulatory affairs.

Marsh promoted Michael Pellegrini to head of Marsh Specialty in the U.S. and Canada. Pellegrini will oversee Marsh’s aviation, construction, credit specialties, energy and power, financial and professional lines (FINPRO), marine, cargo and logistics, and private equities, mergers and acquisitions (PEMA) businesses within the regions.

Pellegrini has been with Marsh for more than 20 years, joining as a risk analyst in the firm’s one-year training program for recent college graduates in 2002.

Pellegrini succeeds Michelle Sartain, who Marsh appointed president of U.S. and Canada in July.

Nationwide hired Kristina Talkowski from CNA Insurance to head up its middle market commercial lines business. She will be tasked with executing Nationwide’s long-term commercial lines insurance strategy for mid-sized businesses.

Talkowski has 20 years of insurance expertise. Most recently she served as senior vice president of middle market segments at CNA, where she was responsible for growth strategy, underwriting guidelines, and execution of CNA’s middle market industry specialization.

Before CNA, Talkowski held similar roles with Chubb Group and Liberty Mutual Insurance Group.

The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies introduced Liz Heck as its 2023-2024 board chair. Heck is president, CEO, and chair of Greater New York Mutual Insurance Companies.

Heck began her career in insurance in 1990 as senior accounting officer for Home Insurance Co.

East

MEMIC, headquartered in Portland, Maine, named two new information technology leaders.

The company appointed Ruchir Jaipuriyar as vice president of information technology. Jaipuriyar most recently served as director of data services at RBC Wealth Management in Minnesota.

Bryan Kotlyar takes on the new role as MEMIC’s director of software engineering. Kotlyar most recently served as senior director of algorithm engineering for S&P Global Platts in New York, New York.

ReSource Pro, headquartered in New York, New York, named Beth Taylor senior vice president and global head of marketing.

Taylor brings 18 years of experience in global B2B marketing, including roles as vice president of corporate marketing for MicroStrategy, global head of marketing and communications at ATPCO and senior global advisor at IBM.

Risk Strategies, headquartered in Boston, appointed Margaret Bussiere as commercial lines leader, New York region.

Bussiere brings nearly 25 years of insurance industry experience to her new role. She joined Risk Strategies through the DeWitt Stern acquisition in 2014 as a vice president.

In 2022, she was promoted to be national fine art practice leader. Bussiere’s prior experience also includes working for Rockefeller Risk Advisors.

Pie Insurance, headquartered in Washington, D.C., appointed Audra Foglietta as new chief financial officer.

Before joining Pie, Foglietta spent 20 years at Chubb, most recently serving as Chubb’s executive vice president and CFO of global operations and technology. She previously served as CFO of Westchester Specialty, the company’s excess and surplus division.

Palisade Insurance Partners LLC, headquartered in New York, New York, appointed two new senior executives.

Scott Stevenson joined Palisade Insurance Partners in New York. Before joining Palisade, he was senior vice president at Aon’s special opportunities group. Previously, Stevenson worked at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

Mark de la Haye joined Palisade Risk Solutions Ltd. in London, as head of UK and Europe risk.

He most recently served as head of resolutions at Augusta Ventures Limited.

Midwest

Western National, headquartered in Minneapolis, hired Tamara Bates as senior vice president of marketing and agency sales.

Bates joins Western National with more than 30 years of property/casualty experience. Before joining Western National, she was the regional vice president of sales for Secura Insurance. Before that, she worked in underwriting, underwriting management, and sales within Secura.

Alliant Insurance Services named David Roach as vice president of its employee benefits group in the Midwest.

Based in Minneapolis, Roach joins Alliant with more than 15 years of benefit, insurance, and business development experience. Before joining Alliant, Roach was an employee benefits consultant at USI, senior client manager at Cigna and vice president/ business development officer at Wells Fargo Insurance Services.

Alliant is based in Irvine, California.

South Central

Robert Cowan joined Alliant Insurance Services as vice president within its Alliant Americas division.

Cowan is based in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Cowan joins Alliant with more than 20 years of management, financial services and insurance experience.

He previously served as vice president of insurance sales and risk advisor at Brown & Brown Insurance and as vice president of planning and development at Industrial Solutions Group.

Southeast

Florida-headquartered Risk Services, a captive insurance manager and risk retention group service provider, named Jennifer Haskell director of captive accounting.

Haskell, who spent 15 years with the Alabama Department of Insurance regulating captive insurers, was most recently a senior examiner at Examination Resources in Georgia, Captive Insurance Times reported.

Risk Services has offices in Sarasota, Florida.

Alliant Insurance Services, based in Irvine, California, named Mike Griggs senior vice president of its Americas division.

Griggs, with almost 20 years in the insurance industry, is based in Nashville. Previously, Griggs was senior vice president with a global insurance brokerage and consulting firm.

One Call, a Jacksonville, Florida-based health care management firm for the workers’ compensation industry, has named Howard Cutler chief strategy and network officer.

Cutler will oversee One Call’s provider network, product management and marketing teams. He has more than 25 years of experience in health care management, most recently as senior vice president for payer strategies for VillageMD, a provider of primary care around the country.

CRC Group, a wholesale specialty insurance distributor based in Birmingham, Alabama, part of Truist Insurance Holdings, has named three people to leadership roles.

Mike Baeurle was appointed chief client officer, overseeing retail agency distribution, business development and client relationships for three operating divisions, CRC said in a press release.

Baeurle previously was vice president for agency distribution. He joined CRC when the company acquired the Swett & Crawford brokerage in 2016.

Jessica Marshall was named chief marketing officer. She has been CRC’s vice president for marketing since 2018 and will now oversee all communication, advertising, public relations and sales and producer development programs.

Curtis Moore will be chief administrative officer. He has held a number of roles at CRC since joining the company in 2018, the firm said.

West

Island Insurance, headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii, appointed Kevin Shimamura as accounting and finance controller.

Shimamura has more than 20 years of financial experience. Most recently, he served as vice president and senior manager of account analysis at Bank of Hawaii.

Other previous positions include senior manager of retail deposits and analytics at Bank of Hawaii and senior audit associate at KPMG.

Leslie Kerfoot joined Alliant Insurance Services, headquartered in Irvine, California, as vice president of its Alliant Americas division based in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Kerfoot joins Alliant with 11 years of insurance industry experience.

Nicole Kunz, based in Portland, Oregon, joined Alliant as vice president within its employee benefits group. Kunz previously served as board president at Total Rewards PDX, as principal at Mercer Health & Benefits and as senior account executive at Image Source Inc.

Alliant also added Eric Ramos as senior vice president with Tribal First, a division of Alliant underwriting solutions. He is based in Sacramento.

Tribal First is a specialized program focused on meeting the insurance and risk management needs of tribal governments and enterprises.

Ramos has more than 20 years in the insurance industry, including roles as president of an insurance firm and national tribal property/casualty practice leader at an insurance brokerage and consulting firm.

Alliant is headquartered in Irvine, California.

CSAA Insurance Group, headquartered in Walnut Creek, California, promoted Todd Pugh to executive vice president and chief information officer, overseeing all aspects of the company’s information technology division. He has served in this role on an interim basis since November 2022.

Pugh joined CSAA in 2019 as vice president, commercial lines IT delivery. He has 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, including roles at Mobilitas Insurance; IAT Insurance Group; and Liberty Mutual Insurance.

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