People & Places

National

Mosaic, headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, named environmental and casualty risk specialist and former district attorney Thomas Duggan as the company’s claims head for North America.

Based in New York, Duggan oversees Mosaic’s claims teams for all lines of business throughout the Americas.

Duggan has more than 25 years’ experience in law, underwriting, and claims. He previously served as head of environmental claims for Liberty Mutual and Ironshore, and held various roles in professional, casualty, and environmental claims and underwriting at Zurich and AIG.

Hiscox, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, appointed Nick Sinkus as chief underwriting officer. He serves on the Hiscox U.S. leadership team as well as the Hiscox Group underwriting leadership team.

Sinkus leads all aspects of Hiscox USA’s underwriting and product development. He has over 20 years’ experience in personal lines and commercial underwriting, most recently serving as Chubb’s senior vice president for small commercial P&C products.

Prior to Chubb, Sinkus served as the chief underwriting officer for Mutual of Enumclaw and held product and underwriting leadership roles with Travelers.

EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants (EPIC), headquartered in San Francisco, California, appointed Sean Jackson as managing principal and global leader.

Jackson most recently served as managing director, global risk and benefits at IMA Financial Group Inc. He previously served as vice president WorldSource – underwriting center manager for AIG.

AmTrust Financial Services Inc., headquartered in New York City, appointed Bruce Shuman as chief marketing officer (CMO).

Shuman joins AmTrust with over 20 years’ experience in insurance and financial services.

Before AmTrust, he was chief digital officer with The Hartford. Shuman also held previous leadership roles at Travelers in commercial operations and ebusiness, and at GE Capital, where he managed consumer-facing e-commerce and mobile activities for their consumer finance business.

Canopius, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, appointed Neetu Varghese as head of marine, U.S.

Varghese served as national cargo manager since joining Canopius in 2023.

Varghese has over 20 years of industry experience, previously serving as ocean cargo underwriting director at RLI Insurance Company. Before that, she worked at CNA Insurance in various roles, departing as marine underwriting director.

Marsh, a business of Marsh McLennan headquartered in New York City, appointed Jim Dunn as U.S. construction practice leader.

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Dunn has over 30 years of insurance experience working within the construction sector. He joined Marsh from Aon, where he most recently served as chief commercial officer – U.S. construction and infrastructure.

Before joining Aon in 2010, he held various positions with Allied North America and Consolidated Risk Solutions.

Zurich promoted Cody Griffin to U.S. head of multinational underwriting for Zurich North America, headquartered in Schaumberg, Illinois.

Griffin, based in Denver, Colorado, was previously head of multinational casualty at Zurich North America.

Griffin has been with Zurich since 2020 and has held several positions at Zurich Multinational. He previously held underwriting positions at AIG and Liberty Mutual.

Smart Choice, headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, named Andrew Caldwell as CEO, while founder Doug Witcher transitioned to chairman of the board.

For the past decade, Caldwell has served as the president of Smart Choice. Caldwell has previously served as vice president, accounting director, and director of commission accounting, as well as a variety of other capacities since joining the company in 2003.

Burns & Wilcox, headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan, named new leaders for its New York and Chicago offices.

Alex Gargano joins Burns & Wilcox as managing director, overseeing the company’s operations across New York and the Tri-State area. He will be based in the Burns & Wilcox Manhattan office.

Gargano has over 30 years of experience. Since 2020 he has served as senior vice president, underwriting E&S, at Vault. This position followed nearly 20 years in various leadership roles at AIG.

In Chicago, Burns & Wilcox has elevated Erica Rangel to associate managing director. Rangel, whose career spans nearly 20 years, joined Burns & Wilcox more than seven years ago following roles at RT Specialty and CRC.

USG Insurance Services Inc., headquartered in Tampa, Florida, hired William Morgan as an associate broker in its brokerage division.

Morgan is based in Denver, Colorado. Before joining USG, he was a broker at Risk Transfer Partners, focusing on property and casualty placements. He previously served as sales manager at Centerstone Logistics and account manager at CarbonWeb.

Greenlight Reinsurance Ltd. (Greenlight Re) headquartered in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, a subsidiary of Greenlight Capital Re Ltd., appointed Martin Vezina as head of underwriting analytics.

Vezina oversees Greenlight Re’s underwriting analytics and pricing function and will be based out of the company’s headquarters in Grand Cayman.

Vezina has held various senior underwriting positions at Allianz, New Ocean Capital, AQR Re, and Markel. He also held actuarial roles at American Re and Overseas Partners Re.

East

Maryland Insurance Administration Commissioner Marie Grant appointed Patricia Dorn as associate commissioner for consumer education and advocacy at the Maryland Insurance Administration.

Dorn, who has served at the Maryland Insurance Administration since 2012, leads the Consumer Education and Advocacy Unit (CEAU). Since 2023, Dorn has served as health insurance administrator for the Health Coverage Assistance Team (H-CAT).

Willis, a WTW business headquartered in New York City, appointed David Lofstrom as deputy regional leader, New England, within corporate risk and broking (CRB) in North America.

Based in Boston, Lofstrom has over 30 years of industry experience. He most recently served as area president in the greater Boston region at Gallagher.

Pennsylvania Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, appointed Steve Sallah and Don Blackwell to its board of directors.

Sallah was the president and CEO of LBM Advantage for 13 years before retiring in 2024. He joined LBM Advantage (formerly ENAP) in 2008 as chief financial officer. He previously worked at IBM for 16 years.

Blackwell is a certified public accountant who began his career at Ernst & Young in Indianapolis, where he spent six years. He then served as a financial officer at four different carriers over a 31-year span–including Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Company (ILM) and, following its affiliation, PLM, where he ultimately retired.

Midwest

Encova Insurance, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, hired Ramu Lingala as the successor to Tony Laska, executive vice president and chief information officer, who last year announced his plans for retirement at the end of 2025. Laska will serve in an advisory role through the end of 2025.

Lingala joined Encova in February. He has 25 years of experience as an IT executive and most recently served as vice president of business lines technology for Liberty Mutual.

Southeast

Alliant Insurance Services, headquartered in Irvine, California, hired Aaron Brunson as vice president within its employee benefits group.

The Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based consultant is a consulting actuary specializing in funding arrangement analysis.

Before joining Alliant, Brunson served as financial and analytics team lead for the southeast region with Willis Towers Watson.

West

Coalition Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, named Manny Cho as head of its west region. Cho joins Coalition with over three decades of experience in the insurance industry, most recently serving as executive vice president of executive lines at Risk Placement Services (RPS). He also held senior leadership roles at Axis Capital, CNA Insurance, Aon Affinity, Carpenter Moore, AIG, and Chubb.

Pinnacol Assurance, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, appointed Marti Awad to a five-year term on Pinnacol’s board of directors. Awad is an investments and finance representative with over 30 years of experience working in the capital markets.

Akasha Absher was confirmed for another five-year term as chair of the Pinnacol board of directors. She is the chair of the investment committee and also chairs the firm’s portfolio implementation committee. Absher is the co-president at Syntrinsic, an IMA Company.

Angela Oakley will serve another five years on the Pinnacol board as an employee representative. Oakley is WellPower’s chief financial officer and joined Pinnacol’s board of directors in 2024.

Mutual of Enumclaw, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, hired Bob Otis as president and CEO. Otis has over 30 years of executive-level experience in property and casualty insurance, most recently as president of Kemper Corporation’s Personal Insurance business unit.