People & Places

National

Westfield, headquartered in Westfield Center, Ohio, appointed Lloyd Scholz as enterprise chief information officer (CIO). Scholz most recently served as senior managing director and chief technology officer at Markel.

NFP, headquartered in New York City, named Tom Gillingham as president, commercial risk, expanding his executive leadership across NFP’s commercial P&C, programs, and wholesale businesses.

The company also appointed John Mahoney head of programs, Totalis Program Underwriters, NFP’s Specialty MGA and MGU. Mahoney joined NFP via EverGuard in 2017.

Coalition, headquartered in San Francisco, California, appointed Frank Fumarola as chief product officer. Fumarola joins Coalition from Nubank.

W. R. Berkley Corporation, headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, named Lee Iannarone executive vice president. Iannarone is succeeded by Stephen Kennedy, who has been named senior vice president and general counsel.

The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF), based in Los Angeles, California, named Steve Marohn, president, commercial lines at Grange Insurance, as chair of IICF’s board of governors. Adam McDonough, executive vice president of Lockton Insurance Brokers, will join Marohn in leading the IICF board of governors as its first vice chair.

Converge, headquartered in New York City, appointed Howie Altman as chief technology officer. Altman will oversee the continued evolution of the company’s technology infrastructure, including AI-powered risk assessment, automated underwriting workflows, and advanced portfolio management tools.

Crawford & Company, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, promoted Mike Hoberman to CEO of U.S. Operations. Canada will transition into International Operations under the leadership of Andrew Bart, CEO of international operations. Pat Van Bakel was named chief commercial & strategy officer.

Crawford also promoted Paul Kottler to president, U.S. Loss Adjusting; Lance Malcolm to president, U.S. Network Solutions; and Jeffrey Sickles to president, Crawford TPA: Broadspire.

BMS Re, the reinsurance arm of independent insurance and reinsurance broker BMS Group, headquartered in New York City, appointed Tony Grippa as chief strategy officer for the U.S. business. Grippa will serve on the firm’s U.S. Executive Committee and act as a strategic advisor, helping advance BMS Re US’s multi-year strategic plan and accelerate organic growth across its programs, mutuals, and specialty segments.

Marsh Risk, headquartered in New York City, made three leadership appointments.

Jimmy Tse was named U.S. financial institutions surety growth leader. Based in New York, Tse will report to Carrick Bligh, U.S. surety financial institutions leader.

Drew Vann was named U.S. construction surety leader. Based in Atlanta, Vann will report to Fran Curran, U.S. Surety Leader at Marsh Risk, where he will support U.S. construction clients with strategies to enhance credit capacity and manage financial risk.

Caroline Jardim was named U.S. multinational surety leader. She joins from Marsh Risk Brazil, where she most recently served as credit specialty leader. Based in New York, she will also report to Curran.

AXA XL, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, appointed Jason C. Billingslea as head of energy, E&S, where he will lead the development and growth of the energy sector team. Billingslea is based in Dallas, where he most recently served as an Energy Liability Underwriter at AXA XL.

Hub International Limited (HUB), headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, named Andrea Baldrica as chief sales officer of U.S. Employee Benefits. Baldrica has over 25 years of insurance industry experience, serving with HUB since 2014, when HUB acquired Baldrica & Company.

HUB also hired Ellen Sue Bernards to the HUB Complex Risk team as alternative risk solutions practice leader, a new role.

East

CRC Group named Tracey Fallon as office president for its first Virginia office. Fallon, who will lead CRC’s recently opened New Richmond office, has over a decade of experience in the insurance industry, with a background in E&S underwriting, binding authority, and commercial risk placement.

NFP, an Aon company headquartered in New York City, appointed Jack Spencer as senior vice president, commercial risk, in its Northeast region. Spencer has over a decade of experience in commercial risk insurance in the New York City metro area.

Lawley, headquartered in Buffalo, New York, promoted Michael Szymoniak Jr. and Adam Clouden to partners within the employee benefits division, and Michael Bandini to partner within the property & casualty division.

The Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission reappointed Commissioner Robert A. Rapaport to serve an additional six-year term as a commissioner of the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission.

South Central

Smart AutoCare, headquartered in Richardson, Texas, appointed Christopher Murphy as president. Murphy has over 20 years of executive leadership experience, joining Smart AutoCare from OptionSoft Technologies, Inc., where he served as president.

Higginbotham hired Samuel Isaac Ritter, M.D., as medical director for employee benefits, adding a client-facing physician resource within its self-funded advisory work. Ritter is an award-winning emergency physician at Baylor University Medical Center.

Midwest

Finys, a provider of insurance software solutions for property and casualty carriers, announced that Emeka Iheme has joined the company as chief customer success officer.

Unison Risk Advisors, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, appointed Nicole L. O’Sullivan as chief people officer. O’Sullivan joins Unison with more than 25 years of experience leading enterprise-wide people strategies for complex, growing organizations.

Jonathan Diessner has been promoted to president of Kraus-Anderson Insurance, one of Minnesota’s largest privately held independent insurance agencies and a member of the Kraus-Anderson family of companies.

Alliant Insurance Services, headquartered in Irvine, California, added Amanda Quitmeyer, based in Chicago, Illinois, as assistant vice president within its employee benefits group.

Southeast

Chubb, headquartered in Warren, New Jersey, appointed Ben Mortimer to the role of regional executive officer for the Southeast.

Kevin Kraselsky, senior vice president, Atlanta branch manager, will take on the additional responsibility of having the Birmingham branch territory report to him, overseeing distribution and production throughout Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

These changes are effective April 1.

ICW Group hired Travis Murnan as head of its new ICW Specialty business unit, Alternative Risk Transfer (ART). ART is expected to go to market later this year as part of ICW Specialty, which was launched in 2025 to support excess and surplus products and other coverage services.

West

Hub International Limited (HUB), headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, hired Cindy Ackerman as senior vice president (SVP), private client risk advisor in Colorado.

Capital Insurance Group (CIG), headquartered in Monterey, California, promoted Kimberly Noel to regional field executive for its Northwest region, overseeing underwriting teams and line of business performance in Oregon and Washington.

Noel has over 20 years of underwriting and leadership experience, including more than a decade with CIG, including roles as regional underwriting manager, underwriting team leader, and regional executive underwriter. She began her insurance career with Travelers Insurance.

Buckner Partners, an insurance brokerage with offices in Idaho Falls and Rexburg, Idaho, appointed Greg Taylor as president of Buckner of Idaho. Taylor previously held leadership roles with State Farm Insurance, John Deere Financial, and Farmers Mutual Hail.

Trucordia, headquartered in Lindon, Utah, hired Jason Nelson for the new role of vice president of public relations. Nelson has over two decades of experience across broadcasting, advertising, and publishing. He was a partner in a publishing group and the advertising agency Swell Media, where he worked closely with Trucordia.

Arrowhead Specialty named Jimmy Curcio executive vice president. Curcio most recently served as the chief strategy and analytics officer for Arrowhead Intermediaries and, previously, for Arrowhead Programs. Before joining Arrowhead, he held leadership roles at Munich Re.

Hub International Limited named Brandon Hetrick vice president, private client risk advisor in Newport Beach, California. Hetrick has 25 years of insurance experience. Before joining Hub, Hetrick spent more than a decade with an insurance brokerage firm.