People & Places

M. Lee Patkus

M. Lee Patkus has been named regional vice president of the Florida region of Hanover Insurance Co. Effective Feb. 1 Patkus became responsible for commercial and personal lines distribution, marketing and sales.

Robert Bacon

Patkus has more than 25 years of insurance experience. For two years he was president and chief operating operator of the Harleysville Insurance Group in Pennsylvania. From 1999 to 2002 he was executive vice president of operations and CEO of Harleysville’s insurance subsidiaries, responsible for field operations and fee-based businesses. For five years, Patkus was regional president of the St. Paul Companies’ Southeast commercial region, following St. Paul’s merger with USF&G. He held senior management and marketing positions with General Accident Insurance, the Hartford Insurance Group and Allstate Insurance, in its Orlando, Fla., offices.

Don Schutz

The Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants has recognized Robert K. “Bobby” Bacon with its 2004 outstanding CPA in Business and Industry Award.

Barry Whitton

For five years, Bacon was an accountant with Williams Cox Weidner and Cox (now Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC) in Tallahassee, Fla. In 1981 he joined the Earl Bacon Insurance Agency, his father’s Tallahassee insurance agency. He started as a sales representative and progressed to chief financial officer before becoming president of the agency in 1995. The agency has grown from a local, family-owned business to one of north Florida’s largest and best-known independent insurance agencies.

Hal Conditt

Don Schutz has joined Burns & Wilcox, a Farmington Hills, Mich.-based national firm as underwriter in its Charlotte, N.C., office. Burns & Wilcox is a specialty insurance wholesaler, underwriter and managing general agent. The announcement was made by Bob Lane, Charlotte branch manager.

As a Burns & Wilcox underwriter, Schutz is responsible for serving as liaison with Burns & Wilcox’s network of agents, underwriting and brokering quotations for coverages. He will quote new business, retain renewal business and market to agencies.

Prior to joining Burns & Wilcox, Schutz served as vice president with Tri-City Insurance Brokers and worked for Quaker Special Risk upon relocating from Long Island, N.Y. He earned a bachelor’s of science in communications from Ohio University.

Burns & Wilcox is a large independently owned managing general insurance agency serving more than 27,000 agents nationwide through a network of 31 offices in 22 states. Founded in 1969, Burns & Wilcox, a subsidiary of H.W. Kaufman Financial Group Inc., is recognized nationally for its expertise in all forms of specialty insurance, including excess/surplus lines, professional and commercial liability, and property.

Barry Whitton has been appointed senior vice president of Beecher Carlson’s Global Property Practice in Atlanta; and Hal Conditt has been named vice president of sales and business development in the company’s Nashville office.

Whitton will develop the Global Property Practice and focus on providing superior client service and technical expertise for clients. He has more than 18 years of experience in the insurance industry. He joins Beecher Carlson after nine years with Marsh, originally joining Johnson & Higgins in 1996. At Marsh, Whitton was senior vice president and manager of its Atlanta Property and International departments coordinating a team handling over 60 large commercial clients. He was the senior client advisor responsible for strategic program design, coordination and marketing for a wide range of companies including several Fortune 100 corporations. Prior to joining Marsh, for nine years Whitton was in engineering and client development with a large, highly protected risk property carrier.

Conditt will focus on large and middle market account sales. He has 13 years experience in the insurance and brokerage industry. He began his career in 1992 as an internal auditor for Sedgwick, Inc. and in 1994 became vice president of finance in the company’s Memphis office. In 1998, Conditt was named vice president of finance and administration for Sedgwick of the Carolinas, a position he held until Marsh acquired Sedgwick.

In March 2000, Conditt left Marsh to become CFO of Wunderlich Securities Inc. in Memphis, responsible for financial reporting and compliance with federal regulatory agencies. Conditt rejoined Marsh in its Nashville office in December 2002, transitioning into a sales role, and was responsible for developing prospect relationships and new account sales.

David Cummings and Walton Smith will continue as executive vice presidents of Nashville, Tenn.-based Mann, Smith & Cummingsof Clarksville. The Bankers Insurance Group recently bought MS&C from the Synaxis Group, also of Nashville.

The purchase brings Bankers annual premium revenues to $20 million. MS&C provides commercial insurance to small businesses and personal lines such as auto insurance to individuals. The purchase also allows Bankers Insurance to offer personal lines. Bankers Insurance plans to offer its products through banks in Kentucky and Georgia. In the Bluegrass state, the company recently began offering environmental insurance after its endorsement by the Kentucky Bankers Association.

Industry veteran Ron Friedman, former president and CEO of Group 1 Software has joined the board of advisors of DataDelta Inc. in Greensboro, N.C.

Friedman oversaw Group 1’s initial public offering, directed international expansion and acquisitions, and grew annual revenues to over $100M. During his tenure Group 1 Software won numerous industry awards and was recognized as one of the top 100 software companies in the world.

DataDelta’s patent-pending technology maximizes the match accuracy of current Customer Data Integration de-duping systems for building a “Single Customer View,” a critical component for applications such as Customer Relationship Management, 1-to-1 Relationship Marketing, fraud detection/prevention, corporate compliance, Homeland Security and others.

Topics Florida