People

Jeffrey A. Vanderpool has been promoted to senior vice president and chief claims officer at Sunshine State Insurance Co. in St. Augustine, Fla. Vanderpool has served as vice president of caims since he joined the insurer in 2003.

Prior to joining SSIC, Vanderpool was vice president of American Surety & Casualty Co. from l992 to 2003. Earlier, he held various claims and regulatory management posts at Hanover Insurance Co. and Dependable Insurance Group from 1984 to 1992.

Ronald Krebs has joined the Alternative Risk Transfer Services Team in the South Carolina Insurance Department, where he will be responsible for the application processes from submission to licensing captive insurance companies and risk retention groups.

Krebs brings with him 35 years of property/casualty experience from underwriting and marketing to independent agency ownership with offices in four states as well as one abroad, in London, England. He was active in risk retention formations from 1988 to 1992 and has been active in the alternative risk transfer services community in Charleston since 2003.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National Property and Casualty Insurance Group has added Kay Cummings to its flood management team.

Cummings brings 20 years of experience specializing in flood insurance to the nation’s largest provider of flood insurance through the Write Your Own Flood Program.

Prior to joining Fidelity, Cummings spent 10 years as the Underwriting Manager for the National Flood Insurance Program in addition to serving on various FEMA committees and workgroups including the Policy Rewrite Workgroup, Cancellation Workgroup, Condominium Inspection Program, Flood Insurance Manual Workgroup and the Mandatory Purchase Guideline Committee.

An employee of the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation earned the distinction of being the first regulator in the country to attain the Senior Professional in Insurance Regulation (SPIR) designation. Commissioner Kevin McCarty presented the designation to Steven Szypula, the OIR’s chief analyst of property and casualty oversight, at the summer meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

The SPIR designation is one of three levels of designations available from the NAIC’s Professional Designation Program. The program is designed to provide state insurance regulators at all staff levels an opportunity for professional growth through completion of specific educational requirements which demonstrate expertise in different aspects of insurance regulation.

The chief financial officer of United Insurance Holdings Corp. in St. Petersburg, Florida, has resigned, the company announced. The homeowner insurer said Nicholas Griffin resigned June 5 to pursue another opportunity but will remain with the company through mid-July to assist in the transition.

Griffin said that his decision to leave United “was a very difficult one, and does not in any way reflect negatively on United, the management team or the company’s prospects.”

Founded in 1999, United Property and Casualty Insurance Co., a subsidiary of United Insurance Holdings Corp., primarily underwrites homeowners insurance in Florida.

New York-based Arch Insurance Group has established two principal underwriting groups in its U.S.-based operations: the Arch Property & Casualty Group and the Arch Financial & Professional Liability Group.

Michael Murphy has been named president of Property and Casualty group. Murphy, who has 20 years of experience in specialty lines, joined Arch in 2002 and served most recently as a senior executive vice president of Arch Insurance Group. David McElroy will serve as president of the Financial & Professional Liability group. In addition, Arch has named John Rafferty as head of the Executive Assurance division of the Financial & Professional Liability Group. Rafferty most recently led The Hartford’s Financial Products division.

Topics Florida Legislation Flood Property Property Casualty Casualty