People – West

Edgewood Partners Insurance Center named Hali Nielson senior vice president of private client services in its Irvine, Calif., office.

Nielson will design, implement and manage personal insurance portfolios for high net worth individuals and serve as a personal insurance resource to other team members and clients in the Irvine office. Nielson will also be responsible for client relationship management and for growing EPIC’s book of private client business in Southern California.

Nielson has 19 years of experience in insurance and risk management a high new worth people with significant property and liability exposures.

Prior to EPIC, Nielson was personal lines manager for Hamilton Brewart Insurance, where she also specialized in individual risk management and insurance programs for high net worth private clients. Earlier in her career Nielson managed a State Farm office in Huntington Beach and spent five years as a personal lines and private client services producer with UnionBanc Insurance Services Inc.

EPIC operates from eight offices across California: Los Angeles, Irvine, Fresno, Folsom, San Francisco, San Mateo, Petaluma and San Ramon.

Phoenix, Ariz.-based R.P. Ryan Insurance Inc. has made Mark D. Deitchman executive vice president.

Deitchman’s primary responsibility will be to increase the agency’s market share through recruitment of new personnel and acquisitions. He will also assume operational functions in the agency.

Deitchman joined R.P. Ryan in 2005 as a sales producer. He previously was agency sales manager for Allied Insurance.

R.P. Ryan has two Phoenix locations.

Salinas, Calif.-based Leavitt Central Coast Insurance named Ted Willis chief of operations.

Willis will oversee Leavitt’s production and service teams, and will work on the firm’s risk management solutions program with a focus on claims containment and safety loss control.

Willis joined Leavitt in June as senior vice president. He has 33 years of insurance experience as a broker for agriculture and commercial businesses.

Stockton, Calif.-based Golden Bear Insurance Co. has promoted Michael Brown to the position of property manager.

Brown has been with Golden Bear since 2002 as an executive underwriter.

Brown’s promotion follows the promotion of Ed Takamoto, formerly property manager, to chief risk officer. Takamoto has more than 30 years of operational experience. Prior to Golden Bear, Takamoto was the director of underwriting quality controls for Sequoia Insurance Co. in Monterey, Calif.

Golden Bear has a selection of commercial lines products, including primary casualty, excess casualty, and property coverage for a variety of commercial interests.

Janet D. Frank has joined Pacific Compensation Corp., a California workers’ compensation specialist and wholly-owned subsidiary of Alleghany Corp., as president and chief executive officer

Frank will also be named chair of PacificComp’s board of directors.

Frank was president and chief operating officer of Zenith Insurance Co. from March 2010 to September 2011. Prior to Zenith, Frank was president and CEO of San Francisco-based California State Compensation Insurance Fund from 2007 to 2009. She was executive vice president of North American field operations for CNA Financial from 2001 to 2007.

In connection with Frank’s appointment, James E. Little, PacificComp’s current president and CEO, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Ronald A. Groden, will be leaving PacificComp.

Alleghany’s other property and casualty subsidiaries include: Transatlantic Holdings Inc.; RSUI Group Inc.; and Capitol Transamerica Corp.

San Francisco, Calif.-based Wells Fargo Insurance named Rebecca Pearson vice president for its professional risk group’s technology, privacy and network risk practice.

Pearson will advise clients on professional liability, technology errors and omissions, network security, and privacy related lines of coverage. Pearson will also provide market negotiations, policy analysis and placement, policy administration and claims advocacy services. Pearson will report to Meredith Schnur, senior vice president of the professional risk group, and will be based in San Francisco.

Pearson was most recently the national subject matter expert on cyber risk and errors and omissions-related business for Hays Companies. Prior to the insurance industry, she was an attorney in San Francisco, serving as litigator in Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s national products liability group, and then Hanson, Bridgett’s insurance coverage litigation group.

Wells Fargo Insurance is part of Wells Fargo & Co., a financial services company with $1.4 trillion in assets.

Northern Montana Insurance Services, a Leavitt Group affiliate, has expanded operations with new offices in Helena and Butte.

Jay LeProwse and Pam King have joined the agency and will work in the Butte office. Shawn Kraft and Dalena Baker have also joined the agency and will work in the Helena office.

LeProwse will work as a commercial insurance agent to provide loss control services.

With more than 35 years of experience in insurance, King will work as a commercial insurance customer service agent. She will assist clients with all lines of business insurance, including workers compensation.

Kraft is the managing partner of the Helena office and was most recently branch manager for Western States Insurance.

With 25 years of experience in insurance, Baker will work as a personal insurance executive and office manager.

The privately-held Leavitt Group provides clients with a wide-range of insurance programs, offering services in property and casualty insurance, risk management and employee benefits solutions.

Heffernan Insurance Brokers named Christian Smith to its Santa Ana, Calif., office as assistant vice president.

Smith will specialize in tailoring comprehensive insurance programs for large commercial lines.

Smith was formerly with an underwriter, working in various niches like nonprofit organizations, entertainment and schools. Smith was also formerly a producer at a brokerage, specializing in auto and equipment dealers, petroleum risks and contractors.

Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Heffernan provides insurance and financial services products to a range of businesses and individuals. Heffernan has California offices in San Francisco, Petaluma, Menlo Park, Los Angeles and Orange County, as well as in Portland, Ore., St. Louis, Mo., and New York, N.Y.

Alliant Insurance Services Inc. named James C. Peasley as first vice president in its Newport Beach, Calif. headquarters.

Peasley has 20 years of experience that includes underwriting, insurance brokerage and account management, with a focus on structuring loss-sensitive and alternative risk programs specific to workers’ compensation for large national accounts in the hospitality, manufacturing, retail and temporary staffing industries.

He joins Alliant after five years with a national brokerage firm, where he served as senior vice president in the firm’s Carlsbad, Calif. office.

Alliant provides property/casualty, workers’ compensation, employee benefits, surety, and financial products and services to clients including public entities, tribal nations, healthcare, energy, law firms, real estate, construction and other industry groups.

Hull & Company has opened a new marine department at its Stockton, Calif. office and named marine risk specialist Quincy M. Schmit as commercial lines marine broker.

The department will offer a variety of commercial marine exposures, as well as recreational and other miscellaneous hard to place marine accounts, including coverage for marinas, yacht clubs, boat dealers, as well as commercial vessel.

Schmit has more than nine years of experience with marine insurance risks in California and the West Coast. Much of this experience was accumulated with a central California marine wholesaler, where she worked as a producer.

Hull & Company has over 30 offices throughout the United States.

Midwestern Insurance Alliance LLC named Keith Laughlin vice president of underwriting for its California workers’ compensation division.

Laughlin will be part of MWIA’s expansion into the California workers’ comp market. Laughlin will be located in MWIA’s San Diego office.

Laughlin has more than 30 years of workers’ comp underwriting experience, much of that in California.

His career started with Industrial Indemnity, and he was most recently an underwriting director at Seabright Insurance Co.

MWIA is predominantly focused on transportation related workers’ comp accounts.

Topics California