People Moves: W. R. Berkley Makes Executive Appointments; Everest Group Names Habayeb CFO

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

Iannarone began his tenure with the company in 2023 as senior vice president and general counsel. In his new role, he assumes oversight of certain of the company’s businesses. He has more than 25 years of experience and previously served as general counsel and chief compliance officer for an internationally recognized reinsurer.

Kennedy joined W. R. Berkley Corporation as vice president and senior counsel in 2020 and has experience in insurance and reinsurance transactions, regulatory and compliance matters, corporate governance and dispute resolution. Before joining Berkley, he served as a senior equity partner at an international law firm, vice president – litigation and claims counsel at a leading domestic reinsurance company, and as a litigation associate at another international law firm.

Everest Group Names Habayeb CFO

Everest Group Ltd., headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, appointed Elias Habayeb as executive vice president and group chief financial officer (CFO), effective May 2026.

Habayeb succeeds Mark Kociancic, who will retire from the company after five years of service following the first-quarter reporting cycle. He will remain with Everest as a special advisor through the transition period.

Habayeb has over 30 years of experience leading global finance organizations in the insurance and financial services industries. He most recently served as CFO of Corebridge Financial. He previously held CFO roles at several divisions of American International Group (AIG), including general insurance and life & retirement, where he led the IPO that established Corebridge Financial as an independent company. Earlier in his career, he was CFO of International Lease Finance Corporation, an AIG subsidiary, and a partner in Deloitte & Touche’s Capital Markets Group.