People: Alliant Adds Simokonis to Florida Team, Sunstar Names Romero CAO

Alliant Insurance Services, headquartered in Irvine, California, hired Tim Simokonis as senior vice president within its Employee Benefits Group in the Southeast. The Florida-based consultant will serve a national client base, focusing on self-funded health plans, data transparency, and fiduciary optimization strategies.

Simokonis has more than 18 years of experience focused on self-funded health plans, including ASO (Administrative Services Only) and PBM (Pharmacy Benefit Management) contract review and negotiation, data-driven performance optimization and complex risk management. Before joining Alliant, Simokonis was vice president with Lockton Companies.

Sunstar Insurance Group, a retail brokerage platform serving the Southeast and Midwest, appointed Daniel Romero as chief acquisition officer.

Romero has more than 15 years’ experience in insurance company mergers and acquisitions and has led more than 130 transactions, Memphis-based Sunstar said in a news release. He was previously head of corporate development at Evertree Insurance and was vice president of mergers and acquisitions at Hub International. He will oversee Sunstar’s continued growth at a pivotal moment for the company, through finding, structuring and integrating new agency partnerships.

Sunstar was founded in 2012 by Casey Bowlin. It employs more than 800 and boasts an estimated $2 billion in written premium this year.

The Alabama Department of Insurance hired Kelli Littlejohn Newman to lead the newly established Pharmacy Benefit Compliance Division, starting Dec. 16.

The division was created to ensure full compliance with Alabama’s Community Pharmacy Relief Act, passed by the state Legislature earlier this year.

Newman, with a doctorate degree in pharmacy, has more than 20 years’ experience in pharmacy practice, health care administration and state government. She most recently served as senior director of clinical services at the Alabama Medicaid Agency, where she managed and administered the state’s multi-billion-dollar pharmacy, durable medical equipment, and medical quality review programs, the agency said in a bulletin.

Topics Florida Alliant