People & Places

National

Specialty insurance provider CFC appointed Michael Phillips as Cyber Practice leader. He is based in New York.

In this newly created role based out of New York, Phillips will drive CFC’s cyber underwriting strategy and broker development in the U.S. with a specific focus of CFC’s admitted cyber product.

Phillips joins CFC with nearly a decade’s experience as a senior leader in the specialty insurance market, most recently as chief claims officer at Resilience. Prior to that he was head of cyber, media and technology claims at Allianz Global and tech counsel at Beazley.

Phillips was a litigator in commercial private practice for eight years and has been a frequent writer on law and technology, published in The New Yorker, Buzzfeed and Bloomberg. He also serves as co-chair of the Ransomware Task Force.

DUAL North America Inc., a subsidiary of Howden Group, appointed three industry veterans to leadership and key underwriting roles through promotion and new hires.

Jim Jinhong was promoted to head of Capacity and Product Development, D.J. Postles joined as executive vice president of Underwriting for DUAL’s NationsBuilders Insurance Services Inc. (NBIS), and John Kopach joined as executive vice president of Excess Liability.

Jinhong previously served as executive vice president of Underwriting & Business Development at NBIS, a member of the DUAL North America Inc. group of companies, where he drove program diversification through organic growth over the past 20 years.

As EVP of Underwriting, Postles will lead the underwriting team at NBIS. He has 22 years of underwriting and leadership experience, with carriers in the North American insurance marketplace.

Kopach will work directly with Mike Towell, president of Excess Liability, to help drive the expansion of DUAL’s excess liability product in the East and Southeast. He joins the team with more than 20 years of experience, most recently serving as the senior vice president of Excess Casualty, Southeast Region for AXA XL.

John Coletti, a cyber insurance veteran who was formerly the head of cyber reinsurance at Swiss Re, has been hired by Coalition as head of cyber underwriting.

At Swiss Re, Coletti was the head of global cyber, responsible for the global reinsurance cyber business, including portfolio ownership, global underwriting activities, and cyber product development. Before Swiss Re, Coletti was chief underwriting officer at AXA XL.

Coalition’s North America risk engineering team and the cyber product will report to Coletti.

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited announced the following appointments within its specialty insurance business: Mark Gregory as head of global markets and Michael J. McKenna as head of North America.

The newly created leadership positions will report directly to Vince Tizzio, president and CEO of AXIS.

As head of global markets, Gregory — who previously served as CEO, International division — will oversee underwriting and business growth strategies for the company’s international retail business lines (EMEA/APAC/LatAm), as well as its global practices including cyber and A&H insurance.

McKenna will have oversight of underwriting and business growth strategies for the company’s North America wholesale and retail businesses. Global distribution (insurance) and digital will also report to him.

Prior to joining AXIS, McKenna held CUO roles with Falvey Insurance Group, The Hartford (Global Specialty Division), and Navigators (U.S. Insurance Segment), and served as SVP of the specialty reinsurance division at Aon Benfield.

East

Distinguished Programs appointed Kurt Meister as chief sales officer.

Meister takes on the position with 35 years of experience in the insurance industry.

He joined Distinguished in 2006 as senior vice president of sales and distribution. Before joining Distinguished, Meister held executive positions at National Specialty Underwriters and Aon Affinity Insurance Programs.

Distinguished Programs is headquartered in New York, New York.

Midwest

Powers Insurance & Risk Management promoted Drew Jaboor to IT associate.

Jaboor will assist with onboarding new employees, perform ongoing system training for all employees, and maintain the organization’s technology systems.

Jaboor previously worked at Powers’ IT help desk, where he resolved networking issues for company employees. Before joining Powers, he was IT and sales manager at West County Cycles.

Powers is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

South Central

McGriff added three new members to its growing Houston, Texas-based marine and energy practice.

Joe Etzler joins McGriff as managing director with 17 years of experience in the marine and energy industry. He previously worked as managing director/resident sales director for Aon.

New Senior Vice President Bill Robinson brings 18 years of experience working in insurance and banking with energy companies to his new role. He previously served as vice president sales, business development at Aon and senior vice president at Comerica Bank.

Jeffrey Paine joins McGriff as a Marine and Energy producer. Before joining McGriff, Paine worked for three years at Howden Broking in London, England.

McGriff is headquartered in Raliegh, North Carolina.

IMA Financial Group added Jay Chappell as its new Central Region Sales leader.

Based in Dallas, Chappell will assume responsibility for new business, producer hiring strategy and producer development for IMA’s Carolinas; Dallas and Houston; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Kansas City and Wichita, Kansas, offices.

Chappell joins IMA from Willis Towers Watson, where he led Corporate Risk and Broking for the Texas region. Prior to Willis Towers Watson, Chappell held various roles at Lockton.

BevCap Management LLC named Ben Raun to its team as director of client consulting.

Raun has 15 years of experience in property and casualty claims, risk management consulting and customer stewardship roles. He previously worked as an account executive at HNI Risk Services, client advisor at Marsh & McLennan Agency and account executive and service team lead at Martin (Ahmann Martin).

BevCap is headquartered in Mckinney, Texas.

Spot Insurance named Maria Goy as CEO. Goy, co-founder and former COO was appointed by Spot’s board of directors and current CEO and Co-Founder Matt Randall.

Before joining Spot in 2017, Goy served as vice president, IT business operations, technology strategic partnership office at New York Life Insurance Co.

Spot is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Actuarial Risk Management Ltd., based in Austin, Texas, named Dave Bulin head of investment consulting.

Before joining ARM, Bulin was the head of risk platform and reporting at The Hartford, overseeing the enterprise-level risk reporting across all exposures.

Southeast

California-based Alliant Insurance Services named Gerry Armbruster vice president of its employee benefits group.

Armbruster, based in Nashville, was previously an assistant vice president at a health care organization.

Alliant has offices across the country, including four in Tennessee.

West

Next Insurance, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, hired Jack Ramsey to lead the company’s agent channel.

Ramsey has more than three decades of experience in the insurance industry, focusing on helping agents who serve the small business community.

Crest Insurance Group added Jason Weaver as an employee benefits consultant.

He is based in Crest’s Fort Collins, Colorado, office.

Weaver previously worked as a benefits specialist at Pinnacle Financial Services, and founded and operated Mountain Plains Benefits. He also previously worked at Colorado Insurance Store.

Crest Insurance Group also named Steve Cannatella as a vice president of employee benefits.

Cannatella spent the last 10 years at Paychex Insurance Agency as a large group health and benefits sales representative for medium and large-size businesses.

He previously worked as a property, casualty and life sales agent at both MetLife and Liberty Mutual Insurance.

Crest Insurance Group is headquartered in Arizona.

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