People

Ohio-based Westfield Insurance appointed Diane Weidrick as executive, commercial lines services.

Her responsibilities will include managing the lifecycle of Westfield’s commercial and specialty lines insurance policies, including policy issuance, renewal, endorsements and audits.

Weidrick joined Westfield in 2002 as a project manager where she led the start-up of the commercial lines insurance operation into Virginia. She was later promoted to program manager where she was responsible for leading the commercial lines change program and Westfield’s processing system.

Prior to joining Westfield, Diane was a manager at Accenture, a global management consulting and technology services firm.

Zurich North America Commercial named Daniel W. Riordan president of its Surety, Credit and Political Risk group. This newly created group combines Zurich’s Surety group and its Emerging Markets operation. In this role, Riordan will lead an international team that develops and markets Zurich’s portfolio of surety, credit insurance and political risk insurance products to contractors, investors, international banks, multinational companies and infrastructure developers across North America and in emerging markets globally.

Zurich also announced the upcoming retirement of William E. Cheatham, president of Surety, effective Sept. 30, 2008. Cheatham has been instrumental in leading Zurich’s Surety group to achieve strong growth and profitability.

Riordan joined Zurich in 1997 to establish and manage its political risk and trade credit business, which is based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, he was a senior executive and vice president for insurance with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Riordan currently serves as chairman of the Investment Insurance Committee and a member of the Management Committee of the Berne Union.

Meadowbrook Insurance Group Inc., a Southfield, Mich.-based specialty property and casualty insurance holding company, hired Shannon Smith as marketing program manager.

In his new role, Smith will identify and develop business opportunities in addition to creating and managing new and existing programs to enhance growth and profit for Meadowbrook. He will also shape and implement overall marketing and agency management strategies for the Southfield branch of the company.

Most recently, Smith served as vice president of marketing and distribution for Lincoln General Insurance Co. in Chicago. He has worked in many capacities in the industry, with particular expertise in market and agency relationship management, brand identity and communications.

Markel Corporation’s Board of Directors elected Anthony F. (Tony) Markel as vice chairman and Paul W. Springman as president and chief operating officer.

Markel has been associated with Markel Corporation for over 40 years, most recently serving as president and chief operating officer since 1992.

Springman has served as executive vice president of Markel Corporation since 2002. Prior to that, he was with wholly-owned Markel subsidiary Shand Morahan & Co. Inc. (Markel Shand Inc.) from 1984-2002, where he last served as president and chief operating officer.

Farmington, Mich.-based Burns & Wilcox recently announced that Kerri Senger has rejoined the company’s St. Louis office as a senior underwriter. Senger will be responsible for contract and brokerage services.

Prior to joining Burns & Wilcox, Senger was a broker at International Placement Services Inc., where she was responsible for marketing and producing public entity accounts and all types of property and casualty business. Senger began her career at Burns & Wilcox in 1995 and held various positions with increasing responsibility. She left the company in 2002 as a broker.

Larry Bloomenkranz has been named chief marketing officer for Ohio-based The Progressive Corp.

Bloomenkranz, who began his new position at Progressive on April 28, was previously vice president of brand management, advertising and sponsorships for United Parcel Service Inc. in Atlanta.

The Main Street America Group board of directors promoted two and appointed two to officer-level positions.

The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company promoted John Thompson to vice president, operational controller and Dean Dorman to assistant vice president, actuarial. Tim Cotton was named assistant secretary, director, claims technical and Bruce Fox assistant secretary, corporate counsel, law.

Thompson, based in the Jacksonville, provides ongoing financial management guidance to Main Street America’s insurance operations leaders and profit center managers in the areas’ profitability measurements and financial planning.

Dorman, based in the Keene, N.H., office, oversees the actuarial analysis and research for Main Street America’s reserving program. Additionally, he is the primary in-house resource, and interface with consultants, for the company’s commercial lines and personal lines predictive modeling initiatives.

Prior to joining Main Street America in 2001, Dorman held several actuarial roles at Liberty Regional Agency Markets, Keene, N.H., including associate actuary loss reserving and personal lines actuarial manager. His
property-casualty industry experience also includes tenures at Guaranty National Insurance Company, Englewood, Colo.; Merchants Insurance Group, Buffalo, N.Y.; and The Travelers Companies, Hartford, Ct.

Cotton, based in Jacksonville, provides strategic direction for the corporate claim technical areas. His responsibilities include controlling average payments and loss adjustment expenses. Cotton also oversees the determination of adequate and consistent reserves.

Fox, based in Jacksonville, provides legal advice, counsel and assistance to all company personnel on matters affecting corporate interests of The Main Street America Group and its subsidiary companies.