People and Places

PMA Capital Corp. has appointed Vincent T. Donnelly as its new president and chief executive officer. He has headed the PMA Insurance Group as its president for the last seven years and will retain that position. Donnelly brings more than 23 years of experience in the insurance industry to his new post with the Blue Bell, Pa.-based company. He’s a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and has served on many insurance industry boards and committees. He’s been PMA’s acting president since last November, following the resignation of John Smithson as president and CEO and Frederick Anton’s withdrawal as chairman of the board.

In addition to Donnelly, the company also elected Peter S. Burgess and Richard Lutenski as directors. Paul I. Detwiler Jr. and Louis N. McCarter III have retired from the board. Burgess retired from Arthur Andersen as a partner in 1999 after 35 years with that organization. He currently serves as an advisor on technical and governance issues to insurance companies or their audit committees and will chair PMA Capital’s Audit Committee.

Lutenski is currently serving as managing director and chief operating officer of RISC Ventures LLC, a Boston-based investment and advisory firm that specializes in reinsurance and capital markets solutions to complex risk issues. He has held senior positions in a number of companies in the insurance, reinsurance and financial guaranty business, including chief financial officer of Enhance Financial Services Group until 2001 and Crum & Forster Insurance Group until 1999.

Charles E. Symington Jr., a seasoned Capitol Hill veteran with solid insurance experience, is the new head of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America’s (IIABA) federal government affairs program, Big “I” CEO Robert A. Rusbuldt announced. Symington comes to the association from the House Financial Services Committee, where he served as a senior counsel for the majority and focused on insurance issues, including congressional efforts to assess state insurance regulation, notes Rusbuldt. Symington has served on the Financial Services Committee staff since its inception at the start of the 107th Congress in 2001. He began his new assignment with IIABA March 1.

During his time with the Financial Services Committee, Symington actively was involved in drafting the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, the Financial Services Anti-Fraud bill, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, and other legislative proposals. Before joining the Financial Services Committee, he worked as a majority counsel for the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, where he concentrated on health care policy and the panel’s oversight responsibilities.

Prior to working on Capitol Hill, Symington was an attorney with the law firm of Matricardi & Moylan in Springfield, Va., and before that was an associate attorney with the firm of Drew, Eckl & Farnham in Atlanta, Ga., where he specialized in insurance defense litigation.

IIABA also announced the promotions of Wes Bissett to senior vice president of government affairs and state relations, and Justin Roth to vice president of government affairs.

XL Capital Ltd. announced that Paul S. Giordano, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of the company, has been appointed president of Financial Solutions Operations with responsibility for XL Financial Solutions, an internal joint venture among the company’s insurance, reinsurance and financial products and services segments, which provides alternative risk transfer products utilizing insurance and capital markets techniques. He joined XL in 1997 as senior vice president and general counsel. He was formerly in private legal practice in New York and London where he focused on general corporate law and financial transactions. Giordano is a graduate of Harvard Law School, Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and University of Missouri.

Connecticut’s Trumbull Services L.L.C., a provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) and technology services to the property and casualty industry, has hired Stephen A. Francis as senior vice president and chief operating officer. He joins Trumbull from InsLogic in Columbia, S.C., where he was executive vice president of business development and chief information officer. Prior to that, he was vice president of property and casualty development at Policy Management Services Corp.

Trumbull also announced the expansion of its business development team with the hiring of Greg Krall. Krall has joined Trumbull as director of business development for the northeast region. Krall will focus on Trumbull’s business outsourcing solutions for policy administration and subrogation back offices. Krall most recently held senior sales positions with CGI and Crawford & Co., both in the Dallas, Texas area. Prior to this he was vice president of sales for Pyramid Services Inc. based in Danbury, Connecticut.

Salil Donde has assumed the role of president, AMS-Rackley, reporting directly to Euan Menzies, chief executive officer at AMS Group, the Windsor, Conn.-based company announced. Before joining AMS Group, Salil was president of Ascent Computing Group Inc. and has held senior executive positions at The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co., LAW Engineering and Environmental Services and other companies.

AMS acquired Rackley Systems last October. The combined AMS-Rackley provides commercial lines rating solutions in 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico and personal lines rating products in 36 states. Companies under the AMS Group umbrella include Allenbrook, AMS Services, AMS-Rackley and SilverPlume.

Robert Nesbit has been named senior vice president and chief human resources officer at U.S.I. Holdings Corp. He’ll be based in USI’s corporate office in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., and will report to Bob Schneider, executive vice president and chief financial officer. Before joining USI, Nesbit served as vice president of global staffing and diversity at Campbell Soup Co., where he created a corporate staffing function in collaboration with senior management and human resources leadership and developed an integrated talent management model. Prior to that, he held a senior human resources position at AOL Time Warner where he implemented cost saving through Web-based recruitment technologies and internal research function. Nesbit also oversaw the implementation of acquisition and integration plans at Wachovia (then First Union) first as human resources transition director and later as senior vice president of human resources

Morrison, Mahoney & Miller LLP, a 150 attorney law firm with offices throughout the Northeast, welcomes Attorney Daniel R. Judson in its Boston office. Judson most recently served a deputy commissioner and general counsel for the Massachusetts Division of Insurance and has also served as deputy commissioner for Legal and Regulatory Affairs. Judson will focus his practice on representing insurance companies, agents and brokers for insurance, regulatory, administrative and corporate matters. He is a graduate of Connecticut College and Suffolk University Law School.

Allmerica Financial Corp., of Worcester, Mass., announced that Joseph R. Ramrath has been appointed to the company’s board of directors. He is a managing director of Colchester Partners LLC, an investment banking and strategic advisory firm located in Boston. He has extensive experience in financing and transactions. Prior to joining Colchester, he was executive vice president and general counsel of United Asset Management, a division of Old Mutual, where he served as a member of the management committee and a leader of the acquisitions and subsidiary operations team. Ramrath was a partner and member of the management committee of Hill & Barlow, a Boston law firm. He is also a director of New England Business Service Inc., a business-to-business direct marketing company with 2.6 million small business customers.

Lisa Colletto has been named a partner and director of agency services and resource management for Pinnacle Training & Consulting, headquartered in Simsbury, Conn. Pinnacle provides training, implementation services and education to the insurance industry. She has been serving as Pinnacle’s director of agency services, responsible for the development and servicing of Pinnacle’s independent agency customers. With 25 years in the insurance industry, Colletto is experienced in all aspects of insurance agency operations, from personal lines to commercial lines, from customer service to production and account management. Before joining Pinnacle, she was a consultant to more than 200 insurance agencies and worked with several insurance industry vendors as a business analyst.