People & Places

Nigel Spain has been named assistant vice president of Arrowhead General Insurance Agency of Florida Inc. This facility will be a new Florida operation of Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc. of San Diego, Calif., which announced Spain’s appointment and the opening of the new office.

Spain has more than 26 years of insurance industry experience. He was formerly president of Spain, Dubose & Associates LLC, in Sarasota. In 1991, after 12 years as a broker in the Lloyd’s of London community, Spain came to the United States from England to work exclusively in the coastal property market.

The InVEST Board of Directors has appointed three new members: Nancy Baily, president and CEO of First Floridian; Loree Toedman, assistant vice president of sales and agency operations for Allstate Insurance Co.; and Kevin Mangan, an independent agent with Hugh Cotton Insurance.

InVEST is an education program designed to develop insurance professionals and informed consumers by teaching high school and community college students about insurance, financial services and risk management.

Mark Tisdale has joined Insurance Journal as regional manager responsible for advertising sales emerging from firms located in the Southeast and Midwest regions.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, with a journalism degree from Kent State, and a long stint living on the West Coast, Tisdale joins the magazine after running his own independent advertising sales rep firm in Atlanta that represented video game trade publications and high school sports consumer magazines.

Prior to launching his rep firm, he had advertising sales and sales management duties for a number of large-scale project construction magazines produced by Mercor Media. Before Mercor, Tisdale handled advertising sales and sales management at a major video game industry magazine publishing company, was a leading ad salesperson for a Crain Communications waste industry magazine, ran a media buying consulting service, and was an account manager at a major advertising agency.

Crawford & Company, an Atlanta claims management firm, has named Robert R. Kulbick and Larry A. Mattingly senior vice presidents. They will head the Risk Management Services and Healthcare Management business units, respectively.

Kulbick comes to Crawford with more than 15 years of industry experience, which includes owning his own independent disability management consulting firm. Kulbick most recently was senior vice president of a large property and casualty risk management services company.

Mattingly, who brings more than 25 years of insurance experience, was most recently the president, founder and CEO of Mednet Connect, a software and service company in the workers’ compensation medical bill review software business.

The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) promoted Gregg Dykstra, Roger Schmelzer and David Winston to senior vice president from vice president.

Already responsible for human resources, finance and building services, Dykstra will now also supervise the information technology department and continue to serve as general counsel. He has worked at NAMIC headquarters since 1997.

Working at NAMIC headquarters since 1999, Schmelzer is currently responsible for the state affairs, legal and regulatory affairs, and the public policy divisions.

Winston will lead the association’s federal lobbying efforts from NAMIC’s Washington, D.C., office as well as the grassroots efforts of the association’s political action committee. Winston joined NAMIC last December.

Atlanta, Ga.-based Beecher Carlson Holdings Inc. announced John Hayes has joined the firm as vice president. Hayes will focus primarily on the production of large property and casualty risk management business.

Prior to joining Beecher Carlson, Hayes spent 12 years in the large corporate client group at Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company. He also built and managed start-up offices for Atlantic Mutual in Atlanta and San Francisco. In addition, Hayes spent two years as director of commercial insurance in the Atlanta office of Wachovia Insurance Services. Throughout his career, he has developed management expertise in staff recruitment and oversight, business planning, budgeting, financial management, operations and production. Hayes’ insurance industry experience incorporates all aspects of exposure analysis, cost and coverage for large property and casualty clients.

W. Birks Erskine joined the New York office of American E&S Insurance Brokers as assistant vice president, according to Denis Brady, president and CEO. Erskine has more than 25 years of experience in large casualty and alternative risk financing.

Robin Stough announced the formation of R.A. Stough LLC, Pacific Wholesale Insurance of Texas. The organization is part of Insurance Specialty Group (ISG), based in Atlanta. ISG is an insurance brokerage, agency and reinsurance organization. It has operations in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, New Jersey and New York.

The new venture is a partnership between Stough and Pacific Wholesale, a national brokerage firm and managing general agency for property and casualty insurance. Stough, who will serve as president and chief executive officer, formerly held positions with other leading wholesalers in Dallas, Atlanta, Houston and El Paso. He has more than 25 years in the wholesale insurance industry.

Joining the firm as senior vice president is Robert “Chip” Shattuck. He will lead the underwriting division, which provides in-house binding authority for the placement of P/C lines. Shattuck formerly served as vice president and senior property underwriter with a major wholesaler in Dallas and has 24 years of experience in this field.