People & Places

Atlanta-based Beecher Carlson Holdings, Inc.has announced the appointments of Bradley Darr as senior vice president and Jeffrey Smith as a managing director responsible for large account sales and recruitment of talent.

Darr has 25 years of insurance experience, his main focus has been leading teams responsible for comprehensive property and casualty programs, including professional liability programs, for large healthcare clients. These clients include the largest for-profit acute care hospital operators in the U.S., and one of the largest managed care organizations in the U.S.

Smith spent 15 years Aon Risk Services in sales and leadership positions in the New York, San Francisco and Atlanta markets. While at Aon, he provided complex risk financing advice to large accounts in the healthcare and technology sectors. Prior to Aon, Smith was a producer and account executive with Hobbs Group Inc., in Greenwich, Conn. His background includes corporate risk management, healthcare and hospitality industries.

International Catastrophe Insurance Managers, LLC (ICAT) has named Rodney L. Smith vice president of Eastern Seaboard sales and marketing. Smith will be based in Atlanta, where he will be responsible for ICAT’s producer relationships in the eastern seaboard states. ICAT’s main office is in Boulder, Colo.
Smith was formerly with National Program Management (NPM), where he developed web-based marketing campaigns targeted toward producers and their clients that contributed to a 50 percent growth rate. Prior to joining NPM, Smith was regional vice president at XL Capital (Atlanta) and AIG marketing director, both of which grew their business by more than 25 percent during Smith’s tenure. He can be reached at (678-475-6655) or e-mail, rsmith@icat.com.

Shelley Keenan and Ty Watt have joined Venture Programs, Inc., of Westchester, Pa. She is a production underwriter for the Southern Region in Atlanta, responsible for Venture’s new and renewal policy underwriting. Keenan has more than 25 years experience in the insurance industry, most recently as excess and surplus casualty broker at Heath Insurance Brokers in Atlanta. Previously, Keenan has served as executive underwriter for Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company and held positions with Crum & Foster Insurance, Home Insurance Group and AIG.

Watt joins the company as a sales representative for the Southern Region, responsible for identifying potential business opportunities, assisting in underwriting and introducing agents and brokers to new Venture products, packages and markets.

Watt has more than 12 years in the insurance and risk management industry, most recently serving as commercial programs division sales manager for Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. in Atlanta. He has held positions with ManagedComp, Inc., EBI Companies and Tennessee Insurance Services.

Keenan and Watt will offer specialty insurance packages for select vertical industries including golf and country clubs, community banks, life science businesses, technology companies and hospitality firms. Venture’s Southern Region office is at 333 North Point Center East, Suite 215, Alpharetta, Ga., 30022; (800) 282-6247. Venture serves property and casualty insurance agents in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Greensboro, N.C.-based DataDelta, Inc.has formed an international board of advisors headed by Bill Inmon, recognized as the “father of the data warehouse” and co-creator of the “Corporate Information Factory.” According to Ed Allburn, DataDelat president and CEO, DataDelta’s board of advisors will include: Inmon, founder and president, Inmon Associates, Inc.; David Loshin, founder and president, Knowledge Integrity, Inc.; Dr. Ramon Barquin, president and CEO, Barquin International; Aaron Zornes, president and chief research officer, The CDI Institute; Andrew “Flip” Filipowski, chairman and CEO, SilkRoad Technology; Philip Howard, practice leader, Bloor Research; and James Allburn, president and COO, SRS Technologies. The company’s patent-pending technology maximizes match accuracy of Customer Data Integration de-duping systems for building a “Single Customer View,” a critical component for applications such as Customer Relationship Management, 1-to-1 Relationship Marketing, fraud detection/prevention, corporate compliance, and Homeland Security.

Ken Winer has been named director of sales of SeaPass Solutions, a New York City developer of software for the insurance industry, as director of sales. Winer will be responsible for SeaPass software that enables insurance carriers, agents, brokers and wholesalers to transmit and receive data in real-time and leverage existing systems to automatically interact with one another.
Before joining SeaPass, Winer was director of sales for GCS Software. During two years with GCS, Winer closed 12 enterprise deals totaling $2.6 million. Previously he was director of Application Change Management Products with Quest Software, and a senior integration manager with Automatic Data Processing/AG Consulting. Winer has held sales and IT positions including vice president and CIO at Winer Industries.

Michael Holm has been named marketing director of the American Institute for CPCU and the Insurance Institute of America’s midwestern region. He will work with organizations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, South Dakota, Nebraska, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Holm previously headed a consulting firm and was a senior consultant/advisor for Zurich North America Insurance Company. Holm started his career as a senior underwriter in Great American Insurance Company’s Surety Department. He subsequently became Contract Surety Department assistant vice president, assistant vice president, Commercial Insurance Division vice president, Reinsurance and Division vice president, Facultative Reinsurance division.