People

U.S.I. Holdings Corp. appointed C. Jeff Pan senior vice president – Business Transformation. Pan, who will be based in Dallas, is responsible for transforming the company’s business processes from a decentralized, distributed model for information technology, accounting and administrative services to a more streamlined efficient model.

Pan joined USI in February through the closing of the Summit Global Partners acquisition. He joined SGP in 1997 as its executive vice president and chief financial officer, and was elected as its president in 2003.

Chantelle Burton has joined the health care division of U.S. Risk Brokers’ Houston office as a senior broker. She will be responsible for producing and underwriting health care risks.

Prior to joining U.S. Risk, Burton was a health care specialist with a national brokerage firm where she focused on placing professional liability coverage on healthcare risks. Before that, Burton was the associate director at
a Texas MGA where she was responsible for underwriting production and management of the company’s allied health care book of

business.

Her career also includes work as a major accounts specialist with Hartford Insurance Group where she handled large casualty programs, and work as an underwriter at AIG where she focused on complex loss-sensitive risks on a national level.

St. Paul Travelers named Brian MacLean as executive vice president and COO, reporting to Jay Fishman, president and CEO.

MacLean joined the company in 1988 as director of Planning in the Corporate Finance Department. In 1993, he was appointed CFO for Claims, and in 1996, became CFO for Commercial Lines. In 1999, he was named senior vice president to lead Commercial Lines Select Accounts, and promoted to executive vice president and appointed to lead Claims in 2002.

NBIS appointed Joseph Savarese, senior vice president of underwriting. He will focus on the company’s eastern and western U.S. presence, establishing a network of insurance agents and brokers in the contractors’ insurance market.

Savarese began his career as a reinsurance broker with Guy Carpenter and Company Inc., based in New York. Over the last 20 years he held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility within the insurance industry, most recently vice president and manager of the primary casualty department for Investors Underwriting Managers in Red Bank, N. J.

Laura Bergan has been promoted to director of marketing at American Collectors Insurance Inc., a national specialty provider of collector vehicle and collectibles insurance.

Bergan will direct outside vendors and internal marketing personnel, and will oversee advertising, public and media relations and marketing/sales support. In addition, she will serve as company spokesperson for all product lines, including collector vehicle insurance, driver’s education and collectibles insurance.

Bergan currently is involved in the Specialty Equipment Market Association, an industry organization. Last year she was elected to serve on the Select Committee at the Automotive Restoration Market Organization, a SEMA Council. She also is a member of the Young Executives Network, a committee of SEMA.

She joined the firm in 2001 as an underwriter, and moved into agency sales and marketing in 2003.

San Antonio-based Argonaut Group Inc. named John Gribbin as president of its Risk Management segment. He replaces John Gantz, who will be leaving the company effective May 20. Gribbin will report to Argonaut Group President and CEO Mark Watson III.

Gribbin most recently assumed the responsibilities of chief underwriting officer for Risk Management, having also held executive leadership positions as regional vice president in both the Eastern and New York Regions.

He spent nearly 30 years with Reliance Insurance Company in various executive leadership positions.

Sharon Ward has joined American Underwriting Managers in its Southlake, Texas, office as senior underwriter/broker. Among her responsibilities will be property and casualty underwriting for Texas and adjacent states through the company’s numerous underwriting and brokering markets.

Ward formerly served with three of the largest insurance firms in Dallas with responsibilities in underwriting and risk management. She began her career in 1982.

Florida-based Hull & Company Inc. a wholesale insurance broker and MGA, has promoted Ed Calabrese to the position of president. Calabrese will retain the title of COO.

Calabrese has been with Hull & Co. for 30 years. He has served as president of both the American Association of Managing General Agents and the Florida Surplus Lines Association.

Hull & Company is in its 43rd year of operation and employs approximately 500 people in 20 offices coast to coast.

Countrywide Insurance Group named Michael Daoussis as senior vice president of its commercial lines national construction practice. Daoussis will focus on expanding the retail agency operations of Countrywide Insurance Services Inc. by adding experienced construction producers and support staff in key construction markets across the country.

Daoussis brings nearly three decades of experience working with businesses and insurance companies in the construction industry. In addition to placing insurance for businesses in real estate development and residential construction, he has created proprietary liability insurance products for contractors involved with residential construction in California and Nevada.

To submit information to this department, e-mail ijtexas@insurancejournal.com.