People & Places

James Robinson Huber has been appointed senior vice president and regional executive, Southeast Region for ACE USA, the U.S.-based retail operating division of The ACE Group of Companies. Based in Atlanta, Huber will be responsible for setting and driving the overall strategic direction for ACE USA’s Southeast Region, which comprises North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Florida. He will oversee the regional production plan, distribution, product sales and marketing, producer management, staff management and general operations.

Huber has a broad background in the insurance industry and strong familiarity with the Southeast market. He most recently served as vice president in the Commercial Risk Management Group of Wachovia Insurance Services. Huber’s prior experience includes senior roles in underwriting, account management and insurance brokerage, primarily in the southeastern United States.

CHOICE Medical Management Services LLC of Tampa, Fla., has named Yvonne Halvaeimarketing director; Julie Fetherman and Michael A. Reali have been named account executives; Rebecca Bennett provider contract specialist team leader; Pat Bennett, manager of care management; Daniel Ogburn, complex care coordinator; Sally Forsythe, senior provider service specialist; and Anne Creighton, quality assurance analyst and grievance coordinator.

Halvaei became CHOICE’s marketing manager more than two years ago. She created and launched the Florida CHOICE Awards for Workers’ Compensation. Halvaei previously owned and operated a home-based marketing company and for six years was in the workers’ compensation managed care industry with Conservco and MetraComp, a United Health-Care company.

Fetherman will develop new business on the west coast of Florida, from the Florida Panhandle, east to Tallahassee and south to Naples. She was most recently a senior sales specialist with Omega Insurance Services Inc. in St. Petersburg.

Reali will develop business in northeast and central Florida, from Jacksonville to Orlando and Melbourne. He has more than seven years experience in managed health services and insurance sales, most recently as area sales manager for GENEX Services Inc. in Tampa.

Pat Bennett will become manager of care management, most recently she was a nurse-case management supervisor. She has more than seven years of workers’ compensation experience. Pat worked for CorVel before joining CHOICE in 2002.

Ogburn became a complex care coordinator. He was previously a lead telephonic case management assistant. Before joining CHOICE in 2003, Ogburn was a customer service team leader at Thompson Group.

Rebecca Bennett will be provider contract specialist team leader. She joined CHOICE in 2002, previously working for Consumer Mortgage/Consumer Properties and MetraComp Inc.

Forsythe will be senior provider service specialist. With CHOICE since 2000, Forsythe was a provider services representative and grievance coordinator. She previously worked in the patient accounts department for the Heart and Vascular Institute of Florida.

Creighton will be a quality assurance analyst and grievance coordinator in provider services. Creighton joined CHOICE in 2002 after working for NHR/MetraComp as a provider services representative and team leader.

Glenn Jennings, who once headed the Kentucky Office of Insuranceon an acting basis, has been appointed executive director of the agency.

Jennings replaces Martin J. Koetters, who recently resigned. From December 2003 to July 2004, Jennings was KOI acting executive director. He also formerly served as deputy commissioner for health insurance when the agency was the Kentucky Department of Insurance. Most recently he was deputy executive director of the Office of Charitable Gaming, which like KOI is an agency of the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet.

Jennings has more than 20 years of experience in the health care field, specializing in financial management and information processing. He joined Kentucky state government in 1974 and has worked in a variety of roles, including deputy commissioner of the Department for Medicaid Services. In that position, he played a key role in Medicaid’s ongoing efforts to become compliant with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Beginning in 1986, Jennings was employed by First Health Services Corporation, serving as director of fiscal agent services for Tennessee and later as national director of Medicaid procurement and implementation. Jennings also was a consultant to TennCare, the state-run managed care program in Tennessee, and served as TennCare’s director of operations and acting bureau chief.

Roger S. Walleck has been named Meadowbrook Insurance Group Inc.’s regional vice president in charge of Florida branch operations in Sarasota. He will work with agents in Florida, emphasizing the workers’ compensation market. Walleck will oversee commercial business underwritten in Florida for Meadowbrook’s subsidiaries, including Ameritrust Insurance Corp., Star Insurance Co., Savers Property & Casualty Insurance Co. and Williamsburg National Insurance Co.

Walleck has more than 20 years of commercial property and casualty insurance experience. In January 2005, he joined Meadowbrook as a vice president of Underwriting and Loss Control in its Kansas branch. Walleck was previously underwriting manager, responsible for the New York division of the Liberty Mutual Insurance Group. He has served as the vice-chair of the New York Compensation Insurance Rating Board Governing Committee.

Andrea M. Griggs has been named senior vice president, business and product development for NationsBuilders Insurance Services. She will oversee the development of NBIS’s eight home builder association endorsements, including future endorsements. Griggs has been instrumental in NBIS’s profitable growth and success by contributing to the implementation of a variety of programs designed to service the general liability needs of contractors nationwide. NBIS manages ProBuilders Specialty Insurance Co., a risk retention group, with offices in Atlanta, and Palm Desert, Calif.

Robert Restrepo Jr. has been named senior vice president of insurance operations of The Main Street America Group of Jacksonville, Fla. He will oversee the company’s commercial lines, personal lines, claims, information technology and staff marketing functions.

Most recently, Restrepo was president and chief executive officer of Allmerica Property and Casualty Co.’s, a subsidiary of Allmerica Financial Corp., an insurance and financial services holding company based in Worcester, Mass.

Restrepo was responsible for day-to-day management of a $2.3 billion business that included a portfolio of insurance products distributed through more than 2,000 agents and brokers in 22 states. He also led the restructuring of Allmerica’s regional property and casualty carriers Citizens Insurance and Hanover Insurance.

Jack L. Watson, president of Collier Insurance Agency Inc., Blakely, Ga., has been selected to serve on the Certified Insurance Counselor’s Board of Governors according to an announcement from The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research. The National Alliance relies on the board in determining policy and guiding the future of this not-for-profit organization.

Watson is chairman of Professional Insurance Agents of Georgia’s Education Committee and is its immediate past-president. He is a strong advocate of expanded continuing education programs, and sees the National Alliance programs (CIC, CISR, CRM, and Dynamics of Selling) as a vital part of PIA’s education career path.

The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research, founded in 1969 and based in Austin, Texas, is a premier provider of insurance and risk management education.

Imerica Life and Health Insurance Co. has appointed Rod Farmer, president and CEO; Jeff Crippen, chief sales and marketing officer; Tom Keller, CFO and Craig Magnuson, senior vice president and chief actuary.

Farmer has more than 29 years of insurance experience, most recently as an executive vice president at Trustmark. While at Trustmark he directed six medical divisions in the Employee Benefits Division with 2,800 employees. Earlier, at Trustmark, Farmer served as Individual Health Products senior vice president.

Crippen has 34 years of sales management experience. He led the expansion of HumanaOne in nine eastern states. He also led the start-up of Unicare Life and Health and managed several sales regions at Time Insurance Company (Fortis).

Keller joined Imerica as CFO in late 2004. Previously, he was Fortis Health president. Keller is supported by Magnuson, FSA, who served with Assurant Health (formerly Fortis) for 18 years, most recently as vice president, renewal and compliance actuary. He also served as vice president for new business pricing and vice president, individual medical actuary.