People – Southeast
Atlanta-based Crawford & Co. has appointed Stephen Pratt vice president of Carrier Relations, Quality and Technical Claims; and David A. Lee has been named manager of its Little Rock, Ark., Claims Management Services branch.
Pratt will be responsible for establishing policies and procedures related to workers’ compensation and liability claims. He will serve as the focal point of contact for all carrier interfaces.
Pratt joins Crawford from Sequoia Insurance Co. in Monterey, Calif., where he served as director of workers’ comp. He was also senior vice president of national claims for Zenith Insurance Co., and vice president of workers’ comp claims for The Hartford Insurance Group.
Lee, with Crawford since 1999, assumes his position immediately. Lee was recently the manager of Crawford’s Shreveport, La., Claims Management Services branch. He also served as an adjuster-in-charge in both the Batesville and Hot Springs, Ark., branches and as supervisor of the Little Rock branch.
Burns & Wilcox has appointed Michael Franzese vice president, branch manager in Tampa, Fla.; Susan Johnson assistant underwriter of transportation/inland marine in Morehead City, N.C.; and James Goodman as a personal underwriter for its national condominium program.
As vice president/branch manager, Franzese will manage underwriting, marketing and team development. Franzese has more than 20 years of insurance experience in management, marketing and placing commercial lines business. He has brokerage expertise in property, general liability and umbrella, large, complex property and casualty accounts. For 11 years Franzese was with Stewart Smith Southeast Inc., most recently as a senior vice president; and held executive positions with Franzese & Associates in Hollywood, Fla.
Johnson will underwrite difficult-to-place transportation risks, including construction vehicles, sand and gravel trucks, non-emergency medical transport vehicles and mobile diagnostic imaging centers. She will underwrite a variety of transportation risks from physical damage to inland marine.
Johnson has extensive commercial lines background including more than 20 years as a commercial account executive with SIA Group in Jacksonville, N.C.
Goodman will be responsible for underwriting an exclusive national condominium unit-owners program. The product provides catastrophic coverage to individual owners of condominium units in coastal areas.
Mark Bowsher has been named vice president of Personal Lines Operations for Montgomery Insurance’s Atlanta, Sandy Spring and Charlotte, N.C., regional offices. The company’s Personal Lines Operations are based in Charlotte, N.C., where Bowsher will work.
Bowsher was previously with Royal and SunAlliance, where he had held various positions since 1981. Prior to joining Royal, Bowsher was with Continental Insurance Company in Ohio.
James F. Maden, executive vice president of the Professional Insurance Agents of Tennessee, has been named the Association Executive of the Year by the Tennessee Society of Association Executives. The award recognizes exemplary leadership and achievement on behalf of the executive’s employing association and on the association management profession. It was presented July 22 at the TSAE annual awards luncheon.
Maden has been a TSAE member for 16 years. He has served on numerous committees and was elected to the board of directors in 1997. He was elected treasurer of the association in 2002, during which time he proposed the current dues structure. He served as president-elect in 2003, and during this term, designed and implemented the association’s first board orientation. In 2004, he served as president.
Maden joined the Professional Insurance Agents of Tennessee as executive vice president in 1989. Under his direction, the association’s membership has grown by 58 percent. The association purchased its current headquarters in the Cool Springs area of Franklin in 1999.
Within the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents, Maden has served on various committees and has been active in the PIA Society of State Executives. He served two years as president of the society and was named the 1997 Executive of the Year. Most recently, he served on the committee that conducted a national search to fill the position of executive vice president and CEO of PIA National.
John Halliday has been named vice president of technology with Raleigh, N.C.-based MJM Investigations Inc., an international insurance investigations firm providing innovative investigative solutions to the insurance industry.
Halliday will drive the MJM IT department’s strategic initiatives as well as maintain responsibility for supporting the ongoing development of MJM’s CaseTrak technology. He will focus on expanding MJM’s position as the international leader in insurance investigations.
Halliday has more than 26 years of experience in the information technology and telecommunications industries. He has an extensive background in technology, business leadership and international commerce from careers with Unisys, AT&T, Enterprise Architects LLC and System Development Corp.
At System Development Corp., Halliday managed the Systems Support Department developing real time simulation systems and the first center-wide local area network for the NASA Langley Research Center. As a consultant and Information Services Principal for Unisys Europe Africa Limited, Halliday supported major airline customers in Europe, South America and Australia. As the director of business development for Enterprise Architects LLC, Halliday worked with customers including the State of Florida and the American Medical Association. All of AT&T Solution’s major client engagement successes, such as GM, IBM, Siemens, Sun, Honeywell and Acer, included briefings delivered by Halliday to senior client executives.
MJM Investigations Inc. provides a wide variety of investigative products and services to insurance carriers, self-insured corporations, and third party administrators.