People

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) elected new officers during its annual meeting in Boston recently. Robert Joyce, chairman and chief executive officer of Westfield Group, was elected as the association’s new chair; John Blackburn, CEO of Country Insurance & Financial Services was elected first chair, and Janice Abraham, president and CEO of United Educators Insurance, was elected second vice chair.

PCI also elected two new members to its board: Vincent Donnelly, president and CEO, PMA Capital Corp., and Darin Kath, president and CEO at Jewelers Mutual Insurance Co.

PCI’s new chair, Joyce, has more than 25 years experience in the insurance industry and currently leads Westfield, a diversified financial services organization with over $3 billion in assets. Joyce’s experience includes serving as senior vice president and treasurer of Philadelphia-based Reliance Insurance Group, followed by senior vice president and chief operating officer of Reliance Surety before joining Westfield in 1996. Prior to CEO, he held the positions of president of Westfield Management Co. and chief operating officer at Westfield.

PCI’s First Vice Chair Blackburn has served as CEO for Country Insurance & Financial Services since August 2001. He is also chairman of the board of directors of three companies with which Country has strategic alliances: Holyoke Mutual Insurance Co., Salem, Mass.; Middlesex Mutual Assurance Co., Middletown, Conn.; and MSI Preferred Insurance Co., Arden Hills, Minn.

Blackburn began his career with Country in 1982 as an agent in Christian County (Ill.). Later, he served as agency manager, district director of Agencies, regional vice president of Agency, vice president of Agency and senior vice president of Marketing.

PCI’s Second Vice Chair Abraham joined United Educators Insurance as president and CEO in January 1998. She is also president and CEO of United Educators Management Co. Abraham has 14 years of experience in serving the higher education community through her work as chief financial officer/treasurer at Whitman College (1989-1997), various senior positions at Cornell University (1985-1989), and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) where she served as staff associate.

PCI has more than 1,000 member companies.

Insurance Journal and InsuranceJournal.com recently named Howard Simkin as sales manager for their Southeast region.

Based in Lakeland, Fla., Simkin is responsible for a nine-state territory including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

A native of New Jersey, Simkin is a long-time resident of Florida where he gained pertinent sales and marketing experience. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Delaware.

In addition to experience as an account manager in the medical field, Simkin has a supervisory background in marketing and graphic design.

Berkley Net Underwriters, which writes workers’ compensation over the Internet, has added Brian Risen as senior vice president of Sales and Marketing and promoted Brian Douglas to the newly created position of director of Marketing and Strategic Development.

Risen has 26 years of sales and marketing experience including field marketing for a national carrier and large account sales for a major direct writer. He was a founding partner of a $150 million agency and most recently a senior officer for affinity groups and program related business.

Douglas’ duties will expand to focus on development of the company’s web applications, online user experience, new strategic initiatives and program development, including niche workers compensation programs. Douglas has held various roles in sales and marketing, operations and risk management over the past 10 years.

At a ceremony at The Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tenn., Insurors of Tennessee recognized Chip Hoover as the Arch E. Northington Young Agent of the Year. Hoover is principal agent of AGA Hoover LLC, an insurance agency in Murfreesboro. The award is named for the former state national director and president of the Insurors of Tennessee and is given annually to a young member of the state association.

Professional Insurance Agents of Florida elected Phil Zelman president of the board effective Oct. 1. A member of PIA since 1999, Zelman is vice president and co-owner of NCF Insurance Associates in Coral Gables, Fla., and has served on the board since 2001.

Zelman has been an independent agent for more than 19 years. He attended the College of Insurance in New York City, receiving a Bachelor’s in business and insurance. He moved to Florida in 1988 and bought the NCF Insurance Agency with business partner Dana Valdes.

Famington Hills, Mich.-based Burns & Wilcox has promoted five individuals to management positions. Among them is Trina Swartz, who is assistant manager of the company’s Tampa, Fla., office, where she previously was commercial lines underwriting manager.

Houston-based HCC Insurance Holdings Inc. has promoted James A. Lauerman to president of HCC’s Avemco Insurance Co. subsidiary. Lauerman, who previously was executive vice president-Insurance Operations and chief underwriting officer of Avemco, has been in the insurance industry since 1991. He was vice president of Underwriting at Special Insurance Underwriters, a company acquired by HCC in 1997.

HCC Insurance Holdings Inc. promoted Adam S. Pessin to president of the company’s American Contractors Indemnity Co. subsidiary. ACIC is a surety company operating on an admitted basis.

Before joining the company in 2002, Pessin was a senior manager at KPMG. At ACIC he served in positions including senior vice president of Corporate Operations of ACIC, and most recently he was an executive vice president, Western Region of HCC Surety Group.