People
Incoming Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak has appointed 10 members of his staff to lead the Oklahoma Insurance Department:
Mike Rhoads is deputy commissioner of Health Insurance; Denise Engle is deputy commissioner of Workers’ Compensation; Former state Sen. Randy Brogdon is deputy commissioner of Consumer Affairs and Fraud, and senior advocate; Paul Wilkening is deputy commissioner of Administration; former state Sen. Owen Laughlin is deputy commissioner of Legal Affairs; Joel Sander is deputy commissioner of Finance; Former state Rep. Mike Thompson is deputy commissioner of Government and Public Affairs; Dr. Rick Farmer is assistant commissioner of Government Affairs, Public Policy and Communications; Ellen Caslavka Edwards is assistant general counsel; and James Mills is assistant to the commissioner.
Rhoads has 30 years of combined executive experience as an executive in the insurance and banking industries, including 25 years with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma.
Engle brings more than two decades of experience in the industry to her new role. Engle presently is the agency principal for Suburban Insurance, an Oklahoma-licensed agency in both the property/casualty and life and health markets.
Stonetrust Commercial Insurance Co., a Louisiana-based workers’ compensation insurer, has added the following individuals to its management team:
Dave Lorino has been named vice president of Claims for Stonetrust. Lorino, who has 24 years of claims experience, was most recently with LUBA Workers’ Comp as claims manager. Previously, he was with Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corp. (LWCC) for 12 years, where he managed catastrophic claims.
Randy Andrepont has been named director of Premium Audit. Andrepont joins Stonetrust from Summit Consulting Inc., a Liberty Mutual subsidiary, where he served as regional premium audit manager over the Southwest Region of Liberty Mutual’s agency market group. He was previously with LWCC. Andrepont has 29 years of audit experience.
Jim Parker has been named assistant vice president of Loss Control. With more than 23 years of loss control experience, Parker joins Stonetrust from LUBA Workers’ Comp where he was most recently loss control manager. Previously, he served in risk control with CNA and Bituminous.
Stonetrust Commercial Insurance Co. is a regional workers’ compensation insurer licensed in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
CNA has promoted Mark Bernas to assistant vice president of Ocean Cargo division. In this role, Bernas will manage the growth and profitability for Ocean Cargo. He replaces Charles Maurer who recently retired from CNA after more than four decades in the industry.
Bernas brings to CNA more than 15 years of ocean marine experience with a primary focus on ocean cargo. Prior to joining CNA in 2008 as underwriting manager in the Houston branch, he served as president and managing partner of Cargo Insurance Group Inc.; and served as marine manager with Roanoke Trade Services Inc.
Brown & Brown Inc. reports that Charles H. Charlie Lydecker has been elected regional president responsible for a number of the company’s retail operations in Florida and for certain of its retail operations in Arizona, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia.
In his new position, Lydecker will continue to be responsible for his current regional operations but will have an expanded role in further growing the company’s overall operations.
Lydecker has been with Brown & Brown since 1990. He has been promoted through several positions over the years and was named regional executive vice president in 2002.
Humana Inc. named Rhonda Bagby president of its Louisiana commercial operations. As Humana’s senior commercial executive for Louisiana, based in New Orleans, Bagby is responsible for the state’s overall commercial operations, including medical and specialty benefits. She reports to Humana’s southeast commercial operations CEO Craig Drablos.
Bagby has been with Humana since 2005, most recently as the company’s interim commercial president for Louisiana, and prior to that as the company’s southeast region chief financial officer, responsible for commercial plan oversight for Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Bagby, a resident of Madisonville, La., is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor and a Certified Financial Examiner in insurance.
Great American Financial Resources named Bradley A. (Brad) Wolfram president of its Austin, Texas-based Great American Supplemental Benefits (GASB) Group. He succeeds Billy Hill, who retired at the end of 2010.
Wolfram brings 25 years of industry experience to this role. He began his career with GASB in August 2006 as executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Great American Financial Resources is a member of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Great American Insurance Group.