People

National wholesale broker USG Insurance Services, Inc. has added Jason Holloman as a property broker specializing in large commercial and catastrophe-exposed risks. He will be based in USG’s office outside Atlanta.

Holloman most recently held a position as a wholesale property broker with Swett & Crawford. His work history also includes six years with Arch and technical/support staff positions with Royal Specialty. This move is the most recent change that Pennsylvania-based USG has implemented in its plan to expand operations nationwide.

Insurance broker Marsh has named Jill Sulkes head of its U.S. financial institutions practice.

Sulkes, based in New York, most recently served as a managing director in Marsh’s financial and professional liability practice, where she specialized in directors’ and officers’, errors and omissions, employment practices and fiduciary liability insurance for financial institutions. She has also been involved in new product analysis, business development, and professional development and training of Marsh colleagues.

Brown & Brown Inc. reports that Charles H. Lydecker has been elected regional president responsible for a number of the company’s retail operations in the state of 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.

Also, Linda S. Downs, currently serving as senior executive vice president, has been elected a regional president. She is assuming responsibility for the oversight of additional retail operations in Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Ohio. She will continue to be responsible for certain of the retail operations in Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin, and for Halcyon Underwriters, Inc., a wholesale brokerage division operation in Orlando, Florida.

Downs will also continue to oversee certain corporate matters, including the company’s Benefits Department and its Leadership Schools.

Downs has been with Brown & Brown since 1980, when she was a profit center leader of the Orlando, Florida retail office, where she worked until 1998. She was named regional executive vice president in 2001, and she was promoted to executive vice president for Leadership Development in January 2006. She currently serves as director and as president or in another executive officer capacity for several of the firm’s subsidiaries.

Doug Dukes has been named state vice president of Tennessee for Keystone Insurers Group. Dukes will manage Keystone’s expansion into Tennessee, slated to occur this month.

Dukes most recently served as field and marketing representative for The Cincinnati Insurance Companies. He is a 26-year insurance industry veteran, having spent several years in Tennessee with Cincinnati and the Westfield Group.

Keystone is the nation’s fifth largest privately owned property/casualty insurance agency. It serves 221 franchise partners — all independent agencies — currently in six states: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

Torus, the global specialty insurer, has appointed Brian Blessing and Maryanne Swaim as business development representatives for Torus in the United States. Both will report to Matthew Munson, vice president and regional chief operating officer for Central and Midwest U.S. regions.

Swaim has more than 30 years of business development experience in the commercial insurance arena. She has held senior positions at Aon and Marsh and joins Torus from Lloyd’s, Illinois.

Blessing has more than 13 years of experience in senior management, sales, marketing and agency management. He joins Torus from Marsh where he was most recently vice president/producer. He has also held various positions at Fireman’s Fund and Chubb. Prior to his insurance career he served in the United States Marine Corps Reserves.

The Target Markets Program Administrators Association has named Jeremy Hitzig as its new president. Hitzig comes to the position of president as Bill Kronenberg steps down after completing his two-year term.

Hitzig is the CEO of The Distinguished Programs Group, a New York-based program administrator specializing in the real estate industry. He began his insurance career in 1995 as a principal at Capital Risk Strategies where he focused on emerging risk transfer tools including catastrophe bonds and other blended capital markets/insurance products.

Hitzig joined Distinguished Programs in 1997 and held a number of executive positions before being named CEO in 2006. He has been a TMPAA board member since 2008.