People – West

October 8, 2012

U.S. Risk Insurance Group Inc. named Tim Troester vice president and branch manager for the newly formed Portland, Ore., branch of U.S. Risk Brokers Inc.

Troester’s focus at U.S. Risk will be to develop relationships and expand all lines of business in the Northwest region of the country.

Troester has more than 10 years of experience in insurance, and he specializes in real estate, entertainment, manufacturing, and program business.

U.S. Risk Insurance Group is a specialty lines underwriting manager and wholesale broker headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Heffernan Insurance Brokers named Timothy Nielsen to its Portland, Ore. office as senior vice president and branch manager, focusing on new business development and sales management.

Nielsen has had nearly two decades of executive experience, including experience in selling and servicing commercial and employee benefits insurance. Nielsen was formerly the president and CEO of a Portland-based insurance brokerage and also he the expansion of the firm’s risk management practice.

Heffernan has California offices in San Francisco, Petaluma, Menlo Park, Los Angeles and Orange County, as well as in Portland, Ore., St. Louis, Mo. and New York, N.Y.

Marsh named Alice Cameron as west zone leader of Marsh Private Client Services and Susan Ott as San Francisco PCS office leader.

Cameron is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Marsh PCS operations in its Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle offices.

Ott, who is responsible for the San Francisco PCS office, reports to Cameron.

Cameron has 22 years of insurance industry experience as a broker, high net worth client advisor, and underwriter. She rejoins Marsh PCS from Fireman’s Fund Insurance, where she was a vice president responsible for marketing and corporate communications. Cameron began her career at Safeco Insurance in 1990 as an personal lines underwriter.

Ott has 25 years of experience as an insurance broker and high-net worth client advisor. Before rejoining Marsh in 2011, she led the personal insurance divisions dedicated to affluent individuals and family offices at both MacCorkle Insurance and Frank Crystal & Company. She previously managed the West Coast offices for PLI. She began her career in 1987 as a client advisor in Marsh’s San Francisco office.

Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Poms & Associates Insurance Brokers Inc. named Scott Boore vice president in the employee benefits and risk services groups in its Northern California office.

Poms & Associates also named Jerry Windom vice president in the risk management group of the firm’s Woodland Hills office.

Boore has more than 20 years’ experience in the insurance industry, primarily working in the public sector and with nonprofits.

Prior to Poms & Associates, Boore was a regional director with Combined Insurance for Northern California and Hawaii. He has worked with a variety of industries in a range of group sizes, and also has experience assisting unions.

Windom advises clients on personnel and commercial line property and casualty insurance program design and placement, including CGL, property, workers’ compensation, commercial auto, D&O and professional liability lines of coverage.

Prior to joining Poms Windom was founder of Windom Risk & Insurance Services.

Barney & Barney LLC named Scott Foster as a sales executive in its San Francisco, Calif., office.

Foster is an insurance brokerage executive with eight years of experience.

He joined Barney & Barney from Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., where he was area vice president. Prior to that he worked for Chubb as a senior underwriter, and Argo Insurance Group as a broker.

San Diego, Calif.-based Barney & Barney is a risk management and insurance brokerage providing commercial property and casualty insurance, employee benefits, workers’ compensation, compensation consulting, executive liability, personal lines and surety services.

BB&T Insurance named Andrea Robinson agency operations manager for its Pleasanton office.

Robinson brings 20 years of experience in the insurance industry to her new role. She has experience at both carrier and brokerage companies.

Raleigh, N.C.-based BB&T Insurance is made up of a group of subsidiaries of BB&T.

BB&T Insurance operates 118 retail insurance agencies across the United States.

BB&T Corp. has $178.5 billion in assets and a market capitalization of $21.6 billion as of June 30.

Deashawn Goddard has joined Tustin, Calif.-based managing general agent Yates and Associates as a broker.

Goddard spent the past eight years at working out of the Orange County office and managing the western region of the United States for an insurance company specializing in various small business insurance products.

Yates has also added two new producers and has opened a new office in Westlake Village.

Caleb Whitehouse is a senior underwriter/broker and Esteban Lopes is an associate broker working out of that office.

Whitehouse has spent over 10 years in insurance working as an underwriter and broker for other wholesalers in California.

Lopez has spent the last 10 years underwriting for several large MGA’s in California.