People – Midwest
John M. Anderson has been promoted to president and chief operating officer at Founders Insurance Co., a Des Plaines, Ill.-based member company of the Utica National Insurance Group.
Anderson joined Utica National in April 2012 as director of alternate markets development, working out of the Founders Insurance office. In May 2012, he was promoted to vice president and recently was named chief operating officer.
He has some 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, having served in several capacities as a commercial lines underwriter, operations manager, senior underwriting manager, regional commercial manager, senior marketing manager and director of marketing (specialty lines) for a nationally known insurance carrier.
Utica National is headquartered in New Hartford, N.Y.
Norman-Spencer Agency Inc., a national property/casualty insurance provider based in Dayton, Ohio, announced that T. Clarke Smith III will lead the agency’s marine operations as president.
The Norman-Spencer Agency marine division manages the First Marine and AquaPac programs serving the recreational marine and boat and yacht insurance markets.
An industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience in marine insurance underwriting, Smith most recently served as vice president of Chubb Custom Markets.
Smith is a member of the board of directors of the Association of Marina Industries (AMI) and is actively involved in the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) Risk Management Committee.
Norman-Spencer has partnered with the Marina Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA) since 1988. In addition, principals of Norman-Spencer are on the boards of directors for the MRAA, AMI and Northwest Marine Trade Association.
Great American Insurance Group, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, promoted Jason Cohen to divisional executive vice president of its specialty property and casualty strategic comp division.
Cohen joined Great American in 2006 and has been with the strategic comp division since 2008. He has held positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of underwriting, marketing, account management, and product development and has served as part of the division’s management team.
Great American’s strategic comp division specializes in aggregate deductible workers’ compensation insurance
Commissioner Sandy Praeger has appointed Zachary Anshutz as assistant commissioner and general counsel at the Kansas Insurance Department. He replaces Bob Tomlinson, who left the department to become the director of the state office that handles hearings on administrative decisions by state agencies.
Anshutz has been part of the insurance department’s legal staff for nearly six years.
To replace Anshutz as general counsel, John Wine was promoted from assistant general counsel. Wine is a former member of the utility-regulating Kansas Corporation Commission. Wine also served as general counsel in the secretary of state’s office and as Kansas securities commissioner.
National Interstate Corp., headquartered in Richfield, Ohio, appointed Tony Mercurio as executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Mercurio joined National Interstate in 1997 and served as chief executive officer of Vanliner Insurance Co., one of National Interstate’s insurance subsidiaries.
Mercurio holds the CPIA and ARM insurance designations.
National Interstate subsidiaries include National Interstate Insurance Co., Vanliner Insurance Co. and Triumphe Casualty Co.
Socius Insurance Services Inc., a management liability and property/casualty insurance wholesaler, has hired Laura Zaroski as vice president, management and employment practices liability. Zaroski is based in Chicago.
An attorney with an expertise in EPLI, in addition to her role as a producer, Zaroski will act as a resource with respect to Socius’s employment practices liability book of business.
While a partner at a Chicago-based law firm, Zaroski’s practice included serving as claims and coverage counsel for numerous insurance companies and Lloyds syndicates.
Socius Insurance Services Inc. is a property/casualty and management liability wholesale broker based in San Francisco, with regional offices in Los Angeles; Elgin, Ill.; and Tampa and Miami, Fla.
Pamela Sfikas, an experienced management liability underwriter, has joined Beazley in Chicago.
Sfikas will focus on building the EPL, private company D&O and fiduciary books of business in the United States, expanding upon the leadership position that Paul Nash and his London based team have established in the EPL market through Lloyd’s of London.
Sfikas joins Beazley from Hudson Insurance Group. Her prior relevant experience includes senior roles at AIG, where she was a branch manager for the Minnesota market, as well as a senior underwriter focusing on D&O and EPL product lines.