People – East
XL Group has named Michele Sansone as president of its North America property insurance business and head of its global risk engineering division, XL GAPS.
Reporting to Joseph Tocco, chief executive of XL Insurance’s North America property/casualty unit in New York, Sansone is promoted from her role as XL Group’s chief underwriting officer for North America property.
She will now direct XL Group’s property underwriting activities, including general property and energy property business across the U.S., Canada and Bermuda.
She will also oversee XL Group’s global network of risk engineers who provide on-site property risk analysis and support clients’ property loss prevention programs.
Sansone joined XL Group in 2011 from Zurich NA where she served as senior vice president and Northeast regional manager.
The Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) has promoted Nancy Egan to director of government relations.
In her new role, Egan will be responsible for evaluating issues related to the regulation of insurance and the development of insurance markets. She will represent the insurance commissioner in matters before the Maryland General Assembly and the governor’s legislative office.
Egan previously served as the assistant director of government relations at the MIA. In this capacity, she monitored insurance legislation and regulations, drafted legislative reports and served as staff for the MIA on legislative workgroups and task forces.
Before joining the MIA in 2012, Egan was vice president and co-owner of the Mike Egan Insurance Agency.
Acadia Insurance, a Westbrook, Maine-based subsidiary of W.R. Berkley Corp., promoted David LeBlanc to senior vice president, chief underwriting and marketing officer. He will be based in Acadia’s home office in Westbrook.
LeBlanc was most recently the regional vice president for Acadia’s Massachusetts branch located in Marlborough, having joined Acadia in 2005 as vice president, specialty marine. Prior to Acadia he was at Liberty Mutual and RTW Inc. He succeeds Susan Grady who was recently promoted within the W.R. Berkley organization.
Acadia Insurance also promoted Sharon Pontes to regional vice president and profit center manager for Acadia’s Massachusetts branch.
Most recently she was underwriting director for Acadia’s Massachusetts branch. Pontes joined Acadia in 2000 after leading the underwriting function for the New England branch at CNA Insurance.
New York-based brokerage Crystal & Company has named Lou Roca as executive managing director and head of commercial insurance services.
In this role, Roca will be responsible for the growth and development of the commercial insurance services, defining and executing the unit’s expansion strategy, leading its execution, and managing property/casualty operations.
Roca brings 30 years of brokerage experience to his new role. He most recently served as managing director and Long Island, N.Y., area president of Arthur J. Gallagher.
He has also served as senior vice president at Aon where he led the middle market practice for the Long Island region, and as assistant vice president at Marsh & McLennan.
Kane USA, a subsidiary of Kane Holdings Inc. in Guernsey, has appointed Mary Desranleau as client services director. Based in the firm’s Burlington, Vt., office, Desranleau will report to Ann West, operations director at Kane USA.
Desranleau will lead a team of account managers at Kane USA and will be responsible for all aspects of captive account management.
Prior to joining Kane, Desranleau was a senior account executive at Aon Insurance Managers in Vermont where she managed the client services team.
Satellite Agency Network (SAN) Group Inc., an alliance of independent property/casualty insurance agencies in the Northeast, has hired Bill Pike as regional vice president of New Hampshire and Maine.
In this role, Pike is responsible for membership service, development, and insurance company relations for all SAN Group member agencies in New Hampshire and Maine.
Prior to joining SAN Group, Pike owned and operated Foreside Insurance and William D Pike Agency in Maine. He has also worked for Assurant Employee Benefits and Ameritas Dental.
Ames & Gough, a brokerage specializing in serving design professionals, law firms, associations/nonprofits and other professional service firms, has appointed Charlie Vonderheid as a senior vice president.
He will be based in the firm’s McLean, Va., office where he will focus on client management, new business development, risk management and claims services.
Vonderheid, who has more than 30 years of insurance industry experience, joins Ames & Gough from CBIZ Insurance Services Inc. where he was a senior executive focusing on the firm’s architectural and engineering accounts.