People – South Central
The board of directors of the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLSOT) announced that Philip R. Ballinger is retiring as executive director as of Jan. 2, 2015.
Ballinger has been with SLSOT for 22 years and has been executive director since 2000. Previously, he served as director of tax administration at the Texas Department of Insurance and began his career working as a mineral and petroleum property appraiser throughout Texas.
Under Ballinger’s exceptional direction, the SLSOT has become recognized nationally for its service to the state and to the surplus lines market.
Ballinger presided over many major accomplishments during his tenure, most notable being the introduction of innovative technology and electronic regulatory filings for the Texas surplus lines market.
Ballinger has been extremely active in the surplus lines industry, serving as vice president of the board of directors for the Derek Hughes/NAPSLO Educational Foundation, serving as a faculty member at NAPSLO’s Advanced School, and serving on the National Advisory Committee for the Associate in Surplus Lines Insurance (ASLI) professional designation. In addition, he is a past-president of the Central Texas Chapter of CPCU.
A search committee will be appointed to select Ballinger’s successor.
Brian Tucker joined independent insurance agency, Roach Howard Smith & Barton, as an assistant vice president in its Fort Worth, Texas, office.
As a commercial property and casualty insurance sales executive, Tucker is a fourth generation producer for the agency. He is the great grandson of RHSB’s founding partner L.T. Barton.
Tucker comes to RHSB with six years of commercial insurance experience. He was with Central Insurance Co. for three years as a commercial lines underwriter and most recently has been the commercial and personal lines marketing manager responsible for agents in New Mexico, Central and West Texas.
He has his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), and Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designations, and is working on his Certified Risk Managers designation.
Tucker started his insurance career as a summer intern in RHSB’s Fort Worth office.
Thomas P. Ruggieri is joining the global wholesale and reinsurance broker, Cooper, Gay, Swett & Crawford, as chief executive officer and president of the North American operations effective Oct. 10.
Ruggieri, currently chairman and CEO at Advisen Ltd., replaces Shaun Hooper in the role of CEO.
Ruggieri brings 30 years of wholesale and managing general agency experience to CGSC, which is an Advisen client. Based in New York, he will report to Toby Esser, CEO of the CGSC Group.
Ruggieri began his career at Marsh & McLennan, developing numerous specialty products and practices, including Marsh’s Global Broking division, its Professional Liability & Financial Guarantee practices and its tech risk offerings. He also founded the broker’s small business Managing General Agent (MGA) SAFE facility.
In 2000, Ruggieri co-founded Advisen Ltd., which provides commercial insurance data and analytics.
Hooper, who had been serving as the CEO and president of CGSC North America, will return to CGSC’s headquarters in London as group chief commercial officer.
In addition to wholesale broker Swett & Crawford, CGSC’s North American platform includes reinsurance intermediary Cooper Gay Re and a number of specialty MGAs, including energy specialist J.H. Blades; Blades Marine and recently formed Healthcare MGA Pro-Praxis.
In the wake of a disappointing 2013 and a Standard & Poor’s outlook downgrading, CGSC Group CEO Esser said the firm would be targeting cost reductions and acquisitions, as well as bolstering its senior management to get back on track.
Advisen said Ruggieri will remain acting CEO until Oct. 9, at which time Advisen’s executive management team — co-founders Dave Bradford and Ed Forer, as well as CFO David Dahlquist — will assume his responsibilities.
Effective immediately, Forer will expand his COO role to assume more day-to-day management responsibilities.
Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) is entering the fidelity and crime insurance market, and has named Brian O’Neill to lead the effort.
O’Neill joins BHSI with 30 years of fidelity and crime underwriting and underwriting management experience, most recently as executive vice president and senior fidelity officer at AIG.
He also recently served as chairman of the underwriting committee of the Surety and Fidelity Association of America, and is a frequent speaker on fidelity and crime issues.
O’Neill is based in the New York office of BHSI.
Andre Basile is chief underwriting officer for BHSI’s Executive and Professional Lines.