People – Midwest
Westfield Insurance, a super-regional property/casualty insurance carrier based in Westfield, Ohio, announced changes to its leadership team.
Mike Prandi has been named to the new role of insurance operations leader. He is responsible for the delivery of sales and services capabilities across the insurance operation to provide effective and cost-efficient delivery of Westfield’s products and services. Prandi will provide executive oversight to the personal lines, small business accounts, commercial middle market and specialty underwriting functions, as well as the claims and surety functions.
Beth Riczko has expanded her role as group underwriting and product leader. She is responsible for leveraging analytics and a deep understanding of risk to establish underwriting and pricing practices and manage the product portfolio. Riczko’s team will include the actuarial, personal and commercial product management, analytics, risk services, premium audit and commercial services functions.
Prandi joined Westfield in 1989 as a claims trainee and most recently served as the national claims leader. Prior to that, he held a series of leadership positions within the claims department.
Riczko joined Westfield in 2007 and previously served as the group analytics leader with responsibility for driving the execution of business, agent and customer analytics across the enterprise. Prior to joining Westfield, she spent several years with Ohio Casualty Group.
Riczko is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.
Succeeding Prandi as national claims leader is Rob Bowers. He has 27 years of experience in various insurance claims roles, 18 years with Westfield. Most recently, he was Westfield’s national claims strategy leader and was instrumental in planning and executing the company’s claims transformation program, a vital part of its overall corporate transformation initiative.
Bowers is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter and a Senior Claims Law Associate.
Ohio-based Oswald Companies appointed Jessica Jung to the position of director of business development, property/casualty.
Jung joins Oswald with more than 15 years of experience at Chubb Insurance, most recently serving as vice president and branch leader of Chubb’s Cleveland office.
Jung currently serves as vice chair of the Northern Ohio Chapter of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation and was named the Northeast Ohio 2014 Leukemia & Lymphoma Society “Woman of The Year.”
Jung holds her B.A. in psychology and business management from Fairfield University. She is a resident of Westlake, Ohio.
Oswald Companies, in its 122nd year of business, recently announced regional growth at its full-service branches in Akron, Columbus and Detroit, and the opening of satellite offices in Cincinnati and Toledo.
Managing general agency and surplus lines broker J.M. Wilson added Jayne Hongisto as branch manager of its Madison, Wis., office. She will plan the day-to-day operations of the Madison office, coordinate the staff, and work towards building relationships to foster growth with new and existing independent insurance agents.
Hongisto has many years of experience in the insurance industry, having worked as a subrogation specialist, claim representative, field claim specialist, commercial and personal lines marketing specialist, senior district sales manager, and insurance and risk manager.
Lansing, Mich.-based Accident Fund Holdings Inc. appointed Jeffrey Austin White director of innovation.
White began his career with Accident Fund Holdings in April 2011, most recently serving as director of medical management practices and strategy.
White holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Buffalo. He has published two medical journal articles on opioids in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and has received three national technology innovation awards.
In 2013, White was granted Accident Fund’s first ever patent for an analytics technique to monitor provider performance to facilitate injured worker outcomes and medical cost containment.
Willis North America appointed Joe Peiser as head of casualty broking. In this newly created role, Peiser will be responsible for the strategic direction of Willis North America’s casualty insurance offerings including workers’ compensation, primary and excess casualty, product recall and international casualty products.
Since September 2014, Peiser has been serving as a strategic insurance market advisor with Willis Capital Markets and Advisory.
Peiser has 28 years of experience in the insurance industry. Previously, he was president of Wright Specialty Insurance Agency and prior to that he had a long career at Marsh Inc. and one of its predecessor companies, Johnson & Higgins.