People – Midwest

Great American Insurance Group based in Cincinnati, Ohio, has named James (Jim) R. Niehaus senior vice president and chief information officer of its Property and Casualty Group.

Niehaus joined the Great American in 2007 as divisional assistant vice president within its Annuity Group. Since that time, he has held roles of increasing responsibility and was promoted to senior vice president and CIO of the Annuity Group in 2010.

Prior to joining the company, Niehaus served in leadership roles at Procter & Gamble and Hewlett Packard.

Stevens Point, Wis.-based Sentry Insurance named Dewey Gantz vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer.

Gantz joined Sentry in 2013 as assistant vice president, and chief accounting executive.

He has 20 years of insurance industry experience, including time served as a financial officer with Erie Insurance and Nationwide Insurance. Gantz was manager of mergers, acquisitions and integrations for General Electric Credit.

Sentry Insurance and its subsidiaries sell property/casualty insurance, life insurance, annuities and retirement programs for businesses and individuals.

Chicago-based Hub International Limited (HUB) added Carla Moradi as executive vice president of Operations and Technology. Moradi is based in Chicago.

She will lead the implementation of strategic enterprise-wide customer technologies and operations, supporting all HUB regional locations throughout the United States and Canada.

Moradi most recently served as group vice president and CIO at Walgreens Boots Alliance where she was responsible for IT infrastructure, architecture, security and technology field operations. She also held leadership positions at Walgreens Health Services, Retek (now Oracle Retail) and Accenture.

Five veteran regulators were appointed to new and expanded leadership roles at the Missouri Department of Insurance.

Angela Nelson, director of the Market Regulation Division, has been tasked with the additional responsibility of chief industry liaison where she will develop and maintain strategic relationships with the insurance industry to further the department’s mission and initiatives.

Nelson joined the insurance department in 2002. She was appointed director of the Division of Market Regulation in 2011. She previously was director of the Division of Consumer Affairs.

Carrie Couch has been named director of the Division of Consumer Affairs.

She began her career with the department 15 years ago in the legal section. In 2007, Couch became a special investigator for the division, was promoted to chief of investigations in 2010 and then appointed acting director last year.

John Rehagen has been appointed director of Company and Captive Regulation. He will oversee insurance company solvency regulation, as well as the thriving $5.1 billion Captive Insurance Program. Since Rehagen set up the program in 2007, 51 captives have been licensed, including a record 12 last year.

Rehagen previously served as acting director and deputy director of the Division of Company Regulation. He joined the department in 2003 as a financial examiner and financial analyst.

Grady Martin has taken on additional responsibilities as director of Administration and Technology, leading the department’s technology efforts, in conjunction with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, to continue the modernization of insurance regulation in Missouri.

In 2011, he was promoted to director of the Division of Administration, which provides services to all divisions, including budget, legislation, human resources and information technology. Martin joined the department in 2004 as budget director.

Leslie Nehring has been appointed chief financial examiner.

She first joined the department in 2003 as a financial examiner, a position she held for five years before entering the private sector. She returned in 2009 as an examiner-in-charge and last year was promoted to acting chief financial examiner.

James Kennedy, CEO of the Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Griffith Insurance Education Foundation for his career-long dedication to education and support of the foundation.

Kennedy has dedicated 43 years to the insurance industry, the last 13 as leader of the Ohio Mutual Insurance Group.

Kennedy was recognized as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2010 and as the Insurance Industry Person of the Year in 2006 by the Professional Insurance Agents Association of Ohio.

Kennedy also serves as a member of the Griffith’s Leadership Council and is a former board chairman of NAMIC and the Ohio Insurance Institute.