People – East

October 19, 2015

Zurich announced that Paul Horgan, previously head of Group Reinsurance, has been appointed CEO of Zurich’s Global Corporate in North America (GCiNA) business.

As CEO, Horgan is now accountable for the direction, management and performance of GCiNA, a major business area within North America, which the insurer said recorded gross written premiums and policy fees of $3.7 billion in 2014. Horgan succeeds Daniel Riordan, who left Zurich to pursue other professional opportunities.

Horgan will be based in New York City and will report to Thomas Huerlimann, CEO, Global Corporate.

Horgan joined Zurich as chief underwriting officer for GCiNA in 2007. He was appointed to head of Group Reinsurance in 2012. Prior to joining Zurich, he held a number of senior roles at Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.

Hub International Limited (HUB) has hired Chris Treanor as president of Programs and Specialty Products. He will also serve as president of the Specialty Program Group, a newly launched subsidiary to grow the firm’s program underwriting and specialty business.

Treanor will report to Martin Hughes, HUB chairman of the board and CEO, and will serve on the Hub executive management team. Treanor most recently served as president of Preferred Concepts LLC, an underwriter and wholesale broker with offices in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut that was bought by Alliant Insurance Services this summer.

Treanor was also a co-founder of Mercator Risk Services Inc., a national wholesale brokerage firm. Early in his career Treanor spent 20 years at Marsh in brokerage, sales and office management roles, ultimately becoming CEO of the global placement operations.

The Norfolk & Dedham Group, a regional property/casualty insurer based in Dedham, Massachusetts, hired Katie Enslin as division manager, Sales and Marketing.

Enslin will be responsible for overseeing a team of marketing representatives and providing strategic direction to address the needs of the company’s network of independent insurance agents.

Enslin most recently served as senior vice president at BMS Intermediaries Inc. In addition to placing reinsurance, she has been responsible for developing financial services and managing risk for regional and super-regional companies throughout the Midwest and New England.

The Norfolk & Dedham Group also announced the hiring of Virginia Lux as director of Marketing Communications. She previously served in marketing roles at a number of Massachusetts high-tech companies including Mobiquity and Netezza.

Holborn, an independent reinsurance broker based in New York, hired Frederick M. Strauss as senior vice president.

In this role, Strauss will be responsible for spearheading Holborn’s nationwide new business development efforts for the residual markets, working closely with the firm’s brokers and its analytics team to develop customized solutions for this market segment.

Strauss joins Holborn following a 30-year career at the Allstate Corporation where he was most recently Shared Markets director, responsible for the oversight of Allstate’s Automobile and Property Residual Market strategies and its countrywide results.

Preferred Mutual Insurance Company in New Berlin, New York, hired Kindra Butler-Andersen as field sales manager.

Butler-Andersen brings more than 22 years of industry experience to Preferred, having most recently worked as regional sales director at Travelers Insurance. Preferred Mutual said she has dedicated her career to the independent agent channel and has either been an independent agent herself or worked directly with independent agents to help them profitably grow their business.

In her new role, Butler-Andersen will lead the field sales force to drive growth, profitability, retention and new agency appointments across Preferred’ s four-state footprint of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York.

Worldwide Facilities, a wholesale broker and managing general agent based in Los Angeles, hired Bill Craane as vice president and New York Casualty Practice leader. He’s based in Worldwide Facilities’ New York City office.

Craane brings to his new role 15 years of experience as an excess and surplus lines broker. He previously served as vice president at Swett & Crawford in New York.

IFG Companies has hired Geoffrey J. Smith as underwriting manager of its nationwide Commercial Underwriting Renewal Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

While managing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Commercial Underwriting Renewal Center, Smith will also have a senior leadership role across IFG’s casualty underwriting operations in its Hartford office.

Smith joins IFG from Union Mutual of Vermont where he served as its director of underwriting for its Commercial and Personal Lines.

Prior to Union Mutual, he spent several years with Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company, where most recently he was executive vice president.