People – Southeast
Irwin Siegel Agency, a program administrator based in Rock Hill, N.Y., has hired Christal Huft as executive underwriter. She is based in Kennesaw, Ga.
Huft has served the insurance industry in various capacities for nearly 20 years.
She began her career on the retail agency and brokerage side but has focused the majority of her career underwriting social service program business, partnering with retail agents nationwide.
Huft most recently served as program director at NIP Group where she focused on transitioning four national insurance programs to a new carrier partner. She previously served as program leader at THOMCO Inc. and Markel Corp.
Founded in 1960, Irwin Siegel Agency is a program administrator of insurance products and risk management services to organizations in the social service sector.
Palomar Insurance Corp. has hired Brett Cohrs as a marketing representative in its Atlanta office. Cohrs has been in the insurance industry since 2002. He first began his career as a claims auditor for the southeast office of Blakely Crop Hail, a multi-peril crop and hail administrator.
In January of 2004, he transitioned into sales as a producer with Hamby & Aloisio, an independent agency in the Metro-Atlanta area. Cohrs became the marketing director for Hamby & Aloisio in 2012 and specialized on their non-profit and social service team while continuing to develop his own commercial lines book of business.
Palomar Insurance is an insurance brokerage, employee benefits and risk management consulting firm. Palomar is headquartered in Montgomery, Ala., with operations in Atlanta; and Birmingham and Troy, Ala.
Jack O’Connell of Charlotte, N.C., has joined the ISU Insurance Agency Network staff as vice president of its Southeast Region with responsibilities to expand the ISU Network in the region.
O’Connell has worked in the insurance industry in various capacities for 35 years, including in the carrier, agency and network segments.
ISU Insurance Agency Network members are part of the national organization while remaining completely independent and locally owned and operated.
All ISU members have direct carrier access, receive 100 percent of the commissions paid by the carriers, receive profit sharing with no minimum premium requirements or loss ratio tiers plus full-time support services from the ISU staff in San Francisco and Southern California, Indiana, Texas, Arizona and the Carolinas.
Headquartered in San Francisco since 1979, the ISU Insurance Agency Network includes 155 independent agents in 31 states, and produces $2 billion of property and casualty premiums for over 300 carriers nationally.
Florida-based Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partners (BKS-Partners), an independent insurance brokerage firm, has appointed former Tampa Bay Rays outfielder, Rich Thompson, as Commercial Risk and Employee Benefits advisor.
Prior to joining BKS, Thompson served as an audit senior associate with KPMG. He holds an undergraduate degree in finance, a master’s degree in accounting, and he is a licensed Certified Public Accountant. He previously enjoyed a 14-year-career in professional baseball.
BKS-Partners provides private risk management, commercial risk management, employee benefits, and Vitality programs to clients throughout the U.S. and internationally.
BKS-Partners is headquartered in Tampa, with seven offices located throughout the state of Florida.
Starr Companies has appointed Lisa J. Sanders as regional vice president for the Southeast Region. Sanders will be located in Starr’s Atlanta office, where she will be responsible for the field leadership in the Southeast.
Sanders has been in the insurance industry for 22 years and has experience in building broker and customer relationships as well as growing regional offices, managing multi-divisional sales teams, and building new business segments.
Sanders will report to Robert Cruz, national branch officer, director of Field Operations, in New York.
Starr Companies is the worldwide marketing name for the operating insurance and travel assistance companies and subsidiaries of Starr International Co., Inc. and for the investment business of C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. and its subsidiaries.
BerkleyNet, a W. R. Berkley Company, has appointed Brian Douglas as vice president, Marketing & Business Development.
Douglas has more than 15 years of experience in the insurance industry. A graduate of Valdosta State University, he holds a Master’s degree in Risk Management and Insurance from Georgia State University. Douglas resides with his family in the Atlanta area.
BerkleyNet is a member company of W. R. Berkley Corporation specializing in workers’ compensation insurance delivered through the internet for small and mid-sized businesses.