People – midwest

Missouri Insurance Director John Huff has been elected president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) for 2016.

Other officers elected are President-Elect: Kentucky Insurance Commissioner Sharon P. Clark; Vice President: Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Ted Nickel; and Secretary-Treasurer: Tennessee Insurance Commissioner Julie Mix McPeak.

The newly-elected officers will assume their duties on Jan. 1, 2016.

Huff, an attorney, was appointed as director of the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration by Gov. Jay Nixon on Feb. 6, 2009. Before entering public service, he spent 11 years as an executive with leading insurers and reinsurers, including Swiss Re and GE Insurance Solutions.

Clark, a veteran of Kentucky state government, was appointed insurance commissioner in July 2008 and was reappointed to the post in July 2012.

Nickel was appointed by Gov. Scott Walker as Wisconsin insurance commissioner on Jan. 3, 2011. Prior to his appointment, Nickel worked for almost 18 years as director of governmental and regulatory affairs for Church Mutual Insurance Co. in Wisconsin.

McPeak was appointed by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam to lead the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance on Jan. 12, 2011. McPeak is the first woman to serve as chief insurance regulator in more than one state. She brings to the department nearly 20 years of legal and administrative experience in state government.

SECURA Insurance, headquartered in Appleton, Wis., hired Kevin Klestinski as vice president – Specialty Lines Underwriting to lead this fast growing line of business for the company.

Klestinski has more than 24 years of experience in the insurance industry. Prior to SECURA, he served as vice president – Property Casualty Underwriting with CapSpecialty Insurance where he was accountable for the overall profitability of its book of business. He also spent 14 years with ACUITY Insurance in various commercial underwriting roles.

Klestinski holds the CPCU, CIC and ASLI designations.

St. Peters, Mo.-based Mathenia Insurance Group added Andy Kelly as a producer and Leslie Osborne as new business support.

Kelly will represent a variety of insurance products and services to existing and potential clientele. His responsibilities include providing expert guidance and customizing insurance programs.

Osborne will assist the company’s sales producers by issuing policies more efficiently and effectively. Osborne has worked in the insurance industry for 12 years.

Mathenia Insurance Group is a member of Valley Insurance Agency Alliance (VIAA), a family of nearly 100 independent insurance agencies in Missouri and Southern Illinois.

Cincinnati Financial Corp. announced that Stephen M. Spray, senior vice president, will transition to commercial insurance operations at Cincinnati Insurance effective Jan. 1, 2016, establishing the leadership perpetuation plan for the segment.

Also on Jan. 1, Sean M. Givler, secretary, will assume leadership of property/casualty insurance sales and marketing operations.

An insurance industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience, Spray has been an agent, an underwriter and a field marketing representative. He most recently was responsible for property/casualty sales and marketing, including management of field underwriters and independent agency relationships.

Previously, Spray helped establish the company’s excess and surplus lines operations and created the Target Markets division. Spray will continue to report to J.F. Scherer, executive vice president and chief insurance officer.

Givler currently oversees field marketing representatives and agency relationships in Alabama, Montana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.

Since joining the company in 1997, he has held positions of increasing authority and responsibility in underwriting and field sales marketing, and was appointed as an officer of Cincinnati Insurance in 2012.

Professional liability wholesale brokerage, Founders Professional, added Dan Vecchio as executive vice president and the head of its Midwest division in Chicago.

Vecchio will lead a team focused on management liability for private and public companies, as well as professional liability for lawyers, healthcare, tech, cyber, architects and engineers, financial institutions and miscellaneous professional exposures.

He previously was a senior vice president with another national wholesale firm, where he also focused on management liability and professional liability. Vecchio began his insurance career as a directors and officers underwriter, and underwrote some of the most financially challenged banks and savings and loans in the mid-1980s. Prior to his experience in the wholesale marketplace, for 23 years Vecchio was a retail broker for high-profile companies, including many in the Fortune 500.