People – Southeast

EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants (EPIC), a retail property, casualty insurance brokerage and employee benefits consultant, announced that Stephen McKenzie has joined the firm’s Employee Benefits Consulting team in Atlanta.

Joining as a Benefits consultant, McKenzie brings six years of employee benefits experience to EPIC. He was previously a Benefits Associate at Mercer in Atlanta with a focus on benefits strategy and business development. He has experience resolving client issues, reviewing internal compliance and contract documents, and conducting financial analyses with mid- and large-group employers.

As a consultant for EPIC’s Employee Benefits practice in the Southeast, McKenzie will provide client service leadership, including overall strategy, relationship management and business development, bringing new clients to EPIC.

McKenzie earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Risk Management & Insurance from the University of Georgia.

EPIC is a retail property & casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage and consulting firm with offices across the U.S.

The Crichton Group, an independent insurance agency in Tennessee, has promoted veteran team member Cooper Jones to president.

Jones succeeds Bob Jackson in the role, who will now act as a co-chair of the company and maintain deep involvement in leading the agency as a whole.

As president, Jones will oversee the company’s insurance offerings, marketing of new services and product development. Jones will continue to lead the agency’s nonprofit and social services division.

Jimmy Ward, CEO and co-chair of The Crichton Group, commented on the hiring saying Jones “has been integral in expanding offerings and opportunities for our clients. During this time of rapidly evolving and complex change within our industry, we look forward to broadening our service platforms further under Cooper’s leadership.”

Jones joined The Crichton Group in 2002, and has experience in the commercial insurance, risk management and nonprofits and social services industries. In addition, he is a preferred partner of The Center of Nonprofit Management, member of the United Heartland Agency Council and a member of the Hartford Insurance Company Agency Council.

Jones earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Mississippi.

Trinity Underwriting Managers, Inc. (TUMI), a Georgia-based program administrator, has hired Bonita Finley as a senior transportation broker. Finley will help manage TUMI’s local and intermediate trucking business as well as their portfolio of cargo, physical damage, non-trucking liability and truckers general liability. She will be based in Atlanta.

Finley has over 25 years of experience within the industry and has spent time on both the retail and wholesale side of the business. Finley joins TUMI from Great Lakes General Agency. She previously served as a senior underwriter at the Insurance House and as an AVP at Truckwriters, Inc.

Founded in 2008, TUMI is a program manager that underwrites niche transportation programs on a nationwide basis through a network of appointed retail agents. Current product offerings include: tow trucks, auto repossession, auto haulers, intermodal trucking, dump trucks, local and intermediate trucking, cargo, physical damage, non-trucking liability and truckers GL. TUMI operates a wholesale division which places those risks that fall outside the parameters of their established program underwriting guidelines.

The Hartford has appointed Melinda Thompson as vice president and head of Sales and Distribution, reporting to Doug Elliot, president of The Hartford. In this role, she will be responsible for relationships with The Hartford’s top distribution partners and with the company’s Property & Casualty and Group Benefits sales leadership teams.

Thompson began her career with The Hartford in 1998 as an underwriter in the middle market business and has held positions of increasing responsibility in sales and underwriting across The Hartford’s Middle Market, Small Commercial and Personal Lines businesses. Most recently Thompson served as regional vice president of the company’s office in Charlotte, where she led the Middle Market field operations in North and South Carolina.

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) has hired David Valzania as customer and broker engagement leader for the eastern U.S. region. He is based in BHSI’s office in Boston.

Valzania comes to BHSI with nearly three decades of insurance industry experience. He was most recently president, AIG Multinational, Americas, at AIG. Before that he was president and chief executive officer of American International Company Limited (AICO), and president of AIG’s Cat Excess Liability. He also held several other senior level positions at AIG and its Lexington Insurance Company subsidiary.