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The Main Street America Group has promoted Dan Gaynor to senior vice president and chief underwriting officer.
Gaynor, who has been the super-regional property/casualty insurance company’s vice president of commercial lines since 2011, will now oversee commercial lines and personal lines. His responsibilities will include premium growth and profitability for the two product lines, as well as development, management and administration of these functional units and oversight of their respective underwriting operations and policy processing systems.
Gaynor will continue to report to Jeff Kusch, Main Street America’s executive vice president of insurance operations, and remain based at the company’s corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla.
Main Street America’s commercial lines product suite, which includes business owners, artisan contractors, auto, workers’ compensation and umbrella programs, accounts for 55 percent of its $1.1 billion book of business. Personal lines, which includes private passenger auto, homeowners, personal excess liability and umbrella programs, accounts for 30 percent of the organization’s net written premium.
Gaynor joined Main Street America in February 2011 as director, commercial lines product and underwriting, and was promoted to VP of commercial lines in August 2011. Previously, Gaynor was vice president at Harleysville Insurance. He has also held leadership positions at Zurich, USF&G, and Ohio Casualty Group.
Highmark Insurance, a Melbourne, Fla.-based provider of business and commercial insurance, general liability and workers’ compensation, has named Darrell Drake as underwriting manager.
In his new position, Drake will oversee Highmark Insurance’s commercial clients, including reviewing policies for accuracy, getting quotes, comparing coverage and issuing policies. He will also provide operational and technical analysis and diagnosis review of commercial P&C underwriting and claims by product, line of business, territory, trade group and performance. Drake formerly served as Highmark Insurance’s underwriter.
Prior to joining Highmark Insurance in March 2016, Drake served as an insurance consultant for commercial projects in China, Russia and the United Kingdom, where he worked closely with clients to identify trends pursuant to growth, market sector, area, risk size, premium and claims cost. Drake also held the position of underwriting manager for ACE Insurance Asia Pacific in Singapore, China.
Former Florida State Senator Lisa Carlton has been elected to FCCI Insurance Group’s (FCCI) board of directors, effective July 1, according to the company.
Carlton is the co-owner and manager of Mabry Carlton Ranch, Inc., a diverse agricultural business including a cow-calf operation and citrus groves in Sarasota County. FCCI said she was selected for the position based on her knowledge and understanding of the agriculture industry, her experience with the legislative process in Florida, and her commitment to public service.
Craig Johnson, chairman of the board, president & CEO of FCCI, said the company’s commercial agribusiness coverage division wrote nearly $100 million of FCCI’s total $787 million direct written premiums in 2016, adding that Carlton has a deep understanding of the history, culture and values of FCCI.
Carlton is a life-long resident of Sarasota and an eighth-generation Floridian. She spent 14 years in public service to the people of Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties, serving in the Florida House of Representatives from 1994 to 1998 and in the Florida Senate from 1998 to 2008. She was president pro tempore of the Senate during her last term in the Florida Legislature.
Working through independent agents in 18 states, FCCI provides commercial property and casualty insurance.
Wanda Becotte will join tKg Wholesale Brokerage as senior underwriter, Small Business Division, serving its Southeastern region.
Becotte began her insurance career in 2002, working on the retail side for nine years. During this time, she quoted and sold both personal lines and commercial P&C products. In 2011, she joined Southern Insurance Underwriters’ Excess & Surplus Commercial P&C underwriting team, playing a key role on their IT Steering Committee and maintaining nine carrier libraries.
She was promoted to supervisor two years later, where she trained and mentored a team of 11 underwriting assistants, educating new underwriters regarding key processes, tools, and SIU relationships with contract carriers.
In her new role, Becotte will serve on tKg’s IT Steering Committee, where she will assist the company in developing new tools and raters to streamline communication between tKg and its carriers and clients.
tKg Wholesale Brokerage is an independent brokerage in the surplus lines wholesale industry.