People – Midwest
AF Group, headquartered in Lansing, Mich., has appointed Eric Halter director of AF Specialty, a new brand focused on providing fronting capacity to insurance carriers, managing general agents, reinsurance intermediaries and captive managers.
Halter will partner with entities who are seeking a fronting facility to place well-managed, turnkey property and casualty programs.
Halter has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance and financial sectors. Most recently, he served as president of a large captive management organization, overseeing its global operations and leading the organization to significant profitability and growth.
Members of AF Group include Accident Fund, United Heartland, CompWest and Third Coast Underwriters.
ManchesterStory Group (ManchesterStory), a Des Moines, Iowa-based venture capital firm focused on insurance-relevant fintech and healthcare companies, has added Michael O’Halleran as a special advisor and chair of the advisory board of the ManchesterStory Venture Fund L.P.
O’Halleran is the former CEO of Aon Re and recently retired as executive chairman of the global reinsurance brokerage and capital advisory firm, Aon Benfield. He has 45 years of experience in the industry and has held senior operating positions at both insurance and reinsurance companies.
O’Halleran is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the World Presidents Organization, and he serves on a number of related public boards.
At ManchesterStory, O’Halleran will provide ongoing input on strategic issues and priorities in the insurance industry, and acting as a sounding board, both during and outside of Fund Advisory Board meetings.
ManchesterStory’s investment strategy targets early- to growth-stage investments in fintech and healthcare, with a particular interest in technologies spurring innovation in the insurance industry.
ManchesterStory Group was founded by Dave Miles and Matt Kinley.
The global law firm, Dentons, named John M. Huff as a partner in its insurance regulatory practice. He is based in Kansas City.
Huff most recently served as director of the Missouri Department of Insurance, where he oversaw one of the largest global insurance markets through the financial crisis and drove modernization with an updated solvency regime including reforming group holding company requirements; instituting supervisory colleges; revising credit for reinsurance allowances to increase global competition, establishing own risk solvency assessment for larger insurers; and initiating corporate governance oversight of insurers.
Huff also has served as president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), where he led the state regulator delegation internationally in building bilateral regulatory relationships around the world.
An attorney, Huff’s experience spans state and insurance regulation, products, claims, coverage analysis, liability and risk mitigation, run-offs, captives, and technology and innovation in the insurance industry. He has worked to drive growth in captive insurance markets while regulating more than 450,000 licensed professionals through 40 commissions and hundreds of state-chartered financial institutions.
Valley Insurance Agency Alliance (VIAA), a network of over 100 independent insurance agencies in Missouri and Illinois, hired Rikki McGee as an administrative specialist.
McGee will maintain, expand and service the alliance’s accounts by providing administrative and clerical support. She will assist with policy processing and handle ongoing correspondence among clients, carriers, vendors, and associates. McGee will work directly with new and existing members to maintain all records and transactions.
Prior to joining VIAA, McGee served as an office executive at a local insurance agency. She also has worked at several companies in managerial positions.
Founded in 2006, VIAA is the regional founding member in Missouri and Southern Illinois for the Strategic Insurance Agency Alliance (SIAA). VIAA is headquartered in Clayton, Mo.
Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. has appointed John Doyle as chief executive officer of its broker Marsh. Doyle will report to Marsh & McLennan President and CEO Dan Glaser and continue to serve on the company’s executive committee.
Doyle succeeds Peter Zaffino, who has accepted a leadership role at AIG. Zaffino had served as CEO of Marsh since 2011, and as chairman of Risk and Insurance Services since 2015.
Doyle was named to the newly created role of president of Marsh in April 2016. Now, as both president and CEO of Marsh, Doyle will continue to oversee the firm’s global brokerage businesses while assuming responsibility for Marsh’s Global Risk & Specialties, portfolio businesses and operational functions.
Prior to joining Marsh & McLennan in 2016, Doyle was CEO for AIG’s commercial insurance businesses worldwide. Previously, Doyle served as president and CEO of Chartis U.S.
JLT Re (North America) Inc. (JLT Re), part of the global provider of reinsurance broking and consultancy, appointed John Paulsen as senior vice president in Chicago. He will focus on the continued expansion and development of JLT Re’s regional and national global practices in the Midwest.
Paulsen joins JLT Re with over 15 years of industry experience. Most recently he was at Guy Carpenter, where he was senior vice president and focused on the regional mutual sector for over eight years. Previous to that he worked at Aon Benfield.
Ryan Specialty Group (RSG) promoted Dawn D’Onofrio to chief executive officer and president of WKFC Underwriting Managers and CorRisk Solutions. D’Onofrio previously served as chief underwriting officer for both RSG subsidiaries.
As CUO since 2011, D’Onofrio managed underwriting teams responsible for property, casualty and professional lines. She also served as a branch manager for WKFC Underwriting Managers. In addition, she held prior positions as a wholesale broker, underwriting manager and program manager for two national brokerages.
WKFC was originally founded in 1994 and was acquired by RSG in 2012.
WKFC Underwriting Managers and CorRisk Solutions are a managing general underwriters. WKFC Underwriting Managers specializes in property, CAT property, excess property, equipment breakdown as well as primary and excess casualty lines. CorRisk Solutions is a specialty professional lines platform.
The firms have offices in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.
Partners Specialty Group Inc., an AmWINS Group Co., added Michael Coelho to its property team. He is based in Kansas City.
With almost 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, Coelho specializes in protection for challenging property risks, including wind and flood in the Southeast and the Gulf South.
Prior to joining Partners, Coelho served as a senior vice president/property broker for Swett & Crawford/CRC Swett. Prior to his tenure at Swett & Crawford, he was a senior vice president/property broker for Westrope & Associates.