People
Kansas City-based independent insurance broker, Lockton, named Said Taiym executive vice president and chief digital officer.
Taiym will focus on digital innovation and new technologies to help Lockton. He most recently was the senior vice president and chief information officer for the AF Group, a workers’ compensation insurance organization. His career has also included stints at XL Group and Zurich North America.
Taiym is a board member of the National Council on Compensation Insurance and serves on the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Business Advisory Board.
Cincinnati, Ohio-based Great American Insurance Group promoted Ken W. Schneider to divisional senior vice president of its Specialty Equipment Services Division.
Schneider will continue to oversee the division’s underwriting, product development and management, direct sales, account management and agency distribution functions. He began his career with Great American in 1999 and has been a key leader within Specialty Equipment Services since the division’s inception in 2009.
Schneider has over 30 years of insurance industry experience.
J.M. Wilson added Shelly Tucker-Lorenz as assistant surety underwriter in its Indiana office and Michelle Smith as assistant transportation underwriter in Kansas City, Missouri.
Tucker-Lorenz has 15 years of experience working in retail sales. With this new role, she is responsible for assisting surety underwriters on a variety of risks, including processing bond renewals and following up on new and renewal quotes for independent insurance agents in the 31 states in which J.M. Wilson writes.
Smith is responsible for assisting underwriters on a wide variety of transportation risks, as well as quoting new and renewal business and servicing accounts for independent insurance agents in Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma.
She has over eight years of experience as a customer service representative and three years of experience as a commercial specialist at various insurance agencies. Smith has earned the Commercial Lines Coverage Specialist (CLCS) professional designation.
Randy Larsen has been promoted to president of Western Regions for AssuredPartners Inc. He is based in Kansas City, Missouri.
Larsen started his career in 1986 in the banking industry at American National Bank in Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1998, after 13 years in the commercial lending industry, Larsen launched his insurance career at Schifman Remley Associates (SRA). He served as a producer and sales manager prior to becoming an agency partner in 2007.
Following the sale of SRA to AssuredPartners in December 2012, Larsen assumed the role of president of Assured SRA.
AssuredPartners also promoted Gerald Budde to Eastern Regions chief financial officer. He is based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Budde started his career with EY and spent 11 years with that company as a licensed CPA. He was CFO at Neace Lukens when it was acquired by AssuredPartners in 2011. Most recently, Budde was CFO for AssuredPartners Midwest Region overseeing multiple AssuredPartners entities.
AssuredPartners is headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida.
Damon Porter has been appointed vice president, chief human resources officer at Grange Insurance, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.
Porter was previously vice president, talent management and human resources business partners at Erie Insurance in Pennsylvania.
Prior to Erie, Porter held various leadership positions, including vice president of corporate human resources at Duke Energy in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Porter replaces Steven Paxton, former vice president of human resources, who has retired.
QBE North America hired Kevin Brogan as regional executive — Central Region, accountable for the region’s profitable growth across QBE’s specialized insurance business portfolio, as well as the development of all agent and broker relationships in the region. He is based in Chicago.
Brogan will oversee business planning and collaborate with underwriting and claims leadership to deliver better end-to-end risk management solutions, leveraging the applied expertise, customer service excellence and global strength of QBE.
He has more than 30 years in the insurance business and joined QBE from Wells Fargo, where over a span of 10 years he served in a variety of senior leadership roles, most recently head of P&C National Practices and Safehold Special Risk.