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The Hanover Insurance Group Inc. has appointed Frank M. Baron as president of Alternative Markets, a newly formed business unit within the company’s domestic specialty group.

In this role, Baron will lead the company’s specialty programs, excess and surplus, and specialty brokerage businesses, helping The Hanover expand its business across each of these specialties.

Most recently, Baron served as executive vice president at Zurich, where he led the company’s Management Solutions Group. Prior to that, he held various leadership roles at American International Group (AIG) and Reliance National Insurance.

The Hanover Insurance Group Inc. is a Worcester, Mass.-headquartered holding company for several property and casualty insurance companies.

AmTrust Financial Services Inc., a multinational insurance holding company headquartered in New York City, has named J. Daniel Hickey as group chief underwriting officer.

Hickey is based at AmTrust’s New York City headquarters and reports directly to Barry Zyskind, chairman and CEO of AmTrust.

Hickey joined AmTrust in July 2017 as executive vice president of business strategy and business development. Over the past year, Hickey has overseen the company’s business strategy planning function and been responsible for AmTrust’s business development, identifying and managing key partner relationships as well as organic business opportunities available to AmTrust throughout its global business platform.

In his new role, he will oversee the company’s global underwriting activities, ensuring a consistent and disciplined underwriting approach that is aligned with the company’s strategic objectives.

Prior to joining AmTrust, Hickey served at global reinsurer PartnerRe as executive vice president and head of the Standard Lines business unit, where he had executive leadership, strategic planning and underwriting responsibilities for the unit.

Prior to PartnerRe, Hickey was at General Reinsurance Corp., a provider of reinsurance solutions to the life and health and property and casualty insurance industries. While at General Reinsurance, Hickey most recently served in the role of president of North America Treaty Reinsurance.

Stroock has hired Huhnsik Chung as a partner in the firm’s insurance and reinsurance practice within its New York office.

He arrives to the firm from Baker McKenzie, where he chaired the North America Insurance practice. Joining Chung is an associate, Nicholas Secara, also from Baker McKenzie.

Secara represents insurers and reinsurers in arbitrations and judicial proceedings as well as commercial transactions. He co-founded the Insurance Federation of New York Inc., Emerging Leaders. He has also served as a special assistant corporation counsel for the Law Department of the City of New York.

Chung represents insurance industry clients in disputes in domestic and international arbitrations and judicial proceedings. He has served as lead counsel in more than 70 such actions in the U.S. and abroad.

He also provides regulatory, licensing and structuring advice on matters such as insurtech start-ups, captives, mergers and acquisitions, insurance-linked securities, wrap-up insurance and new product development. He handles the insurance component of mergers and acquisitions and regulatory matters, and he is regularly retained to resolve business of insurance disputes.

In the fintech space, Chung has also been at the forefront of blockchain development and deployment in his representation of accelerators, exchanges and sponsors of initial coin offerings in offshore jurisdictions.

Additionally, Chung maintains close ties with South Korean-focused companies and assists Korean clients in business and insurance matters globally.

At Stroock, Chung joins an insurance litigation team representing national and multinational insurers and reinsurers in a range of matters, including high-exposure reinsurance matters, complex coverage and bad faith disputes and consumer class actions.

Stroock’s reinsurance representations span areas such as life reinsurance, natural catastrophes, asbestos and environmental, aviation, financial guarantee, workers’ compensation, broker negligence and MGA disputes. The team’s insurance coverage expertise include CGL, excess/umbrella, professional liability, workers’ compensation, D&O and commercial property lines, among others.

Stroock provides strategic transactional, regulatory and litigation advice to advance the business objectives of financial institutions, multinational corporations and entrepreneurial businesses in the U.S. and globally. The firm has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, D.C.