People

Ironshore Specialty Casualty has appointed Casey Hartley as senior vice president and head of programs. She will oversee the development, marketing and distribution of programs lines, working with programs administrators across Ironshore’s underwriting platforms in the U.S. Hartley was named to lead U.S. General Liability Lines for Liberty International Underwriters (LIU) in 2016. Previously, she served in various roles at LIU parent, Liberty Mutual Commercial Insurance. Tracey Sharis, senior vice president, has been appointed director of programs.Most recently, Sharis was senior vice president of operations and distribution for Ironshore Specialty Casualty and senior vice president of retail distribution. She joined Ironshore Specialty Casualty in 2011 as vice president for retail and construction business lines in the U.S. Sharis has held management positions for Aon Benfield in its facultative reinsurance group and with AIG’s Lexington Insurance Co. in property and casualty sectors.

Kemper Corp. has hired Kimberly A. Holmes as senior vice president, chief actuary and strategic analytics officer. Holmes will lead Kemper’s actuarial and analytics teams. Holmes’ direct reports include executives who lead the actuarial and data and analytics functions for Kemper’s specialty auto, personal insurance, life and health lines of business. She will report to Joseph P. Lacher Jr., Kemper president and CEO, and be based in Chicago. Holmes previously was senior vice president and global head of strategic analytics for AXA XL and held chief actuary roles at Endurance Risk Solutions, Endurance Specialty Insurance, Enterprise Reinsurance and Starr Excess Liability Insurance Co.

Brooks Insurance Agency, a Manalapan, N.J.-based multiline wholesaler, has hired Michael McCluskey as senior vice president and broker. McCluskey specializes in placing professional liability insurance for the financial services sector, including investment banks, mergers and acquisitions firms, security dealers, investment funds and investment advisors. He began his career as an underwriting manager for Monitor Liability Managers. He later joined Crump Insurance Services and became president of the Professional Liability Division, a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan. He moved on to form Cadence Insurance Brokers Inc. in 2008, and after 10 years of growth, he was acquired into Brooks Insurance Agency.

Optisure Risk Partners, a national insurance and risk management firm headquartered in Manchester, N.H., has hired Jackie Roy as an account executive in the business insurance division, providing professional and commercial insurance and risk management programs. During the past 30 years, Roy was a business partner in the construction industry.

EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants added Jose Palmer as a principal in the energy and marine practice within its property and casualty operations. Palmer is responsible for new business development and the design, placement and management of property and casualty insurance programs, providing risk management strategies for mid-market and large clients. Palmer has 20 years of insurance industry experience. He joins EPIC from Upstream Brokers, an Acrisure partner company, where he served as a vice president for more than seven years. Palmer spent the earlier part of his career with Willis of Texas Inc. and MaximGroup.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Alternative Service Concepts (ASC), a national workers’ compensation and liability third-party claims administrator (TPA), has promoted Jolie Barnes to claims manager. She is based in Houston. Barnes brings more than 20 years of insurance industry experience to her new title. She has served as a senior liability claims adjuster since coming to work for ASC in July 2015. Prior to joining ASC, Barnes worked for Crawford & Co., GAB Robins, Progressive Insurance and Auto Club. As claims manager, Barnes will train client managers, prepare status reports for discussion at client management meetings and continue to work with clients, customers, insurance carriers and their legal teams.

Safety National Casualty Corp., headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., has made organizational changes to the company’s casualty field underwriting management roles. Steve Cotnoir, formerly vice president of large casualty, has assumed the role of executive director of casualty field underwriting. He will provide leadership over national field casualty and production underwriting. Cotnoir will report to Seth Smith, executive vice president of underwriting. Dennis Zervos, formerly vice president of large casualty, has assumed the role of regional vice president of underwriting. He will provide leadership over field casualty and excess production underwriting for Safety National’s New York and Philadelphia regional offices. Zervos is now a member of Cotnoir’s casualty senior leadership team. Scott Thompson, formerly assistant vice president of large casualty, has assumed the role of vice president of large casualty. In this position, he will provide leadership over casualty and production underwriting for Safety National’s San Francisco and Los Angeles regional offices. Thompson will now report directly to Cotnoir. Russ Edwards, formerly regional underwriting manager of large casualty, has assumed the role of assistant vice president of large casualty. He will provide leadership over casualty and production underwriting for Safety National’s Atlanta regional office. Edwards will now report directly to Cotnoir.

The Global Insurance Accelerator (GIA), headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, has appointed Nicole Cook as the group’s managing director, effective May 1. She joined the GIA on Feb. 11. During the GIA’s 2019 cohort, Cook will work alongside current Managing Director Brian Hemesath. Her background includes finance, strategy, sales, technology and raising capital. She most recently served as chief operating officer of Speeko, a provider of an automated verbal communication. Cook began her career in investment banking at BMO Capital Markets before transitioning to startups. She also has experience as a seed stage investor, serving as managing partner of Five Island Ventures Partnership. On May 1, Hemesath will step down as managing director to assume a role as the GIA’s entrepreneur-in-residence.

Nashville, Tenn.-based The General Insurance has tapped nationally syndicated on-air radio personality Bobby Bones as the company’s newest brand ambassador. The General will partner with Bones, who is also a New York Times #1 best-selling author, philanthropist and winner of season 27’s Dancing with the Stars, across various media channels, including television, radio, digital and social media.

Newport Beach, Calif.-based Alliant has hired Yumi Yamazaki Colwell as first vice president of its employee benefits group in Atlanta. Yamazaki Colwell has experience in the global automotive and manufacturing industry, particularly in the U.S. and Asia, and will provide a range of benefits products to clients on both continents. Prior to joining Alliant, Colwell was area senior vice president and practice leader with a global insurance brokerage and employee benefits firm specializing in both the Japanese business segment as well as traditional commercial firms. Previously, she served as vice president with Japanese benefits broker Sumitomo Life.

Atlas General Insurance Services has hired John Gray as business development manager in the Southeast. Gray, who joins Atlas from Appalachian Underwriters Inc., will work with the Atlas business development and marketing team to grow its presence in the Southeast by reengaging existing agency relationships and developing new ones. He will be based in Knoxville, Tenn. He previously worked with independent agents in an 11-state territory assisting brokers in using products across all lines of personal and commercial insurance.

Fresno, Calif.-based United Valley Insurance Services Inc. has named Michael O’Dell assistant vice president of business analytics. He has been with United Valley for 19 years and has had a range of responsibilities from information technology and software solutions to analytics and data management.

San Diego-based Cavignac & Associates has named Jessica Rodriguez an account administrator within the commercial insurance agency’s surety department. Rodriguez serves as the client contact within the department for processing bond requests. Most recently, she was a commercial insurance certificate customer service representative and account manager for Rock 10 Insurance Services. Her prior experience includes having served as office manager and small group health insurance agent for Steve Grady Insurance. Cavignac & Associates is a risk management and commercial insurance brokerage firm.

Chicago-based Mayer Brown announced that a team led by partner Kara Baysinger has joined the firm, adding to its global insurance capabilities and corporate and securities practice. As a partner based in Mayer Brown’s San Francisco office, Baysinger will serve as the co-leader of the U.S. insurance regulatory and enforcement group. She comes to Mayer Brown with partner Stephanie Duchene in Los Angeles. Also on the insurance regulatory and enforcement team is Matthew Gaul in New York. The team previously practiced at Dentons, where Baysinger was a co-leader of the firm’s global insurance sector. Baysinger has experience representing national and international insurance and reinsurance companies, insurance-related service companies, insurtech companies and other financial services entities. Baysinger began her career working in-house for insurance companies. Duchene focuses her practice on representing insurance companies, producers and insurance licensees and service providers in regulatory matters.