People & Places

September 6, 2021

Dennis Cook has been appointed president of IronHealth’s Global Risk Solutions North America division, which offers specialty healthcare liability and medical stop loss products. Cook joined Liberty Mutual four years ago.

Most recently, he served as IronHealth’s chief liability officer, where he successfully led an operation with $220 million in gross written premiums. Prior to joining Liberty Mutual, Cook was at AIG.

He succeeds Lainie Dorneker, who was named IronHealth president in 2018 and is now head of healthcare at Bowhead Specialty in Miami.

In addition to Cook, Liberty Mutual has appointed Robert Hatcher as chief underwriting officer for stop loss. Hatcher will report to Cook and lead Liberty Mutual’s medical stop loss offering.

MEMIC, a workers’ compensation insurance specialty carrier with offices from Maine to Florida and licenses across the nation, hired two to its underwriting team. Diane Firster was hired as senior production underwriter and Scott Richards was hired as senior production underwriter.

As a 31-year insurance industry veteran, Firster most recently served as product manager for Philadelphia Insurance and previously as an account management specialist with Selective Insurance for seven and a half years, helping her develop multi-line commercial experience. She is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Richards, who joined MEMIC in June, began his career with The Hartford in 1997. He served there for 10 years before accepting underwriting and leadership positions with Harleysville/Nationwide and Travelers. He is based in Whitesboro, New York.

New Hampshire-based Satellite Agency Network (SAN) Group Inc. has promoted Anthony Inverso to regional vice president of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

In this position, Inverso will be responsible for membership service, business development and insurance company relations for all SAN Group member agencies in his territory.

Working closely with David Collins, SAN’s agency development field specialist of that same region, the team will be a resource for agencies facing start-up challenges, growing personal and commercial lines, technology adoption and usage, as well as new business and retention strategies.

ShoreOne has appointed Ben Hoover as chief marketing officer. Hoover will lead the marketing and distribution strategy for ShoreOne’s growth along the Atlantic seaboard.

Hoover, who has previous underwriting and distribution experience with large managing general agencies, will work with a select group of agencies experienced in the coastal homeowners market.

ShoreOne is currently operating in South Carolina, and Hoover will work with agents to bring the company’s new homeowners flood product to coastal homeowners in South Carolina, as well as other Atlantic seaboard states.

Prior to joining ShoreOne, Hoover was the regional marketing manager for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s Risk Placement Services (RPS), distributing new product offerings to agency partners. He also served as a senior executive with Brooks Group Insurance Agency as vice president. Most recently, he was national accounts manager for Method Insurance.

ShoreOne Insurance Managers Inc. was founded in 2019 and is backed by global reinsurers.

Atlanta-based McGriff has hired Andrew Belisle as a senior vice president and transactional risk specialist in the firm’s executive risk advisors group.

Belisle joins McGriff from ASQ, a London-based transactional insurance managing general agent. He previously worked as an underwriter in the U.S. division of Beazley. In those roles, he specialized in underwriting representation and warranty insurance coverage for private equity and strategic buyers.

Belisle also worked as a corporate and mergers and acquisitions attorney for Alston & Bird LLP and Morris, Manning & Martin LLP, where he advised public and private companies on M&A transactions, securities offerings, corporate governance and regulatory and litigation matters.

Belisle previously worked as a commercial lines insurance broker with the former Oswald Trippe & Co., which was acquired by McGriff in 2009.

McGriff’s Executive Risk Advisors group includes more than 60 professionals in Atlanta, Birmingham, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston and New York City. A subsidiary of Truist Insurance Holdings, McGriff is a full-service insurance broker providing risk management and insurance solutions to clients across the U.S.

Deer Park, Illinois-based The Plexus Groupe promoted industry veteran Todd Neaves to the newly created role of resident leader in its Oklahoma City office.

Neaves will lead the agency’s team in Oklahoma City with a focus on accelerating Plexus’ growth, while continuing to maintain his current responsibilities as senior vice president working with clients across a range of industry practices.

Prior to his promotion, Neaves was vice president at the firm’s Oklahoma City office, focusing on core employee benefit brokerage consulting. He began his insurance career more than 20 years ago as a marketing manager for CommunityCare Managed Healthcare Plans.

Most recently, he was president of PremierSource where he provided client-specific solutions in all areas of human resources, benefits, risk management and consulting.

Dallas, Texas-based Roach Howard Smith & Barton (RHSB) promoted Stacie Rand to assistant vice president in the role of commercial quality coordinator. Rand joined RHSB in 2012 as a commercial lines account manager and then was promoted to senior account manager in 2014.

In this new position, she will provide leadership for the commercial property/casualty service teams. Rand has knowledge of agency procedures and automation solutions. Rand will also continue her role as senior account manager maintaining the client relationships, providing customer service, responding to coverage inquiries and risk management needs.

While she handles different types of insurance risks with many industries, real estate is her area of specialty.

She has worked in the insurance industry for more than 20 years in various roles. Rand began her career in personal lines with an insurance company in 1997 and later transitioned to commercial insurance while working for a retail agent.

Roach Howard Smith & Barton (RHSB) is an independent insurance broker providing business insurance and risk management solutions to companies of all sizes and personal insurance to individuals and families.

United Heartland Insurance, based in New Berlin, Wisconsin, promoted Ben Richeson to regional director in Kansas City. Richeson will oversee business development, claims, loss control and agency management for the company’s operations in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

Richeson has more than 10 years of workers’ compensation insurance experience. He began with United Heartland in 2015, serving as regional claims manager.

Prior to joining United Heartland, he was a unit manager in the workers’ compensation division of Travelers Insurance. Richeson also worked for eight years in risk management with the Kansas City Star and John Deere & Company.

United Heartland is the marketing name for United Wisconsin Insurance Co., a member of AF Group.

Liberty Mutual and Safeco Insurance appointed Rich Meuret as Midwest regional field executive as part of their unified independent agent (IA) distribution organization. He is based in Indianapolis.

Meuret has rejoined Liberty Mutual after two years with Allstate Insurance, where he held the position of field vice president, working with both exclusive and independent agents.

Earlier, he spent nearly 15 years with Liberty Mutual and its legacy brands, including as chief actuary of America First Insurance and vice president of field operations at Agency Markets, as well as in various regional leadership roles across Safeco and Liberty Mutual business lines.

Now as senior vice president and Midwest regional field executive, he will serve North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana.

Safeco is a Liberty Mutual Insurance company, based in Boston, Mass.

Dane Lupe has joined Lockton’s Pacific region as senior vice president and producer based in Los Angeles, California. Lupe will partner with private equity and commercial real estate firms to provide guidance in proactively mitigating, transferring and insuring their risk.

Lupe has more than 13 years of experience in the property/casualty, employee benefits and private equity insurance areas.

During his tenure at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. as area senior vice president, he focused on risk management consulting, coverage review and insurance program structuring for commercial real estate developers, private equity firms and middle market companies involved in merger and acquisition activity. He started in the industry at Lockton.

Lockton’s Pacific region has also added Jordan Burbach, Daniel Denham and Andrew Szot. They will help private equity firms looking for strategic guidance and insurance solutions to manage risks. Burbach and Szot are based in Lockton’s San Francisco office. Denham is based in Lockton’s Los Angeles office.

Burbach is a senior vice president and producer at Lockton. He joins Lockton after serving as a senior vice president of Marsh’s global private equity and mergers and acquisitions practice for more than seven years. He previously worked at Zurich Insurance as the underwriting manager responsible for the Western US.

He started his career in insurance at Marsh as an insurance placement broker.

Denham is also joining Lockton as senior vice president and producer. He has nearly 13 years in insurance working at brokerages including HUB International and Marsh.

Szot joins Lockton as vice president and client services consultant specializing in private equity insurance services. Szot most recently served as vice president in Marsh’s Private equity and mergers and acquisitions practice. He previously worked at Zurich Insurance.

Lockton’s Pacific region encompasses nine offices throughout the Western U.S.

EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants named Peter Marshall managing principal in media insurance services in California.

Marshall will play a role in the continued development of the firm’s entertainment side of the business.

He has nearly two decades of experience in the insurance industry, with a specific focus on film, television and new media.

EPIC provides risk management, property/casualty, employee benefits, and specialty program insurance and private client services.