People & Places
Rob Bauer has joined bolttech’s executive leadership team as group chief managing general agent (MGA) officer, the insurtech announced.
Based in the U.S., Bauer will lead bolttech’s MGA strategy and capability globally, including its commercial structure, partnerships and distribution. Bauer was most recently managing director and head of the sharing economy and mobility group at Marsh, and previously served as global head of Innovation and the sharing economy at AIG. He will continue as a partner at Trust Ventures and advises several startups.
Rob Schimek, bolttech’s group CEO, said Bauer is “deeply connected to game-changing insurtech communities around the world,” with more than a decade’s experience in the insurance industry and close to two decades’ experience in global strategy and commercial roles.
Bolttech offers digital and data products and services that create connections among insurers, distributors and customers. It has customers in 26 markets across North America, Asia and Europe. It has offices in Singapore and New York.
Digital commercial lines independent agency Insureon has named Jennifer Cromly as director of sales, operations and analytics, with a focus on developing new business opportunities and creating customized programs.
Cromly has experience serving small business owners, including positions with Federated Insurance and Hylant. Most recently, she held positions at The Hartford, beginning as a senior small commercial sales representative and moving up to head of consolidation sales and new business development.
Headquartered in Chicago, Insureon is licensed in all 50 states.
Risk Strategies, a national specialty insurance brokerage and risk management firm, hired Erica Honig as the compliance director for its employee benefits division.
In this new role, Honig will provide the life and health team and its clients and prospects with compliance assistance, education and training with respect to federal, state and local health and welfare benefits law.
Most recently, she was a senior global benefits manager with a business immigration law firm. Prior to that role, Honig was a global benefits compliance manager at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and a benefits and contracts specialist at White & Case LLP.
With 25 specialty practices, Risk Strategies serves commercial companies, nonprofits, public entities and individuals.
Ames & Gough, an insurance broker and risk management consultant specializing in serving design professionals, law firms, associations/nonprofits and other professional service organizations, appointed Tom Marchetti as senior vice president and Kim Fruin as assistant vice president. Both executives are based in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
Marchetti, elected an equity partner of Ames & Gough in 2014, previously was a vice president. In addition to working with some of the firm’s larger design firm and construction management clients throughout the U.S., he co-leads the growth of the firm’s national association/nonprofit business initiative. He also has direct responsibility for overall business development in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, Florida and other parts of the country. He joined Ames & Gough in 2010 after leading the construction and real estate team at an insurance and risk management advisory firm in New Jersey.
Fruin has served as a senior account manager at Ames & Gough focusing on small firm property/casualty and professional liability insurance placements. She began her insurance career in 1986 as an account manager in the architects and engineers division of Victor, then Victor O. Schinnerer.
Subsequently, she worked on agency programs in multiple states for Lexington Insurance Company’s small program division.
Later, she served as an underwriter with Travelers medical services division. She joined Ames & Gough in 2008.
With more than 1,700 architects, engineering firms and other construction professionals of all sizes as clients, Ames & Gough is a specialty insurance brokerage and risk consulting firm serving the needs of these professionals.
Brown & Riding has named Justin Peterson and Brenda Roberson to its national casualty practice, focusing on Florida, the company said in a news release.
As casualty brokers, Peterson and Roberson will specialize in complex casualty risks and new residential construction in Florida.
Brown & Riding, headquartered in California, has 18 offices across the country.
Columbia Insurance Group announced it has made Michael Portanka regional vice president for the Southeast U.S., based in Atlanta, Georgia.
He will have responsibility for growing the commercial lines business in the five-state region. Portanka succeeds Elizabeth Dinnin, who retires at the end of October, the company said in a news release.
Headquartered in Columbia, Missouri, Columbia Insurance Group provides property/casualty insurance to policyholders in 14 states.
McGriff, a commercial insurance broker and subsidiary of Truist Insurance Holdings, announced it has named Lanette Norgan vice president of its energy practice, based in Birmingham, Alabama.
Norgan, who has experience in employee benefits and property/casualty insurance in the energy sector, will also serve as account executive, McGriff said in a news release.
Truist Insurance Holdings is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Truist Bank.
IMA Inc. added a marine practice group with the hiring of three new insurance veterans in its Houston office, expanding its expertise across the spectrum of marine coverages to include hull, liabilities and cargo.
The new team leaders are Katie McCord, Jason Homrighaus and Allyn Roberts. The three professionals come to IMA from different firms and with different backgrounds but have been collaborating for nearly a decade.
McCord will serve as IMA’s senior vice president and national marine practice leader. She has spent her 15-year career in marine insurance, including roles on both the broking and underwriting side. She started her career in London as a broker and in 2009 moved to Houston, where she later became an underwriter for domestic and international risks.
Homrighaus joins IMA as senior vice president for energy and marine. Throughout his 20 years in the energy industry, he has amassed expertise in contractual risk transfer and indemnities, product identification, policy negotiation, risk identification, legal and regulatory issues, and contentious and complex claims resolution.
Roberts also joins IMA as a senior vice president for energy and marine. With nearly 20 years in the insurance industry, he brings a range of experience that includes marketing, servicing and broking for domestic and international clients.
MJ Insurance, a risk management and employee benefits agency headquartered in Indianapolis, hired Julie Bingham as vice president of Total Rewards Consulting.
Bingham brings more than 20 years of experience in compensation consulting and human resource leadership roles to MJ. She has provided analytics, consulting and advisory services to boards of directors, executive and management teams as part of global human capital and local regional consulting firms, and in the corporate HR, compensation and rewards leadership positions she held throughout her career.
Most recently, Bingham served as director of HR & Total Rewards at ADT.
With offices in both Phoenix and Indianapolis, MJ specializes in a selection of service lines including construction, energy, transportation, manufacturing, sororities and recycling as well as a suite of employee benefits programs and services.
In this newly created role, Ashurst will lead a team of specialists responsible for the delivery of transactional and advisory solutions that address the risk financing, risk management, and human capital needs of Marsh’s largest and most complex clients.
Ashurst joins Marsh from Willis Towers Watson, where he previously led the Chicago-based risk solutions practice and served as a global client advocate and the U.S. automotive practice leader.
He brings 35 years of experience providing consultative solutions to Fortune 500 companies with particular global expertise in captive insurance companies and alternative risk transfer programs.
Grange Insurance Co. in Columbus, Ohio, named John North president of commercial lines and Cheryl McRae Lebens as president of personal lines, both effective January 1, 2022.
Mike Winner retires at the end of the year after seven years as president of commercial lines.
North has more than 25 years of experience in the property/casualty insurance industry. Prior to joining Grange, he served as a senior vice president for Harleysville Insurance, field vice president for Fireman’s Fund Insurance’s largest region in the country, and assistant vice president for Chubb Insurance’s third largest market.
McRae Lebens has been with Grange for nine years and most recently served as chief risk and strategy officer. With more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, McRae Lebens has held various leadership roles in finance, corporate strategy, sales and marketing for Nationwide Insurance in Columbus and Safeco Insurance in Seattle.
Risk Strategies named Jim Schmidt as commercial lines leader for the West region.
Schmidt will be responsible for building a regional strategy for the commercial property/ casualty business unit.
Schmidt has more than 25 years of experience. He was most recently director of business development for Associated Agencies Inc. He was a commercial lines manager for USI Insurance Services before that.
Risk Strategies is a specialty national insurance brokerage and risk management firm.
Lockton Cos. named Michelle McGrath as vice president and senior consultant for its employee benefits practice in San Diego, California.
McGrath will be responsible for leading client relationships and service, while supporting business growth in the region and training associates.
McGrath has more than 20 years of benefits consulting and brokerage experience. She served as principal at Mercer Human Resource Consulting in San Diego before joining Lockton. She started in the industry as compensation and benefits manager at the Foundation for Educational Achievement.
Lockton’s Pacific region encompasses nine offices throughout the Western U.S.
Alliant Insurance Services named John Hill as a senior vice president in San Diego, California.
Hill will design and deploy a range of property/casualty insurance solutions for a diverse base of clients throughout the region.
Hill has 30 years of experience designing tailored insurance solutions for clients across a range of industries and sizes. Prior to joining Alliant, Hill served as a commercial insurance broker at McGriff Insurance Services.