People & Places

March 21, 2022

Nebraska-headquartered specialty insurer Applied Underwriters expanded its Applied Financial Lines unit with several key appointments.

Kim Noble has been named vice president, Applied Financial Lines. Prior to joining Applied Financial Lines, Noble was a senior vice president at Thompson Flanagan in Chicago where she advised law firms on coverage, claims and risk management issues. Before that, Noble led the lawyers’ and accountants’ programs at Argo Pro.

She has more than 25 years of professional liability experience including managing errors and omissions programs at OneBeacon, GE Westport and St. Paul Companies.

Thomas Owen is now vice vice president of Errors & Omissions, Applied Financial Lines. Owen has three decades of experience underwriting and managing teams writing professional liability, environmental liability and contractor’s business.

Prior to joining Applied Financial Lines, Owen managed the Specialty Casualty Division at specialty MGA DUAL North America.

Keith Dau has been named vice president, Applied Financial Lines. Before joining Applied Financial Lines, Dau was the senior managing director for Navigators Insurance where he was responsible for private management liability lines/wholesale distribution channel. He has 20 years of experience in professional and management liability including positions with Great American Insurance and Travelers.

Applied Underwriters operates throughout the U.S., United Kingdom, the European Union and the Middle East.

Sandbox Insurtech Ventures added Charles (Chuck) Chamness, former CEO of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), as an advisor. Based in Indianapolis, Chamness will collaborate closely with the Sandbox Insurtech leadership team and its portfolio companies to provide strategic counsel across the insurance industry.

Chamness has more than 27 years of experience across board governance, executive management, government affairs, regulatory affairs, and public affairs. In July 2021, he concluded an 18-year tenure as president and CEO of NAMIC.

Sandbox Insurtech Ventures is the insurance investing arm of Sandbox Industries, a venture capital firm that manages funds across insurance, healthcare and sustainable food and agriculture.

Munich Re Specialty Insurance (MRSI) named long-time Zurich North America executive Sabrina Hart as president of its excess and surplus lines business.

Hart is charged with expanding E&S specialty product offerings, particularly in the U.S. middle markets. She is also responsible for executing the overall underwriting strategy, product and program development and further building out the team for the E&S business.

Hart joins MRSI following a 25-year career with insurer Zurich North America, the last seven years as executive vice president, Midwest region. She has also held senior positions with AIG and Marsh during her career. Hart is based in Atlanta and reports to MRSI President and CEO Michael Kerner.

AXA XL’s Design Professional insurance business promoted Michaela Kendall to the newly created role of strategic partnerships manager.

The AXA XL Design Professional team serves architects, engineers and other design professionals. Kendall will lead a team directing business development, marketing, and industry partnering.

Her responsibilities include supporting AXA XL’s national program partnerships with key associations, including the American Council of Engineering Companies, The American Institute of Architects, and the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee. Her team will also liaise with agent partners in the Professional Liability Agents Network and assume management of the Design Professional Risk Control Group program.

Kendall previously served as an underwriting manager. She transitioned to Design Professional underwriting after spending three years as a senior claims specialist. Prior to joining AXA XL in 2015, she spent nearly a decade in private legal practice.

Based in AXA XL’s Atlanta office, she reports to Douglas Strong, chief underwriting officer, Design Professional.

IAT Insurance Group in Connecticut welcomed Heidi Bendick as senior vice president of Claims Operations.

Bendick joins IAT Insurance from CNA where she was vice president of Claims Operations, leading a team of 300 employees. She brings more than 20 years of insurance experience, including with claims operations, payment management, customer service/customer experience, and quality assurance programs.

IAT Insurance Group is a privately owned, specialty insurance company featuring seven business units — commercial transportation, programs, inland marine, excess & surplus, reinsurance, surety and management liability.

Insurance broker and consultant NFP hired David Clarke as senior vice president. In this role, Clarke will assist global clients in the energy and natural resources industries to address complex risks through custom insurance placements.

Clarke joins NFP from Willis Towers Watson, where he most recently served as executive vice president, liability advocate. Prior to that, he worked in the marine and energy division of Marsh McLennan and at the U.S. Department of Defense. In total, Clarke brings nearly 40 years of experience to his new role with NFP.

Erie Insurance named Jorie Novacek as the company’s new senior vice president and controller.

Novacek, who previously served as vice president for corporate accounting and reporting, succeeds Julie Pelkowski, who was appointed SVP of ERIE’s newly created Enterprise Office in January.

Novacek has more than 20 years of experience in corporate financial reporting in the insurance and health care sectors, in addition to six years of experience in public accounting with Big 4 and regional firms.

Prior to joining ERIE in 2008 as a supervisor in investment accounting and reporting, she managed the accounting, payroll and accounts payable functions for Parma Community General Hospital in Parma, Ohio.

J.M. Wilson promoted Elise Hamill to senior property/casualty underwriter and vacant property specialist in its Portage, Michigan, office.

Hamill is responsible for underwriting a wide variety of new and renewal property and casualty risks, as well as strengthening relationships with independent insurance agents and company underwriters in Michigan.

She joined JM Wilson in 2020 as a P&C underwriter. Prior to joining JM Wilson, she was a claim team manager with a focus on homeowners and PIP claims, as well as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan.

Founded in 1920, J.M. Wilson is a managing general agency and surplus lines broker.

Holmes Murphy hired Jay Reimers as a senior client advocate in its Minneapolis, Minnesota, office.

Reimers will advise clients in managing risk and help them prepare for challenges. He has 10 years’ experience in the insurance industry. Prior to joining Holmes Murphy, Reimers served as senior vice president of business development for Hays Companies, where he also specialized in strategic client advocacy.

Pinnacle Actuarial Resources Inc. promoted Greg Fears Jr. and Radost Roumenova Wenman to senior consulting actuary and Trenton Lipka to consulting actuary.

Fears has been in the property/casualty insurance industry since 2001, and serves on the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) and American Academy of Actuaries (AAA) Casualty Loss Reserve Seminar (CLRS) Joint Program Committee.

Wenman joined Pinnacle in 2016, and has worked in the property/casualty industry since 2006. She has specialized in pricing and product development, with a focus on developing homeowners, private passenger auto and commercial lines pricing solutions via advanced predictive models.

Wenman serves the CAS as a member of the CAS Actuarial Review committee.

Lipka is Pinnacle’s newest consulting actuary. He has experience in assignments that include loss reserving and loss cost projections, among others. Lipka joined Pinnacle in 2017 and served most recently in an associate actuary role.

MedMal Direct Insurance Co., a direct-to-physician medical professional liability insurer based in Jacksonville, Florida, named Marc Hammett president and CEO.

Hammett most recently served as chief financial officer of the company and president of its sister company, Physicians Trust Inc.

MedMal Direct now operates in nine states. The company was established in 2010 and has a financial stability rating of “A, exceptional” from the Demotech rating firm.

PCF Insurance Services named Felix Morgan chief financial officer and chief operating officer.

Morgan will oversee the business’s operational functions and guide the development of support resources, oversee expense, performance and IT management, legal, human resources, and lead PCF’s tech-enablement initiatives and data pursuits.

Since joining the company as CFO in early 2021, Morgan led the strategic expansion of shared services and finance functions to support PCF’s rapidly expanding network of agencies.

PCF also named Leah Jakaitis vice president, marketing science.

Jakaitis will oversee data governance and strategy, marketing science initiatives, and data products.

She most recently was director of business intelligence for Carrot Fertility. Prior to that, she was head of marketing science at Acrisure Technology Group and was a founding member of Altway Insurance.

Lehi, Utah-based PCF Insurance Services is a consultant and insurance brokerage firm offering commercial, life and health, employee benefits and workers’ compensation services.

EPIC added Juliet Lucero in Newport Beach, California.

Lucero will work with schools to identify the benefits strategies to meet short-term and long-term goals, while establishing programs to address the needs of school employees.

Lucero previously was assistant vice president with Keenan, where she provided employee benefits consulting for charter schools, conducted enrollment and education seminars for HR and staff, and successfully leveraged technology for benefit enrollment, eligibility, benefit administration, employee communication and participant self-service.

CLARA Analytics named Gabe Cossio vice president of sales. Cossio was most recently with Duck Creek Technologies. He began his career at Accenture.

CLARA, a provider of artificial intelligence technology in the commercial insurance industry, is headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley.