People & Places

Boost appointed Emy Donavan as chief underwriting officer. She will oversee the company’s program underwriting, product development, and portfolio management in collaboration with Boost’s insurtech and embedded partners along with the development and execution of Boost’s reinsurance and risk capital markets strategy.

Donavan joins Boost from Fin Capital, where she was a venture partner leading the insurance segment across funds, working on investment thesis development, deal sourcing, and driving portfolio company operating value. Prior to Fin, Donavan was senior underwriting executive over the past 20 years, including serving as global head and CUO of Cyber, Tech, and Media at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty.

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) named Darren Tasker as regional head of energy & construction, North America. He joins the AGCS North America executive management team and reports to Bill Scaldaferri, president and CEO, North America.

Tasker has been with AGCS since 2010 and for the past nine years has held the position of head of energy and construction, Canada. Tasker, who will remain based in Toronto, now has overall responsibility for the AGCS Energy & Construction line of business across North America.

Julia Chu and Thomas Leahy joined Liberty Mutual Insurance’s Global Risk Solutions (GRS) Office of Underwriting. Chu will become head of underwriting planning, performance, and portfolio management. Leahy will be global product leader, financial lines.

Chu will establish a global GRS underwriting strategy, working with leaders across the commercial and specialty (re)insurance unit while providing actionable insights to manage market dynamics and drive results. She brings more than 20 years of strategy and transformation leadership experience, and joins from Markel, where she was chief risk officer.

Leahy will be responsible for financial lines globally. He has more than 20 years of leadership experience, including more than 15 with Liberty Mutual. Leahy is currently president, professional liability, for GRS North America Specialty.

Zurich North America named two new industry practice leaders to its U.S. Middle Market team.

Erin Terpack was appointed head of technology and manufacturing. Terpack joins Zurich from Sompo International, where she served as regional underwriting executive. Previously, she held leadership positions at Chubb, including vice president, commercial insurance manager and assistant vice president, underwriting manager.

Katie Daly was appointed head of real estate, retail, hospitality, and wholesale. Daly joins Zurich from The Hanover Group, where she served most recently as product director for general liability and umbrella, responsible for product delivery to eight business units.

FM Global appointed Ziad Alex S. Tadmoury as senior vice president, division manager of AFM, which specializes in insuring middle market clients around the world.

Tadmoury was previously senior vice president and FM Global’s Asia Pacific division manager based in Singapore.

He will be based at AFM’s corporate offices in Johnston, Rhode Island, and succeeds Gerry L. Alonso, who retired in July 2022 after 37 years of service with FM Global.

Cross Insurance, headquartered in Bangor, Maine, named Jonathan Cross president and CEO of the family-owned and operated insurance agency. Cross succeeds his father, Royce Cross, who will continue to serve as chairman for Cross Insurance.

Cross is the third generation of the Cross family to oversee the company and has served as president since 2020.

The company now has roughly 1,000 employees, working in more than 50 offices.

Risk Strategies, a national specialty insurance brokerage and risk management firm based in Boston, expanded its Atlantic region team with the addition of J.C. Fulse as senior vice president, private client services leader.

Fulse joins Risk Strategies with more than 23 years of industry experience, including work at Chubb Group of Insurance Companies and AIG’s Private Client Group in New York City, as Capital Region marketing manager in Washington, D.C.

Risk Strategies additionally named Steve Trimarchi as senior vice president, growth leader, New England region. Trimarchi brings 16 years of commercial insurance sales and service experience with Marshall & Sterling (Jaeger & Flynn Associates), Pioneer Bank, and Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Valley Insurance Agency Alliance, a family of nearly 150 independent insurance agencies in Missouri and Illinois, recently hired two new commercial marketers.

Amy DelGrosso has worked in the insurance industry for more than 20 years. Prior to joining VIAA, she served as an account executive and account manager at local insurance organizations. DelGrosso currently has both property/casualty and life/health licenses.

Dawn Lawson has 22 years of insurance experience and has been a real estate agent for 15 years. She previously served as a certificate specialist, insurance agent, and bond specialist at various local companies.

JMB Insurance Agency Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, named Kimberly Goldstein as the firm’s inaugural president for strategic growth, helping to manage day-to-day operations of the firm.

Goldstein brings nearly three decades of experience and leadership in risk management to her new role, and since 2014 has overseen JMBI’s commercial property/casualty practice. In 2020, she assumed leadership of JMBI’s mortgage banking and surety and claims portfolios.

Eric Turek is the new director of Government and Public Affairs for the Kansas Insurance Department. Turek joins the department after serving the past six years as the director of Communications for the Speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives, Ron Ryckman.

Insurance Office of America (IOA) has added to its new Chicago-area team, which will serve the company’s central region in its East Coast division.

Before moving to IOA, Tony Spina was managing director of the staffing practice at GCG Financial LLC, an Alera Group company. Christine Pikowski was the account manager for the GCG Financial LLC staffing practice. Jason Levin, a 20-year veteran of the commercial insurance industry, most recently served as a senior risk management consultant with GCG Financial.

The new team is based in Elgin, Illinois.

Summer Jenkins joined One General Agency (OGA) as the executive director of Cannabis Insurance Wholesalers (CIW). CIW is a specialty division of the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, agency.

Jenkins has worked for some of the country’s largest cannabis program managers, including CannGen Insurance Services and Cannasure Insurance Services. She authored coverage contract language for the first insurance policy to cover cannabis cargo and cash in the United States.

NavSav Insurance named Brent Walters as the new chief executive officer. The firm was established by Candice Walters in 2012. Candice Walters will assume the role of chief compliance officer during the transition. Today, NavSav has more than 50 agencies in multiple states nationwide.

The MEMIC Group, specialists in workforce safety, hired John Coaker as senior production underwriter in the Southeast. Coaker, based in Georgia, has worked in the industry for more than two decades.

The MEMIC Group includes MEMIC Indemnity Co., MEMIC Casualty Co., and parent company Maine Employers’ Mutual Insurance Co.

Orchid Underwriters Agency named Kathy Cody CEO. Cody joined Orchid in 2019 as its COO and became president in 2021. She was previously chief operating officer, personal lines, for Farmers Insurance Group. She was CFO of Farmers Life and head of operational finance for Zurich Global Life NA.

Ross Bowie was named president and chief underwriting officer. Bowie joined Orchid as head of personal lines in 2020 and was appointed chief underwriting officer in 2021.

Before joining Orchid, Bowie served as senior vice president at Bankers Insurance Group, overseeing personal and commercial lines and new product development. His early career was at American Strategic Insurance.

Steven Carlsen will take on a new role as an executive vice president in national programs. Carlsen had been a board member of Orchid since its transition to private equity ownership in 2014, serving as executive chair and chair of the underwriting committee. He assumed the role as CEO in early 2021 and led the company through its sale to Brown & Brown in 2022. Carlsen was a co-founder of Endurance Specialty in 2001, serving as global CUW and Endurance Re North America president.

The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers named Keith Binkley executive vice president, and national property/casualty practice leader. Binkley, who has more than 22 years of insurance industry experience, is based in Denver, Colorado.

Alliant Insurance Services named Edward Stewart a senior vice president. Stewart is based in Seattle, Washington, and will advise clients on risks associated with renewable energy.

Stewart began his career in the British military, serving as a Royal Marines Commando. He subsequently worked in the security and oil and gas industries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Prior to joining Alliant, Stewart was a vice president for a global brokerage.

Burns & Wilcox has added California-based Joe Jurkovich and promoted Tom Carvalho and Evan Hudson.

Jurkovich joins as associate managing director, where he oversees the Fresno office’s day-to-day operations and growth strategy. He has nine years of industry experience and most recently worked at Deans & Homer.

Carvalho, senior personal insurance underwriter, is now associate managing director, helping to oversee the San Francisco office’s day-to-day operations. Carvalho began his career at Burns & Wilcox as an underwriting administrator more than a decade ago.

Hudson, senior commercial underwriter, has been promoted to commercial manager, contract/binding markets, leading contract binding relationships for the San Francisco office. Hudson has more than a decade of commercial insurance experience at Burns & Wilcox.