People & Places

QBE International Markets appointed Sean Dollahon, vice president, U.S. marine manager, and Katie McCord, vice president, senior marine underwriter.

With nearly 20 years of industry experience, most recently as Inland Marine Manager at AIG and prior to that as vice president, South Region Ocean Marine at Liberty Mutual Insurance, Dollahon brings a wealth of expertise on the intricacies and challenges of the market.

McCord brings more than 15 years of industry experience in both the U.S. and London marine markets to her new role at QBE. Prior to joining, she served as national marine practice leader, at IMA Financial, and underwriting officer, marine, at Liberty Mutual Insurance.

Insurance broker Lockton added Deborah Hirschorn as managing director, U.S. cyber and technology claims leader.

Hirschorn is based in New York, New York, and joins Lockton from Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance.

AXA XL Insurance promoted Michael McKinley to lead its Construction Primary Casualty Insurance business in North America.

Based in Atlanta, McKinley has more than 25 years of insurance industry experience, including six years spent on Zurich Insurance’s Construction team.

Embroker named David Derigiotis as chief insurance officer.

Derigiotis previously served as corporate senior vice president and national professional liability practice group leader for Burns & Wilcox, an international wholesale broker and MGA. He has 20 years of experience in the insurance industry.

Plymouth Rock Assurance Corp. appointed Paul Measley as chief claims officer.

Measley joins Boston, Massachusetts-based Plymouth Rock from GEICO. He spent nearly 30 years at GEICO in various roles, most recently developing aspects of GEICO’s corporate claims strategy, including digital claims, systems, first notice of loss, personal injury protection, subrogation, training and auditing.

Burns & Wilcox, a global wholesale insurance brokerage headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan, added Carrie Chappie to its Pittsburgh management team as associate managing director.

Chappie will oversee the Pittsburgh office’s day-to-day operations and growth strategy. With over 30 years in the industry, she most recently worked at Conway E&S, where she served as president of wholesale.

Ryan Specialty, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, announced promotions to key new roles within the underwriting managers specialty.

Tom Curran has been appointed chief wholesale distribution officer.

Curran has over 25 years’ experience in the industry and most recently served as chief marketing officer for WKFC Underwriting Managers and its subsidiaries, CorRisk Solutions and AgRisk Underwriters, all Ryan Specialty managing general underwriters.

James Shaffer has been appointed chief retail distribution.

Shaffer has served as executive vice president, sales and marketing for SUITELIFE Underwriting Managers for the past three years. Prior to Ryan Specialty’s acquisition of the SUITELIFE business from Venture Programs Inc. in 2019, Shaffer served as executive vice president of that organization.

Valley Insurance Agency Alliance (VIAA), a network of nearly 150 independent insurance agencies in Missouri and Illinois, promoted Linsey Morris to commercial lines coach.

Her responsibilities include working with the company’s development team to assist its Independent Strategic Member (ISM) alliance with attaining technology and revenue goals. Morris will provide commercial technology assistance that specifically focuses on risk management, marketing, and prospecting.

Prior to joining VIAA, Morris worked for sister company Powers Insurance & Risk Management as a commercial account manager. She has more than 15 years of personal lines insurance industry experience.

Iroquois named Jo Gonzalez as a regional manager for Texas, where she will further expand Iroquois’ presence by partnering with independent insurance agencies and select carriers.

Gonzalez most recently served as a director of sales for an independent adjusting firm building relationships with commercial carriers across the south central U.S. She has also held sales leadership roles at Encompass and Kemper where she established a virtual sales team and partnered with agents across Texas and the United States.

Iroquois Texas is part of Allegany, New York-based Iroquois Group.

Platinum Specialty Underwriters, based in Connecticut, promoted Jeri Lucas to managing director for Platinum Construction, a program Lucas created. This exclusive program focuses on small to mid-size artisan contractors and local contractors working with select individual wholesale producers.

Lucas, based in Texas, has led multiple MGAs, managing profitable books of business for construction and general P/C.

She and her team have extensive knowledge of writing difficult classes.

Distinguished Programs, a national insurance program manager, named Beth Fulton as regional sales executive covering South Central states, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas.

Joining Distinguished Programs from her recent position as the director of marketing for Zenith Insurance Company’s central region, Fulton brings over 18 years of insurance experience.

She is based in Austin, Texas.

Wholesale insurance brokerage firm Brown & Riding named Justin Peterson and Brenda Roberson to its national casualty practice, focusing on Florida.

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 made Michael Portanka regional vice president for the Southeast United States.

Based in Atlanta, he will have responsibility for successfully growing the commercial lines business in the five-state region.

Headquartered in Columbia, Missouri, Columbia Insurance Group provides comprehensive property/casualty insurance to policyholders in 14 states.

McGriff, a commercial insurance broker and subsidiary of Truist Insurance Holdings, 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.

Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory and broking company, named Samuel Stern director of financial, executive and professional risks (FINEX) for the Southeast.

He will be responsible for client retention and building the FINEX market in the South.

Shonda Manigault has been promoted to associate director for the Southeast FINEX commercial team to work with Stern in developing strategy.

Manigault has been the lead broker on some of the largest accounts within the region.

Georgia-based Southern Insurance Underwriters named David Green practice leader for professional lines.

Green, who previously was the new business manager for real estate errors and omissions at Norman-Spencer Agency, will focus on E&O, directors and officers and miscellaneous professional coverages.

Jacksonville-based One Call, a care management firm for the workers’ compensation industry, named Juan Perez chief financial officer.

Perez was previously CFO at WellPath, a health care company based in Tennessee. Perez is a certified public accountant who has led accounting and finance departments for other companies before joining WellPath.

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara made appointments to the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan Advisory Committee, the Curriculum Board, and the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau Governing Committee.

These statewide programs are based in Sacramento.

The terms for the new CAARP Advisory Committee appointments end on Nov. 10, 2023.

Doug Heller has been reappointed to public member representative seat. He is the director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America. Previously, he served as the executive director of Consumer Watchdog. He is also an appointee to the Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance.

Cynthia Strathmann has been reappointed to public member representative seat.

Strathmann is executive director for Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, a non-profit economic justice organization that advocates for tenant rights, healthy housing, and equitable development in Los Angeles. Formerly, Strathmann was a research and policy analyst for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and a research assistant professor at the University of Southern California.

Bernardo de la Torre joins the committee as a public member representative.

He is the owner of Law Offices of Bernardo de la Torre in La Mirada, a law firm specializing in the representation of injured workers founded in 1985.

Curriculum Board appointee Michael Lujan is the principal consultant of Michael Lujan Consulting Group LLC.

Previously, Lujan was the inaugural director of sales for Covered California. He created the curriculum required to certify licensed agents to enroll in the program and successfully trained, certified and appointed more than 14,000 agents in the first year.

Lujan joins the life agent trade association representative seat with a term ending on Oct. 14, 2025.

WCIRB Governing Committee appointee Lynne Davidson is president of Tito’s Tacos Mexican Restaurant.

Davidson has been a board member of the California Restaurant Association for the past 28 years and is a past board chair of the Los Angeles chapter of the California Restaurant Association.

Davidson has been reappointed to the insured employer representative seat, with a term ending on Oct. 14, 2024.