People & Places

July 17, 2023

Guy Carpenter, the reinsurance business of Marsh McLennan, announced the expansion of its Cyber team with a series of appointments and promotions.

Matthew McCabe has been appointed managing director of cyber broking. He is based in New York.

McCabe previously was general counsel and risk officer at Kivu Consulting, where he was general counsel and risk officer. He also previously has served as a senior vice president at Marsh, responsible for cyber policy. Before that, he served in policy and counsel roles with the U.S. government.

Grace Seigle has joined Guy Carpenter as a cyber broker based in New York, serving the business’ global client base. She will focus on sourcing capital for the underdeveloped cyber retrocession market. She joins from Gallagher Re.

Guy Carpenter also named Souki Chahid head of international cyber analytics. Chahid will partner closely with Jess Fung, head of North America cyber analytics, and The Marsh McLennan Cyber Risk Analytics Center. Chahid previously worked at CFC as cyber modeling manager.

Zain Awan has been named International Cyber ILS lead, with responsibility for further strengthening Guy Carpenter’s analytical and transactional capabilities to support the growth of the sector. He will also partner with GC Securities to structure and deliver cyber insurance-linked securities transactions. He was most recently senior vice president, Reinsurance Broker & Actuary, in Guy Carpenter’s London Cyber team.

Sabra Purtill has been named permanent chief financial officer of American International Group (AIG).

Purtill was called on in late January to fill the role of interim CFO after the firing of former interim CFO Mark Lyons, who AIG said violated his employment terms with the insurer.

Lyons, who was also executive vice president, global chief actuary, and head of portfolio management, was appointed interim CFO for just a couple of weeks for Shane Fitzsimons, who took what was then a temporary medical leave of absence. Fitzsimons is now stepping down after his leave.

Purtill previously served as CFO of Corebridge Financial.

Prior to that, she was AIG’s executive vice president and chief risk officer, and deputy chief financial officer.

Prior to AIG, Purtill held senior leadership roles in finance and investor relations at The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., Assured Guaranty, and ACE Limited (now Chubb).

Alliant Insurance Services has named several new leaders in its real estate and hospitality vertical.

New Executive Vice President and Managing Director Eric Harper has been in the insurance industry for over 28 years, most recently as EVP and team leader at USI Insurance Services.

Senior Vice President Bill Havard has worked in the insurance brokerage industry for more than 25 years, most recently as senior vice president at USI Insurance Services.

Senior Vice President Steve Sclimenti has some 16 years of commercial insurance experience, most recently as senior vice president-property and casualty insurance broker and consultant at USI Insurance Services.

Robert Engles, first vice president, has worked in the insurance brokerage industry for over 22 years, most recently as partner and vice president at USI Insurance Services.

Alliant Insurance Services is based in California.

Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited has appointed Robert Tartaglia to the newly created position of SVP, chief operations officer, insurance. Tartaglia will be based in Aspen’s Jersey City, New Jersey, offices.

Tartaglia has over 20 years of complex global operations, IT, and transformation experience in insurance and reinsurance, including global COO at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, chief broking COO at Aon, and various senior operations and technology roles at AIG.

He was most recently operational strategy and growth leader at AIG.

Insurance brokerage NFP appointed Hamid Abuzaid as the new leader of its occupational health and safety group (OHS).

NFP is headquartered in New York, New York.

Abuzaid joined NFP in 2019. He previously served as public health and safety expert and site visitor of the institutional biosafety committee at WIRB-Copernicus Group and as senior health and safety consultant at GCG Risk Management. He also previously worked in environmental public health and emergency preparedness for the New York State Department of Health.

Lockton Re has appointed Gregg Cunningham as senior broker and North American property facultative leader. Cunningham is based in New York, where Lockton Re is headquartered.

With more than three decades of industry experience, Cunningham joins Lockton Re from Liberty Mutual Insurance, where he served as executive vice president, leading Liberty’s national property practice. Before that, he spent more than 16 years in various senior property underwriting roles with Travelers. Cunningham has also held property facultative and treaty leadership positions at CNA Re, Swiss Re and Munich Re. He began his career in 1990 with the former National Re.

Atain Insurance Companies hired Linc Trimble as its chief underwriting officer. Trimble worked as a consultant with Atain leadership since February and started his new role on June 1.

Attain is headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Trimble is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has more than 35 years of industry experience.

Before joining Atain, he served as the chief executive officer of StarStone US after founding its U.S. excess casualty division and serving as its global head of casualty.

Carmel, Indiana-based Allied Solutions has promoted Mark Bugalski to executive vice president (EVP) and chief growth officer.

Bugalski most recently served as senior vice president and chief growth officer. Bugalski has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. He joined Allied Solutions in 2004 and began his career at Securian Financial.

Through 2023, Bugalski will partner with outgoing Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer David Underdale. Underdale plans to retire in December 2023 after nearly 40 years at Allied Solutions and Allied’s parent company, Securian Financial.

XPT Specialty hired Catrina Williams as vice president and broker in the commercial lines division of XPT’s Texas offices.

Williams began her insurance career almost 30 years ago at CRC Insurance Services in Glendale, California, exclusively in the wholesale property and casualty space. Most recently, she served as vice president at Select Risk Services, Inc. in Bellaire, Texas.

XPT is headquartered in New York, New York.

Meadors, Adams & Lee Insurance, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, has named J.K. Patterson a shareholder.

Patterson, who joined the agency as a property and casualty producer in 2014, is just the seventh shareholder in the company’s 114-year history. He joins President Roberts Lee as a current owner.

Patterson previously worked as an underwriter for ACE USA in Houston, Texas, and as special assistant to the Texas Department of Agriculture commissioner.

The insurance broker McGriff, part of Carolina-based Truist Insurance Holdings, has hired Rodney Ledford as strategic growth officer for its small business and personal lines division.

Ledford has 18 years of experience in the lines, most recently as vice president at a global insurer, McGriff said in a news release. He earned his bachelor’s degree in management and society from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Truist, one of the largest insurance brokers in the world, and McGriff are headquartered in Charlotte.

EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants named Kevin Daley president, Western Region private client leader.

Daley has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, most recently as president of field operations across three zones and 10 regions for PURE Insurance.

He also held roles at Marsh, Chubb and AIG.

Alera Group named Mark Dennis managing director for the Northwest region, which includes 16 locations across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Utah and Wyoming.

Dennis joined Propel Insurance, an Alera Group company, 17 years ago and most recently was Propel’s executive director of P/C services.

Before that, he was the director of personal lines and small commercial operations. Before joining Propel, he spent 20 years in various positions at Allstate.

Alera is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.

Steve Mangapit, the COO of the Western Growers Family of Cos., has assumed the duties of president of Pinnacle Claims Management Inc.

He replaces David Zanze, who retired after 38 years of service at Pinnacle.

Mangapit joined WGFC in January 2022 as its first chief operating officer. He previously worked at Western Growers Assurance Trust/Pinnacle Claims Management Inc. from 2010 to 2014 as director of administration and assistant vice president, operations.

Pinnacle is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Jamin Valdez has joined Woodruff Sawyer as vice president, construction.

He will be based in Southern California and will specialize in environmental insurance and environmental site analysis.

Before joining Woodruff Sawyer, Valdez was a senior vice president for NFP. Before that, he was a vice president for JLT Specialty and an account executive for Aon Risk Services.

Woodruff Sawyer is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara appointed new members Janise Graham and Doug Smith, as well as reappointed members Monique Howard and Sandra Moriarty to the Curriculum Board. Lara also appointed Nona Tirre Miranda to the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan Advisory Committee.

The Curriculum Board oversees pre-licensing and continuing education development for agents and brokers.

The governor and California Legislature created CAARP to provide auto insurance for motorists unable to obtain coverage in the private market.

The Pacific Interstate Insurance Brokers board appointed Ashley Bernardi as vice president and chief operation officer.

Bernardi has more than 14 years of experience, beginning her career at PIIB as a part-time bookkeeper and executive assistant. In 2013, she was promoted to human resources. In 2019, she was named operations manager.

PIIB shareholders have appointed two new directors to the board: Patricia Kinter Lebosnoyani and Dave Nelson.

PIBB is headquartered in El Dorado Hills, California.