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Charles Symington is the new president and chief executive of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big I), effective Sept. 1.
In September 2022, Symington was promoted to executive vice president and recently was selected to succeed Bob Rusbuldt, who has retired as president and CEO.
Symington joined the organization nearly 20 years and was previously senior vice president for external, industry and government affairs.
Before joining Big I, Symington served as a senior counsel with the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, from 2000 to 2003, where he focused on insurance issues. He also worked as a majority counsel for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, concentrating on healthcare policy and oversight.
Symington worked in the private sector before his time on Capitol Hill, first as an associate attorney with Drew, Eckl & Farnham in Atlanta, specializing in insurance defense litigation, and then as an attorney with the firm Matricardi & Moylan in Springfield, Virginia.
Starr Insurance added Christopher Magee as vice president, international head of Financial Lines and Professional Liability, a new position focused on growing the business outside the U.S. and helping clients manage their risks around the world.
Magee has more than 25 years of financial lines management experience at large U.S. multinational insurance companies in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Switzerland. Throughout his career, he has specialized in financial and professional liability risks.
Magee recently relocated from London and is based in New York City.
Hub International Ltd., the Chicago-based global insurance brokerage and financial services firm, announced that Robert Hartman joined Hub in a newly created position, executive vice president of Strategic Client Service Operations, and the firm’s executive team.
With more than 20 years of experience in operational leadership, management consulting and business development, Hartman comes to HUB from AXIS Capital, the global specialty insurance and reinsurance firm, where he was most recently the chief operating officer and held various roles including senior vice president of business development.
Prior to that, Hartman was a partner at global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. He began his career as a flight officer in the U.S. Navy.
Lucy Fato, executive vice president, general counsel and global head of communications and government affairs at American International Group (AIG), transitioned to the newly created role of vice chair at AIG on October 1.
Fato joined New York, New York-based AIG in 2017. She previously served as managing director, head of the Americas and general counsel at Nardello & Co., as executive vice president and general counsel at S&P Global and as deputy general counsel and corporate secretary at Marsh & McLennan Companies.
Rose Marie Glazer, executive vice president, chief human resources and diversity officer, will serve as interim general counsel and head of government affairs.
Jennifer Silane, chief of staff to the chairman and CEO of AIG, will serve as interim head of global communications.
Until Fato’s successors are named, Glazer and Silane will serve in their interim positions in addition to their current roles.
Insurance Quantified appointed Jeremy Johnson as the company’s latest strategic advisor.
Johnson is the retired CEO of Protective Insurance, where he was one of Insurance Quantified’s inaugural customers. He also held the position of president, U.S. Commercial, at AIG, where he oversaw underwriting, distribution, claims and operations across multiple regions, and served as the CEO of Lexington Insurance Company.
Insurance Quantified is an underwriting technology provider that arms commercial property and casualty insurance carriers and MGAs with data and analytics.
The Reinsurance Association of America (RAA) said its long-time president, Frank Nutter, will retire at the end of the year and Lee Covington is president-elect.
Nutter has been president of the trade association for property/casualty reinsurers for 32 years.
Covington is currently president and CEO of The Surety & Fidelity Association of America (SFAA), a role he has held since 2018. He will take over as RAA president on Jan. 1.
Prior to SFAA, Covington was senior vice president of government affairs and general counsel for the Insured Retirement Institute. He also has held positions at Squire Patton Boggs and PWC and served as director of the Ohio Department of Insurance, and deputy director of the Arkansas Insurance Department.
Everest Group Ltd. appointed Charlie Higham as senior vice president and head of Everest Underwriting Partners.
He succeeds Brian Drum, who retired from Everest on Sept. 1 after 16 years with the company.
Higham has 20 years of specialty insurance experience. He most recently served as Everest’s head of financial and professional lines. Before joining Everest, Higham ran the financial institutions group at Zurich North America.
Earlier in his career, he held underwriting and management positions at Arch Insurance Group and The Hartford.
Fred C. Church Insurance, headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts, added Damual Greaves to its education team as a client executive.
Greaves joins Fred C. Church after serving in various risk management roles at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Most recently, Greaves held the position of assistant director, office of insurance, overseeing many elements of MIT’s academic insurance program.
Jimcor Agency Inc., headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey, hired Cody Kinkaide as a commercial lines underwriter. Kincaide is based in Pennsylvania.
Kinkaide has worked in the insurance industry for more than 10 years, most recently as a commercial lines broker and producer at USG, and as a real estate agent at Keller Williams Inc.
Sara Mulick has been named senior vice president of sales at The IMA Group (IMA), headquartered in Tarrytown, New York.
Before joining IMA, Mulick was vice president of enterprise sales for One Call. While there, she held various management positions for more than 17 years.
Mike Kleinhenz is retiring as senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer at Celina Insurance Group. Celina is headquartered in Celina, Ohio.
Suzanne Wells will succeed Kleinhenz as senior vice president, CFO and treasurer.
Kleinhenz began his career at Celina in 1987 as the corporate accounting and administration manager. He has held the roles of director of accounting, director of farm operations, director of internal audit and corporate secretary.
Wells has 31 years of finance experience. She began a career with Miami Mutual Insurance Co. in 1996. That company affiliated with Celina in 2006. She has held several leadership positions at Celina, including her most recent role as director of internal audit and corporate secretary.
UFG Insurance, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, named Kyanna Saylor vice president of surety.
Saylor has been assistant vice president of surety marketing at UFG since 2019. She spent 15 years in surety underwriting before serving as UFG surety marketing manager.
Saylor succeeds longtime surety leader Dennis Richmann, who retired at the end of September.
JM Wilson has promoted Kristin Bolhuis to assistant property/casualty manager in its Portage, Michigan, office.
Bolhuis’ responsibilities include assisting the director of property/casualty with the day-to-day operations of the staff, underwriting a wide variety of new and renewal property and casualty risks, as well as maintaining relationships with carrier underwriters and independent insurance agents in Michigan and Texas.
Bolhuis began working for JM Wilson in 1990 as an assistant life and health underwriter before returning in 2015 as a property/casualty underwriter. Prior to her return, she worked as a P/C service representative.
Valley Insurance Agency Alliance (VIAA), headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, named Michael Thornton as book management coach.
Thornton has worked at VIAA for six years as a foundation specialist.
Before joining the company, Thornton was an agency own- er and development manager producer at Allstate.
John Caro joined Alliant Insurance Services as vice president in its Alliant Americas division.
Caro is based in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Caro has more than 30 years of executive experience in the insurance, banking and biotechnology industries.
He most recently served as a corporate sales executive at Brown & Brown and an independent agent at Caro Insurance.
Alliant Insurance Services is headquartered in Irvine, California.
LUBA Workers’ Comp hired Leslie McCrary as a business development underwriter for Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, McCrary joins LUBA with more than 30 years of under- writing experience. She will be responsible for maintaining and cultivating relationships with LUBA’s independent insurance agency partners throughout Oklahoma and Arkansas.
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara named new members Colbie McRae, Gloria Mitchell, and Vinh Truong to the Curriculum Board.
Michael Golden has been assigned to the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan (CAARP) Advisory Committee.
Rudy Espinoza and Maïté Irakoze Baur have been reappointed to the California Organized Investment Network (COIN) Advisory Board.
The Curriculum Board, CAARP and COIN are statewide, insurance-affiliated organizations.
Mercury Insurance, headquartered in Brea, California, appointed Cameron Nordholm as its head of technical product.
Before joining Mercury Insurance, Nordholm was head of product and head of strategy at AgentSync and served as a product consultant at Diegetic Media LLC.