People & Places

Marsh, a business of Marsh McLennan headquartered in New York, hired Andy Stirk as United States chief growth officer.

Stirk is based in New York, New York.

With 20 years of insurance industry experience, Stirk rejoins Marsh from Ascot Group, where he most recently served as chief commercial officer.

Liberty Mutual Insurance Global Risk Solutions appointed Elisabeth Case global product manager, cyber.

Prior to joining Liberty Mutual, Case was a managing director within Marsh’s U.S. and Canada Cyber Practice, where she served for over 16 years.

WTW, headquartered in Arlington, Va., appointed Despina Buganski as head of personal lines, corporate risk and broking, North America (CRB NA).

With more than 30 years of industry experience, Buganski joined WTW in 2010 and served as chief operating officer for the personal lines business since 2015.

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited has appointed Mike Cueman to the newly created role of head of construction — U.S. He is based in New York, New York.

With over 20 years of underwriting and leadership experience, Cueman joined AXIS from Liberty Mutual Insurance, where he was vice president.

Dyad named Jeff Wargin chief product officer (CPO). Wargin will lead product management for the global Dyad organization.

Wargin joins Dyad with over

25 years of experience in the property/casualty insurance software market. Wargin started his career at Accenture and held leadership posts at Duck Creek, including CPO.

The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) named Wendy Houser as chair of IICF’s International Board of Governors.

Houser is chief wholesale officer at Markel Specialty. She previously served a three-year term as the IICF Southeast division board chair.

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited named Anna Tan as head of wholesale casualty.

Tan joins AXIS from Navigators, a brand of The Hartford, where she served for over 12 years, most recently as head of excess casualty.

Specialty insurer Canopius Group appointed Uwe Schoberth as head of distribution in the U.S. and Bermuda.

Schoberth brings over 30 years of experience in the insurance sector. He joins Canopius having most recently served as chief distribution officer at insurtech Joyn Insurance.

Guy Carpenter appointed Keith Wolfe to the newly created role of chief commercial officer, North America.

Wolfe joins Guy Carpenter after 27 years with Swiss Re and its predecessor companies, where he held several leadership positions, most recently serving as president, U.S. Property & Casualty.

DUAL North America hired Dwain Chamberlain as executive vice president and head of specialty healthcare while concurrently announcing the launch of the Specialty Healthcare program.

Chamberlain joins DUAL from Hallmark Financial Services where he most recently served as senior vice president. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the professional liability market.

Chris Nunnally joined Alliant Insurance Services as senior vice president within its employee benefits group.

Nunnally is based in Boston.

Before working with Alliant, Nunnally was area vice president within the Boston office of insurance broker Gallagher.

Alliant is headquartered in Irvine, California.

The Hilb Group, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia., appointed Amanda Harm as vice president, carrier relations and insurance strategy.

Harm joined Hilb Group in March 2023 as the tri-state director of market placement. She has more than 13 years of experience in the insurance industry. She previously served as a commercial placement specialist and regional marketing coordinator at Edgewood Partners Insurance Center.

Arthur Hall Insurance, headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, promoted Vicki Marshall to account executive and plan administrator for the United Way of Delaware Insurance Program.

Marshall began her insurance career in 2006. She joined Arthur Hall Insurance in 2019 as an account manager. She is based in Wilmington, Delaware.

Leif Assurance, headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., named Lauren Davis creative marketing director.

Davis has worked as creative marketing director at Leif Assurance’s sister companies, Powers Insurance & Risk Management and Valley Insurance Agency Alliance (VIAA), since 2019.

Leif Assurance also hired Gabe Smith as a construction insurance specialist.

Smith has 10 years of sales and insurance experience. Before joining Leif Assurance, he owned and served as an insurance agent at The Woodlands Financial Group Insurance.

TrueNorth Companies, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, hired Samantha Rogers as vice president of human resources and a member of the firm’s executive leadership team.

Rogers previously served as human resources business director at Skywalk Group.

Skyward Specialty Insurance Group Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, made two new hires as it expands into the media liability market, focusing on multimedia, film and ad agencies.

Regina Williams joins Skyward Specialty as vice president, media liability.

Based in Kansas City, Mo., Williams began her career at Media/Professional Insurance. Williams also worked at First Media Insurance, OneBeacon and as senior vice president at Intact Insurance before joining Skyward Specialty.

New team member Sandi McIntosh began her career specializing in media liability at Media/Pro. She then worked at First Media Insurance, OneBeacon and Intact Insurance for the last 21 years as assistant vice president.

Rebecca Easland has been appointed deputy commissioner at the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI).

Easland most recently served as senior policy advisor with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).

Prior to joining IAIS, Easland worked at OCI for over 15 years as a financial examiner and the director of the Financial Analysis and Examination Bureau.

Alliant Insurance Services hired Buzz Mansfield as senior vice president within its Alliant Americas division.

Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, Mansfield joins Alliant with more than 30 years of experience in commercial insurance and risk management. Before joining Alliant, Mansfield was a senior vice president at Cadence Insurance.

Alliant hired Stuart Bonaventure and Miles Dixon as vice presidents within its Alliant Americas division in Lafayette. Before joining Alliant, Bonaventure was a commercial lines producer at BXS. Dixon previously served as a producer at BXS and as commercial P/C insurance broker at Louisiana Companies.

IMA Financial Group Inc., headquartered in Denver, hired Ron Gleason to its energy risk management, insurance and surety bonding team as a producer. Gleason joins IMA’s Houston office.

Gleason brings over 30 years of expertise as a specialty underwriter in the energy sector. Before joining IMA, Gleason served in leadership roles with Ironshore Insurance.

BevCap Management, a provider of risk management solutions, promoted Matthew Bossier to the position of president, Property & Casualty.

In his new role, Bossier will be responsible for leading and overseeing the strategic direction of the Property & Casualty division.

Headquartered in McKinney, Texas, BevCap Management is a multi-line program manager with a focus on alternative risk.

The Professional Insurance Agents of Kentucky (PIAK) elected Matt Niehaus executive vice president.

Niehaus formerly was a principal with McCarty Strategic Solutions and previously served as a deputy commissioner at the Department of Insurance.

Amwins, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., appointed Ryan Armijo president of Amwins Underwriting. Armijo takes over the role from Bob Petrilli, who is retiring after serving as president since August 2018.

Previously, Armijo served as chief operating officer of Amwins Underwriting.

Tampa-based BRP Group, an independent insurance distribution firm, named Dan Galbraith and Jim Roche as co-presidents of the company.

Galbraith, who has been serving as chief operating officer, joined BRP Group in 2019. Prior to that, he was senior vice president of sales for Stericycle’s North America Compliance Services Business.

Roche also joined BRP in 2019 and co-founded the group’s Millenial Specialty Insurance. Previously, he was vice president of strategy, initiatives and analytics at QBE Insurance.

Woodruff Sawyer named Luke Parsons the firm’s national private equity and venture capital practice group leader.

Parsons previously was senior vice president of Woodruff Sawyer’s private equity and due diligence teams.

Woodruff Sawyer is headquartered in San Francisco.

Crest Insurance Group promoted Tom Connell to agency president.

Connell, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, joined Crest in 2012. He previously served as the agency’s senior vice president.

Former president JB Shockey remains a senior broker and advisor at the agency.

Crest is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.

Aspire General Insurance Co., headquartered in Rancho Cucamonga, California, named Bilal Alam actuary and chief data officer.

Additionally, Dale Gunter joined Aspire as general counsel.

Alam previously served as vice president and head of reinsurance at National General and as CIO of National General Lender Services.

Gunter has over 30 years of insurance experience; his previous role was with National General/Allstate.