People & Places

Lloyd’s appointed Dawn Miller chief commercial officer and CEO of Lloyd’s Americas. Miller, who joined Lloyd’s in 2022 and oversees its global network as commercial director, will assume her expanded role on Sept. 1, based in New York. She will continue to lead the global network.

Miller joined Lloyd’s from Chubb and has more than 20 years of experience working in the global insurance industry with oversight of underwriting, distribution, clients and strategy.

Hank Watkins, after 15 years at Lloyd’s as regional director and president of Lloyd’s Americas, is leaving the marketplace at the end of the year to pursue other opportunities.

Marc Lipman has been appointed president of Lloyd’s Americas, based in Canada, also effective Sept. 1.

RT Specialty promoted Marissa Moscowitz to chief operating officer.

Moscowitz has over 15 years of information technology, business intelligence and business operations experience and has been with RT Specialty since 2019.

Nationwide, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, appointed George Williams to lead its small market commercial lines business.

Williams previously served as the company’s chief operating officer for commercial lines, excess and surplus, and specialty, bringing more than two decades of industry experience to the role.

Williams joined Nationwide in December 2021.

Brenda (Ballard) Austenfeld was elected to serve as 2024-2025 Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association (WSIA) president.

Austenfeld is CEO and president of RT Specialty’s national property practice. She joined the legacy NAPSLO Board of Directors in 2016 and the WSIA Board of Directors in 2017.

Others elected for one-year terms as officers are: Vice President Phillip McCrorie, RSUI; Secretary Patrick Albrecht, Associated Insurance Administrators Inc.; Treasurer Wendy Houser, Markel Specialty; and Immediate Past President Dave Obenauer, CRC Group.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners named Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Gary D. Anderson as its chief executive officer.

Anderson was appointed as insurance commissioner in 2017; he began his insurance career in 1999 with a regional carrier in the northwestern U.S.

Risk Strategies, based in Boston, appointed Josh Conklin as national employee benefits growth leader and senior managing director.

Conklin joined Risk Strategies in 2019 through the acquisition of National Insurance Consulting Group (NICG), an employee benefits and human capital consulting firm.

Tim Edwards joined Alliant Insurance Services, based in Irvine, California, as senior vice president, Alliant Specialty, within the company’s real estate and hospitality specialty vertical. He is based in New York.

Edwards previously served as senior vice president-West Coast property leader for a leading insurance brokerage and consulting firm.

Powers Insurance & Risk Management, headquartered in St. Louis, hired Josh Steinkoetter as a commercial lines sales account executive.

Steinkoetter brings 20 years of experience in the insurance industry to the role. Before joining Powers, he was a risk management and insurance advisor at Insurance Plus LLC, a claims manager at Assured Partners and a claims specialist at State Farm.

Acuity Insurance, headquartered in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, promoted several team members to new positions.

Katrina Freund was promoted to senior claims representative. Freund started her Acuity career in 2020 as a claims representative.

Cori Kreif is now associate actuary. Kreif joined Acuity in 2018 as an actuarial analyst.

Robyn Marthenze was promoted to senior claims representative. Marthenze began her Acuity career in January 2020 as a claims representative.

Peter Tyszka was named systems engineer. Tyszka joined Acuity in January 2016 as a technical support analyst and was promoted to senior technical support analyst in 2023.

Leif Assurance, headquartered in St. Louis, hired Mayra Galvan as commercial lines account manager.

Galvan brings 13 years of insurance industry experience to her position. Before joining Leif Assurance, she held various roles, including senior insurance account executive and insurance and property tax manager, overseeing both commercial and personal lines accounts.

BenefitMall, headquartered in Dallas, hired Maggie Beckley as a new benefits sales executive for Houston.

Beckley brings eight years of insurance industry experience to the role. Prior to joining BenefitMall, she worked as a sales executive, employee benefits for Assured Partners, as CEO of MyUpCare, director of care advocacy for Crowd-Health and director of business development at MediBid Inc.

Tokio Marine HCC – Cyber & Professional Lines Group (CPLG), a member of the Tokio Marine HCC group of companies based in Houston, appointed Patrick Gallic as head of emerging markets, promoted Tamara Ashjian to vice president of cyber and tech claims, and promoted Kevin Miyagishima to vice president of business intelligence.

Gallic previously served as a business innovation specialist at CPLG, a product manager at Verizon and as vice president, head of analytics and reporting at AIG.

Before joining CPLG as a claims manager, Ashjian served as a claims manager at NAS Financial Services, vice president at Ironshore Environmental and vice president at AIG.

Before joining CPLG as senior manager, business analytics, Miyagishima served as senior business intelligence analyst at Gannett – USA Today Network and senior business intelligence analyst at AT&T.

Upland Capital Group Inc., headquartered in Dallas, promoted Kate Walas to chief underwriting officer.

Walas joined Upland as senior vice president for the professional liability errors and omissions product line. Before joining Upland, she served as the chief underwriting officer at Indigo Specialty Underwriters, which she also founded.

Alliant Insurance Services named Gary Pestana managing director of Alliant Specialty, in the firm’s real estate and hospitality area.

He is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Pestana has more than 30 years’ experience in risk management programs for real estate companies. He was previously managing director for real estate for the U.S. brokerage NFP, based in California.

Lockton, the independent insurance broker, added Manpreet “Preet” Gill to build and grow a practice focused on developing creative solutions to address a variety of technology-related risks for businesses.

Based in Lockton’s San Francisco office, Gill brings almost two decades of insurance industry experience to the broker. He joins Lockton from Marsh.

Dallas-based BenefitMall named Don Hutchinson benefits sales executive for Southern California.

Hutchinson has over a decade of industry experience and most recently served as a regional sales manager at Choice Administrators.

Patrice Evart also was named a benefits sales executive for Southern California.

Evart has 30 years of experience specializing in employee benefits for employers in Southern California. She joined BenefitMall after more than 25 years at Warner Pacific.

Aspire General Insurance named Tom DelCorso vice president of claims, named Tracy Daniel director of underwriting, and appointed Pam McQuaid vice president of product.

DelCorso has more than 20 years of claims leadership experience, joining Aspire from Allstate Canada, where he was vice president of claims.

Daniel has more than 26 years of leadership experience in the underwriting field. Most recently, she was the underwriting associate operations manager for car at Lemonade, and an underwriting specialist at Geico.

McQuaid has more than 25 years of experience in insurance product management. She previously worked for Liberty Mutual/Safeco.

Aspire is headquartered in Rancho Cucamonga, California,

The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers named Christopher Orozco an employee benefits producer. He is based in California.

Orozco got his start at Warner Pacific in 2013, where he most recently was a sales consultant, after serving in various other roles with the company.

The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers is headquartered in Gainesville, Florida.

Alex Post joined Alliant Insurance Services as senior vice president at Alliant Specialty. Based in Seattle, he most recently was strategic broker leader, power and renewables, at Lockton. He also previously served as U.S. power property leader at Aon Risk Services.

Margot Spera joined Alliant as senior vice president, Alliant Specialty, within the company’s real estate and hospitality specialty vertical.

Spera has over 16 years of casualty broking experience. She previously was senior vice president and real estate casualty team leader at an insurance brokerage and consulting firm.