People & Places

Former Scottsdale Insurance President Mike Miller will serve as president and CEO of the excess and surplus managing general agency, Pivix Specialty Insurance Services.

Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Pivix is an E&S platform offering property/casualty coverages for targeted segments. Products will be distributed exclusively through wholesale brokers.

The company’s management team are all alumni of Nationwide. Other than Miller — who also started the specialty P/C company Ategrity Specialty Insurance Co. in 2018 — Ken Levine, Joe Griffith, and Sandy Vertuno are involved in Pivix’s founding.

Levine is Pivix’s chief financial officer and chief actuary. Griffith will be chief information officer. Vertuno is now chief underwriting officer-contract binding.

AM Best, headquartered in Oldwick, New Jersey, named James A. Gillard Jr. as president of A.M. Best Rating Services Inc., succeeding Matthew C. Mosher. Mosher is retiring as president and CEO, effective at the end of the year.

Gillard most recently served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of AMBRS. He joined AM Best in 2008 and spent nearly the past decade leading enhancements of AM Best’s rating methodology and rating tools.

Zurich North America named Nora Hattauer head of financial lines for Zurich’s U.S. national accounts and middle market businesses.

Based in Atlanta, Hattauer is responsible for the direction, management and performance of Zurich’s Financial Lines strategic business unit. Hattauer most recently served as head of management liability for national accounts at AIG.

Aon promoted Anna Digel to chief broking officer for Aon’s U.S. financial services group (FSG). Collin Breeney and Joe Reynolds have been promoted to co-leaders for the greater New York region, also for Aon’s U.S. FSG. Kary Trocchia was promoted to lead the east region and Jay Sherwin to lead in the Mountain West.

Digel leads broking operations, which includes strategic collaboration with Aon Inpoint and Aon’s broking hubs in Bermuda and London. Breeney oversees the public company commercial team in New York. Reynolds leads the public company financial institutions operations in New York. Sherwin, U.S. FSG leader of the firm’s mountain/west region, is responsible for Aon’s teams in Denver and Dallas, overseeing insurance companies and agents and broker-dealer errors and omissions operations.

Alliant Insurance Services hired Scott Davis as senior vice president within its Alliant Americas division in Farmington, Connecticut.

Davis has more than two decades of experience in the insurance industry. Before joining Alliant, he was with WTW in Hartford for 22 years.

Irwin Siegel Agency, headquartered in Rock Hill, New York, named Nick Greggains as president.

ISA is a managing general underwriter and part of Ryan Specialty Underwriting Managers.

Greggains brings 35 years of insurance industry management experience. Most recently, he served as CEO at Ethos Specialty Insurance Services LLC.

Plymouth Rock Assurance, headquartered in Boston, appointed Andrew Fornari as senior business development representative.

Fornari will develop partnerships with Massachusetts-based agents. He joins Plymouth Rock from the Satellite Agency Network (SAN) Group Inc., where he served as regional vice president.

Lockton, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, added Michael Walsh to the company’s Northeast region team as its New England market leader, property/casualty, focusing on the greater Boston market.

Walsh has over 20 years of experience in various brokerage, client management and leadership roles, most recently serving as managing director at Marsh.

Applied Underwriters, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, named William Barvick vice president, healthcare, and Davis Isinger vice president of healthcare, hospitals and allied health, in the company’s Applied financial lines division.

James Davenport has been appointed corporate chief financial officer, succeeding Bob Stafford, who retired from the post after over 25 years of service.

Justin Smith, who has been with the firm for over 20 years, was promoted to chief economist and is succeeded by Jing Hong. Hong has been with the firm for over 15 years and remains chief actuary.

Jeffrey Leach has been appointed chief investment officer.

Zach Brightweiser, with the firm for over 17 years, has been promoted to vice president, brand communications.

In Applied’s united risk division, Jay Cahill has been appointed chief financial officer and Paul LaPorta, vice president of finance and controller.

Additionally, the firm has added key managers, including: Crispin Hodges, head of political risk; Sean Redden, general counsel and head of claims; Christophe Meurier, head of credit, Applied entertainment and sports; Brett Basten, director of operations, Applied financial lines; Suzanne Delio, vice president and underwriting counsel, Applied home national underwriters; Robert Courtemanche, chief executive officer, Applied specialty underwriters; Marge Milano, head of underwriting quality; Jacqueline Surguine, head of product innovation; Jessica Gregory, national product manager, Applied surety underwriters; Nate Hutchison, regional underwriting officer, contract surety; Nolan Steele, executive underwriter; Mark Atkins, senior vice president, national underwriting officer; Patrick Benedict, vice president, surety; Nicholas Green, assistant vice president, regional underwriting officer; Mark Neal, assistant vice president, regional underwriting officer; Samantha Canterino, head of surety claims; Nicholes (Pierce) Pontikes, assistant vice president, regional underwriting officer; MyBinh (Mimi) Nguyen, director of surety operations; Bryan Mortimer, vice president, head of mining engineering; Mary Ellen Ross, senior vice president, surety operations; Jason Kilpatrick, senior vice president, national underwriting officer; Lars LaBere, vice president, regional underwriting officer; Kevin White, vice president, regional underwriting officer; Matthew Nowaczyk, senior vice president, commercial surety; James Bluzard, chief underwriting officer, large contract surety; Christopher Raines, vice president, national underwriting officer; Kendall Meyers, senior vice president, petro engineering; David Rose, vice president, regional underwriting officer, applied underwriters aviation; Deanna Pease, executive underwriter; Jeffrey Sheets, vice president, Applied warranty and insurance services; Juan Albuja Freile, actuarial and product director, Treadwell; and Stephen Bitterman, senior vice president.

Risk Strategies, headquartered in Boston, appointed Tom Panos as managing director of its Chicago office.

Panos has over 15 years of experience in the insurance industry.

JM Wilson, headquartered in Portage, Michigan, hired Savana Musolf and Lisa Hudson as assistant property/casualty underwriters.

Musolf works with independent insurance agents and company underwriters in Michigan and Texas. Hudson supports underwriters with new and renewal P/C risks and works with independent insurance agents and company underwriters in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Ryan Specialty, headquartered in Chicago, hired Michael F. Albian as president, group captives, Ryan Alternative Risk. Albian most recently served as senior vice president at Captive Resources LLC.

Eric Quinn was promoted to executive vice president – capital and product strategy within the specialty underwriting segment, Ryan Specialty Underwriting Managers (RSUM).

Brian Lillis is promoted to executive vice president – finance and corporate development at RSUM. Lillis has been with Ryan Specialty since 2013.

Thomas Cranley joins RSUM as chief operating officer. Cranley has 30 years of industry experience.

Kama Moseley has joined Alliant Insurance Services as senior vice president, producer with Alliant Private Client. Moseley is based in Kansas.

Starwind Specialty Insurance Services, headquartered in New York City, named Kirk Conrad as chief underwriting officer.

Based in Dallas, Conrad most recently served as global head of analytics at BMS Group.

Joseph Hartigan is now a broker in wholesale specialty insurance distributor CRC Group’s Dallas office. He previously was an executive vice president of business development with a specialty insurance carrier.

CRC also named Kara Talley an underwriter in Dallas. She has worked as an account executive and team lead for energy and environment business with an international specialty lines underwriting manager and wholesale brokerage.

Melissa Waters joined CRC Group in its Tampa office as an underwriting team leader. She was recently a flood underwriter with a property/casualty insurance wholesaler.

The Insurance Office of America, an independent brokerage based in Longwood, Florida, has named Kenny Main to its Florida team. He will work in IOA’s new office in Naples as a risk management consultant.

The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California governing committee selected Andrea Coleman, WCIRB executive vice president and chief operating officer, president and CEO.

Coleman’s promotion takes effect Feb. 1, 2025. She is succeeding President and CEO Bill Mudge, who will assume the role of CEO Emeritus until his retirement on April 1, 2025.

Coleman joined the WCIRB in May 2022 as executive vice president and chief operating officer.