People Moves: Aon Cyber Appoints Bixby; Guy Carpenter Adds 2 from Willis Re, Zywave Names 3 Senior Leaders

Hacking Expert Bixby Joins Aon Cyber Solutions

Aon has appointed Adam Bixby as the new managing director, Proactive Security leader, for Cyber Solutions North America. Bixby is responsible for the Proactive Security practices, advisory and testing, leading business development, service delivery, people and operations.

Previously, Bixby served as co-practice leader of Aon’s Cyber Security Testing Team.

In addition to his role with Aon, Bixby is a contributing hacking technical consultant for TV and movies, including Mr. Robot, Ocean’s 8, The Flight Attendant, and The Equalizer. Prior to his career in cyber security, Adam was in the United States Air Force as a Security Forces member.

Guy Carpenter Adds Willis Re’s Petka, Underwood at GC Access

Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter & Co. announced the appointments of Matt Petka as managing director and Riley Underwood as senior vice president within its GC Access business unit.

GC Access provides dedicated managing general agency (MGA) program business services, including carrier and reinsurance transactions, captive support, insurtech expertise and program startup roadmaps.

In his new position, Petka will assume a senior leadership role within GC Access, responsible for overseeing services development and client management. Alongside Underwood, he will focus on delivering programs for U.S. regional clients in the MGA sector. Based in Dallas, Texas, they will report to Michael Jameson, president, GC Access.

Petka brings 22 years of broking experience to the role, with knowledge of the U.S. auto and property sectors. He joins from Willis Re, where he was executive vice president managing a team focused on MGA and program business.

Underwood is a senior broker who also joins from Willis Re. Most recently, he was senior vice president responsible for new account production and account management.

Zywave Names Guntrum, Flynn, Palatnik to Senior Leadership

Insurance technology firm Zywave has added new senior leadership in its customer experience and marketing departments. Software and technology solutions expert Heather Guntrum has been named Zywave’s chief customer officer, B2B tech marketing executive Amanda Flynn, vice president of Marketing, and Mikhail Palatnik, vice president, Data Solutions & Product Management.

In her role, Guntrum is responsible for leading all post-sale operations, customer journey and support, enhancing the overall customer experience as Zywave continues its rapid growth in the insurance technology market. Guntrum brings 20 years lof experience with software companies, most recently serving as the customer success officer at Alfresco, an open source provider. Guntrum has also served as a strategic leader in various acquisitions and mergers, one of the drivers of Zywave’s expansion.

As the vice president of Marketing, Flynn will play a vital role in the advancement of the marketing function and expansion of the company. Prior to joining Zywave, Flynn served as vice president of Marketing at BenchPrep, a cloud-based learning platform.

To help lead product innovation, Palatnik, as vice president of Data Solutions and Product Management, will oversee multiple Zywave product lines, including the quoting and proposals offerings, and Zywave’s data and analytics offerings. With more than 20 years of experience in the property/casualty insurance space, prior to Zywave, Palatnik was vice president of Product Management at CoreLogic, a data and analytics provider to real estate, insurance, capital and public sector markets. He led the product management function for insurance business, overseeing a suite of over 100 products, serving more than 800 clients.

Between organic growth and with seven acquisitions in the last two years, Zywave now serves more than 15,000 insurance organizations globally.