Moves and Views

1 Allied World Assurance Company Holdings AG has opened a branch office in Toronto and named Gord Kerr [1] as its senior vice president, chief agent and branch manager. Prior to joining Allied World, Kerr spent four years as chief executive officer and chief agent for Arch Insurance Company’s Canadian operations, notes Switzerland-based Allied World. Before that, he held various positions, including as chief operating officer, for American International Group Inc.’s Canadian subsidiary. “Opening an office in Canada has been a strategic objective of Allied World for some time,” says Scott Carmilani, CEO of Allied World. The company writes property and casualty insurance and reinsurance through subsidiaries and branches in Bermuda, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States, as well as through Lloyd’s Syndicate 2232.

2 In April, Princeton, Ontario-based Frank Cowan Company announced the appointment of two new senior officials with the company. Barb Szychta [2a] is now vice president of risk management and Annette Henry [2b] has taken on duties as director of underwriting, specialty programs and associations. With 30-plus years in the industry, including more than eight years as Frank Cowan Company’s director of risk management services, Szychta served as a member of the Minimum Maintenance Standards Task Force from 2007 to 2010. She has the Chartered Insurance Professional, Canadian Accredited Insurance Broker and Canadian Risk Management qualifications. Henry, who joined Frank Cowan Company in October 2011 as manager of underwriting, specialty programs and associations, brings to her new position more than 20 years of underwriting experience. She holds the CIP and CRM designations.

3 Claims management firm Crawford & Company announced in April that it is expanding Broadspire Services Inc., its third-party business administration unit that specializes in servicing the claims needs of multinational corporations and their captives, brokers and insurers. Atlanta-based Crawford & Company is “creating new and stronger strategic TPA hubs in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia,” notes a statement from the company. Broadspire’s “worldwide services” will include auto, property, business interruption, product recall, marine and transportation, the statement notes.

4 ACE Ltd. has launched a global property engineering unit and a global cyber risk practice. The Zurich-based carrier’s global property engineering unit will be led by senior vice president Raimund Navakas, who until recently headed risk management engineering services for ACE’s casualty, property, marine, energy and technology lines in Asia Pacific. With the global property engineering unit, “ACE will be able to offer seamless property engineering services to our insured clients for their operations around the world, providing a common platform for the efficient management and delivery of service results,” says Paul O’Neill, ACE’s chief underwriting officer of North America property and specialty lines. Also at the company, Toby Merrill has been named division senior vice president, and will lead the new global cyber risk practice. Merrill has served as vice president and national product manager for ACE’s network security, privacy and technology errors and omissions liability products in the United States.

5 Two senior officials have joined SCM Insurance Services’ Opta Information Intelligence unit. D.J. Farnworth [5a] takes on duties as vice president of sales for OpticRisk, a web-based tool designed to compile data on claims within an organization, and Matt Thompson [5b] has been named the new director of environmental services. Farnworth has worked for Aon, Western Financial Group and Applied Systems, notes his LinkedIn profile. As for Thompson, Opta reports he will “focus on enhancing customer service and investigating new delivery platforms for Opta’s extensive library and database of environmental risk information.” Before joining Opta in 2014, he worked for 14 years for Environmental Risk Information Services.

6 Eight members of the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) Board of Directors were recently appointed by acclamation for two-year terms: CSIO vice chairman Ted Harman, president of Accent Insurance Solutions; Cam Loeppky, vice president of information services for Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company; Sean Christie, chief information officer (CIO) and vice president of information services for Gore Mutual Insurance Company; Jack Ott, senior vice president and CIO of Intact Financial Corporation; Andrew Wood, CIO of Northbridge Financial Corporation; Bill Simms, commercial accounts director of Crosbie Jobs Insurance; Sheldon Wasylenko, general manager of Rayner Agencies Ltd.; and Robert Merizzi, CIO and executive vice president of business systems transformation for Aviva Canada. They join four other board members who have another year in their two-year terms.

7 Wintrust Financial Corporation, through its subsidiary First Insurance Funding of Canada, has acquired the shares of Policy Billing Services Inc. and Equity Premium Finance Inc., two affiliated Canadian insurance premium funding and payment services companies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Both organizations will continue to offer the same service and products during the transition period and the management and staff will remain the same.

8 Cowan Insurance Group Ltd. of Cambridge, Ontario recently announced it has promoted Jennifer Justason [8] to the position of vice president of finance. Cowan Insurance Group’s IT team will now report to Justason, who joined the company in 2007 as controller.

9 Restoration firm PuroClean Canada has appointed John Tagle [9] as the company’s senior vice president of business development. PuroClean’s services include fire and water damage restoration, mould and mildew removal and biohazard clean-up. Tagle “will be responsible for the development of the PuroClean national brand strategy, as well as establishment and execution of our company’s continued growth in the property and casualty market, broker community, property management and corporate Canada,” notes a company press release. Before joining PuroClean Canada, Tagle previously served as senior vice president of national sales and business development for SCM Insurance Services.

10 Managing general agent ENCON Group Inc., based in Ottawa, has named J.D. Farquhar [10] as the new assistant vice president in the company’s underwriting management division. Farquhar will work out of ENCON’s office in Mississauga, Ontario and his “primary focus will be on providing stand-alone commercial general liability (CGL) insurance through ENCON’s Alternative Insurance Market,” the company reports. “Working in a variety of roles for both managing general agents and a large insurance carrier, he has garnered extensive experience in underwriting, marketing, claims, operations and facultative reinsurance placement,” ENCON adds.