An emerging-risk specialist has hired from a major carrier this week, while two of the largest US wholesalers strengthened their broking and underwriting teams.
CRC Group has added three hires across brokerage and underwriting. Kameron Ebert (pictured, left) joins CRC Specialty as a broker in Salt Lake City, bringing wholesale brokerage and account development experience. Corynne Griffith (pictured, center) joins as a broker in Chicago, with more than six years of wholesale experience focused on healthcare risks. Tindel Weston (pictured, right) becomes an underwriting team lead in Charlotte, with a background in underwriting operations, account management and team leadership.
Griffith's healthcare focus is the standout appointment. Healthcare liability placements are complex and increasingly specialized, and retail agents with medical clients in the Midwest gain a dedicated wholesale contact.
Relm Insurance has appointed Ankur Pandya as senior vice president, financial lines and cyber. He reports to chief underwriting officer Shane Doyle. Pandya will be based in New York and will focus on growing Relm's US financial lines and cyber portfolios.
Pandya has more than 20 years of financial lines experience, much of it with financial institutions. He joins after a decade at Chubb, where he held senior underwriting and leadership roles. Before that he spent 10 years at Travelers in underwriting and distribution.
"Ankur has spent more than two decades in financial lines and understands what it takes to manage complex portfolios through different market conditions," said Doyle.
Pandya said he would focus on long-term profitable growth, bringing discipline to how the business is managed, and building a team with strong broker and client relationships.
Relm writes for emerging industries such as digital assets and other new-economy sectors, where conventional markets are often reluctant to provide D&O and cyber capacity. A senior financial institutions underwriter with a large-carrier background suggests Relm wants to compete for more established FI and financial lines business, as well as its traditional niche risks.
Brown & Riding has hired Jonathan Moraru into its National Property Practice. Moraru has more than a decade of experience placing middle-market to large and complex property and builder's risk accounts. His clients include commercial real estate, hospitality, habitational, retail, industrial and catastrophe-exposed properties. He has worked on both the underwriting and brokerage sides of the market.
President and CEO Jeff Rodriguez said Moraru's relationships and ability to turn difficult exposures into well-executed placements made him a strong addition to the firm.
Habitational and catastrophe-exposed property remain among the hardest classes to place. Retail agents with these accounts gain another wholesale broker with carrier-side experience.
