This week’s moves include a reshuffle of specialty leadership at The Hartford, a new private client practice head at Lockton, and appointments at a mobility insurer, an insurance operations firm, a specialty broker and a program design consultancy.
The Hartford has appointed Charles Chin as head of wholesale casualty for Navigators, its wholesale brand. Chin will lead the carrier’s primary and excess casualty strategy, focusing on underwriting, portfolio management and service to brokers. He has been with The Hartford for seven years and replaces Kyle Sternadori, who has left. He reports to Lynanne St. Denis, head of wholesale property and casualty for Navigators.
Anthony Dolce (pictured, left) becomes head of financial lines, US and global practice, in The Hartford’s global specialty business, covering professional, management, financial and executive liability, as well as cyber and technology E&O. He was previously head of professional liability, cyber and technology E&O, and replaces James Rhyner, who has also left. Dolce reports to Rick Ciullo, head of US retail.
Jason Kinsella (pictured, center), previously financial lines chief underwriting officer, becomes global head of professional liability, cyber and tech E&O. Matthew Magner becomes head of cyber and tech E&O.
The appointments follow The Hartford’s broader leadership restructure announced earlier this month. Promoting from within in both casualty and financial lines points to continuity of appetite for wholesale and retail brokers at a time when casualty pricing remains firm.
Lockton has appointed Andrew Littlejohn to lead the national entertainment and sports practice within its private risk solutions business. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, he has 20 years of experience serving clients in entertainment and sports.
High-net-worth athletes and entertainers have exposures that cross personal and professional lines, including reputation, high-value property and liability. Competition among brokers for these clients is growing.
Roamly, the specialty insurance provider behind The Ride Platform, has appointed Christine Franzi as head of insurance programs. She will help scale its mobility insurance across carshare, rideshare, delivery, RV and autonomous fleets in North America and Europe.
Franzi joins from Mobilitas Insurance, a CSAA Insurance Group company, where she led a shared-economy commercial auto portfolio and launched products for autonomous vehicles, carsharing and ridesharing.
Gig economy and autonomous vehicle risks remain hard to place. Specialist programs give brokers more options for operators that traditional commercial auto markets don’t serve well.
Insurance operations firm Staff Boom has appointed RJ Hazra as chief financial officer and Paul Lubbers as chief product officer.
Hazra was previously global CFO of HireRight. Lubbers was most recently head of affinity and programs for the US at WTW.
Agencies under pressure on staffing and costs are increasingly outsourcing service and back-office work. Investment in technology at outsourcing providers may affect the quality and cost of that support.
Specialty broker Ames & Gough has appointed Allison Buytenhuys (pictured, center), a partner and senior vice president, as director of marketing and technology. She will lead branding and technology for the firm’s practices in design professionals, law firms, associations and nonprofits, and employee benefits.
Investment in technology at mid-sized specialty brokers is a sign of competition for professional services clients.
Program design firm Sproutr has promoted Jeff Breault to head of insurance, overseeing program management, actuarial, product development, compliance and filing. He was previously a director of commercial lines at Nationwide.
Brokers and MGAs building new programs increasingly use outside specialists to handle design, pricing and filing.
