Leadership changes and partner promotions have been announced across the insurance, benefits and legal sectors.
Patriot Growth Insurance Services has appointed Andrew Drayer (pictured, left) as regional president, Northeast. He succeeds Bill Donato, who now serves as president of retail insurance.
Drayer brings broad leadership experience across commercial insurance, operations, strategy and integration. He most recently held a senior executive role at HUB International New England, where he led business and financial operations, including claims, compliance, legal, data analytics, facilities and M&A integration, and helped shape commercial lines strategy and shared services.
Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at MAPFRE Insurance and at one of Massachusetts’ largest bank-owned insurance agencies, where he supported growth through acquisitions and strategic expansion.
CRC Benefits, a division of CRC Group, has named Rob Edel (pictured, center) as chief operating officer, expanding his leadership remit as the business focuses on operational excellence, scalable growth and value delivery for carriers, brokers and partners.
In his new role, Edel will help lead operational strategy with an emphasis on consistency, continuous improvement and customer experience. He will continue to oversee the account services and self-funded divisions, where he currently serves as senior vice president.
Edel joined CRC Benefits in 2022 as regional vice president of the Central region, overseeing operations across multiple states, including Iowa, Illinois, Ohio and several Mid-Atlantic and Southern markets.
Previously, he was COO/CFO of Mutual Med, which joined CRC through acquisition. He held several leadership roles there from 2013, including vice president of finance/IT and controller, before assuming day-to-day leadership in 2018 and overseeing expansion into five new states from 2019 to 2021.
Alliant Insurance Services has announced a series of leadership appointments within its property and casualty operation.
Bob Bennetsen has been named senior managing director, national sales and recruitment. In this role he will lead business development initiatives across Alliant P&C, enhance data-driven capabilities for sustainable growth and align specialized expertise and resources nationwide. He will continue to spearhead recruitment, focusing on attracting talent that reflects Alliant’s entrepreneurial values. Bennetsen previously served as head of Alliant Americas and as EVP, managing director, employee benefits, Northeast region.
John Harney has been appointed head of Alliant Americas. Over the past nine years he has led Alliant Americas in the Midwest, expanding client relationships and advancing regional performance. In his new role, he will oversee Alliant Americas across the US, providing strategic direction and operational leadership.
Alliant also confirmed that Michael J. Cusack (pictured, right) has been appointed president, Alliant Property & Casualty. Cusack previously led Alliant Specialty, overseeing 16 industry verticals and expanding the firm’s specialty business nationwide. In his new role, he will manage Alliant’s $2.3 billion P&C operation and focus on collaboration, growth and operational excellence.
Cusack brings more than 35 years of industry experience and is widely regarded as a leading executive in surety and construction insurance. He has underwritten and brokered some of the largest and most complex surety programs in the US and helped build Alliant Construction into one of the country’s largest construction brokerage operations.
Pekin Insurance has appointed John Colvert as vice president of sales and marketing. He will lead the company’s sales and marketing teams and report to Joel Jackson, senior vice president and chief operating officer – property & casualty; SVP – life.
Colvert has more than 20 years of leadership experience across property and casualty insurance and life and financial services. Most recently, he was regional vice president of commercial sales and underwriting at Utica National Insurance Group, where he led strategic initiatives and delivered results across commercial lines.
Before Utica, Colvert served as commercial product director at State Auto Insurance, where he drove profitable growth across a multi-state portfolio, working closely with underwriting, analytics, IT and sales teams on data-driven strategies. Earlier roles at Nationwide Insurance focused on business development, sales operations and underwriting, including leadership of large teams and multi-billion-dollar portfolios.
Oscar Health has appointed independent director Siddhartha Sankaran as chair of the board, effective June 4, 2026. He will succeed Jeffery Boyd, who has served as chair since February 2021 and is not standing for reelection at the company’s annual meeting.
Sankaran has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the insurance industry, including senior roles at American International Group, SiriusPoint and FWD Group. He has served on multiple public company boards and has spent five years on Oscar’s board, contributing to its governance framework.
Global law firm Clyde & Co has promoted 28 lawyers to partner, effective May 1, 2026, in addition to 13 out-of-cycle promotions during the year. Seventeen of the 28 promotions (61%) are women.
More than a third of the latest promotions are in North America, reflecting sustained growth in the region. This year marks Clyde & Co’s 20th anniversary in North America, where it now has more than 400 attorneys, including over 100 partners, across 21 offices in the US and Canada. Recent expansion includes new offices in Seattle and Indiana.
Eleven promotions were made across the UK (four in Manchester and seven in London), along with one promotion in each of Singapore, Düsseldorf and Paris, and two in Rio de Janeiro. Two promotions were made in the Middle East, across Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai, within the corporate practice. Since May 1, 2024, the firm has appointed nine new partners in the Middle East across technology, tax, aviation and energy.
The promotions span disputes, corporate and advisory, insurance, aviation, construction, energy and marine.
