ClearPath Mutual Promotes Ralston and Alvey

ClearPath Mutual Insurance Company, a monoline workers’ compensation insurance carrier, has promoted two employees: Teri Ralston and Hilary Alvey.

Ralston has been promoted to customer experience specialist, while Alvey has been promoted to a communications specialist.

Ralston is celebrating her 20th anniversary with ClearPath Mutual. When she started, the company was still called KESA, The Kentucky Workers’ Compensation Fund.

After gaining experience as an underwriting assistant, Ralston accepted a marketing role, promoting the use of the company’s website and portal. Ralston is currently pursuing her Certified Insurance Counselor designation.

Alvey joined the company in 2014 as the new business coordinator, where she learned underwriting guidelines and communicated with agents to process new business applications. She then accepted the position of claims processor.

Most recently, she held the position of agency licensing coordinator, which involved verifying, monitoring and maintaining agency and agent licensing information.

John Riley, vice president, Alliant

John Riley Named Vice President, Alliant 

2019 Agriculture Power Broker John Riley has been hired as vice president at Alliant. He will work out of the company’s White Plains, N.Y. office.

Riley is well experienced with global supply chains after spending over 20 years in the industry.

He is the former director of Gallagher’s Food & Agribusiness Practice, a role under which he earned the designation of Power Broker.

“John is highly regarded for his breadth of expertise and depth of service,” said Bob Bennetsen,executive vice president and senior managing director with Alliant.

“His targeted experience in manufacturing combined with his ability to identify and mitigate international exposures will serve as a significant asset to clients across a range of industries.”

Alliant Insurance Services Inc. is headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif. It provides property and casualty, workers’ compensation, employee benefits, underwriting, surety and financial products and services to clients all over the world.

John Rzepinski Joins Canal Insurance Company

Paul Brocklebank, president and chief executive officer of Canal Insurance Company announced that the company’s board of directors has approved the addition of John Rzepinski to its senior leadership team as senior vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer.

Canal Insurance Company specializes in providing insurance to commercial trucking and specialty transportation insureds through selected professional agents.

“We are very excited to welcome John to our senior team,” Brocklebank stated.

“Both his technical background and leadership skills make John an ideal addition for both current needs and our future strategic direction.”

Rzepinski joins Canal from CapSpeciality, where he held the role of chief financial officer since 2013. He was hired by CapSpecialty in 2005.

Rzepinski holds a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin — Milwaukee and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Jeff Lynn, leader of excess casualty underwriting division, AmTrust

Jeff Lynn to Lead AmTrust E&S Insurance Services 

AmTrust E&S Insurance Services, a subsidiary of AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., announced Jeff Lynn as the leader of its newly formed excess casualty underwriting division.

The unit expands product offerings of AmTrust E&S. Lynn brings with him 15 years of experience in building an excess casualty business.

AmTrust E&S Insurance Services president David Lewis said, “The timely launch of the new platform comes as the market continues to see disruption from redeployment of limits, reducting in capacity and price increases, presenting a strong growth opportunity for the company and our trading partners.”

Lynn joins AmTrust from Everest Reinsurance, Los Angeles, where he served as vice president, excess casualty manager.

There he was in charge of a team of underwriters in the company’s western region with a focus on construction, agriculture, energy and general casualty business.

Lynn has held prominent positions at Ironshore Insurance Services, The Hartford, Swiss Reinsurance, AIG and Aon.

Peter Giger Joins Zurich as Chief Risk Officer

Peter Giger has joined Zurich Insurance Group as its chief risk officer.

He replaces Alison Martin, who was recently appointed chief executive officer Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) and bank distribution.

Giger served as head of the insurance division and deputy chief financial officer of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA for four years. He left FINMA in September 2018.

Prior to joining FINMA, Giger held various executive positions at Zurich from 2002-2014, most recently as chief financial officer of its general insurance business in 2010 through 2014.

From 1999 to 2002, he was head of structured finance at Swiss Re. His career has come full circle since he was first hired with Zurich in 2002.

“Peter is a strong leader with global experience in the insurance industry and technical excellence in finance, risk and underwriting,” said Mario Greco, group chief financial officer.

“It’s a particular pleasure to announce this appointment, as Peter is not new to Zurich. He started his career in our company, and with almost 20 years with Zurich already, has an excellent understanding of our business model and risk profile.”

Melinda Hayes, advisor, ChronWell

ChronWell Acquires Industry Expert and Veteran, Melinda Hayes

ChronWell, a technology-enabled injury management program for the workers’ compensation industry, has hired industry expert Melinda Hayes as an advisor to the team.

In her role, Hayes will be tasked with helping ChronWell create industry strategies that combine human support with advanced technology to drive better workers’ compensation claim results.

Hayes brings almost four decades of industry experience in medical cost-containment and nurse case management to ChronWell. Hayes founded the nurse case management company M Hayes in 1999 after spending 16 years managing health care branches for Crawford & Company.

She turned M Hayes from a regional company into a national provider and a top-10 case management firm and has been recognized for formalizing the national service delivery structure.

“Having been a member of the workers’ compensation community for well over 35 years, I have worked for change to make our processes more efficient and cost effective to provide better outcomes,” Hayes stated.

“I know that change in workers’ compensation practice often takes time, and I’m excited that ChronWell poses to hasten this process. They have the expertise our industry needs to disrupt the status quo and create direct-to-practice solutions.”

Starr Insurance Companies Divide Their Western Region into Two Roles

Starr Insurance Companies announced a new plan for their western region.

The company will split the region into two parts: Pacific Northwest and Southwest. As a result, two new sales leaders have been promoted to lead these regions.

Warren Puffer has been promoted to regional vice president of the Pacific Northwest region, which is comprised of the San Francisco and Seattle offices. Kelly Geoghegan has been promoted to regional vice president of the Southwest region. Her covered offices consist of Los Angeles, Scottsdale, and Denver.

Puffer joined Starr in 2014 and has accumulated over 20 years of industry experience. Geoghegan joined Starr in 2012 and has more than 17 years of experience in the insurance industry, holding positions in risk management national accounts.

“These changes will ensure that we continue to provide top-quality service to our expanding client and broker communities,” said Robert Cruz, senior vice president, sales and distribution. “We’re fortunate to have great talents like Warren and Kelly to promote from within to drive these efforts.”

The new hires are responsible for sales, distribution and leadership in their respective areas.

Ryan Bechtold, vice president, Transcom Solutions

Ryan Bechtold Promoted, Executive Vice President, Transcom Solutions 

Transcom Solutions, a national transportation and translation company that serves the workers’ compensation industry, announced the promotion of Ryan Bechtold to executive vice president.

Bechtold previously acted as Transcom Solutions’ director of operations and a managing partner. His former responsibilities included overseeing company finances.

Bechtold brings almost two decades of business ownership, operations, and sales experience to Transcom Solutions. Before joining Transcom in 2015, he was a sales engineer for Southern States Machinery.

Prior to that, Bechtold owned and operated a metal fabrication shop in central Florida for 15 years, where he managed the company’s day-to-day operations and a staff of 25. At the time Bechtold left, the company exceeded $3 million in sales and his financial experience clearly carried over into his role as director of operations.

“We are proud to promote Ryan to the position of executive vice president,” said Sara Aguila, president.

“His experience as a business owner and knowledge of the industry has allowed us to maximize our operational efficiencies. Since joining the company, Ryan has been a significant part of the company’s exponential growth.”

QBE North America Appoints Charles Cygal as Head of Surety

QBE North America, an integrated specialist insurer, announced the hiring of Charles Cygal as head of surety, effective immediately. The announcement supports QBE’s ongoing commitment to growing its surety business to meet the emerging and specialized needs of customers.

In his new role, Cygal is responsible for growing and maintaining relationships with QBE’s producers. He will use the team’s technical expertise to provide surety bonding solutions for customers and generate profit.

“Emerging risks and evolving markets are causing more middle market companies to seek risk management solutions through both contract and commercial surety bonds,” said Brett Halsey, senior vice president, head of credit & surety.

“As an integrated specialist insurer with a long history of delivering surety solutions, we are dedicated to continually strengthening our capabilities to meet the evolving needs of customers and Charles’ experience and strong relationships made him the ideal candidate to lead this business.”

Cygal joins QBE from Ironshore Insurance Services. There, he served as vice president/director of surety, political risk, and trade credit. He held roles at AIG Surety and began his career at Chubb Surety. &