Executive Changes
Former Lloyd's CEO Joins International Broker Ardonagh
Other changes include new leaders at Capsicum Re, Berkshire Hathaway's multiparty health foray and more.
Richard Ward
Richard Ward, former chief executive officer of Lloyd’s, was appointed executive chairman of specialty and international and managing general agents for broker Ardonagh Group.
Subject to approval by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, Ward will join the group on Sept. 10.
Ardonagh’s specialty and international segment is comprised of Bishopsgate and Price Forbes, previously known collectively as the wholesale segment, with the MGA segment encompassing all of Ardonagh’s MGA activities.
Ward’s position is a newly created one. Ward was CEO of Lloyd’s from 2006 to 2013. In 2014, he was appointed chairman of Brit Insurance. Ward chaired Brit through its initial public offering and subsequent sale to Fairfax Financial Service Group “and will be stepping down from Brit in September,” Ardonagh said.
In June 2014, Ward was appointed executive chairman of Cunningham Lindsey, a global provider of claims management and risk service solutions. Ward also was nonexecutive director of Partnership Assurance Group plc between 2013 and 2016. He is also on the board of Direct Line Group plc as a nonexecutive director and senior independent director, having joined in January 2016. He is a member of the PRA Practitioner Panel, an independent statutory panel that represents the interests of practitioners regulated by the Bank of England, Ardonagh said.
Ward’s “presence across the MGA and specialty and international segments can only add substantially to our ability to both create and capitalize on future growth opportunities,” David Ross, Ardonagh’s CEO, said in a statement.
“Spending time with the Ardonagh team has given me the chance to really understand the unique position the group holds in the industry, having built an unrivalled stable of a market leading brands and businesses,” Ward said in a statement.
—David Pilla
Grahame Chilton
Distribution
• Grahame Chilton will be stepping down later this year as chief executive officer of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.’s U.K.-based brokerage and underwriting division to devote his attention to Capsicum Re.
Subject to regulatory approval, Simon Matson, currently head of Gallagher’s London market and Alesco businesses, will be appointed Chilton’s successor as U.K. brokerage and underwriting CEO.
Chilton will leave his current position before the end of the year, likely in the fourth quarter. Chilton established and built London reinsurance broker Benfield Group Ltd. before its acquisition by Aon and was named CEO of the U.K.-based international brokerage division of AJG in 2015. Capsicum Re is a joint venture broker that Chilton and AJG set up in 2013 to provide specialized reinsurance broking.
Matson is founder and currently CEO of Alesco Risk Management Services. His career began in 1989 in the oil and gas division of a global insurance broker. In 2008, he left as head of upstream energy broking to found Alesco.
• Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter & Co. LLC has appointed former Goldman Sachs executive Shiv Kumar as president and global leader of securities, capital markets, a newly created position.
Kumar has 23 years of experience in insurance/reinsurance and capital markets. Previously, he was global head of insurance structured finance at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he covered property/casualty, life and health, mortgage and public sector insurers.
Susan Neely
Earlier, Kumar was head of analytical services at AIR Worldwide.
Life/Health
• Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Amazon and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have appointed the chief executive officer of their independent health care company for employees.
Atul Gawande will lead a new, independent entity free from profit-making incentives and constraints, the companies said in a joint statement.
Gawande practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and is a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. He is founding executive director of Ariadne Labs, a health systems innovation center.
• Brighthouse Financial Inc. has appointed Conor Murphy as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He succeeds Peter Carlson, who will serve as a special adviser to the company’s chief executive officer until his retirement at year end.
Murphy joined Brighthouse Financial last year as executive vice president and chief product and strategy officer. He continues to lead client solutions and strategy groups and will also oversee finance and operations.
Previously, he was MetLife’s Latin America regional chief financial officer. Earlier, he was MetLife CFO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and investments. He also held leadership positions in international strategic planning organization and investor relations.
Thomas L. Tran
• The American Council of Life Insurers has appointed Susan Neely, one of the architects of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, its new president and chief executive officer.
Current president and CEO, Dirk Kempthorne, said he plans to step down after eight years. Neely succeeds him this summer.
Neely has served as president and CEO of the American Beverage Association for the past 13 years. Before joining ABA, she was assistant secretary for public affairs for the DHS from 2003 to 2005 and special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002. Under Bush, she was one of the architects of the DHS.
• Molina Healthcare Inc. appointed Thomas L. Tran chief financial officer and treasurer.
Tran succeeds Joseph W. White, who announced his retirement from the company.
He has more than 35 years of experience in health care, including six years as CFO of WellCare Health Plans Inc.
Most recently, Tran was CFO for Sentry Data Systems. He also held leadership roles at CareGuide; Uniprise, a principal operating division of UnitedHealth Group; ConnectiCare; Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Cigna.
White’s career included more than 30 years of financial management experience in the health care industry. He has held several positions since he started with Molina in 2003, including CFO, treasurer, interim CEO and chief accounting officer.
Property/Casualty
Frank M. Baron
• Farmers Group Inc. has appointed Keith Daly as personal lines president. He succeeds Roy Smith, who is no longer with the company.
Daly was most recently chief claims officer. He joined Farmers in 2009 when it acquired 21st Century Insurance, where he was vice president of field claims operations. Daly was in sales early in his career and moved to the insurance industry in 1993 as a claims representative trainee at Progressive.
• Hanover Insurance Group Inc. has appointed former Zurich executive Frank M. Baron as president of a new domestic specialty group unit.
Baron will lead specialty programs, excess and surplus and specialty brokerage businesses in the alternative markets unit.
Previously, he was an executive vice president at Zurich, in charge of the management solutions group. Earlier in his 30-year career, he held leadership positions at American International Group and Reliance National Insurance.
• Nautilus Insurance Group has appointed Allison Kenworthy as senior vice president and chief financial officer.
Previously, she was a vice president and statutory controller for a global company.
Earlier in the quarter, Nautilus appointed Thomas Joyce as senior vice president and chief underwriting officer. He joined the company in 2015 and previously was chief claims officer. Joel Lasky, claims vice president, succeeded him as chief claims officer.
Nautilus is a W.R. Berkley excess-and-surplus writer.
• CNA has appointed Jennifer Livingstone senior vice president and chief marketing officer.
Allison Kenworthy
Livingstone joins CNA after 25 years in the insurance industry, in both underwriting and sales roles. She spent the majority of her career at American International Group Inc., where she held the roles of senior vice president, head of broker relations and channel management for the past seven years.
Since 2016, Livingstone has served as vice president of global sales development at Cyence, where she was responsible for sales, marketing, and business development for Cyence’s platform, which manages cyberrisk.
• AmTrust Financial Services Inc. has named J. Daniel Hickey group chief underwriting officer.
Hickey joined AmTrust in July 2017 as executive vice president, business strategy and business development. In his new role, Hickey will oversee the company’s global underwriting activities.
Prior to joining AmTrust, Hickey was the executive vice president and head of the standard lines business unit at PartnerRe. Prior to PartnerRe, he was at General Reinsurance Corp.
