Executive Changes
Willis Towers Watson Names Carl Hess to Succeed John Haley as President and Chief Executive Officer

Willis Towers Watson named Carl Hess to succeed John Haley as president effective immediately and as chief executive officer when Haley retires on Jan. 1, 2022.

Haley has served as CEO and a company director since Jan. 4, 2016. He joined WTW in 1977 and throughout his career served in a variety of roles including consulting actuary to several of the company's largest clients, manager of the Washington D.C. consulting office and leader of the global retirement practice. Haley was named CEO in 1998. Under his leadership, the company went public in 2000 and completed three mergers, in 2005, 2010 and 2016, that formed present-day Willis Towers Watson, according to his company bio.

Hess, who had been the company's head of investment, risk and reinsurance business segment, began his career at WTW in 1989 and has held diverse leadership positions spanning business segment and geography roles. He served as co-leader of North America at Willis Towers Watson and before that, managing director, the Americas, of Towers Watson. He served as the managing director of Towers Watson's Investment business since January 2010 and also worked in a variety of roles for over 20 years at Watson Wyatt, lastly as global practice director of Watson Wyatt's Investment business, according to the company.

In other company news, Kirsten Beasley, who has been WTW's head of healthcare broking, North America since 2018, will now head a 26-person team in Bermuda. The office will focus on Bermuda placements in all major lines of insurance, WTW said.

Before joining Willis Towers Watson in 2016 as a senior vice president, she spent 14 years at Allied World Assurance Co., including three years as chief operations officer, and three years at Marsh as an assistant vice president, according to WTW and Beasley's LinkedIn profile.

—Staff Report

Hiscox Names Chief Executive Officer as Masojada Announces Retirement

The board of directors of Hiscox Ltd. appointed Aki Hussain to succeed Chief Executive Officer Bronek Masojada, who will retire at the end of the year.

Hussain, currently group chief financial officer, will assume his duties as CEO effective January 2022, subject to regulatory approval.

Masojada joined Hiscox in 1993 as managing director when Hiscox was a Lloyd's underwriter with fewer than 200 people in one location, the company said. He was appointed CEO in 2000.

Masojada had served as deputy chairman of Lloyd's, president of the Insurance Institute of London and master of the Worshipful Company of Insurers. He has been on the board of the Association of British Insurers since 2012.

Hussain joined Hiscox in 2016 as CFO. He was appointed to the Hiscox board in 2016 and is chairman of Hiscox Re &ILS. He is responsible for ensuring the group's ongoing capital strength, overseeing its investment portfolio of $7.63 billion and leading a team of 250 finance experts across multiple geographies.

According to Hiscox, Hussain recently delivered a complex, multi-year finance transformation program to overhaul outdated legacy systems and improve financial insight and reporting across the group.

Hussain has more than 15 years of financial services experience across insurance, accounting and banking. Before joining Hiscox, he was CFO of Prudential plc UK and Europe.

Lloyd's Council Appoints Its First Female Vice Chair

Lloyd's appointed Vicky Carter, an elected member of the Lloyd's Council since February 2019, its first female deputy chair.

Carter has worked for the Lloyd's market for 40 years, Lloyd's said in a statement.

The appointment recognizes Carter's professional contribution to the Lloyd's market and global (re)insurance industry over many decades, said Bruce Carnegie-Brown, Lloyd's chairman, in a statement.

Carter began her career in medicine before moving to reinsurance broking in 1980, Lloyd's said. She joined Guy Carpenter in 2010 as vice chair of international operations and in 2018 became chairwoman of Global Capital Solutions, International.

She also holds positions on the company's executive committee and board. Carter is chairwoman of the Lloyd's Charities Trust and Lloyd's Community Program and a trustee of the Sick Children's Trust. She also is a freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Insurers.

Assurity Life Insurance Names Successor to Longtime CEO

Assurity Life Insurance Co.'s board of directors has named Susan Keisler-Munro to succeed Thomas E. Henning as president and chief executive officer, effective Jan. 1, 2022.

Henning, who has been CEO for 26 of his 31 years at Assurity, will continue in 2022 as a non-executive chairman of the board of directors, Assurity said in a statement.

Keisler-Munro also was elected to the board of directors and has occupied several positions at Assurity over the past 34 years. She has served as senior vice president and chief of operations since 2005.

Bermuda Monetary Authority's New Chairman to Take Over This Month

Bermuda's minister of finance appointed Donald Scott chairman of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, effective Oct. 1.

Formerly deputy chairman, Scott will take over the position from Jeremy Cox, who has been executive chairman since 2019 and CEO since 2010, the BMA said.

Craig Swan, the BMA's deputy chief executive officer for the past 21 months, will become CEO.

Swan joined the BMA in 2006 and held various insurance, policy and risk positions, more recently at the managing director level, the BMA said. He has represented the BMA on international regulatory standard-setting committees and led the BMA's insurance regulatory dialogue.

AIG Taps Interim Chief Risk Officer as Permanent CRO, Executive Vice President

American International Group Inc. has named its interim chief risk officer, Sabra Purtill, as permanent CRO and executive vice president. Purtill also will join the AIG executive leadership team, according to the company.

In this role, Purtill will oversee AIG's corporate risk management strategy on an enterprise-wide basis as AIG continues to strengthen its culture of underwriting excellence with an appropriate risk appetite while adjusting to a dynamically changing environment, including emerging climate, cyber and other fast-evolving risks. Purtill previously served as AIG's deputy chief financial officer, overseeing treasury, rating agency relations, investor relations and corporate development. She will be based in New York.

During her 30 years of industry experience, Purtill has held a range of executive roles at several companies. Before joining AIG in 2019, Purtill was with Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., where she served as senior vice president, investor relations and treasurer. She was also managing director, investor relations & communications, at Assured Guaranty Ltd. and, before that, a corporate finance officer at Ace Ltd., now known as Chubb Ltd., according to AIG.

CNA Chief Financial Officer Resigns; New Chief Operations Officer Named

CNA said Al Miralles, executive vice president and chief financial officer, resigned to transition to a career in the technology sector. Larry Haefner, CNA's former chief actuary, was named to succeed Miralles as interim CFO while the company conducts an executive search for a permanent replacement, the company said in a statement.

Miralles joined CNA in 2011 as treasurer and head of investments. In 2014, he was named president of CNA's long-term care business. In 2017, Miralles became chief risk officer and then president of CNA Warranty. As CFO, Miralles was responsible for all aspects of CNA's financial organization, including asset and capital management, financial planning and analysis, investor relations, treasury services, corporate accounting, financial reporting, corporate tax, financial regulation, internal audit and corporate development, according to his company bio.

Haefner has been with CNA for 13 years, according to the company.

CNA also named Gary Haase to succeed Michael Costonis as chief operations officer. Costonis, after three years as COO, has been named as global head of marketing, strategy and innovation. Costonis joined CNA after 26 years with Accenture, most recently as senior managing director, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Haase, who has 20 years of industry knowledge, joins CNA from Catalina Holdings where he worked for over 17 years, most recently as group COO, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Howden Group Appoints Chief Corporate and Legal Affairs Officer

Howden Group named Will Bloomer to the newly created role of chief corporate and legal affairs officer and Frances Coats as group general counsel.

In his newly expanded role, Bloomer will focus on major, complex corporate initiatives and development.

Bloomer has held the role of group general counsel since 2013. He joined Howden Group in March 2012 as corporate and legal director. He is also an executive committee member.

Prior to joining Howden, he spent 12 years with Heath Lambert, later Gallagher Heath, as general counsel and compliance director. He began his career as a solicitor with Cameron McKenna in London and Hong Kong, according to a company statement.

Coats joins the company as group general counsel to lead the international legal team and will report to Bloomer. She will join the Howden Broking and DUAL group executive committees and most recently was European general counsel for Bolttech, an international insurtech business. She was previously chief counsel, corporate and commercial at The Ardonagh Group.

In other company news, Howden Broking named Charlie Connell as head of entertainment for its global sports and entertainment practice group, which was launched earlier this year.

In this newly created role, Connell will be responsible for developing and delivering creative solutions for clients in the entertainment industry, enabling them to navigate the continued insurance and risk management-related challenges posed by COVID-19, Howden said in a statement.

Connell joins Howden from EC3 Brokers, where he has worked as head of contingency and entertainment for the past four years.

Former Chubb Exec Joins Beazley as Head of US Cyber and Tech

Beazley has named Patricia Kocsondy as head of U.S. cyber and tech. Kocsondy will focus on the middle market and large-risk cyber and tech underwriting in the United States and will be based in New York, the company said.

Kocsondy is an experienced cyber underwriter and manager and joins Beazley from Chubb, where she served as senior vice president, errors & omissions and cyber underwriting, for Chubb Ltd.'s North American financial lines.

In her previous role, she was responsible for strategic leadership and direction, portfolio management, product development and underwriting strategy, extending over a broad span of Chubb's E&O and cyber segments and products.

Kocsondy also previously held roles at Ace Ltd.; Chubb & Son, a division of Federal Insurance Co., and Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., according to a company statement.