XL Catlin added four new executives to beef up its global energy team. Marsh hired a new key executive. QBE North America promoted an executive in its specialty programs arena. Zurich named a new chief operating officer for its North America division, replacing a long-time executive who is retiring.

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XL Catlin’s insurance operations added four new executives to help beef up its global energy team.

In the Americas, XL Catlin appointed Wayne Jacobson as director of Energy Liability – Americas. Based in New York, Jacobson was previously at Colony Specialty Insurance Co. where he was vice president for the company’s Oil & Gas division. Jacobson is a nearly 40-year insurance industry veteran.

Joseph Tina is the new underwriter for Energy, Liability for the Americas, based in New York. Tina was previously at Colony Specialty as a senior underwriter, leading the Oil & Gas division. He’s an eight-year veteran of the energy insurance sector.

Helen Watkinson is a new underwriting manager, Energy, for France, based in in Paris. She’s a 10-year insurance industry veteran who started with Munich Re in 2006 before joining Liberty Specialty Markets in London in 2008 and in Paris, in 2014, as a senior underwriter, Onshore Energy.

Denise Dass-Hewitt is a newly-hired risk engineer. Dass-Hewitt has over 35 years’ experience with major North Sea operators. In her last role as vice president, Development, at BG Group, she was responsible for all operational aspects of the appraisal, concept selection and developments of the BG Brazil discoveries.

Bryan Johnson, a consultant and industry veteran, is XL Catlin’s new consultant on the upstream account, based in Houston, Texas.

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Marsh named Nick Durant as leader of its Global Captive Solutions Practice, effective July 2016.

In his new role, Durant will oversee a business that advises and manages more than 1,250 captive globally. He’ll be based in New York and report to John Drzik, president of Marsh’s Global Risk & Specialties division. Chris Lay, the previous head of Global Captive Solutions, is the new president and CEO of Marsh Canada.

Durant has 20 years experience involving reinsurance and analytics, and was most recently Marsh’s global analytics sales leader. Before joining Marsh in 2012, he was with Guy Carpenter for 14 years in a number of leadership positions.

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QBE North America promoted Erin Fry to the new role of senior vice president, underwriting leader, Specialty Programs. She’ll report to Jeff Grange, president, Specialty Insurance.

In her new role, Fry will handle developing and executing the strategic underwriting plan for driving QBE Specialty products through the MGI/IGU distribution channel with QBE’s appointed program administrators.

Specifically, Fry will work with program administrators to underwrite niche specialty program opportunities.

Fry, who joined QBE in 2015, was previously at XL Catlin, where she served as environmental claims counsel before becoming vice president, underwriting and then head of professional liability programs over a seven year period.

QBE North America is part of QBE Insurance Group Ltd.

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Zurich Insurance appointed Geno Fernandez as chief underwriting officer for Zurich North America as of July 5, 2016.

Right now, Fernandez is head of strategic execution for Zurich North America Commercial. He’ll be replacing Mary Merkel, who is retiring after 33 years with Zurich.

Fernandez joined Zurich in 2012 from McKinsey & Co, where he was a senior partner and leader in the insurance practice, and build the firm’s global commercial underwriting service capabilities.

Source: XL Catlin, Marsh, QBE North America, Zurich North America