Great American Insurance Group promoted a longtime executive to become its new president and chief operating officer.

Gary Gruber will assume his new role with the Ohio-based company as of Jan. 1, 2017. He’ll take over for Donald Larson, who served as president and COO for the last seven years and announced recently he will be retiring effective March 10, 2017.

Larson was also the senior reporting officer within Great American’s P&C Group for the past 18 years, and has worked for the property/casualty insurance insurer for more than 43 years.

As for Gruber, he is a veteran Great American employee going back to 1977, and served as executive vice president for the Great American Property and Casualty Insurance Group since 2010. Also, he is a member of Great American’s Board of Directors and recently served on the Board of Directors of National Interstate Corp., before its merger with Great American Insurance Company (the deal was sealed in July).

At Great American, Gruber has held a number of other positions including vice president of accounting, controller, and senior vice president & treasurer.

Carl H. Linder III, co-CEO of Great American parent American Financial Group, said in prepared remarks that Gruber is the man for the job “given his outstanding executive leadership abilities and approximately 40 year tenure within our operations.”

Also, Linder thanked Larson’s contributions to Great American after his 43-plus-year tenure.

American Financial focuses on property/casualty insurance plus specialized commercial products for business.

Source: Great American Insurance Group