The Hartford appointed a new head of the Western Division for the company’s Middle and Large Commercial Insurance business. A former Willis Towers Watson executive joined Marsh’s Chicago office as Risk Management Leader – a newly created role. A former Marsh executive signed on with Strategic Risk Solutions as director in the company’s European Consulting Practice.

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The Hartford appointed Shahzad Ahmad as head of the Western Division for the company’s Middle and Large Commercial Insurance business.

Ahmad now leads the sales and underwriting operations for the company’s independent agents, brokers and customers across 13 Western states including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. He will report to Tracey Ant, head of Field Operations & General Industries for Middle and Large Commercial insurance.

Ahmad succeeds Gretchen Thompson, who was recently appointed head of Construction, Inland Marine, Excess Solutions and Complex Liability Solutions for Middle and Large Commercial at The Hartford.

With more than 16 years of industry experience, Ahmad was most recently The Hartford’s regional vice president of Northern California, where he worked across multiple lines of business including Complex Casualty, Large Property, Construction, Marine, and Multinational, as well as The Hartford’s Global Specialty organization, to drive profitable growth and market success on the West coast.

Ahmad joined The Hartford in 2005 and has since held several key positions of increasing responsibility across a diverse portfolio of middle market businesses, including Technology, Life Science, Construction, and General Industries.

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Duncan Ashurst joined Marsh’s Chicago office as Risk Management Leader – a newly created role.

Ashurst will lead a team of specialists responsible for the delivery of transactional and advisory products and services that address the intricate risk financing, risk management, and human capital needs of Marsh’s largest and most complex clients.

Ashurst joins Marsh from Willis Towers Watson where he previously led the Chicago-based Risk Solutions Practice and served as a Global Client Advocate and the U.S. Automotive Practice Leader. He brings 35 years of experience providing consultative products and services to Fortune 500 companies with particular global expertise in captive insurance companies and alternative risk transfer programs.

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Strategic Risk Solutions, the world’s largest independent insurance company manager, named Kathryn Anderson to the position of Director in SRS’s European Consulting Practice.

Anderson, who joins the Company next month, will report to Derek Bridgeman, Managing Director and European Risk Consulting Practice Leader. She will be based in the UK.

Anderson joins SRS after 24 years with Marsh UK. For the last eight years, she worked in Marsh’s Captive Advisory Practice, consulting with global clients across many industries about how captives and other formalized risk retention structures can add value to the business. These clients included businesses looking to establish a new structure as well as companies wanting to ensure that maximum value was being derived from an existing vehicle.

From 2000-2019, Anderson worked within the Marsh Business Analytics team, using statistical methods to summarize, interpret and forecast data. In addition, she combined financial modelling techniques with her deep business and insurance knowledge to produce optimal risk strategies for a wide range of clients.

Sources: The Hartford, Marsh, Strategic Risk Solutions