Zurich North America announced that Christopher M. Lewis will join the organization as executive vice president and head of a new, standalone business unit dedicated to the Excess & Surplus (E&S) Lines market, effective May 16.

Lewis most recently served as president and CEO of the International Financial Group Inc., a privately held property/casualty insurance company focused on the E&S market. Prior to that he was enterprise chief insurance risk officer for the Hartford Financial Services Group, where he led all risk management quantification, analysis, reporting and limit monitoring for all insurance risks. He also held a variety of other leadership and management roles within The Hartford, as well as at Fitch Risk Management, Ernst & Young and several federal government agencies.

Lewis is a member of the American Finance Association, the American Economic Association and the American Risk and Insurance Association. He has published numerous articles on risk management, finance and insurance as well as having taught finance at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

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WTW (Willis Towers Watson) made three key appointments:

• Joe LaRocco has been appointed head of Industry – Broking, North America, to lead the recently established industry broking segment. This newly created position addresses specialized insurance and intellectual capital services. LaRocco will lead the corporate risk and broking segment for North American, focusing on insurer distribution channels and overseeing corporate relationships with global insurers. He will remain a member of the North America corporate risk leadership team. LaRocco has served as head of Carrier Management for WTW since 2017.

• Krista Cinotti has been appointed head of Middle Market Broking, North America. She previously ran the Middle Market Broking East region. In addition to her responsibilities in Middle Market, Cinotti will oversee the Select Broking segment, which manages WTW’s small business offerings, and will retain her North America steering committee position on the broking platform.

• James O’Connor has been appointed head of Carrier Management, North America. He rejoins WTW from Dual Group, a division of Howden, where he most recently served as chief executive officer of North America. Based in Atlanta, O’Connor will provide leadership across the broking organization and will be a member of WTW’s corporate risk leadership team.

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Markel Corporation has appointed Morris Taylor as chief information officer for Markel’s insurance operations.

Taylor joined Markel in 2018 and most recently served as head of Global Technology. Prior to joining Markel, he worked at Capital One for over two decades in a wide range of technology leadership roles.

Taylor will report to Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Noble and is based in Markel’s Glen Allen, Va., office.

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PURE Insurance named Derek Zahn to the newly created position of chief claims officer following the retirement of Senior Claims Advisor Mike Taylor.

Zahn was previously senior vice president of Field Claims Operations at PURE. Prior to that, he held positions at AIG, Farmers Insurance and Zurich Insurance.

In this new role, Zahn will focus on increasing technical accuracy and enhancing customer service to ensure members have a seamless and personalized claims process.