Last week, Erie Insurance, Chubb and Ategrity Specialty announced promotions that will take effect in 2023. Ategrity’s transition fills the top spot in the organization–chief executive officer.

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Ategrity Specialty

At Ategrity Specialty Insurance Company, Deputy CEO Justin Cohen will officially move up to become chief executive officer, effective Jan. 1, 2023. Cohen, succeeding CEO Mike Miller in a transition planned in the summer of 2021.

Cohen has led the evolution of Ategrity’s business in the excess and surplus lines market, including an expansion into the Middle Market segment, Ategrity said in a statement last week.

In 2018, Ategrity launched with a significant financial investment from Zimmer Financial Services, which brought aboard a management team of industry veterans led by Miller. This fall, the company received an additional $75 million in capital from Zimmer to support the rollout of the firm’s new products, bringing Zimmer’s investment to approximately $300 million to date.

Cohen serves on the board of Ategrity Specialty Holdings, parent company of the E&S insurer.

“As Mike [Miller] steps away from Ategrity after nearly five years, we are grateful for his leadership in helping us build a new E&S business from scratch and put it on the map,” said Stuart Zimmer, chair of Zimmer Financial Services Group.

Cohen said, “Our goal is to become the leading E&S carrier that uses strong technical underwriting, intelligent operational efficiencies, sound risk management, and intensive specialization to win in the marketplace, and we are on a clear path toward this success.”

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Erie Insurance

Julie Pelkowski has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective May 1, 2023, succeeding Greg Gutting, who is set to retire April 30 a day earlier.

Pelkowski, who is currently a member of the Erie Insurance’s Executive Council and leads its Enterprise Office, will report to President and Chief Executive Officer Tim NeCastro in her new role.

As CFO, Pelkowski Julie will oversee Controller, Investments, Treasury, Actuarial, as well as the Enterprise Office the company established in January 2022.

Prior to taking on leadership of the Enterprise Office, Pelkowski served as Senior Vice President and Controller and as co-lead for the Destination 2025 corporate strategy program.

She began her financial career in 1991 with Deloitte & Touche in Pittsburgh, Pa., and joined Erie Insurance in 1998 as an internal auditor, moving into the leadership ranks in 2006 and advancing to the position of Vice President, Financial Reporting in 2014. In 2015, she assumed the role of Interim Controller, becoming Senior Vice President and Controller in August 2016.

Also on the move at Erie Insurance is 30-year employee Sean Dugan, who has been promoted to executive vice president, Human Resources and Corporate Services, effective Jan. 1, 2023. Dugan has served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources, since 2020, and has held a variety of leadership roles since joining the carrier as a personal lines underwriter in 1992.

In addition to HR leadership and personal lines underwriting, Dugan has also had roles in reinsurance underwriting as well as technical training and development and instructional design. He was named vice president, Corporate Training and Development, in 2010; vice president, Recruiting in 2012; and vice president, Talent Acquisition and Community Outreach, in 2014; and in 2018, he became Corporate HR Officer.

Dugan will continue to report to NeCastro as EVP, and will continue to lead the HR function as well as the Corporate Services, Strategic Communications and Privacy teams in his new role.

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Chubb

Chubb has appointed Teresa Black Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer of North America Surety.

Based in New York, Black was previously Executive Vice President, Commercial Surety. In her new role, she will have responsibility for the underwriting, strategy and profitable growth of Commercial and Construction Surety business in North America.

Black will continue to report to Stephen Haney, Vice President Chubb Group, Division President, North America Surety.

According to a media statement, Chubb is the fifth largest surety underwriter in the U.S., representing more than 70 of the Engineering News Record top 400 contractors.

Black has 25 years of insurance industry experience and joined Chubb, then named ACE, Surety in 2013 as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. business. She also previously served as Senior Vice President, Distribution Management, Vice President, National Segment Leader for New York, and Assistant Vice President, Financial Lines.

Black is a member of the Board of Directors of the Spencer Educational Foundation.

Also on the rise at Chubb, with their promotions taking effect last week, are four executives in its North America Financial Lines Division: Jarrod Schlesinger is Chief Operating Officer; Scott Williams is Executive Vice President, Private/Not-for-Profit (PNP) Practice Leader and Chief Underwriting Officer; Jennifer Riley is Executive Vice President, Head of Digital Strategy & Operations; and Alissa Theberge is now Head of Learning & Development.

All four report to Michael Mollica, who was recently appointed Division President, North America Financial Lines.

In addition to his current responsibility leading Chubb’s North America Financial Lines Management Liability business, Schlesinger is now responsible for developing and executing the division’s operational strategies to optimize management and professional liability products and services across all distribution channels. He joined Chubb in 2009 and has more than two decades of insurance industry experience, most recently serving as Executive Vice President, Public Company Management Liability.

Williams, who also joined Chubb in 2009 and has nearly 15 years of industry experience, now has executive responsibility for all aspects of the division’s PNP underwriting, including field distribution, product development, and profit and loss performance.

Riley assumes executive responsibility for digital transformation with an initial focus on PNP, professional liability and cyber lines. She oversees the division’s overall digital strategy and production, including financial reporting, underwriting, and service center operations, along with profit and loss performance.

She has more than 25 years of industry experience with Chubb, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, National Segment & Distribution Leader, PNP Financial Lines.

Like Riley, Theberge has nearly 25 years of experience, all with Chubb., which she joined in 1998. Prior to her current role, she was Assistant Manager, Commercial Insurance, in the Underwriting Service Branch. She previously held Financial Lines leadership positions in Chubb’s PAC Wholesale division in Simsbury, Conn., and various underwriting and management positions in the financial lines retail operation in the Pacific Northwest.

In her new role, Theberge now oversees the development, coordination and execution of key learning programs across all levels of North America Financial Lines underwriting. As part of this work, she will identify and leverage opportunities to update, automate and enhance existing programs and tools to align with the division’s evolving risk underwriting and digital strategy. She will also retain her current role of Senior Vice President, accountable for the Financial Lines Underwriting Service Branch.

Sources: Erie Insurance, Chubb