The Hartford said it will head into 2024 with new heads of commercial and personal lines and announced additional leadership changes. Markel announced that president of global insurance operations is leaving.

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A. Morris “Mo” Tooker, who joined The Hartford in 2015 as chief underwriting officer and later became head of middle market, was promoted to head of Commercial Lines effective March 1, 2024.

He will lead Small Commercial in addition to retaining his oversight of Middle & Large commercial, global specialty and enterprise Sales & Distribution. The Hartford said Tooker played a critical role in the successful integration of the Navigators acquisition and drove product innovation and underwriting excellence.

Melinda Thompson was named head of Personal Lines, also effective March 1. She is currently chief operating officer for personal lines, having been with The Hartford since 1998 when she was a commercial lines underwriter.

In her current role, Thompson has overseen the country-wide rollout of the company’s new Prevail personal auto and homeowner’s products, which feature digital capabilities and a cloud-based policy administration system.

Additionally, The Hartford promoted Chris Jones to head of Small Commercial and Tracey Ant to head of Middle & Large Commercial. Both will report to Tooker.

Stephanie Bush, presently head of Small Commercial and Personal Lines, will retire after more than three decades with the company.

Don Hunt, currently The Hartford’s deputy general counsel and corporate secretary, was named general counsel and head of Law, Compliance & Government Affairs. He will succeed David Robinson, who will retire after 17 years at the company.

Hunt joined The Hartford in 2007 and has held roles of increasing responsibility, leading legal teams responsible for securities and corporate governance, M&A, investments, employment and employee benefits, intellectual property and privacy.

“These new appointments validate our strategic approach to succession planning and executive development and showcase the company’s outstanding pipeline of talent,” said CEO Christopher Swift.

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Markel, the insurance operations within Markel Group Inc., announced today that Bob Cox, President and Chief Operating Officer, Global Insurance Operations, will be leaving his role Dec. 31, after five years leading successful, profitable growth strategies for the company’s global insurance operations.

Cox joined Markel in 2018 to oversee Markel’s global insurance operations—its Markel Specialty and Markel International divisions. Prior to joining Markel, he held executive leadership insurance positions, including extensive experience in all areas of specialty and commercial property and casualty insurance for more than three decades, Markel said.

With Cox’s departure, Markel’s Specialty and International insurance divisions will report directly to Jeremy Noble, President.

Simon Wilson, President Markel International, Alex Martin, President, Markel Specialty, and Bryan Sanders, Chairman, Markel Specialty, will report to Noble effective December 31.

Noble noted that Cox “has built a strong foundation” positioning the insurance operations for long-term, profitable growth, and credited Cox with evolving Markel’s products, broadening its distribution channels, and enhancing its global operations.

“The further alignment of our operations positions us to increase our market presence, better leverage the full platform of our services and offerings and strengthen our focus on building the leading global specialty insurer,” Noble said in a media statement.