People

APEX Investigation, a California-based business specializing in insurance, workers’ compensation, liability and human resource investigations, named Halsey Fischer president.

His responsibilities will include building relationships, overseeing day-to-day operations and managing corporate strategy.

Fischer comes to APEX with more than 21 years in the private investigations, insurance fraud and securities consulting fields. Prior to entering the investigating and security consulting arena, Fischer worked in the computer services and data processing industry.

Crawford & Co., a worldwide independent provider of claims management services, named Robert O’Brien vice president of account management for its U.S. property/casualty business. He will lead the business unit’s national and regional account management teams.

O’Brien has more than 30 years of experience in sales, technology, insurance and management, having held senior sales leadership and director level positions at Willis, HRH, Hobbs Group, ExecuTrain, Lotus Development and Tektronix.

Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network (CRDN), an international organization of textile restoration specialists serving the insurance industry, named Robert Murray national sales and operations manager.

Murray previously spent four years as a customer sales executive with The Hartford. His background includes advanced marketing and business development skills, as well as solid operational expertise.

W.R. Berkley Corp. named William M. Rohde Jr. senior vice president.

Previously, Rohde was president of Acadia Insurance Co., W.R. Berkley Corp.’s regional operating unit based in Westbrook, Maine.

Douglas M. Nelson will succeed Rohde as the new president of Acadia Insurance Co.

Rohde will assume oversight responsibilities for its regional operating units and report to W. Robert Berkley Jr., the company’s president and chief operating officer.

Rohde has more than 25 years of experience in the property/casualty industry.

CNA Select Risk, which includes excess and surplus business, as well as wholesale property accounts, appointed Rich Bladek assistant vice president of Select Risk – Casualty. He will be responsible for creating new strategies to drive profitable growth within the unit’s central region.

Bladek brings to CNA 12 years of insurance industry experience in commercial and personal lines, including extensive casualty underwriting experience. He most recently served as an underwriting manager in the Commercial Casualty division of Chartis.

As a result of current president and CEO David Moore’s retirement announcement effective Aug. 1, 2012, Shelter Insurance Companies named Rick Means, executive vice president and chief operating officer, president-elect as of Jan. 1, 2012.

Means will become president and CEO on Aug. 1, 2012. He will become immediately involved in all aspects of Shelter management during the transition process.

Means joined Shelter Insurance in May 1977 working in the claims department. He has served as vice president of claims, vice president of underwriting, and has been an executive vice president since 2007. His areas of responsibility have included marketing, information technology, Shelter benefits management, claims and underwriting.

Shelter Insurance is a group of companies with two direct personal lines property and casualty companies, a reinsurance company, a life and annuity insurer, and a thrift bank. Shelter offers auto, home, life, farm and business insurance services to customers in 16 states via a network of 3100 local insurance agents. The firm’s home office is located in Columbia, Mo.

XL Group PLC named Ken Riegler president of its North America Property & Casualty unit.

Riegler will be based in New York and report to Seraina Maag, XL’s CEO for North America Property & Casualty.

Riegler joins XL from ACE USA, where he served as president of the Foreign Casualty group and the North American Multi National Client Group, operating out of home offices in New York and Philadelphia, and managing nine regional and six satellite offices.

Prior to his recent position, he was responsible for ACE Risk Management’s business throughout the Western half of the US.

Before joining ACE in 1999, Riegler held regional management and underwriting positions with Reliance National and New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company.

In a separate announcement, Jay Lefkowitz was appointed to a newly created position as head of U.S. Risk Management.

Lefkowitz is based in New York and reports to Riegler. Lefkowitz will direct the group’s U.S. Risk Management team, which provides auto liability, general liability and workers’ compensation coverage to US-based businesses.

Lefkowitz joins XL from ACE Risk Management, where he most recently served as president of National Accounts, managing all aspects of underwriting, claims, audits and adjustment, staffing, account retention and production. Prior to joining ACE in 1999, he was vice president of AIG’s Risk Management group, where he formed the company’s M&A group which was a multi-line insurance products group catering to private equity firms and their portfolio companies.

Lefkowitz’s 20-plus-year insurance career also includes underwriting positions with CNA, Atlantic Mutual and Home Insurance Company.

York Risk Services Group, a claims administration and risk management services provider, announced that Pat Mulcahy has joined the company as vice president of sales for its south central territory.

Mulcahy will have responsibility for sales, marketing and business development activities for York’s Risk Management, Alternative Risk and Public Entity divisions in seven states. He is based in Dallas.

Before joining York, Mulcahy held a variety of executive sales and marketing positions, most recently serving as director of sales for national accounts for a third-party claims administrator in Texas.

Cunningham Lindsey, a Texas-based provider of independent loss adjusting and claims management services, promoted Chuck Stoll, Joe Christie and Lynn Summers to protŽgŽ in its international and executive loss adjusting division.

Stoll has more than 36 years of loss adjusting experience. He earned the professional designations of Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter, Associate in Claims and Associate in General Insurance, and is a Registered Professional Adjuster. He is based in Lombard, Ill.

Christie has 21 years of experience and has expertise in commercial and residential property and casualty, including specialty areas of HVAC, plumbing, electrical and mechanical-based losses.

Summers has more than 23 years of loss adjusting and management experience, including property, casualty, environmental casualty, and workers’ compensation.

RLI Corp. a specialty insurance company offering a property and casualty coverages and surety bonds serving niche or underserved markets, named Carol Denzer vice president, underwriting, Contrac Pac, effective January 1, 2012.

Denzer will report to Paul Simoneau, vice president of RLI Casualty Brokerage, and will be responsible for leading the growth of Contrac Pac, a product RLI gained through its recent acquisition of CBIC.

Denzer has 24 years of experience at RLI and began her career with the company in 1987 as a reinsurance accountant. She has held various positions within the organization and has served as vice president and chief information officer since 2006.

Most recently, she led the integration efforts associated with RLI’s acquisition of Contractors Bonding and Insurance Company in April 2011.

Employers, a nationwide small-business insurance specialist, announced that Stephen V. Festa, senior vice president and chief claims officer, was named vice chair to the board of governors of the California Insurance Guarantee Association (CIGA), a body that pays the claims of insolvent property and casualty insurance carriers.

Prior to being named vice chair, Festa most recently served as the CIGA board’s secretary and treasurer.

Festa first joined the CIGA board in 2009, representing Employers as an insurer member. He remains the only C-level claims executive to serve on the board.

Festa has served as senior vice president and chief claims officer of Employers Insurance Company of Nevada and Employers Compensation Insurance Co. since 2004. She has more than 25 years of industry experience.

The Austin, Texas, claims facility of State Auto Insurance, now operational, named Sandra Robinson claims supervisor.

Robinson has 30 years of experience as an all lines adjuster with management and litigation experience.

Prior to State Auto, she was employed with Texas Property & Casualty Guaranty Insurance Association, Texas Department of Insurance, Allstate, Providence Washington Group and Marsh & McLennan. Robinson also has third-party administration experience with several leading companies.