People News: MEMIC, BSA, QBE

John T. Leonard, the first and only president and CEO in the history of The MEMIC Group, announced his intent to retire, effective September of 2017.

Leonard was recruited to help start the company in 1993, taking his position as president in the first few weeks of the fledgling operation. Under Leonard’s direction the company grew from a line of credit loan and operating only in Maine to a company with assets of more than $1.2 billion and offices from Maine to Florida. Now, The MEMIC Group (led by the original parent company Maine Employers’ Mutual Insurance Company) provides workers’ compensation insurance to more than 21,000 employers up and down the East Coast, maintains a surplus of more than $400 million, and has returned more than $220 million to policyholders since 1998.

The company grew out of a reform of workers’ compensation laws in Maine in 1992. It is a private mutual insurance company, with its initial funding entirely through loans and insurance premiums. The company opened its doors in a small office in Westbrook, Maine in late 1992 and wrote its first policy on January 1, 1993.

Following an exodus of insurers during the unsettled time before the reform in Maine, MEMIC was established as the guaranteed market for workers’ compensation.

Establishing a plan to reduce costs in Maine by reducing injuries, the company’s “partnership for workplace safety” campaign was highlighted by Leonard as company spokesman who made the case that employers and employees could work together to make workplaces safer. By 1998, lost time injuries in the state had fallen by more than 30 percent and costs for workers’ compensation insurance reduced by about 40 percent.

According to MEMIC Board Chair David Labbe, the company’s Board of Directors has been prepared for Leonard’s eventual retirement and has a plan to hire his successor. The company’s board has formed a search committee and expects to attract candidates internally and externally.

Brentwood Services Administrators Inc. recently named Steven Spampinato as a new senior claim representative in the Raleigh, N.C., office, according to Jeff Pettus, president and chief executive officer of BSA.

As senior claim representative, Spampinato is responsible for reviewing, processing and handling medical workers’ compensation claims as assigned by Shirley Girard, senior claims supervisor. Spampinato determines the compensability of the claim and extent of liability, as well as communicates directly with clients, employers, injured workers, physicians and attorneys, and manages claims in a timely and economic manner.

Prior to joining BSA, Spampinato worked for CorVel Corporation in Raleigh, N.C., as a claim specialist. He holds a North Carolina adjuster license.

QBE North America, an operating division of global insurer QBE Insurance Group Limited, announced the appointment of Kris L. Hill as chief financial officer. She will assume her new role effective January 17, 2017, and also serve as a member of the QBE North America Executive Management Board. Hill will relocate with her family at the end of the school year in 2017, and be based in New York City.

At QBE, Hill will be responsible for leading the company’s North American Finance organization, including business segment actuarial and financial teams, and the accounting management and tax functions. She will report directly to Russell Johnston, chief executive officer, QBE North America.

She succeeds Richard Dziadzio, who served as chief financial officer from July 2013 to July 2016. Dziadzio subsequently was appointed chief financial officer of Assurant in June 2016.

With more than 25 years of insurance operations and financial leadership positions, Hill most recently served as executive vice president, Field Operations, at Liberty Mutual, Surety, after having served for nearly four years as senior vice president, chief financial officer, Liberty Mutual, Surety, and three years as senior vice president, Chief Financial Officer at Liberty Mutual Safeco Insurance. She previously held several positions of increasing responsibility in accounting, finance and operations at Safeco Corporation, Northstar Communications and Aetna Life & Casualty.