CNA, QBE, Arcadia Settlements Make Personnel Changes

CNA has appointed Jose Ramon Gonzalez as executive vice president and general counsel.

Gonzalez will serve as the principal counsel for the Chicago based carrier, responsible for legal affairs, compliance, regulatory and government affairs, securities and litigation, and legal consultation to CNA’s business operations. He reports to Dino E. Robusto, chairman and chief executive officer.

“Jose has an impressive and expansive background in insurance law with more than two decades of in-house and private practice experience for a diverse set of global organization,” Robusto said in a press release.

Prior to joining CNA, Gonzalez served as chief legal officer for QBE North America, leading all legal, compliance, corporate governance and regulatory affairs for QBE’s U.S. operations. He also was a member of the Executive Committee and the Global Legal Leadership Team.

Gonzalez has also served in legal and counsel roles of increasing responsibility at Weil, Gotshal, and Manges; AIG; and Torus, a Bermuda-based commercial insurance organization.

Gonzalez earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law, and an LL.M. in European Union Law from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He also serves in leadership positions for numerous nonprofit organizations, including Latino Justice PRLDEF, the Association for Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA), the Bass Museum in Miami Beach, and the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce.

Arcadia Settlements Group announced changes in its top leadership, including the selection of a new chief executive officer and the election of two new vice chairmen.

Joe Costello is stepping downs CEO but will remaining active as CEO emeritus. He will be succeeded by Brad Cantwell, a 28-year Arcadia veteran who currently serves as president of the company.

The appointment will allow Cantwell to further focus on the long-term strategic direction of Arcadia and its distinct customer-service model of care, professionalism and industry-leading technology, the Greenwood, Colorado-based company said.

Len Blonder, who currently serves as a structured settlement consultant at Arcadia and acting board member of the National Structured Settlements Trade Association (NSSTA), has been promoted to vice chairman.

John McCulloch, current Arcadia consultant and vice president of advanced marketing for its parent company, Integrated Financial Statements, has also been promoted to vice chairman to represent Arcadia after 13 years of service to the company.

“Both Len and John are highly respected leaders in the industry, and we’re honored that they’ve joined our leadership team,” said Cantwell. “Their expertise and experience are critical as we expand our efforts to help protect more people who have been impacted by injury.

QBE North America announced that it has hired Risa Ryan as senior vice president—analytics to lead the development and delivery of analytic services.

Based in QBE’s New York office, Ryan will be responsible for strengthening QBE’s analytics strategy for North America and cultivating a team to drive the use of modeling and analysis methods, the carrier said in a press release.

“Nurturing a robust analytics ecosystem is critical to how we build for the future, respond to emerging market trends and help our customers manage risk from end to end with integrated solutions,” stated John Beckman, chief underwriting officer for QBE North America. “Among the many avenues we are exploring, we see great potential in mining internal and external data and applying machine learning, and we’re excited to have Risa help power our efforts.”

Prior to joining QBE, Ryan spent most of her career at Munich Re America, with her most recent role as head of strategy and analysis. She was featured in Business Insurance’s 2018 Women to Watch and Reaction’s 2018 Women in Insurance, and has had articles published in Best’s Review.

Ryan is pursuing a PhD at New Jersey Institute of Technology and holds a Master of Science in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from Temple University and a Certificate of Business Analytics from Cornell University.