ACE Announces Future Leadership Team for North American Claims Organization

ACE Limited announced the future claims leadership team it intends to appoint for the company’s North America Insurance division. The appointments will take effect upon completion of the acquisition of Chubb, which is expected in the first quarter of next year.

Jeffrey J. Miller will serve as executive vice president, senior claims officer, North America – Casualty, Workers Compensation and Accident & Health. Currently, Miller is senior vice president, Worldwide Third Party Claim Manager and senior claim legal officer for Chubb.

Douglas Poetzsch will serve as executive vice president, senior claims officer, North America – Property and Professional Liability. Currently, Poetzsch is executive vice president and head of North American Claims for ACE.

Miller and Mr. Poetzsch will have executive responsibility for all aspects of claims management for the North America Insurance division, which as previously announced will be led by John Lupica, who will serve as vice chairman of the new Chubb Group and co-president of the North America Insurance division, and Dino E. Robusto, who will serve as executive vice president of the new Chubb Group and co-president of the North America Insurance division.

Miller and Mr. Poetzsch will be responsible for executing the company’s overall claims strategy for the division’s six major business units, including National Accounts, Middle Market, Small Commercial, Personal Insurance, Wholesale/Excess and Surplus Lines, and Agriculture. They will also have responsibility for establishing claims processes and protocols required to serve policyholders and the company’s distribution network of agents and brokers. They will jointly report to Robusto and Frank Lattal, chief claims officer for ACE Group who as previously announced will continue to serve in that role.

Technical Practice Towers Leadership

The North American claims organization will be organized by major product line with four Technical Practice Towers: Property, Casualty, Professional Liability, and Workers Compensation and A&H. The executives leading each tower will be responsible for overall claims adjudication within their technical tower including claims quality; execution of the company’s claims strategy including delivery of superior claims service; establishing best practices; and claim outcomes. Each executive will also be responsible for managing and developing the technical tower claims staff in collaboration with senior claims officers and regional claim managers. The tower leaders will also play a key role in integrating technical resources of the combined ACE-Chubb organization.

William C. Turnbull, Jr. will serve as senior vice president and lead the Property Technical Practice Tower. In this role, in addition to commercial property claims, Turnbull will also be responsible for the vast majority of high net worth personal lines homeowner property and first party automobile claims. Currently senior vice president, Worldwide First Party Claim Manager for Chubb, Turnbull will report to Poetzsch.

Norm Rafsol will serve as executive vice president and lead the Professional Lines Technical Practice Tower. Currently executive vice president, senior claims officer, Professional Risk Claims for ACE, Rafsol will report to Poetzsch.

Jeff Block will serve as senior vice president and lead the Workers Compensation and A&H Technical Practice Tower. Currently senior vice president, senior claims officer, Workers Compensation and A&H Claims for ACE, Block will report to Miller.

Miller will lead the Casualty Technical Practice Tower in addition to his role as senior claims officer. He will also be responsible for the North American House Counsel, Chubb’s captive law firm that will be integrated with the combined company.

Regional Claims Management Leadership

David P. Mc Keon will serve as senior vice president and lead the Regional Claims Management field organization. Currently, Mc Keon is senior vice president, Eastern Claim Territory Manager for Chubb. He will be responsible for aligning the claims organization with the business plans and objectives of the company’s Regional Executive Officers and Regional Chief Operating Officers and managing the company’s claims relationships with local agents, brokers and customers. Mc Keon will also act as a key decision maker and escalation point for claims service issues, supporting senior claims officers and Technical Practice Tower leaders in staff management and executing key claims initiatives. He will report to Miller.

Claim Service Centers Leadership

Clyde Douglas will serve as senior vice president and lead the company’s four North American Claims Service Centers in Chesapeake, Va., O’Fallon, Mo., Phoenix and Simsbury, Conn. Douglas is currently senior vice president, chief claims officer, for ACE Private Risk Services. He will have executive responsibility for intake and registration of all First Notices of Loss and customer inquiries as well as final adjudication of all service center claims, which will represent more than half of the total claim volume in the new North American organization. He will report to Poetzsch.

North American Claims Operations Leadership

Susan Watts will serve as senior vice president and lead operations for all North American Claims. Watts is currently senior vice president, global claim center manager for Chubb. She will oversee claims operational processing and support with matrixed responsibility for field and operations staff in the Claim Service Centers. In addition, Watts will be responsible for shared services, including third party administrator oversight, claims accounting, reporting and compliance; oversight and coordination with Group Claims of quality assurance, counter-fraud, recovery and the legal bill audit teams; and training and licensing. Watts will also assume executive claims oversight responsibility for the combined company’s Canadian claims organization. She will report to Poetzsch.

Multinational Claims Leadership

Krista Glenn will serve as senior vice president and lead the Multinational Claims team. She is currently senior vice president, senior claims officer, Multinational Claims, for ACE. She will have responsibility for the coordination of claims for global accounts; executive oversight of North American claims handled in territories outside the U.S.; management of the team responsible for claims commenced in the U.S. from the company’s international customers; and marketing and relationship building with the company’s Global Accounts, Client Advisory Board and National Accounts customers. She will report to Miller.

Bermuda and Brandywine Holdings Claims Leadership

The claims operations for Bermuda, which will include the integrated operations of ACE Bermuda and Chubb Atlantic, will continue to be run by Jeff Trimarchi, senior vice president, Claims and claims counsel for ACE, and report to Lattal and Joseph S. Clabby, who as previously announced will serve as division president, Bermuda and Global Accounts. Brandywine Holdings, which comprises the North American run-off operations of ACE, will continue to be run by Bob Omrod, president, Brandywine Holdings, and report to Lupica and Lattal.

“Claims is the fundamental promise of what we sell in every insurance product,” said Evan G. Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer, ACE Group. “ACE and Chubb share a passion and discipline for underwriting excellence as well as outstanding quality claims and loss control service. I have every confidence in the experience, vision and commitment of this team to lead a claims organization that is unparalleled in the industry.”

“Our future claims leadership team demonstrates the depth of experience of the combined company and truly represents the best of both Chubb and ACE,” said Lattal.

“There is nothing more important to clients than having their claim handled fairly and promptly. We stake our reputation on this every day,” said Paul J. Krump, who as previously announced will serve as executive vice president for Global Underwriting and Claims for the parent company. “This claims leadership team understands what it takes to deliver superior claims service and will be ready to hit the ground running.”

Source: ACE Limited