West Des Moines, IA, Aug. 25, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GuideOne National announced that Nigel Spain has been appointed to the position of Head of Global Technical Property and Randy Thompson has been appointed Senior Risk Engineer, effective immediately. In these roles, Spain is responsible for leading the commercial property team in the wholesale surplus lines arena, while Thompson will support our Specialty underwriting team with account reviews and provide field engineering and loss control services to our customers.
GuideOne President & Chief Executive Officer, Jessica Snyder, says, “Our continued growth and success in Specialty relies on hiring top-notch people, including best-in-class underwriters and risk managers. With these two hires, we are further strengthening an already strong team. Mark has done a tremendous job of bringing in the right talent to profitably grow this book of business and put GuideOne on the Specialty map. As part of our long-term diversification and profitability strategy, we are firmly committed to this space.”
Spain joins GuideOne National from Navigators Insurance, a brand of The Hartford, where he served as Underwriting Director for their Special Property Division. In that role, he was responsible for leading a team of specialty underwriters focused on surplus lines commercial business. Prior to that, Spain held management roles with Colony Insurance, part of the Argo Group, and with Maiden Specialty. His career began in the Lloyd’s community in London, which culminated in a directorship of the wholesale operations of Marsh & McLennan. Spain comes from a historic insurance family, descending directly from Sir John Luscombe, the first Working Chairman of Lloyd’s in 1902.
Randy brings more than 30 years of loss prevention, fire protection and safety engineering experience, with 20+ years in industry, 10 years of that in personnel and project management and 10 years of commercial property insurance risk engineering. Prior to joining GuideOne, Randy owned his own risk consulting company and then worked as a Senior Risk Consultant for a global risk consulting firm. He is an active member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and has been a Principal Voting Member on the NFPA 318 – Semiconductor Protection – Standard Technical Committee for two different companies over a period of 10 years. Throughout his career, Randy has played pivotal roles in developing and / or piloting the use of new risk assessment tools and methodologies including one in the commercial property insurance industry.
GuideOne National Senior Vice President of Specialty, Mark Groenheide, says, “The technical property sector will further expand the company’s specialty focus by extending underwriting activities more deeply into the infrastructure, construction and energy industries. We are fortunate to have Nigel join our team and lead this area, as he is a highly experienced and respected underwriting leader.”
Spain adds, “I am excited to join the GuideOne National team and utilize my years of experience to help build the Technical Property division into a market force. This is an exciting and challenging time in our industry, and it's an honor to join Mark and my new colleagues, and help lead us in this new initiative. Profitable premium growth is key and I will use my acumen to target the necessary risk selection.”
On Thompson’s hiring, Nadir Durrani, Head of Risk Engineering, says, “Randy’s addition to the GuideOne National Risk Engineering team perfectly aligns with our goal to provide exceptional technical consultative support and build long-term relationships with our clients who trust our expertise enough to pick up the phone and ask for engineering support. With over three decades of field engineering experience serving a broad range of Energy and Technical sectors, Randy will be a perfect resource to service our internal and external clients."
Groenheide adds, “We are making investments to become more than just a capacity provider. As we continue to grow and evolve, we want to continue to share our expertise in risk engineering within our specialized classes of business. Under Nadir’s leadership, we have established GuideOne National as a relevant player who provides valuable insights to its clients.”
Randy says, “Joining the Specialty team is especially exciting at this point in my career. I truly believe that everything I have worked on and accomplished so far has led me here, so that I can put my experience and knowledge to work to support the team in moving forward by leaps and bounds. Working closely with people I already know and respect, along with building new relationships, will help me to push the envelope and accomplish more than before. GuideOne is poised for a great future, and I want to be a part of it!”
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About GuideOne National
GuideOne National is a specialty insurance subsidiary of GuideOne Mutual Insurance Company. Rated “A-“(Excellent) by industry analyst A.M. Best, GuideOne is licensed in all 50 states as an excess & surplus carrier. GuideOne’s corporate headquarters are located in West Des Moines, Iowa.
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