Who will be who in the Intact commercial specialty crew

Intact Financial Corp. announced Tuesday some key executive appointments in its commercial specialty and managing general agent business.

Effective Jan. 1, Carla Smith will be senior vice president of specialty solutions for Intact.

Pete Weightman, currently Intact’s senior vice president of specialty solutions and surety, will have responsibility for all managing general agent operations at Intact, also effective Jan. 1.

Smith is currently Intact’s senior vice president of corporate development, responsible for mergers and acquisitions.

“Drawing on her strong operational background in claims, direct distribution and broker channels, Carla will focus on growing and expanding Intact’s specialty solutions distribution channel and strengthening relationships with brokers,” stated Intact, which recently closed its acquisition of both The Guarantee Company of North American and managing general agent Frank Cowan Company Limited. Not included in that deal was retail brokerage Cowan Insurance Group, which is still owned by Cambridge, Ont.-based Princeton Holdings.

Weightman will be taking on a newly created role of senior vice president and chief underwriting officer, specialty solutions, North America.

The new appointments come two years after Intact acquired OneBeacon Insurance Group Ltd., a Minnesota-based carrier that writes liability, ocean and inland marine, commercial multiperil and surety, among other lines.

Mike Miller’s role is unchanged. Miller, former president and CEO of OneBeacon, remains as Intact’s president of U.S. and specialty solutions. Also remaining in his current role is Paul Brehm, senior vice president of specialty, a company spokesperson told Canadian Underwriter Tuesday.

A third appointment – the promotion of Ken Anderson to senior vice president of investor relations and corporate development – also takes effect Jan. 1.

Smith has worked at Intact since she joined the firm in 1999 in Vancouver. She had a leading role in several initiatives, including the integration of Grey Power and the acquisition and integration of Canadian Direct Insurance.

She has also held the role of deputy senior vice president of claims for Ontario.

Don Fox, then executive vice president of Intact Financial, left the company this past May, Intact announced earlier. At the time Fox had led Intact Financial’s investment management, corporate legal, corporate development, audit and finance functions.

Two years ago, Jean-Francois Blais, then president of Intact Insurance, retired. Since then, Louis Gagnon has been Intact’s president of Canadian operations – responsible for all of the firm’s entities in Canada, including Intact Insurance, belairdirect, Anthony Insurance and BrokerLink.

Blais had been CEO of AXA’s Canadian operations until 2011, when it was acquired by Intact.

The 30 executive management members listed on Intact’s website include: CEO Charles Brindamour, who has also served on the board of directors since 2008; Joe D’Annunzio, senior vice president, BrokerLink; Patrick Barbeau, senior vice president, claims; Darren Godfrey, senior vice president, personal lines; Alain Lessard, senior vice president, commercial lines; chief financial officer Louis Marcotte; Anne Fortin, senior vice president, direct distribution and chief marketing officer; and Lynn O’Leary, former general counsel of OneBeacon, who is now Intact’s chief operations officer, specialty solutions.