What’s New: In Brief (December 16, 2008)

Norm Angrove has been appointed senior manager of value-added programs with PPG Automotive Refinish.
Angrove will be responsible for marketing the CertifiedFirst and MVP programs in North America effective Jan. 1, 2009.
He will lead the strategic direction of CertifiedFirst in North America, the Platinum jobber program and marketing communications in Canada.
Angrove joined PPG Canada in 2005 as national strategic development manager. Most recently, he has been the regional manager of Central Canada.
He has more than 30 years of experience in the industry, including expertise in OEM parts marketing, automotive PBE distribution, collision centre marketing programs, collision repair banner networks and collision centre consolidation.

The United Kingdom insurance market will continue to experience both increasing claims burdens (fraud and legal fees) and the emergence of new claims burdens (environmental threats, terrorism and product recalls) in 2009, according to Aon.
Aon is warning both insurers and companies facing renewals to brace themselves for the top claims hot spots. They include:
• higher claims costs due to legal fees;
• increased insurance fraud as the recession takes hold, leading to delayed claims settlements and greater bureaucracy;
• new sources of liability from unexpected exposures, such as emerging and unproven technologies, more product contamination issues and liabilities from financial derivatives;
• more extensive environmental pollution claims as environmental awareness and regulation increases; and
• terrorist/piracy attacks affecting commerce worldwide and possibly stifling trade.