RGEB Names Sakai to Head Executive Benefits in Southern California

November 8, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Woodland Hills, Calif.-based RGEB Employee Benefits named Michael Sakai to head the executive benefits department.

The new executive benefits Department will focus on providing life, disability and long term care insurance to RGEB’s clients, as well as other executives and business owners.

RGEB works with 300 groups with 8,000 employees.

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Former Massey Mine Executive to Enter Plea Next Month

December 14, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A former president of Massey Energy’s White Buck Coal Co. will enter a plea on federal conspiracy charges in January as prosecutors continue to investigate the 2010 explosion at another Massey operation that killed 29 men.

David C. Hughart is set to appear Jan. 16 before U.S. District Judge Irene Berger in Beckley.

Hughart is cooperating in the continuing investigation of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in Montcoal. The explosion at that Massey mine, now sealed but owned by Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources, was the worst U.S. coal mine disaster in four decades.

Prosecutors say Hughart worked with unnamed co-conspirators to ensure miners at White Buck and other, unidentified Massey-owned operations, got advance warning about surprise federal inspections many times between 2000 and March 2010.

They say that gave workers time to conceal life-threatening violations that could have led to citations and shutdowns.

Hughart faces two charges: felony conspiracy to defraud the government by impeding the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and misdemeanor conspiracy to violate mandatory health and safety standards. He faces as long as six years behind bars.

Hughart’s cooperation is a sign that authorities may be gathering evidence to target officials further up the Massey hierarchy. Some victims’ families hold former CEO Don Blankenship personally responsible, though prosecutors have declined to say who else could face charges in the wide-ranging and continuing probe.

Although Upper Big Branch is never directly mentioned in the case against Hughart, U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin has said the charges stem from that investigation. The nature of the allegations also parallel charges brought against those who were directly involved with UBB.

Hughart is the third person to face serious criminal charges in connection with Upper Big Branch.

Former superintendent Gary May is also cooperating with prosecutors. He was scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 17, but last week, Goodwin filed a motion to delay that.

May continues to provide important cooperation in the criminal probe, Goodwin said, adding that notable progress has already been made. Delaying his sentencing “will allow that progress to be extended and will avoid any risk to the investigation from the sentencing proceeding itself,” he said.

Former Massey security chief Hughie Elbert Stover, meanwhile, is appealing his conviction last fall on charges he lied to investigators and ordered a subordinate to destroy documents.

He was sentenced to three years behind bars

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Swiss Re Names Fürer, Dacey to Group Executive Committee

rer, currently head of the chief investment office, group chief investment officer and member of the Group executive committee. He succeeds David Blumer who is leaving the company.

Additionally, John R. Dacey, head of group strategy and strategic investments, has been named as a new member of the group executive committee. In addition, Dacey will become chairman of Swiss Re’s Admin Re business.

Fu

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N.Y.-Based WKFC Underwriting Managers Hires Executive Vice President

January 25, 2013Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Melville, N.Y.-based WKFC Underwriting Managers appointed Brian Specht as executive vice president, professional lines.

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ACE USA Appoints Executive Officer for Northeast Region

October 12, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

ACE USA, the U.S.-based retail operations of the ACE Group, appointed Mitchell Schmidt as senior vice president and regional executive officer for ACE USA’s Northeast region.

Schmidt will be based in Boston, and will be responsible for setting and driving the overall strategic direction for ACE USA’s Northeast region. He will work collaboratively with the Northeast regional team to oversee all business development, retention and underwriting activities, establish distribution strategies, and service delivery to middle and large account commercial customers. He will report to Ed Zaccaria, division president of ACE USA’s regional operations.

Karen Sothern, who has served as senior vice president and regional executive officer for ACE USA’s Northeast region since 2002, now assumes a new global role as change management officer for acquisitions, for the ACE Group, reporting to Evan Greenberg, chief executive officer of ACE Limited.

With more than 15 years in the insurance industry, Schmidt most recently served as senior vice president and national underwriting manager of ACE USA’s custom casualty and public entity units. He has held several senior underwriting positions at ACE, including serving as Western Zone manager, with responsibility for the excess liability and custom casualty product offerings for five of the nine ACE USA regions.

Schmidt joined ACE in 2003 from Chubb Insurance Group, where he held several branch and regional casualty management and underwriting positions, including Midwest regional excess casualty manager.

The ACE Group is one of the world’s largest multi-line property/casualty insurers. With operations in 53 countries, ACE provides commercial and personal property/casualty insurance, personal accident supplemental health insurance, reinsurance, and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. ACE Group is a division of Zurich, Switzerland-headquartered ACE Limited.

 

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White House Readies Executive Order on Cybersecurity

September 25, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle16 CommentsThe White House is preparing to direct federal agencies to develop voluntary cybersecurity guidelines for owners of power, water and other critical infrastructure facilities, according to people who said they had seen recent drafts of an executive order.

The prospective order would give the agencies 90 days to propose new regulations and create a new cybersecurity council at the Department of Homeland Security with representatives from the Defense Department, Justice Department, Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Commerce, a former government cyber-security official told Reuters.

“It tells those who have the ability to regulate to go forth and do so,” said the person, who is currently outside the government and spoke on condition of anonymity in order to preserve access to government officials.

The draft executive order includes elements of what had been the leading cybersecurity overhaul bill in the Senate, which was defeated this summer amid opposition from industries opposed to increased regulation.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, an independent and one of the principal authors of that bill, on Monday urged the White House to issue such an order.

“The Department of Homeland Security has clear authority, if directed by you, to conduct risk assessments of critical infrastructure, identify those systems or assets that are most vulnerable to cyber attack and issue voluntary standards for those critical systems or assets to maintain adequate cybersecurity,” Lieberman wrote to President Barack Obama.

The document has been circulating among the agencies and might go to top officials for their comments as soon as this week, another person involved in the process said.

A spokeswoman for the administration’s National Security Council, Caitlin Hayden, confirmed that an order was being considered but would not provide details. “We’re not commenting on the elements,” Hayden said.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE COOPERATION

Former White House cybersecurity policy coordinator Howard Schmidt said the proposed order would also ask DHS to confer with independent agencies, such as electric regulators and others that don’t answer to the president, to see who would take responsibility on cybersecurity.

The hope, said Schmidt, who has seen a recent draft, is that if those agencies won’t let DHS act they would do it themselves, as the Securities and Exchange Commission did in October when it issued guidance on when companies should disclose cyber attacks.

The Commerce Department and the Pentagon declined to comment. Spokespeople for Lieberman and for Senator John Rockefeller, another Democratic leader on the issue who has asked for an executive order, said their offices had not been given copies of the draft.

Cybersecurity has become a major issue in Congress and for the White House, with intelligence officials warning of constant exploration of protected computer systems by hackers and both past incursions and the likelihood of more damaging future attacks on electric plants, banks and stock exchanges.

As of two weeks ago, the planned order did not include any penalties for companies that fail to adhere to the standards. or rewards for those who do. “There are no carrots or sticks,” one person with a recent copy said.

If the order emerges before the election in November, it could become an issue in the campaign. Leading Republicans faulted the Lieberman bill as too onerous. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which also criticized that bill, declined to comment on Monday on the merits of a prospective order.

But Lieberman said his bill had been watered down in pursuit of a compromise and asked in his letter Monday that Obama explore means for making the standards mandatory.

Both Lieberman and administration officials have said they will still seek legislation, which could go further in many ways. It might, for example, provide liability protection for companies that share information with government officials or that meet the standards but still get hacked.

 

Copyright 2012 Reuters. Click for restrictions.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: National NewsTopics: federal cybersecurity legisaltion, Obama Administration cybersecurity executive order, Senate cybersecurity billHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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