Telematics firm Octo Group appointed a new CEO. Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance expanded its leadership team in France. QBE North America named a new head of Surety. Alliant hired a new regional vice president.

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Nicola Veratelli has been appointed chief executive at Octo Group, a global telematics provider with a focus on auto insurers and an eye on expanding into other industries.

She replaces company founder Fabio Sbianchi, who stepped down as CEO in July 2019 after 17 years and remains as a member of the board of directors, according to his LinkedIn page.

Octo said the company’s new CEO is part of an ongoing restructuring process as it expands into new industries in Europe and the Americas. Founded in 2002, Octo provides telematics and data analytics products and services for auto insurers, as well as fleet management services.

Before Octo, Veratelli was senior vice president of Operations & Supply Chain at Hertz, based in London. She also worked previously in leadership roles at Rio Tinto Alcan, Eaton Corporation, LyondellBasell and Glaxo SmithKline.

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Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance said it has expanded its leadership team in France.

BHSI named Katell Pouliquen as head of Claims, Louis du Ché as head of Property and Ludovic Ruiller as head of Environmental for the division’s operations in the country.

Pouliquen, a 15-year industry veteran, has spent most of her career moving through increasingly senior claims positions at AIG Europe in Paris, where she was most recently deputy head of Claims.

Du Ché comes to his role as head of Property with more than a decade of insurance industry experience, most recently as Global Property manager, Benelux, at AIG Europe Limited. Before that, he held increasingly senior roles in property insurance at other major insurers in France.

Ruiller has nearly 20 years of environmental experience, spanning both technical consulting and underwriting. He was most recently Environmental Risks line manager, France & Benelux, at Axa XL. Before that, he spent 12 years specializing in environmental risk underwriting at AIG Europe and ASSURPOL in France.

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QBE North America, an Integrated Specialist Insurer, named Charles Cygal as head of Surety.

Cygal will be responsible for growing the Surety business and fostering strong relationships with QBE’s producers. At the same time, he’ll be dedicated to driving profitable growth and leveraging the team’s deep technical expertise to provide surety bonding products and services for customers.

Cygal, with nearly 20 years of surety experience, was most recently at Ironshore Insurance Services, where he was the vice president/director of Surety, Political Risk and Trade Credit for close to a decade. He also held management roles at AIG Surety and began his insurance career at Chubb Surety. He’s worked with both middle-market and Fortune 500 companies and has experience developing surety lines of business.

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John Riley joined Alliant as vice president within the firm’s office in White Plains, N.Y., with a focus on serving clients with operations in the Northeast and across the globe.

Over 20 years in the industry, Riley has become one of the manufacturing sector’s foremost risk and insurance experts, specializing in risk management for temperature-sensitive goods, Alliant said.

Before joining Alliant, Riley was regional director (Northeast) with the global insurance brokerage and consulting firm Gallagher, according to his LinkedIn page.

Sources: Octo Group, BHSI, QBE North America and Alliant