Phoenix Companies appoints new executive VP

Mark Griffin joined the Phoenix Companies Inc. (NYSE:PNX) as executive vice president and chief risk officer.

Griffin is responsible for overall leadership, vision and direction for enterprise risk management.  He reports to James D. Wehr, president and chief executive officer.

Griffin previously head of financial planning and analysis for Mass Mutual Financial. Prior to that, he served as chief investment officer and chief risk officer for Genworth Financial, chief risk manager for GE Insurance and held senior positions at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Griffin earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Ontario and holds the following professional designations: Fellow, Society of Actuaries, Financial Risk Manager, Chartered Financial Analyst, Certified Enterprise Risk Analyst, Society of Actuaries, and Professional Risk Manager.

In other industry news:

Securian Financial Group’s new group life annual premium rose 16 percent to $254 million. Premium revenue exceeds $1.9 billion and insurance in force stands at $817 billion.

Securian’s group life customer retention rate in 2013 was 96 percent.

Cooper, Claridge-Ware Limited, an international insurance brokerage headquartered in Hong Kong, is rebranding as CCW Global Limited in line with its growing worldwide presence as a provider of comprehensive international health insurance and international life insurance products.

The name CCW Global Limited is the company’s official brand as of Feb. 14, 2014 and replaces the broker’s current branding, including the registered trademark Cooper, Claridge-Ware Limited which will continue to be owned by the organization.

The change from Cooper Claridge-Ware to CCW Global will have no impact on the overall operations of the business and the company expects to finalize its rebranding operations by the end of March 2014.

Digital Insurance hired long-time insurance experts Nancy Hill and Chris Schutt.

Hill will direct Digital’s Customer Advocate Center, and Schutt is the appointed managing principal of the Virginia office of Digital Benefit Advisors (DBA), a growing division of Digital with 24 offices across the country.

With more than 25 years of experience managing customer service teams and call center operations, Hill worked with Honeywell HBS/SGS, serving as operations manager of the Global Service Response Center. Prior to that, she managed the Customer Contact Information Center for Charitis (AIG) Insurance. In addition, Hill served as director of customer service at Fresh Express, project manager for the City of Atlanta and senior project manager for The Coca-Cola Company.

As managing principal of the Virginia office of Digital Benefit Advisors (DBA), Schutt will focus on delivering strategic products and services to clients in the mid-Atlantic region. He also is responsible for guiding a 45-member team which operates out of Richmond, Charlottesville and Roanoke.