AVRECO - Your Specialty Risk Professionals

Bill Yurek is President of AVRECO with specific responsibility for all professional liability business and the day-to-day operations of AVRECO.

Mr. Yurek was introduced to the special risk insurance field in 1974 while working on a Lloyd's training program at Willis Faber & Dumas, Ltd. in London, England. At Willis Faber, he was taught the history of Lloyd's and various policy wordings and forms. After training was completed, Mr. Yurek worked in the North American department of Willis Faber placing property and casualty business including unique policies.

After graduating from FairLeigh Dickinson University with a B.S. in Business Administration, Mr. Yurek joined Interstate National Corporation/George F. Brown & Sons in 1975. He developed a $12,000,000 premium book of business over the next two years for hospital professional liability.

In November 1977, Mr. Yurek joined AVRECO, bringing with him a majority of the hospital business. In 1979, he was promoted to Assistant Vice President at AVRECO and Second Vice President at International Reinsurance Service, a sister company of AVRECO. Mr. Yurek also put together reinsurance programs for Hospital Owned Captives, including coverage for individual doctors. In 1984, he was promoted to Vice President in charge of all professional liability for AVRECO, including AVRECO's New York office. In 1987, the hospital professional liability business had risen to $39.8 million and included over 200 hospitals. In April 1988, Mr. Yurek was promoted to Executive Vice President to be in charge of the day-to-day operations of AVRECO. In 1998, Mr. Yurek was promoted to President.

In 2004 Mr. Yurek graduated from Northwestern University with a Masters of Science for Communication Systems and Strategies.

Mr. Yurek is a member of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society, the American Society for Health Care Risk Management and the Healthcare Financial Management Association and is past Vice-Chairman of the Association of Lloyd's Brokers.

Prior to moving to Bermuda in 2001, Joe spent six years with Marsh in Chicago where he was responsible for the group that placed all excess workers compensation & employers liability coverage for qualified self-insured clients.

Joe Started his insurance career at Johnson & Higgins in New York before moving to Hartford and ultimately joining Marsh & McLennan, Inc. in Stamford, CT, in 1992. His expertise is in the casualty arena with Fortune 1000 clients.

Peter Upjohn
Vice-President
Non-Medical Professional Liability

Peter Upjohn has almost 30 years of experience in the insurance field. He is responsible for the majority of the professional liability lines of coverage handled by AVRECO, including directors & officers, errors & omissions, employment practices, and fiduciary. Mr. Upjohn began his career in the American Non-Marine Casualty department at Willis Faber & Dumas, Ltd. in London, England, where he was responsible for placing excess liability coverage with underwriters at Lloyds of London and British companies. This experience provided Mr. Upjohn with valuable knowledge of the London Market, brokers, and underwriters.

Mr. Upjohn continued his career at Johnson & Higgins, where he was eventually promoted to Vice-President. His responsibilities included marketing and maintaining coverage for several Fortune 500 companies, production of additional business from existing clients, training of younger brokers and interns and overall management of several accounts (all lines).

Prior to joining AVRECO in 1998, Mr. Upjohn was Executive Vice-President and an equity partner at A. J. Renner & Associates, Inc., where difficult-to-place risks were a large part of his book of business. He was instrumental in building the firm’s professional liability premium volume to approximately $10 million.

Mr. Upjohn is a member of P.L.U.S. (Professional Liability Underwriters Society) and N.A.P.S.L.O. ( National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices, Ltd). He also holds his Illinois Producers and Surplus Lines licenses.

Ms. Hearlston-Clark began her career with Maryland Casualty Company in 1974, where she gained valuable experience in the industry. In 1985, she joined Lodderhose Inc., serving as administrative manager, assistant vice president, and facultative broker. During her employment at Lodderhose, Ms. Hearlston-Clark assisted in opening the New York treaty office and played a major part in opening international offices in both Miami and Mexico.

In January 1988, Ms. Hearlston-Clark joined AVRECO, where she has created several property programs and expanded the brokerage to include a very successful in-house property underwriting facility.

After working 23 years with Illinois R.B. Jones, Linda Deiss joined AVRECO in 1992, where she presently manages the Professional Liability Underwriting Department.

In 1974, Ms. Deiss became the first female American agent to work at Lloyd’s. Throughout her career, she has managed various Lloyd’s facilities for such classes as Architects and Engineers, Design and Build Contractors, Construction Managers, Real Estate Agents and Appraisers, Accountants, Employment Practices Liability, Lawyers, Miscellaneous E&O, Seedsmen’s E&O, and the most recent program, PL/GL for Assisted and Independent Living Facilities.

In addition to her considerable industry experience, Ms. Deiss holds both an M.S. degree in Mathematics from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Lewis University. Ms. Deiss is currently Chair of the Board of Directors for the Association of Lloyd’s Brokers and is one of the editors of the Association’s newsletter. She is also a member of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society and is a licensed property/casualty and life/health insurance producer.

Prior to working at AVRECO, Mr. Clark gained valuable experience underwriting primary property and casualty accounts, property facultative reinsurance, and treaty property reinsurance at several well-known companies. He last served as Senior Vice President at Walton Risk services, where he produced $8 million in property and package business in all 50 states and was responsible for the supervision of 3 underwriters and two technical assistants.

Mr. Clark attended Southern Illinois University and the Insurance Institute of America, and holds both his Illinois Producers License and his Illinois Surplus Lines License.

Greg Schrom
Senior Vice-President
Western Regional Manager

Greg Schrom, Senior Vice President at AVRECO's new California office, AVRECO San Diego, is responsible for the development of all lines of business in California and the Southwest market. Mr. Schrom, who joined AVRECO in October 2005, currently brokers all lines for the Southwestern US.

Mr. Schrom's 18 years in the insurance industry include experience in underwriting, product development, regulatory affairs, project management, distribution management, and marketing. Originally trained in general commercial P&C underwriting at The Hartford, Mr. Schrom comes to AVRECO from Fireman's Fund Specialty, where he worked for the past nine years in such leadership roles as Marketing Manager and Program Manager for various professional liability products.

Mr. Schrom holds a B.A. in Economics from Northern Illinois University. He was awarded the Associate in Underwriting (AU) designation in January 1996 and earned his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation in October 1998. Mr. Schrom is a member of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) and the Society of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters.

Brokers

Medical Professional

Charles Becker
New Business Development
Assistant Vice President
Medical Professional

Mr. Becker's immediate focus will be on marketing AVRECO wholesale products to existing and prospective AVRECO clients who may or may not normally participate in the non-standard and hard-to-place markets.

Sarah Dore
Senior Vice President
Medical Professional

Ms. Dore specializes in evaluating malpractice insurance needs, developing underwriting, administrative criteria, coverage options, and policy forms, and marketing strategies for those organizations forming their own medical malpractice insurance programs. She has consulted on the evaluation and formation of several insurance programs countrywide, specifically aimed at physician groups. From time to time, she also provides expert witness testimony dealing with coverage.

Pat Gray
Vice-President
Broker
Medical Professional

Pat Gray is a 32-year veteran of the insurance industry. Prior to working at AVRECO, Mr. Gray spent 26 years with St. Paul Fire and Marine, where he managed several of the company’s underwriting and sales operations. While employed by St. Paul, Mr. Gray was instrumental in the development of the company’s largest medical association account, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists. He further succeeded in writing over six million dollars in new business during an assignment to England, where he and his colleagues assisted their medical underwriting operations in the development of a larger book of medical business.

Mr. Gray is a graduate of Southwest Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Organization and Management and is a licensed property and casualty producer. He has been actively involved in various medical associations such as The National Association of Home Health Care, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists and various state medical associations.

Non-Medical Professional

Elizabeth Milazzo
Broker
Non-Medical Professional

AVRECO is excited to announce the hiring Elizabeth Milazzo to the position of Broker within the recently formed Non-Medical Professional Liability department, headed up by Peter Upjohn, Vice President at AVRECO. Ms. Milazzo has nearly ten years experience in the insurance industry working for Marsh USA. Ms. Milazzo comes to AVRECO from Hays Companies, where she was responsible for all marketing aspects of Management and Professional Liability insurance for both new and renewal business. Ms. Milazzo can be contacted at (312) 529-5511 or emilazzo@avreco.com.

Casualty

Rose Giunta
Assistant Vice-President
Casualty

Rose Giunta has worked in the insurance industry in property and casualty for over 25 years. Ms. Giunta joined AVRECO's Chicago office in April 2006 as Assistant Vice President. She can be reached at 312.529.5528 (direct), 312.896.5831 (fax), or rgiunta@avreco.com.

Property

Mr. Harford holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse with a concentration in Management. In addition to his insurance industry experience, Mr. Harford represented North Sails Midwest as a professional bowman (sailor) on the International Mumm30 and Farr40 circuits throughout the United States, Mediterranean, and the Caribbean, including seven World Championship Regattas.