Farmers Group, Inc. CEO Jeff Dailey Announces Changes to Better Align Leadership Team Around Core Businesses

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmers Group, Inc. CEO Jeff Dailey has announced several executive leadership team appointments as the Los Angeles based, leading multi-line insurer group better aligns the leadership team around Farmers core businesses.

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Mhayse Samalya will become President of the Farmers brand; Tony DeSantis has been appointed President of Farmers Personal Lines; Steve Boshoven will become President of Farmers' Foremost brand; David Travers has been appointed Chief Operations Officer; and Deborah Aldredge will become Chief Administrative Officer.

"With these appointments, we are better positioned to be even more responsive to our customers and, ultimately, help us achieve our goal of becoming the best multi-line insurer group in the U.S.," said Dailey, who became Farmers Group, Inc. CEO in January 2012. "These changes in our leadership team align the team around our core businesses, improve decision making speed and streamline our operations and other functions for the benefit of our customers and other key stakeholders." 

President of the Farmers Brand
As the President of the Farmers brand, Samalya will oversee all aspects of Farmers' personal lines business, including the integration of Farmers' 21st Century Insurance Company, as Farmers moves toward a one brand strategy. Samalya also will continue to lead Farmers' Exclusive Agent distribution channel, which is composed of more than 14,000 agents and district managers across the U.S.  

President of Personal Lines
DeSantis, who has served as President of 21st Century Insurance Company, will become President of Farmers Personal Lines and will lead the product development, pricing and underwriting functions, with the exception of 21st Century Insurance Company in California, which will be under Samalya.

President of the Foremost Brand
As President of the Foremost brand, Boshoven is responsible for the company's Specialty business unit and will add responsibility for the Bristol West business unit and all Independent Agent distribution. Tim Madden, President of the Bristol West business unit, and Bob Sadler, who leads Independent Agent distribution, will now report to Boshoven.

Chief Operations Officer
Travers, formerly Farmers Head of Service Operations, will become Chief Operations Officer, a newly created position with oversight of all operational areas, including information technology. Farmers Chief Information Officer Shohreh Abedi will report to Travers and continue to serve on CEO Dailey's senior leadership team.  Sharon Fernandez has been promoted to Head of Service Operations, reporting to Travers.

Chief Administrative Officer
As Chief Administrative Officer, Aldredge, formerly Farmers Chief People Officer, will have oversight over Human Resources, the University of Farmers, Government and Industry Affairs, Risk and administrative oversight for Internal Audit, which reports to the Farmers Group, Inc. and Exchange Audit Committees.

Farmers Insurance Group of Companies is a leading U.S. insurer group of automobiles, homes and small businesses and also provides a wide range of other insurance and financial services products. Farmers Insurance is proud to serve more than 10 million households with more than 20 million individual policies across all 50 states through the efforts of over 50,000 exclusive and independent agents and nearly 24,000 employees.

Farmers is a trade name and refers to the business activities of Farmers Group, Inc. and the Farmers Exchanges. Farmers Group, Inc., along with its subsidiaries, is wholly owned by the Zurich Insurance Group, and provides non-claims administrative services to the Farmers Exchanges. The Farmers Exchanges are three reciprocal insurers (Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange and Truck Insurance Exchange), including their subsidiaries and affiliates, owned by their policyholders. For more information about Farmers, visit its Web site at www.farmers.com or at www.Facebook.com/FarmersInsurance.

SOURCE Farmers Group, Inc.