The 9 biggest announcements from life and health insurers this week

AgentLink, a service provider to independent insurance agents, has named Rich Tinsley as incoming president. This follows the succession of Matt McDevitt – who will succeed his father, Randy McDevitt – to the position of CEO. The elder McDevitt will remain active in the organization, serving as Chairman of the Board. Tinsley, an attorney and CPA, comes to AgentLink from Signature Healthcare – where he served as chief development officer as well as vice chairman of the company's home care and assisted living sectors. Prior to that, he served as chief development officer for ResCare and as their executive VP of Workforce Solutions operations. Tinsley has served on numerous nonprofit and for-profit boards; providing financial, accounting, legal and acquisition/divesture advice. He has a JD and an MBA from the University of Louisville, and is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant. 

Castlight Health, Inc. (NYSE:CSLT), a leader in enterprise healthcare management, announced that Jonathan Rende will join its executive leadership team as chief research and development officer. Rende brings over 20 years of experience in products, engineering and marketing within high profile technology companies. Most recently, Rende was the executive vice president of products and marketing at Keynote, a global leader in cloud-based testing, monitoring, and analytics for mobile and web applications. While there, he helped develop its brand and enhance the company's product delivery with a customer-centric approach. Prior to Keynote, Rende was the vice president of products at Appcelerator, and was responsible for product strategy for the development, testing, monitoring and analytics solutions. He has also held various general manager and senior product roles at Hewlett-Packard, Mercury, and Informix.

Acting on its 10-year strategic marketing plan, The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company (Penn Mutual), continues to tactically enhance the 168 year-old brand. Penn Mutual announced the hiring of seasoned marketing executive Jeffrey Fleischman. Fleischman takes the reins as chief marketing and digital officer, and is a member of the company's executive committee. Fleischman has an impressive record of leadership and execution of growth strategies for national and global brands like American Express, Monster, Citi and TIAA-CREF. In his role at Penn Mutual, he will be responsible for executive leadership of the corporate branding, marketing programs, market research, conferences and recognition, corporate communications and interactive marketing teams, Fleischman will help transform Penn Mutual's digital presence to expand brand awareness, grow the business and improve the advisor and client experience.

Valley Insurance Agency Alliance (VIAA), a cohesive family of nearly 100 independent insurance agencies in Missouri and Southern Illinois, hired Grady Gamble as a Recruiter for Missouri. His responsibilities include the identification and recruitment of talented agencies to join the alliance. Grady also will implement a regional plan to pursue and enlist new partnerships with independent insurance agencies. Grady will focus on bringing the necessary resources and expertise to local agents so they can better protect their communities. Prior to joining VIAA, he had a successful career as an insurance and risk management advisor for Missouri families and businesses.