Kathleen Birrane Takes Over as Maryland Commissioner: Personnel Matters

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has appointed Kathleen Birrane to be the commissioner in charge of the Maryland Insurance Administration. Birrane previously was a partner in the insurance sector and litigation and regulatory practice group at DLA Piper LLC. (Related: Andrew McMahon to Lead Guardian: Personnel Matters) Birrane succeeds Al Redmer Jr., who is now executive director of the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund. Birrane has a bachelor's degee from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland and a law degree from the University of Maryland. From 2002 through 2007, Birrane was the Maryland Insurance Administration's principal counsel. From 2007 through 2013, Birrane was the general counsel of Maple Life Financial Inc., a life settlement company. In other personnel matters news: New York Life Insurance Company has named Natalie Lamarque to be the company's general counsel. Lamarque previously was a deputy general counsel at the company. Lamarque has a bachelor's degree and a law degree from Duke University. She started out in the litigation department at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Later, she was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, where she prosecuted crimes such as racketeering, insurance fraud, money laundering, bank fraud, credit card fraud, and identity theft. She began working for New York Life in 2014, as an associate general counsel in the litigation Group. She serves on the boards of City Year New York and the Legal Aid Society of New York. LL Global, the parent company of LIMRA, LOMA and Secure Retirement Institute, has hired Tamu McCreary to be corporate vice president of conference and committee strategy. McCreary previously was director of Gartner's conference program. She also has served as vice president of conference planning and strategy at Jackson National Life Distributors. McCreary has a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Southern California. — Read New York State Department of Financial Services Hires a Chief Counsel: Personnel Matters, on ThinkAdvisor. — Connect with ThinkAdvisor Life/Health on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.