Blackstone Hires an Insurance Dealmaker: Personnel Moves

Blackstone has hired Michael Hovey to be senior managing director at its Blackstone Insurance Solutions unit. He will lead acquisitions and strategic partnerships for the unit, Blackstone says. (Related: F&G Names Co-Chief Investment Officers: Personnel Moves and Blackstone Hires Former Federal Insurance Office Head) Blackstone manages more than $60 billion in assets for insurers. Hovey previously was co-head of insurance investment banking for North America at Morgan Stanley. Earlier in his career he was an investment banker at Lehman Brothers. Hovey has a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado Boulder. In other personnel moves news: American International Group Inc., New York, has hired Dana Ripley to be vice president, global head of media and external communications. He previously was chief communications officer at 12A Consulting. Before that, he was chief communications officer at U.S. Bank. Ripley has a bachelor's degree from Bethel University and a master's degree in communications from the University of St. Thomas. He started out in insurance at ReliaStar. He later worked for Security Benefit and for Jackson National From 2005 through 2014, he was senior vice president, corporate communications, at Voya Financial Inc., at a time when Voya was separating from ING Groep N.V. Ameritas, Lincoln, Nebraska, has hired Matthew Kinsella to be vice president and chief compliance officer for Ameritas Advisory Services LLC and Ameritas Investment Company LLC. Kinsella previously was director of wealth management and product management at Securities America Inc. Kinsella has a bachelor's degree in math and a master's degree in business from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Ameritas also has hired Douglas Garrison to be second vice president, information security. Garrison previously was a managing consultant at Sirius Computer Solutions Inc. Ameritas has promoted Tamara Barry to second vice president, sales support and client management, from director, sales and marketing. Standard Insurance Company, Portland, Oregon, has hired Christine Hofbeck to be second vice president and actuary, actuarial transformation. Previously, she was a consultant at Whiteship LLC. Hofbeck has a bachelor's degree in math from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in business from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds the fellow of the Society of Actuaries professional designation, and recently completed a term as a member of the SOA board. Hofbeck started out in insurance as an actuarial consultant at Kwasha Lipton. She then spent three years working in analytics at AIG. From 2014 through 2017, she was the head of pricing and analytics for group insurance at Prudential Financial Inc. In 2017, Hofbeck competed on the CBS television show Survivor, as member of the Heroes tribe. She survived up until Day 39 and placed second in the game. The Standard also has promoted:

• Jeanne Bailey to vice president of claims, from assistant vice president of policyholder services in employee benefits.
• Liz Fouts to vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary, from assistant vice president and associate counsel for legal and compliance.
• Dayna Kirk to vice president of customer service and voluntary benefits, from assistant vice president of shared services.
• James Huang to second vice president and associate counsel, from senior director and assistant counsel.
• Harrison Weaver to second vice president and actuary, corporate actuarial and risk management, from senior director.

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