United Guaranty Corp., Greensboro, N.C., the nation's third largest mortgage insurer, Tuesday named Kim Garland to be the firm's new president and CEO.
Garland, promoted from chief operating officer, replaces Eric Martinez, who was named executive vice president of global claims, operations and systems at Chartis, AIG's property and casualty insurance unit. (Both Chartis and UGC are subsidiaries of American International Group.)
Garland came on board at UGC in July 2009 as its chief operating officer one month after AIG installed Martinez as president and CEO at the mortgage insurer. Both men did not have prior experience in the MI sector.
At one point UGC was almost sold to an investor group backed by Wilbur Ross, but AIG didn't like the bid price. Its business has since recovered and the firm is growing again.
Both men came to AIG from Safeco. Garland was president, Open Seas Solutions group for Safeco, where he led the company's innovation team that developed a number of insurance-related products and services. Before that, he was vice president, auto product management at Safeco and held various senior management and actuarial positions at Safeco and GEICO.
In a statement, AIG CEO and president Robert Benmosche said “Eric Martinez has done a superb job restoring United Guaranty to a position of market leadership and we are fortunate to be able to bring his strong management skills to Chartis. Kim Garland was a key part of United Guaranty's success while working with Eric as the chief operating officer and I am confident he will continue to build on Eric's record at United Guaranty."
AIG is conducting a search for a new COO for UGC.
