Magnolia Grove Insurance Services (“Magnolia Grove”), the Beat Capital backed environmental specialty MGA, today announces the appointment of three senior hires, following its launch in early August.
Richard Edwards joins Magnolia Grove as chief underwriting officer, having previously held the role of senior underwriter, environmental, at Dual North America, where he focused on managing the Southwest region. Prior to his time at Dual, he worked for Westchester Environmental as a senior underwriter.
Edwards will work alongside Kevin Fussell, who assumes the role of vice president. Fussell joins Magnolia Grove from DUAL Commercial LLC where, since 2019, he held the role of senior environmental underwriter. He also spent time building his career at Colony Environmental and Westchester Environmental.
Joliana Hodges also joins the team as senior underwriter from Dual North America, having spent close to four years building her experience in the environmental underwriting field.
Jointly, Edwards, Fussell and Hodges bring more than 20 years of experience which, combined with a passion for environmental insurance, will serve to further strengthen Magnolia Grove’s proposition. The team will assume their roles with immediate effect and will report to Justin Crawford, president and CEO.
Justin Crawford, president and CEO, said: “Magnolia Grove’s ability to attract and build a team of highly qualified environmental underwriters with extensive networks speaks volumes about the business we are building. Through the leadership and expertise of Richard, Kevin and Joliana, we are further strengthening our foundations, ensuring we provide the excellent services and expert solutions our partners urgently require from a specialist MGA.”
Edwards said: “I am very excited to be joining a business with such a driven and service-oriented team. Our “Find a way” underwriting style and relationship-focused business model will provide unique value to our partners and I look forward to realizing Magnolia Grove’s strategic underwriting ambitions.”