N.Y. Supt. Dinallo Names New Leadership Team

New York Superintendent of Insurance Eric Dinallo announced the appointment of 11 senior executives to positions on the Insurance Department’s leadership team.

Kermitt J. Brooks has been named first deputy superintendent. As second in command, he oversees all the deputy superintendents and the department’s operations. In addition, he has responsibility for the Life Insurance Bureau. Brooks has more than 15 years legal and management experience in the public and private sectors. He was most recently deputy attorney general for operations in the office of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and led the attorney general’s investigation into employee benefit insurance. Before joining the attorney general’s office, Brooks was a counsel in the law department at MetLife and an associate in the commercial litigation group at Nixon Peabody LLP.

Susan Donnellan is deputy superintendent for policy and chief ethics officer. Donnellan joined the department as deputy general counsel in July 2000, and served as general counsel and deputy superintendent from May 2006 to January 2007. Prior to joining the insurance department, Donnellan served as associate general counsel of the Life Insurance Council of New York (LICONY) and before that was Counsel and Secretary of Swiss Re Life Company America.

Robert Easton is deputy superintendent and general counsel. He came to the department after six years at the New York State Department of Law. His last position was as deputy solicitor general, Division of Appeals and Opinions. A two-time recipient of the National Association of Attorneys General “Best Brief” Award, he drafted and reviewed amicus briefs filed with various appeals courts, including five on behalf of the insurance department.

Dr. Hampton Finer is the senior policy advisor and chief economist. He joined the department from the New York State Attorney General’s Office, where he directed that office’s economic analysis activities. He was the lead economist in a number of cases, including the mutual fund market timing investigations and a multibillion dollar health insurance merger review. Finer was previously a staff economist at the Federal Trade Commission and a lecturer at Cornell.

Michael Moriarty is the deputy superintendent for property and capital markets. Moriarty began his career in the department in 1979, and has served in a number of positions, most recently as the director of the Capital Markets Bureau. He was the 2005 recipient of the NAIC Robert Dineen Award for Outstanding Service and Contribution to the State Regulation of Insurance.

David Neustadt is the director of communications. He has extensive government and media experience, including the last four years as senior advisor and communications director for the State Comptroller’s office. Neustadt served more than a decade in the New York City Comptroller’s office where he was press secretary. He was also assistant commissioner for public information at the New York City Human Resources Administration.

Troy Oechsner is deputy superintendent for health. Oechsner is also an adjunct professor at Albany Law School. Before joining the department, Oechsner served in the Office of the Attorney General for almost 14 years, most recently as deputy bureau chief in the Health Care Bureau. There he directed litigation against health plans, drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers, doctors and hospitals for illegal and deceptive business practices.

Louis W. Pietroluongo is deputy superintendent for disaster preparedness and fraud investigations. Pietroluongo joined the department in 1998 as a deputy superintendent and served as first deputy superintendent from April 2002 to January 2007. He served as acting superintendent in January 2007. Prior to joining the department, Pietroluongo served for 32 years with the New York City Police Department, where he rose to the rank of deputy chief.

Stacey Rowland is assistant deputy superintendent for Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs. She had been an assistant attorney general at the New York State Attorney General’s Office since 2003. For the decade prior to that, she was assistant counsel in the Office of the State Comptroller, where her duties included assisting in the development of the legislative agenda and maintaining relationships with state and local elected officials.

Bruce Topman is the executive director of the Workers’ Compensation Reform Task Force. From 2001 to 2006, he served in the New York State Attorney General’s Office, most recently as assistant attorney general and senior enforcement counsel in the Investment Protection Bureau. There he conducted and supervised several of the bureau’s high profile cases into analyst conflicts and market timing, including initiating the Merrill Lynch case that led to the industry-wide examination of research analyst conflicts of interest, structural reform of investment banks and a $1.4 billion global settlement. Topman was a partner at Webster & Sheffield and has more than 25 years experience in private practice.

And Zachary S. Weiss has been named special counsel. His duties include performing special projects assigned by the superintendent. Weiss previously served in the Office of the New York State Attorney General since 1999. In 2005, as counsel to the Criminal Division, he directed the grand jury investigation into bid rigging at Marsh & McLellan that resulted in 20 convictions.

Source: New York State Insurance Department