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William J. Pomfret has joined Professional Underwriting Associates LLC, a managing general underwriting property reinsurance firm based in Wethersfield, as vice president of underwriting. He had been the property practice leader at Discover Re underwriting property and captive programs. His prior underwriting experience includes The Hartford Insurance Group and Travelers Insurance Company.
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Symetra Life Insurance Co. has named Lora Lyons as assistant vice president of group life and disability claims and operations. She will be based in South Windsor and will be responsible for developing and maintaining best practice models for claims handling, systems, processes and service. Lyons was previously with Zurich American Insurance Co. in New York City, where she was assistant vice president, program service delivery. Before that, she was vice president, Disability Claim Center at American General Life Companies, a subsidiary of AIG Inc. She also has worked in long-term disability product management at MetLife. She is both a registered nurse and a certified quality auditor. Symetra Life is based in Bellevue, Wash.
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John Bourdeaux has joined Hartford Stage as director of development for the Tony Award-winning theatre. Most recently, he served as the first director of development for the Partnership for Strong Communities in Hartford, an organization focused on homelessness and affordable housing policy. He has served in the development offices of the University of Chicago, The Hotchkiss School, and Yale University. Early in his career, Bourdeaux founded and managed his own not-for-profit theater company in Chicago.
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Alice Turner has joined Our Piece of the Pie Inc. as director of talent development for the Hartford nonprofit. She began her career with Travelers Insurance Co. and CIGNA Corp. before changing career paths to teach business knowledge and business fundamentals to high school students. For the past seven years, she served as managing principal of a nonprofit agency that focused on developing innovative school-to-career programs for technical high school students and entrepreneurship education programs for urban youth. She is an adjunct instructor in business communication at Capital Community College and the Center for Professional Development at the University of Hartford.
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Erik Schrader has been named news director at WTNH News 8 in New Haven. He has been news director at WNEP in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Penna. WNEP is consistently one of the nation’s leaders in ratings, producing over eight hours of news each day. Schrader has held the position of news director at KODE Joplin, Mo.; KSPR in Springfield, Mo.; and WJCL/WTGS in Savannah, Ga.
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Susan S. Finn has been hired as controller of The Connection Inc., a statewide human services and community development agency headquartered in Middletown. She had been a senior accountant at Guilmartin, DiPiro & Sokolowski LLC in Middletown. She has also been a member of the adjunct faculty of Manchester Community College since 2004.
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Andrew Hintz joined the client services team at Ovation Benefits in Farmington as a financial analyst. He has held positions at ConnectiCare as well as HealthNet. Also, Volha Mazziotto has been hired as a health improvement administrative assistant
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The Pita Group has added Becky Giantonio as online strategies manager and Rachael Shaw as production manager. Also, intern Nicole Stavola has been hired as a marketing coordinator at the Rocky Hill marketing and communications agency. Giantonio most recently was assistant director of public relations at Sea Research Foundation (Mystic Aquarium, Institute for Exploration and Immersion Learning). Shaw comes to Pita from TBC Inc., a full-service advertising agency in Baltimore
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Elysa Gordon has been named assistant director of the Brighter Futures Initiative at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. She had been assistant child advocate for the State of Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate, an independent oversight agency for all state-funded programs and services for children. She also has been a senior policy analyst for the New York State Permanent Commission on Justice for Children. Brighter Futures is a 30-year, $35 million commitment of the Hartford Foundation to improve the school readiness and school success of Hartford’s children.
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Day Pitney LLP has added six first-year associates in the law firm’s Hartford office. Ashley L. Harrison has joined the Labor and Employment practice. She is a former consultant to The Hartford, where she managed complex claim litigation. Sebastian M. Lombardi has joined the Energy and Utility Law practice. He had been an intern at the firm in 2010 and is part of a team of lawyers serving as general counsel to the New England Power Pool. Bryan J. Orticelli and Michael P. Pohorylo haves joined the Commercial Litigation practice. Orticelli was a judicial intern for Judge Stefan R. Underhill of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and also served as a law clerk to Judge F. Herbert Gruendel of the Connecticut Appellate Court. Pohorylo spent the past year as a law clerk for Judge Douglas S. Lavine of the Connecticut Appellate Court. Edward Bion Piepmeier has joined the Corporate and Business Law practice. Piepmeier was a summer apprentice at Day Pitney in 2010. Kristine A. Saul has joined the Financial Services practice. As a student at Columbia, she served as northeast regional director of the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition.
Alice Turner
Nicole Stavola