Zurich Insurance North America has announced the promotion of Chris Nolan. Nolan was previously the Head of Large Contract Underwriting before being promoted to Head of National Accounts Underwriting in the United States, effective immediately. Nolan succeeds Bob Murray, who retired in June.

Nolan previously led a team providing bonds to contractors undertaking public works and construction projects. In his new role, Nolan will now oversee both contractual and commercial sureties, both of which provide account-based and transaction-based surety bonds to Zurich clients across a variety of industries.

“Chris has earned this promotion after nearly 25 years in the assurance industry, including two successful years leading our large contractual assurance business,” said Paul Lavelle, President, U.S. National Accounts, Zurich North America. “He will bring extensive knowledge and experience in both contractual and commercial assurance to bear as he now assumes overall direction, management and performance responsibility for our long-standing assurance business.”

Prior to joining Zurich in 2022, Nolan began his career as an underwriting intern at Chubb, where he was promoted to chief underwriting officer. Nolan holds an MBA in accounting from Seton Hall University and a BA in political science from Rutgers University. He also served as chief risk officer and head of commercial underwriting at Berkeley Surety.

Since 1890, the surety bonds issued by Zurich and the companies it acquired have helped provide financial guarantees, leading to the construction of landmarks such as the Hoover Dam.

Most recently, the company also appointed James Bracken as its new CFO in June, and Al Crook as its chief human resources officer in July.

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