Insurance firm names new president and CEO

SARASOTA — Longtime insurance executive Laurie Zdanis has been named president and CEO of Michigan Commercial Insurance Mutual, a workers' compensation insurance carrier.

The firm, founded in 1980 in Lansing, Mich. as a self-insured fund for the construction industry, opened an office in Sarasota in 2004. It moved its headquarters to Sarasota a short time later, says a company spokesperson. The company currently provides coverage in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Georgia and Florida.

Zdanis joined MCIM in 2013 and had been the firm's COO and vice president of underwriting. She has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience across a wide variety of business segments, according to a statement.

“I'm excited and honored to be given the opportunity to work with the talented leadership team and to deliver on our strategic and operational goals for 2017,” Zdanis says in the statement. “We have expanded into new industries and are reinforcing our service commitments to agencies, policyholders, and claimants.”

MCIM began to diversify its underwriting outside of construction in 2001. Today it writes workers' compensation policies for a wide range of industries, including contractors, manufacturing, security guards, non-emergency transport, skilled nursing facilities and home health care.