Earlier this week, The Hanover named Joseph M. Zubretsky its new president, CEO and director effective June 20.

Zubretsky, who succeeds Frederick H. Eppinger in his new role, has more than 35 years of experience in the insurance and financial services industries. Most recently, he served as CEO of Healthagen Holdings, a group of health care services and information technology companies, and a member of Aetna’s executive committee.

IA spoke with Zubretsky about the leadership transition and his plans for the company.

IA: What led you to a career in insurance?

Zubretsky: I joined Coopers & Lybrand in the early ‘80s as a staffing accountant in the Hartford office. Their largest client is Travelers, and whoever I reported to on that day pointed to the Travelers tower and said, “Go over there.” Before that, I certainly knew what insurance was, but hadn’t really understood it. The day I walked into that account, I was hooked. I’ve been in the insurance business in some form or fashion ever since.

Given that your background is largely in life-health, what will your strategy be in transitioning to leading a property-casualty company?

First of all, the foundational elements of insurance are pretty consistent across industry segments and business lines—the underwriting and selection process, how to price for risk, different distribution models, general agency models, independent agent models, national wholesale models. I’ve seen all that. And as I said, everything has a commonality to all those facets of any type of insurance business. I’ve been in the business for 35 years, including being introduced to property-casualty on the Travelers account when I was a partner with Coopers & Lybrand. It gives me the experience to bring that to bear at The Hanover at this time.

Second, I spent the last 15 years being more or less a strategic executive in some of these companies, and strategy is something I spent a lot of time developing and executing for companies. So I look forward to bringing those strategic aspects to bear in the Hanover opportunity.

What changes can independent agents expect from The Hanover once you take the reins as CEO?

I don’t come in with any preconceived notions except that the company has made its hallmark through vibrancy and the robust platform that is built and delivered to the independent agency force. We have 2,200 partnership relationships across the U.S. Some of the finest brokerages and agents in America today have The Hanover as a major trading partner. I think there is some untapped potential in our existing product portfolio and capabilities in delivering to that channel. I think you’re going to see us, early on, committed to the channel and making sure we maximize every opportunity to make our agent partners successful, because they’ve been challenged in so many ways in many aspects of their businesses.

What role do you see the independent agency system playing in The Hanover’s business plan? What do you and The Hanover value most about the independent agency channel?

The independent agency channel is very local. And insurance relationships at the ground level matter. They’re being infringed upon by direct writers on the commodity end of the spectrum. They’re being challenged on the health and benefits side by the Affordable Care Act and private exchanges. So I think the core property-casualty business represents an increasingly important part of their revenue stream in the future. And I think we’re going to be very focused on maximizing opportunities there, because they’re being challenged in so many ways.

Is there anything else you think it is important for independent agents to know about you and this leadership transition?

Many agents working with The Hanover are also in the life-health space, perhaps with Aetna, my former employer. So I may have already met many of these folks. I was the spokesperson on company strategy to our distribution system, so it’s familiar territory for me. I understand their issues, and I will be making sure I understand how they’re being challenged in the marketplace so that we can position our products and services to help them be successful.

Jordan Reabold is IA assistant editor.