H. Skip Tarasuk
CHARLESTON -- A Fairmont insurance executive who wants to project an "open for business" image for West Virginia, has been named chairman of the Board of Directors of BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Company.
H. Skip Tarasuk will serve a one-year term as chairman of the seven-member board.
The state's workers' compensation system was privatized at the beginning of 2006 and named BrickStreet.
"I'm very proud to serve in this capacity for the first private workers' compensation insurance carrier in West Virginia's history," Tarasuk said. "The historic move to privatization by BrickStreet represents a significant leap forward in our state's economic future."
Tarasuk is president and owner of Davis and Tarasuk Insurance in Fairmont. He holds an AB degree in education from what was then Fairmont State College. Prior to starting his own agency, he worked for Henry and Hardesty and McDonough Caperton. He is a licensed West Virginia insurance agent, excess and surplus lines broker and a non-resident agent for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
He is active in a number of business and civic groups, including serving as regional director of the Professional Independent Insurance Agents of West Virginia, and is a past president of the Fairmont State University Foundation, Inc. and the Marion County United Way.
Joining Tarasuk for three-year terms on BrickStreet's Board of Directors are: Thomas V. Flaherty, an attorney with Fan attorney with Flaherty, Sensabaugh & Bonasso, Charleston; David Rader, CEO of West Virginia Mutual Insurance Co., Charleston; Stephen Roberts, president of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Charleston; and Steven F. White, a partner in Goodwin & Goodwin, LLP, Charleston.
Gregory A. Burton, BrickStreet's president and chief executive officer, and Phillip A. Lynch, BrickStreet's vice president for employer services, also serve on the board of directors.
BrickStreet Insurance is the 15th largest writer of workers' compensation coverage in the U.S. (according to A.M. Best Co., Inc.) and the second largest West Virginia-based insurance company, with more than 550 employees and estimated first-year premiums of more than $530 million.