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Spring of 2020 brought some good news for companies andindividuals, including promotions, awards, partnerships andmergers. Here's a sample of what we've seen of late.

Transamerica announced several appointments:

• Blake Bostwick was appointed ChiefExecutive Officer of its Individual Solutions division. Mr.Bostwick will also lead the organization's retail affiliates thatdistribute life insurance, long term care, annuities and funds. Inhis new role, Mr. Bostwick continues reporting to Mark Mullin,Transamerica President and CEO, and heads the existing leadershipteam within the Individual Solutions division.
• Kent Callahan was appointed ChiefExecutive Officer of its Workplace Solutions division. Mr. Callahanhas more than three decades of experience with Transamerica, andpreviously ledTransamerica business lines in retirement, employeebenefits and investment solutions. In his new role, Mr. Callahanreports to Mark Mullin, Transamerica President and CEO.

RandstadUSA announced a partnership with health care staffing firmAMNHealthcare. The first highly visible implementation of thispartnership is the Open Talent Marketplace for Healthcare, designedto provide state coalitions, federal agencies and hospital systemswith rapid access to hundreds of staffing vendors and tens ofthousands of clinicians, health IT professionals, office personneland other talent. Developed as a resource hospitals could use tosurge staff in light of COVID-19, the concept also is tailored tothe post-COVID environment.

Former Assistant Secretary of Labor PhyllisBorzi has been awarded the Plan Sponsor Council of America's prestigiousLifetime Achievement Award for 2020. From 2009 to 2017 Ms. Borziwas head of the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits SecurityAdministration (EBSA) where she led the organization responsiblefor the regulation of approximately 700,000 employer-sponsoredretirement plans in the private-sector as well approximately 2.3million health plans, and other plans providing benefits toapproximately 150 million Americans from 2009 through 2017. From1979 to 1995, she served the House Education and Labor Committee'sSubcommittee on Labor-Management Relations as pension and employeebenefit counsel and later served on the advisory board of theWomen's Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER).  Borziwent on to serve as a research professor in the Department ofHealth Policy at George Washington University Medical Center'sSchool of Public Health, and was later of counsel with theWashington, D.C. law firm O'Donoghue & O'Donoghue LLP.

New YorkLife announced the appointment of NatalieLamarque as the company's General Counsel. In this role,Ms. Lamarque will have day-to-day oversight of the Office of theGeneral Counsel which includes the insurance and agency,investments, corporate practice, and tax teams. Ms. Lamarque willalso join New York Life's Executive Management Committee andcontinues to report to Chief Legal Officer Sheila Davidson.

NewportGroup announced it has entered into an agreement withHuntington National Bank to assume its retirementrecordkeeping and administration business. Huntington will continueto serve as plan advisor for its retirement plan servicesclients.Upon closing, and subject to customary conditions, thebusiness—which currently provides recordkeeping and administrationservices to more than 600 plans with approximately $1.7 billion ofassets under administration—will operate as part of Newport. Thetransaction includes Huntington's third-party administration (TPA)business, and a team of Huntington employees, who provide theseservices, will join Newport.

Legal& General announced that it has simultaneously agreed twopension risk transfer transactions with IHS Markit– one in the UK and another in the US. The pension schemes coveredare IHS (Global) Ltd. Pension and Life Assurance Scheme in the UKand IHS Retirement Income Plan in the US.The UK transaction was for£37.8m ($46.7m), covering around 150 members, and the UStransaction was for $97.2m (£78.4m), covering around 1,200 members.Willis Towers Watson led the advice on both transactions, withSackers and Blake Morgan providing legal advice to the Trustees ofthe IHS (Global) Ltd. Pension and Life Assurance Scheme in theUK.

InnovestPortfolio Solutions has acquired California-based,Advisory Consulting Group, LLC. The transactionwas effective April 2020 with the combined entity operating underthe Innovest Portfolio Solutions (Innovest) name. ACG, a RegisteredInvestment Advisor, was co-founded by Robert Stebbins in 2007 toprovide fee-only retirement plan, ERISA, M&A and investmentconsulting services exclusively to retirement plan sponsors andcurrently advises retirement plans with assets totalingapproximately $2.5 billion. Innovest was co-founded by Richard Todd(CEO) and Wendy Dominguez (President) in 1996 and is headquarteredin Denver, CO; it was one of the first fee-only RIAs established inthe western region and now serves retirement plans, endowments& foundations and wealthy families across the nation, with over$25 billion in assets under advisement.

HumanInterest announced that it is upsizing its Series C financingto $50 million as it continues to focus on delivering retirementbenefits. Advisory services are offered by Human Interest Advisors,a subsidiary of Human Interest Inc. The extension, led by GlynnCapital, comes just over a month after the company announced a $40million Series C.The additional capital will help Human Interestdouble its engineering team by July 2020 in order to deepen theinvestment in technology.

EIS announcedthe appointment of insurance C-suite veteran Dr. MarkBoxer to the board of directors. Boxer is aninternationally recognized innovator and technologist with morethan twenty-five years of experience in healthcare technology,analytics, and digital leadership. He also is considered an expertin behavioral economics and using IoT devices to improve health andwellness.Boxer previously served as executive vice president, andglobal chief information and digital officer for Cigna.

Ease haspartnered with Sun Life U.S. With this connection, Sun Life willbecome Ease's latest EaseConnect+ partner, enabling brokers tosubmit enrollment data and changes directly from Ease to SunLife.