John Noel
John Noel, president of Berkshire Hathaway Travel
Protection (BHTP) and founder of Travel Guard International, MyAssist and
Insure America, today is moving to an executive advisory role after being
diagnosed with early stages of Lewy Body Disease.
He will be succeeded as president by Dean Sivley, who
had served as president of Travel Guard–Americas and was chief e-business
officer of Travel Guard’s global operations after Noel left that company in
2009, three years after selling it to AIG.
Sivley most recently served as CEO of the car service
GroundLink. He previously had been COO of Orbitz for Business and has held
executive roles at Atlas Travel Technologies and Rosenbluth International.
He will report to Sanjay Godhwani, executive vice
president of Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) and will oversee
BHTP’s strategic growth and product pipeline.
BHTP was created after Noel sold MyAssist, a live-agent and
telematics assistance company for the automotive and travel industries, and
Insure America, a niche program administrator for insurance facing the travel
industry, to BHSI in 2014.
Five months later — and 19 days
after his noncompete with AIG lapsed — Noel announced the creation of a new
BHTP product, AirCare, which makes
payments to customers in the event of travel inconveniences, such as flight or
tarmac delays, missed connections and lost luggage.
“We have been very fortunate to have John Noel lead our
entry into the travel insurance business, and now to advise our growing
operations. John and his family have the full support and best wishes of
the entire BHSI organization,” said Godhwani. “Dean further strengthens
the outstanding team John has built, and we look forward to working with Dean
to continue to grow our travel insurance and assistance businesses.”