Hoping to end its recent game of CEO tag, Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. on Tuesday said Michael LaRocco has been named president and CEO.

LaRocco, 51, starts March 17, officials said. He will report to Chuck Kavitsky, president and CEO of Allianz of America, Fireman's Fund's American parent company, and since last June Fireman's Fund's interim CEO. Both Fireman's Fund and Allianz of America are units of Germany's Allianz Group (NYSE: AZ), one of the world's largest insurance and financial services companies.

Kavitsky has filled in as CEO at Fireman's Fund since early June, when former CEO Joseph Beneducci resigned after less than six months on the job.

Before being recruited by Fireman's Fund, LaRocco was between jobs. He most recently was president and chief operating officer at Safeco, a $5 billion property/casualty insurer that focuses on personal and business lines, Fireman's Fund said March 3, but left Safeco in 2006. Prior to his five years at Safeco, LaRocco was at Geico Corp. for eight years in senior management roles, including regional vice president in charge of the $1.2 billion Northeast region.

He is relocating from Seattle to the San Francisco Bay Area.

"We are delighted to welcome someone of Mike's experience and market standing to the Allianz Group," said Clement Booth, an Allianz board member responsible for Anglo and NAFTA markets, and global lines, including Fireman's Fund and Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America.

Late last year, in an undated Web announcement, Allianz said Fireman's Fund's acting CEO Kavitsky would take on a number of new roles in January, including CEO of the North American parent company Allianz of America. Kavitsky had been Allianz of America's president, as well as acting CEO at Fireman's Fund. In the earlier announcement, Allianz said that Jan Carendi, Allianz of America's chairman, would step down as of Jan. 1 to become a consultant to the company, and would be replaced by Booth, who now heads the North American holding company as executive chairman.

Kavitsky was also named chairman of the board at Fireman's Fund in December, and effective July 1 will become chairman at Allianz Life, another U.S. subsidiary of Novato's Allianz of America, officials said late last year. All three companies -- Allianz of America, Fireman's Fund and Allianz Life -- are part of Allianz Group.

Susan Murdy, a Fireman's Fund spokeswoman, said in December that the flurry of executive-level changes was announced internally Dec. 4, but that no press statement was released, except for an undated and incomplete announcement on Fireman's Fund's Web site.

Kavitsky, a former Fireman's Fund CEO, left that job in early January 2007 to take on other senior responsibilities within Allianz. But he started running it again last June on an interim basis, replacing short-timer Beneducci.

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