Omaha, May 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Omaha National Insurance Company, a provider of workers compensation insurance to small and mid-size businesses, has announced the appointment of Dennis Chookaszian and Geoff Banta as independent members of its board of directors.

Chookaszian is the former chairman and CEO of CNA Financial (CNA) and currently an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He serves on the board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in addition to numerous other prominent board appointments for publicly traded and private companies, as well as not-for-profit organizations, including the national board for the Boy Scouts of America.

Banta is an independent consultant, focusing on the property and casualty insurance industry. In 2015 he retired from AMERISAFE (AMSF), a workers compensation company, where he served as president, chief financial officer, and chief operating officer. During his 11-year tenure at AMERISAFE, the company went public and saw its book value plus capital returned grow by 15.6% on an annual basis.