United Fire Group appoints CFO

A 27-year veteran of the financial services industry has been appointed chief financial officer of United Fire Group.

Dawn Jaffray, 48, will be joining the Cedar Rapids insurance company on April 27. Jaffray will report directly to Randy Ramlo, president and CEO of United Fire Group.

'After an extensive search with several qualified candidates, it became clear that Dawn has the qualities and experience we were searching for in a CFO candidate,” Ramlo said in a news release announcing Jaffray's appointment.

Jaffray's business experience has focused on insurance, finance, and capital management. She most recently was CFO of Soleil Advisory Group, specializing in operational consulting, merger, and acquisition, investment and strategy.

From 2007 to 2008, Jaffray was CFO of Westaff, a publicly traded international staffing firm. From 2005 to 2007, she was CFO of the North America Business Unit of Dun & Bradstreet, a publicly traded information, data and technology company.

From 1999 to 2005, Jaffray was senior vice president and senior finance officer for the property and casualty business of C.N.A. Insurance, a publicly traded insurance company.

Jaffray is a graduate of the University of Windsor School of Business and is a chartered professional accountant - a certified general accountant of Canada. She also is a certified investor relations officer.

Jaffray succeeds Dianne Lyons, senior vice president and CFO, who resigned in November.