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Florida-based Universal Insurance Holdings Inc., a provider of property and casualty insurance, announced that its Board of Directors appointed Sean Downes to the position of chief operating officer and senior vice president of the company, and the company and Downes entered into a new employment agreement.

Downes has served as COO and a director of Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Company, an operating subsidiary of the company, since July 2003. Downes’s employment agreement will expire on Dec. 31, 2008 unless extended by the company.