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William M. Zachry brought a solid background in workers compensation when he arrived at the Safeway Inc. supermarket chain -- even if it was one he acquired somewhat accidentally.
Mr. Zachry, Safeway's vice president of risk management, began his career as a claims adjustor for California Casualty Group in 1979 after completing a bachelor's degree in business administration, personnel and industrial relations, wage and salary administration at San Francisco State University.
"I was looking for a job," Mr. Zachry said. "I got married ... came back from the honeymoon on a Thursday... on a Friday night I was playing softball."
A teammate informed him California Casualty had just hired someone and encouraged him to apply. Mr. Zachry got the job.
"As usual, nobody sort of plans to get into the industry," he said.
"Nine months after I started, I was a supervisor in claims and went off to a third-party claims administrator for a couple of years and then went back into the insurance industry. About eight or nine years into it,...