Basking in the success of more than a century in business, officers of Starkweather & Shepley Insurance Brokerage Inc. began this year with a new leader, electing Natale “Nat” Calamis to succeed Fred Tripp as president and chief executive officer.

Calamis, 57, a 35-year industry executive from Warwick who previously was company executive vice president and secretary, officially took the helm as the 130-year-old company’s 12th president on Thursday. Tripp, who spent 40 years with the East Providence company, has retired.

A second change comes with the acquisition of the Preston Agency, based in East Greenwich. Starkweather & Shepley made the purchase Dec. 30, said Calamis, who would not disclose the terms of the sale. He added that with some $36 million in premiums coming from Preston, the acquisition boosts Starkweather’s total annual premiums to $345 million.

“It’s a good way to start a new regime and a new year. It’s big. It’s exciting. They were our main competitor,” Calamis said yesterday morning. “They have done a super job handling their accounts.”

Preston began in 1949 as the Weston and Watson Insurance Agency. Currently the company has 36 employees serving 6,000 clients around the country. Since 1985, brothers William Preston and Robert Preston, its president and vice president respectively, have led the company.

The Prestons, who will continue to manage the office in East Greenwich, are credited with building the company from a small family business to one of the fastest-growing agencies in the state, ranking number seven, according to the Independent Insurance Agents of Rhode Island, a member association of 168 companies.

Mark Male, the executive vice president of the association, said he does not see this type of merger — big company buys small company — as a new trend, and still believes there are many people who will continue to launch start-ups.

“It’s not a recent anomaly. It’s like any other industry. The insurance industry is not immune to that,” Male said. “There has been a trend for over a decade. Their merger and acquisition makes sense. I’m losing a member, so I’m not happy. [But] we honor our members’ decisions.”

Calamis said the merger, which brings the employee roster up to 193, is a good “cultural fit” for both groups, in terms of the way each company approaches sales and how it treats its employees.

William Preston, 55, said the merger is a “good strategic fit.”

He said his clients will be able to keep working with the same agents, rather than being rolled up into another entity, and the company can benefit from the additional resources that Starkweather will have.

The Preston Agency does 20 percent of its business in personal lines services, such as life and home insurance, and 80 percent in commercial insurance, compared with Starkweather, which has 65 percent of its business in commercial, 25 percent in personal and 10 percent in employee benefits, Calamis said. With offices in Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the company will start expanding into Connecticut, he said.

“It’s good for Rhode Island,” Calamis said. “With the business climate the way it is, it’s nice to see an agency growing that has been around for 130 years and is doing well.”

He has been with Starkweather for 31 years after spending about four years with Liberty Mutual at the beginning of his insurance career.

Calamis is originally from College Point, N.Y., and is a former professional baseball player. He played second base at St. John’s University before signing with the Detroit Tigers’ minor-league system after earning a bachelor’s degree in 1972. Afterward, Calamis headed east and played in the Cape Cod league.

“That’s how I came to Rhode Island. That’s how I met my wife [Ellen],” said Calamis, who has been married for 35 years.

lsparks@projo.com