People and Places

The Republic Group, based in Dallas, appointed Robert S. Howey as vice president and chief marketing officer. As the senior marketing officer, Howey will manage agency appointments, agency contracts, reinsurance, new product development and will provide specialized support of Republic’s personal lines, commercial lines and specialty business units. Howey began his insurance career in 1977 with Continental Insurance Company and has held senior management positions with the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Swiss Re and, most recently, with Quanta Holding Inc.

The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas named Rick Bondurant III as director of Agency Management. Bondurant will be responsible for developing, implementing and managing strategic agency-management initiatives and programs under the new department. He reports to Executive Director David VanDelinder. A veteran agency executive, Bondurant, brings to IIAT more than 25 years experience with the Texas independent agency system. Bondurant joins IIAT from the Frost Insurance Agency, Fort Worth/Dallas Branch, part of the Cullen/Frost Bankers insurance division, where he has been senior vice president since 2001. Bondurant joined Frost as part of the bank’s insurance division agency merger with his then current employer, AIS Insurance & Risk Management, Fort Worth. During the merger he spearheaded and consulted on various transitional activities. Prior to the merger Bondurant was principal, chief operating officer and marketing manager of AIS. He began his insurance career in 1979 as a file clerk with Bondurant Bros. Insurance Agency, a small, third generation family insurance agency which merged with AIS in 1994.

Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America honored Marietta McCain of San Antonio, Texas, with the Bernard J. Burns Award, bestowed annually upon the agent or broker making the most significant impact on fundraising efforts for InsurPac, the IIABA’s political action committee. McCain is the founder and president of the Luhn-McCain Insurance Agency in San Antonio. As Texas InsurPac chairwoman in 2003, McCain achieved a number of record accomplishments. Texas not only met its fundraising goal for the first time ever, but surpassed it significantly, setting an all-time record for any Big “I” state association. The amount raised by the group in 2003 more than doubled the 2002 total raised by Texas agents and brokers.

McCain founded the Luhn-McCain agency in 1983 after 15 years with its predecessor, Dunlap Insurance Agency, where she worked from 1968-83. She worked for John M. Coleman Insurance from 1962-68, and the insurance division of Gill Companies from 1958-62. She is a past president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas, and also a past chairwoman of IIABA’s Membership Committee.

Allmerica Financial Corporation appointed Bonnie K. Haase vice president and chief human resources officer. In this capacity, Haase will be responsible for all aspects the company’s employee development, benefits, staffing and performance management programs. She also will serve as a member of the company’s Operating Committee. Haase comes to Allmerica from General Electric, where she worked for the past 13 years. Most recently, she served as human resources leader for the Global Sales and Marketing organization of the General Electric subsidiary, Industrial Systems.

The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies named a new group of Washington, D.C. insurance professionals to lead its federal affairs lobbying efforts in the nation’s capital.

NAMIC Federal Affairs Senior Vice President David A. Winston was named to lead the department. Winston brings more than two decades of federal government and insurance industry experience to his new position, and has worked on a wide variety of legislative and regulatory issues affecting the insurance industry.

Marliss A. Browder, who joined the NAMIC Washington, D.C., staff last summer, is one of the department’s two federal affairs directors. She is a former federal legislative manager for Kemper Insurance Cos. Browder also served on the majority staff of the House Banking Committee and was staff assistant to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Alane R. Allman-Dent joined NAMIC in March as federal affairs director. She has also held positions in the federal government, notably as legislative counsel to Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., a member of the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee and former North Dakota Insurance Commissioner.

The Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) elected Dale Hammond as its chairman. Hammond is president and chief operating officer of Kemper Auto and Home, a Unitrin Company, based in Jacksonville, Fla. He was previously vice chair of the IBHS board’s executive committee. Hammond succeeds Lawrence Lange, Ph.D., vice president and chief underwriting officer with the Auto Club Insurance Association, who will remain on the IBHS board as immediate past chairman.

IBHS is a national, nonprofit trade association of the property/casualty industry that works to reduce commercial and residential losses, and associated costs caused by extreme weather events and
natural disasters.

The American Insurance Marketing and Sales (AIMS) Society, announced the election of the 2004-2005 officers.

The following members were elected to serve terms as AIMS Society officers: Michael Grace, of Wright & Percy Insurance in Baton Rouge, La., as president; Richard Dygve, of Johnson & Strachan Insurance Agency in Fairfax, Va., as vice president; Michael Herzak, of Insurance Systems Agency Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio, as secretary; and Martin Lebson, of Insurance Resource Brokerage Group LLC, in Upper Saddle River, N.J., as treasurer.