People & Places

The Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission named Robert L. “Bob” Shipe as executive director. Shipe had been serving as acting executive director of the Commission since July 2004. He first joined the Commission in 1991, working in the San Antonio field office, and later transferred to the central office to serve as chief of Records Processing.

His other assignments at the Commission have included associate director of Field Operations and director of Workers’ Compensation Training Education and Development. From 2000 through 2003, Shipe served as director of Government Relations. In January 2004, he was appointed director of Medical Review.

Robert Ramsower of Dallas was elected president of the Association of Fire and Casualty Companies in Texas (AFACT) for 2004-2005. Ramsower is president and CEO of Employers General Insurance Group Inc.

Dianne Morris, president of Association Casualty Insurance Company in Austin, was elected vice-president. Greg Vanek, president of National Lloyds in Waco, was elected secretary/treasurer.

Craig Sparks, president of Union Standard Insurance Co. in Dallas, was elected director at large.
James Langford, senior vice president of operations for the Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Companies in Waco, was elected director.

Barnett Williams of Dallas will continue in the position of AFACT executive manager.

AFACT is a trade organization representing Texas property and casualty insurance companies. It was founded in 1941 to broaden consumer knowledge of insurance and support legislation to improve the insurance business.

Nigel Spain was named assistant vice president of Arrowhead General Insurance Agency of Florida Inc. This facility will be a new Florida operation of Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc. of San Diego, Calif., which announced Spain’s appointment and the opening of the new office.

Spain has more than 26 years of insurance industry experience. He was formerly president of Spain, Dubose & Associates LLC, in Sarasota. In 1991, after 12 years as a broker in the Lloyd’s of London community, Spain came to the United States from England to work exclusively in the coastal property market.

Mark Tisdale joined Insurance Journal as regional manager responsible for advertising sales emerging from firms located in the Southeast and Midwest regions.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, with a journalism degree from Kent State, and a long stint living on the West Coast, Tisdale joins the magazine after running his own independent advertising sales rep firm in Atlanta that represented video game trade publications and high school sports consumer magazines.

Prior to launching his rep firm, he had advertising sales and sales management duties for a number of large-scale project construction magazines produced by Mercor Media.

The Washington, D.C.-based National African-American Insurance Association (NAAIA) named Aubrey Branch, CEO of Branch, Olson & Hernandez agency, as chairman. Branch is the former vice chair of NAAIA and has more than 16 years of insurance experience. He holds licenses in both property/casualty and life and health insurance. Branch also is treasurer of the Nevada chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors and a member of the Urban Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club. In 2002, he received the prestigious Senatorial Recognition Award from the Nevada Minority Purchasing Council.

David Daniel, president of Daniel and Eustis Insurance in Baton Rouge, La., was elected to the executive committee of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America’s National Board of State Directors. He served on the Board of Directors of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of Louisiana for eight years and became its president in 1997.

Daniel currently serves as Louisiana’s state national director, a position he has held since 1998. On the national level, he has served on the Big “I” Technical Affairs Committee and was chairman of the Governance and Communication Task Force. As a member of the executive committee he will be the Louisiana voice with the Big “I.”

Randy Lanoix, with Bourg-Lanoix Insurance in Lutcher, La., assumed the position of State National Director for the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Louisiana. Lanoix has been active with IIABL as a board member and past president, and has represented IIABL on the national government affairs committee with IIABA.

Frisco, Texas-based Skywire Software promoted Wendy Gibson to the position of chief operating officer. Gibson formerly served the company as vice president of marketing.

Skywire Software (www.skywiresoftware.com) provides software applications for the insurance industry and enterprise services management. A subsidiary of Hall Financial Group, Skywire Software offers INSsight, a comprehensive business intelligence system created exclusively for property and casualty insurers.

Maclean Oddy & Associates Inc., headquartered in Dallas, announced that chairman and chief executive officer Roy B. Oddy plans to resign from these positions effective Dec. 31, 2004.
Oddy, one of the company’s founders has been president and CEO since 1983. Prior to founding Maclean Oddy, he served as president and CEO of Swett & Crawford. In 1981, he held the position of president of the National Association of Professional Surplus Line Offices.

Stuart Dobbie will succeed Oddy as president and CEO of Maclean Oddy. As president Dobbie, who has been with the company since 1983, will be responsible for marketing and production operations.

Robert V. Huffert, senior vice president and manager of the Ocean Marine Department and a vice president of American Re-Insurance Company, was elected chairman of the American Institute of Marine Underwriters (AIMU).

He succeeds David S. French, president of American International Marine Agency and senior vice president of American International Underwriters.

Since joining American Re-Insurance in 1972, Huffert has held positions of underwriting responsibility for a worldwide portfolio, which included marine and aviation. He is experienced in underwriting and managing the treaty and facultative portfolios for a full range of primary insurance companies’ reinsurance needs in hull, cargo, offshore energy and marine liability lines of business. Major geographical areas serviced have been the U.S., London, Europe, the Far East, the Middle East and Latin America.

Huffert is currently the chairman of the American Hull Insurance Syndicate and past chairman of the American Offshore Insurance Syndicate. He served for many years as chairman of AIMU’S Education Committee. He is a past president of the American Marine Insurance Forum and a member of the Canadian Board of Marine Underwriters, The American Bureau of Shipping and the National Cargo Bureau.

Charles Nyce, PhD, has joined the American Institute for CPCU and the Insurance Institute of America as director of curriculum. He is responsible for the curriculum, textbooks, and examinations for one course in the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter professional designation program, as well as curriculum development in other Institute programs.

Before joining the Institutes, Nyce was assistant professor of risk management and insurance at the Terry College, University of Georgia, in Athens, where he twice received an outstanding faculty member award. Before that, he was assistant professor of insurance at the Barney School, University of Hartford, Conn., where he also served as director of the R.C. Knox Center for Insurance and Risk Management Studies. Nyce has also worked as a research assistant and instructor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.