People & Places
Crump Insurance Services of Texas Inc. appointed three new members to the Dallas property/casualty brokerage team: Brent Jenkins, Stephanie Murillo and Matt Sheehan. Additionally, Elizabeth Wafer has joined the P/C team at Crump Insurance Services of Houston Inc.
Jenkins has four years risk management experience in the retail agency business. He will focus on multi-line brokerage accounts, including habitational, products liability and various umbrella exposures.
Murillo brings over 10 years’ experience in the property/casualty wholesale and carrier ranks. Her expertise spans the MGA and brokerage markets for property, general liability, and umbrella coverages.
Sheehan joins Crump as a professional lines broker and a member of the Crump NFL team. He will focus on professional lines while representing the Crump Dallas and Houston offices. Previously, Sheehan worked in the reinsurance arena.
Wafer brings 15 years’ experience in the property/casualty wholesale arena to the Houston office. She has expertise in the habitational, construction and lessors risk exposures.
Members of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners elected regulators from Maine, Alabama, Kansas and New Mexico as the organization’s 2006 officers during the Association’s Winter National Meeting.
NAIC members elected Maine Insurance Superintendent Alessandro Iuppa as president. Iuppa was initially appointed Maine’s Superintendent of Insurance in January 1998 and was re-appointed to a second term by Governor Baldacci in March 2004.
He is an active participant on insurance issues at both the national and international levels. He currently serves as a member of the NAIC Executive Committee and is chair of the NAIC Reinsurance Task Force. He has also been designated by the NAIC to represent the United States at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors where he serves as chair of the Executive Committee.
Walter Bell, Alabama Commissioner of Insurance, was selected as president-elect. He became Alabama’s commissioner in January 2003. Bell began his insurance career as a financial professional with The MONY Group in 1983. He served as their national director of emerging markets from 1996 until 1999, at which time he became vice president of corporate diversity in New York City, leading diversity marketing and recruiting initiatives until his retirement in 2002.
Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger was elected to the post of vice president. She was elected Kansas’ 24th Commissioner of Insurance in 2002 and began serving in the position in January 2003. She previously served three terms in the Kansas Senate and one term in the Kansas House of Representatives. She also served as mayor of Lawrence, Kan., and was on the Lawrence City Commission.
Positions she holds with the NAIC include: secretary-treasurer, member of the EX-1 Subcommittee for Internal Administration, chair of the Audit Committee, vice chair of the Health Insurance and Managed Care Committee and member of the Life Insurance and Annuities Committee. She previously served as vice chair for the NAIC Midwestern Zone.
Eric Serna, New Mexico Insurance Superintendent, was elected as NAIC secretary-treasurer. He was appointed to the position of Superintendent of Insurance in 2001. Serna has served as cabinet secretary to the New Mexico Department of Labor. In 1981, he won election to the New Mexico State Corporation Commission where he served for 17 years, 14 years as its chairman.
Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Diane Koken will serve as the Association’s immediate past president.
Susie Hollingsworth was recently elected as president of the Insurance Women of San Antonio for 2005-2006.
Hollingsworth is currently an Auto/Garage underwriter employed with Ramsgate Managing Insurance in San Antonio. She has worked in the insurance industry for more than 10 years, and prior to her career in insurance she was in the restaurant business for 20 years.
Hollingsworth has indicated that one of her goals during her tenure at the head of the Insurance Women of San Antonio is to promote membership involvement through fund-raising, community service projects and educational accomplishments.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry named Norman W. Darwin of Weatherford to serve as Injured Employee Public Counsel in the Office of Injured Employee Counsel for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2007.
Created under House Bill 7 during the 79th Legislature, the OIEC helps injured employees in the workers’ compensation system. It oversees the ombudsman program and advocates on behalf of injured employees to ensure balance and fairness for all in the system.
Darwin is an attorney in Fort Worth whose private practice is devoted exclusively to representing injured workers. He is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and the State Bar College of Texas. Darwin is director emeritus of Texas Trial Lawyers Association and is a past president of the Tarrant County Trial Lawyers Association.
Commercial property
Messina, who assumes the executive sales responsibility for TIP’s supplemental, group and individual health and life insurance plans, has over 20 years’ sales and marketing experience with supplemental and other products.
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