People and Places
Tony Boyd joined Dallas-based McQueary Henry Bowles Troy L.L.P. as a sales professional in Personal Insurance Professionals, a division of MHBT that serves personal lines clients.
Prior to joining MHBT, he was agency owner of the Boyd Agency (Allstate), vice president of sales at PLI (Chubb), as well as in management positions in the insurance and restaurant industries. Boyd also has served as territory manager, product manager, state marketing director and account executive/vice president of sales in both the company and agency sides of the industry.
Louisiana-based FARA appointed Tony Mendez as account executive responsible for all business development and client service initiatives in Florida for FARA. He is based in the company’s Boca Raton office.
Prior to this appointment, Mendez was employed by Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, where he served as regional operations manager for Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. He held increasingly responsible sales positions with the company during his 11-year tenure. Mendez began his career with Hughes Anderson Engineering where he served six years as an outside sales representative.
FARA also named David Jankosky as an account executive responsible for business development and client service initiatives in California. He is based in the company’s Signal Hill office. Prior to this appointment, Jankosky led his own healthcare insurance consultant firm. He previously served with U.S. HealthWorks, CorVel Corp. and Concentra Managed Care.
Leah Belk recently joined PWIB Texas as technical assistant, working out of the firm’s Dallas office.
PWIB Texas is a member of Insurance Specialty Group, a diversified insurance organization with operations in Atlanta, Dallas, Hartford, Los Angeles, Miami, New Jersey, New York and San Antonio.
Greg Thompson, president and chief executive officer of THOMCO, is the new president of the Target Markets Program Administrators Association, a national organization serving program managers.
THOMCO, headquartered in metro-Atlanta, was established in 1977 and has been an MGA focused on program business since the early 1980s. In 1979, Greg Thompson joined the firm after two years in New York with Marsh and McLennan. Since then, he has served as president of THOMCO.
Brett Morgan was installed as the 85th president of the Independent Insurance Agents of San Antonio (IIASA). Morgan is senior vice president, Business Insurance and Employee Benefits, for SWBC Insurance Services.
He began his insurance career with Chubb Group of Insurance Companies in 1985. In his work with leading financial institutions, manufacturers, and technology businesses on complex exposures and processes, Morgan also conducts business risk management seminars on topics such as D&O Liability, employee theft, business interruption, employment liability and international operations.
Morgan has served IIASA on the Board of Directors and in the offices of president-elect and vice president. He is the 2006/2007 president of the Alamo Kiwanis and on the Board of Directors for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of South Texas and the San Antonio Manufacturers Association. He is active with the Boy Scouts, the various San Antonio Chambers of Commerce, the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATA), the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), and the University of the Incarnate Word.
Lori Flores of Frost Insurance Agency, Mike Cook of Wallace Cook Insurance Agency and Kevin Semtner of Walthall, Sachse & Pipes took oaths of office as president-elect, vice president and treasurer, respectively. The Board members include Jim Carlisle and Mike Grossman of Compass Insurance Agency; Christine Altgelt Haynes of Sanger and Altgelt; Greg LeJune of Catto & Catto; Bill Martin of Grona Boles & Martin; Rick Paludi of Luhn-McCain Insurance; Ronald F. Rohde of Independent Insurance Center; and Rod Tootle of Eichlitz, Dennis, Wray & Westheimer.
Presiding as the installing officer was president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas, Robert W. Hempkins, Hempkins Insurance Agency, Dennison, Texas.
XL Capital Ltd’s global insurance operations named Diana Gladwell as Gulf regional underwriting manager for its Marine & Offshore Energy unit. Gladwell will be based in Houston and will be responsible for servicing clients within the Gulf Coast. She will report to Jeffery Kaufmann, chief underwriting officer for XL Insurance’s MOE unit in the Americas.
Gladwell joins XL Insurance from USI Insurance Services of Texas, where she was senior vice president. Her 25-year insurance industry career also included positions at Marsh, Sedgwick, and Willis.
Chris Whitney was named assistant vice president of sales operations for the Texas Farm Bureau insurance companies. Whitney, a native of Pampa, Texas, and a former captain of the Texas Tech University football team, has been the manager of TFBIC operations in the Cherokee County Farm Bureau office for the last five years. He became a TFBIC agent in October of 1998.
Crump Insurance Services Inc. announced that Stevan Feemster joined its marketing team for Texas. He will represent the Austin, Dallas and Houston Crump offices. Feemster has been active in the West Coast insurance industry for 10 years. His experience includes company, wholesale and retail production and marketing.
Two attorneys from Texas-based Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons LLP have been selected to be included in the 2007 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Brian S. Martin was cited for his achievements in Insurance Law. Ronald D. Wamsted was cited for his accomplishments in Personal Injury Litigation and Product Liability Litigation.
Martin, a partner in the Houston office and a regular contributor to Insurance Journal, has extensive experience in insurance coverage and defense matters, specializing in environmental, bad faith, toxic tort, construction and product cases. Martin has also been named one of Texas’ Leading Insurance Attorneys by Chambers USA (2003-2006) and is listed in the 2006 edition of The Guide to the World’s Leading Insurance and Reinsurance Lawyers.
Wamsted, a partner the Austin office, is in the Mass Tort & Product Liability group. He primarily practices civil litigation involving automobile products liability and other personal injury matters. This is his second year for being recognized in Best Lawyers. His work was also acknowledged as one of the “Top Defense Wins of 2005” by the National Law Journal and the Defense Research Institute.
With offices in Dallas, Houston, and Austin, Texas, and in Saint Paul, Minn., Thompson Coe is recognized for its civil litigation capabilities and its expertise in insurance law.
Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.announced that John T. Sinnott, vice chairman, office of the CEO, will retire effective Dec. 31, 2006.
Sinnott has held his current position since July 1, 2005, when he re-joined MMC after a period of retirement. He was also a director of Marsh Inc. from June 2005 through December 2005 and chairman and chief executive officer of Marsh Inc. from 1999 to December 2002 and chairman of Marsh until his retirement in July 2003.
He joined MMC’s predecessor company, Marsh & McLennan Inc., in 1963, and held various executive positions with the company including vice chairman and CEO of J&H Marsh & McLennan Inc. and president and chief executive office of Marsh & McLennan, Inc.
Marsh Inc. also announced a series of personnel moves it says are designed to encourage new business growth and retention levels.
The company reported the elimination of the role of president, now held by Bill Malloy, who is leaving the company. Marsh says eliminating the president’s position is meant to provide Brian Storms, chairman and chief executive officer of Marsh, with a direct line of sight into the performance of the firm’s three geographic regions.
Malloy, who has held the position of president since 2004, is remaining with the firm through the end of this year before leaving to explore new opportunities.
Mark Feuer, formerly at Merrill Lynch, has joined Marsh as leader of the Middle Market practice in the U.S. Most recently, he headed up the Merrill Lynch Trust Co. and Private Banking & Investment Group Platform.
Marsh also hired new leaders for two of its practice groups: Technology, Media & Telecommunications and Construction.
Michael Whealon has joined the firm from ING Barings Ltd., where he was managing director for Investment Banking and global head of Telecoms, Media & Technology. He will lead the Global Technology, Media & Telecommunications industry practice at Marsh.
Michael Feigin has joined Marsh to run the construction industry practice. Feigin, an attorney by training, worked as a real estate and construction litigator at two New York law firms, and as a development director at AvalonBay Communities, the national residential REIT. Feigin comes to Marsh from Bovis Land Lease Holdings Inc., a large construction company.