People – South Central

The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT) elected Patrick Watkins, president of Watkins Insurance Group in Austin, to serve as president for 2012-2013. Beginning Sept. 1, Watkins will be responsible for helping members succeed and working with state leaders to ensure a healthy insurance market for Texas consumers.

In addition to serving on IIAT’s board of directors, Watkins has served on numerous IIAT advisory councils including the Young Agent and Trusted Choice advisory councils. He was named the IIAT Young Agent of the Year in 2005. Watkins holds the Certified Insurance Counselor and Certified Risk Manager professional designations and is past president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Austin.

Watkins joined his family’s insurance business, Watkins Insurance Group, in 1994. Over the past 17 years, the agency has grown from a staff of four to nearly 100 full-time employees in seven Texas locations.

American Underwriting Managers, a surplus lines MGA with offices in Southlake and San Antonio, Texas, has added Gay Aulenbacher as vice-president, director of marketing.

Aulenbacher has served in the insurance agency and surplus lines business in Texas for more than 30 years. She is active in the Texas Surplus Lines Association, a professional association for insurance women and various other agency professional organizations. Aulenbacher holds the CPCU, ARM and ASLI professional designations.

Burns & Wilcox of Dallas/Fort Worth announced that Ashley Ganne has joined the company as a broker.

Ganne brings a wealth of professional liability knowledge to Burns & Wilcox and specializes in technology-based E&O, cyber liability/data breach/privacy and media risks.

Ganne obtained her Registered Professional Liability Underwriter designation in 2010, and her Registered Professional Liability Underwriter + designation in 2011. She was the sixth recipient of this designation in the nation, and the third recipient in the state of Texas. The RPLU+ is an elite designation given by the Professional Liability Underwriting Society. Ganne also carries a Texas P/C and Life and Health License.

Ganne is a member of the Austin Independent Insurance Agents Association and young agent committee, and is active in the Professional Liability Underwriting Society and the Professional Liability Underwriting Society Women’s Leadership Network.

XL Group plc has expanded its excess casualty underwriting team in Dallas. Barbara (Barby) Reece joins XL Group as excess casualty manager and Shannon Wyatt joins as senior underwriter.

Reece brings more than 20 years of insurance industry experience, the last nine years spent at St Paul/Travelers where she led an excess casualty team.

With 17-years of umbrella experience, Wyatt also joins from Travelers, where he managed a large book of excess casualty and lead umbrella business.

Texas Insurance Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman selected eight industry professionals to participate in a technical advisory working group to assist Alvarez & Marsal Insurance Advisory Services (AMIAS) in developing and evaluating proposals to reduce the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association’s (TWIA) net exposure and improve policyholder service.

The advisory group members are: Anthony Biello, Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Co.; Phil Bowie, Willis Re Inc.; Shannon Gilbert, United Services Automobile Association (USAA); Donald L. Griffin, Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCIAA); Lyndell W. Haigood, State Auto Insurance Co.; Garry P. Kaufman, Galveston Insurance Associates (GIA); Ramon Lopez, USAA; and Kirby Wisian, USAA.