People – South Central

Don Whitaker, president and owner of Whitaker Insurance Associates Inc. in San Antonio, has been named president-elect of the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT) for 2012-201. The association elected Pat Arthur, partner at McQueary Henry Bowles Troy in Dallas, to serve as vice president. Both terms begin Sept. 1.

Whitaker is president of Associated Insurance Agents (AIA), and chair and member of the board of trustees for IMPACT, IIAT’s political action committee. He has served as president of the Independent Insurance Agents of San Antonio, and in 1995, he received the Ben R. Binford award from the San Antonio association, its highest honor, in praise of his steadfast commitment to the industry.

Arthur has been in the insurance and risk management professions since 1982 with significant expertise and client experience in the hospitality, real estate, construction, nonprofit and distribution industries. His experience includes executive positions with two major insurance companies — one domestic, one in the U.K. — and he served as chief operating officer of a major broker firm in the South prior to joining MHBT. Arthur was also with the Wall Street firm Merrill Lynch.

The IIAT also honored former Corpus Christi independent insurance agent Loyd Neal with its Drex Foreman Award, presented at IIAT’s 115th Annual Conference and Trade Show in San Antonio.

Named after Drex Foreman, who served as the chief executive director of IIAT for more than 30 years, the Drex Foreman Award is the highest honor IIAT bestows annually to an independent agent who has contributed greatly to the independent agency system.

Neal was in the insurance business for more than 50 years, ultimately growing one of the largest independent agencies on the southeast coast of Texas.

During that time, he was president of his local association and a board member of IIAT and its for-profit subsidiary. He served as IIAT’s liaison to the Texas Catastrophe Property Insurance Association and was active on numerous insurance company producer councils.

Neal served in the U.S. Army for 30 years as an active soldier and a reservist, retiring in 1989 as colonel.

Neal was appointed by Gov. George Bush to several commissions to help maintain a presence for the military in Texas. In 1997 he was elected mayor of Corpus Christi and served in that office for four terms. Retired from city office, Neal became the first Republican to be elected a Nueces County judge in more than 140 years. He serves in that office today.

He holds the CPCU, CIC, CLU, CPIA and ARM designations, and he has taught as an adjunct professor at Texas A&M at Corpus Christi.

Longtime London market executive James B. Devall has joined Crawford & Co. in its Dallas office to lead the company’s London-fronted business in the U.S.

As vice president and managing director of London program operations, a newly created position, Devall is responsible for all business coming from the London insurance market to Crawford’s U.S. property/ casualty operation.

Devall is based in the company’s service center in Dallas, where he is a longtime resident, and reports to Philip Porter, senior vice president of U.S. Property & Casualty.

Devall spent much of his career at a major worldwide claims management organization, where he last served as vice president and director of excess and specialty services. He also held positions as vice president and national account executive and assistant vice president and regional manager.

Devall began his career as a claims adjuster at Crawford and was initially involved with the London market during his first tenure with the company, serving as an account executive and later director of London claims.

Crawford & Co. is based in Atlanta.