People – South Central
The Texas Surplus Lines Association Inc. announced that Kathy van Eeten, senior vice president – regional marketing for insurance broker CRC|Crump, has been elected president of the association for the coming year. Van Eeten is based in Austin.
Other TSLA incoming officers are:
New directors are:
Current directors include:
The TSLA Executive Committee consists of the current officers and the immediate Past President Susan Gropp, Arcana Insurance Services.
Mullis Newby Hurst LP (MNH), based in Addison, Texas, has hired Tom Salmon as director, business development for an expansion into new markets.
MNH writes construction insurance and surety bonds across the Southwest.
Salmon comes to MNH from The Dow Group, a recruiting, HR risk management, and executive coaching firm. He has more than 20 years’ experience in manufacturing, sales and recruiting for companies such as Kimberly-Clark, Orange Business Services and Gateway.
Salmon will be responsible for launching and building new programs in healthcare, information technology, and transportation.
In addition to Addison, MNH affiliate MNH-Tullis LLC is based in Little Rock, Ark.
SWBC Insurance Services, headquartered in San Antonio, has added Michael Hogan as senior risk control consultant.
Prior to joining SWBC, Hogan was the San Antonio safety consultant for Compressive Safety Resources (CSR). His previous experience also includes service with companies such as Hartford Insurance, A&A-Aon, and a large independent agency in Texas. He is well-versed in the loss control aspects of property and casualty insurance coverage, OSHA and DOT regulations, and behavior-based safety methods.
Dallas-based Roach Howard Smith & Barton has added Keleigh Buchanan as a sales executive in its personal client services division.
Buchanan has more than 10 years of insurance industry experience; her expertise lies in the high net-worth arena. She will work with RHSB’s Elite Client Services group that specializes in high net-worth individuals and families with unique assets including aircraft, yachts, wine collections, vintage cars, fine art and jewelry.
Buchanan is a licensed professional and continues to develop both her product knowledge and leadership skills.
Western Surplus Lines Agency Inc., based in Abilene, Texas, named Frank Peck as president and chief executive officer effective Jan. 1. Peck has served as an executive vice-president since 2006.
He succeeds Ron McElyea who has served president and CEO since 1981. McElyea will assume the responsibilities of chairman of the board of the company.
Peck will be responsible for corporate operations and in charge of all day-to-day executive management decisions.
McElyea will continue to remain active with key responsibilities related to assisting in future direction and expansion plans for the company.
HCC Insurance Holdings Inc., headquartered in Houston, appointed Carol T. Nevin as president of United States Surety Co. (USSC), a member of the HCC Surety Group, effective Jan. 1.
She will report to Adam S. Pessin, HCC Surety Group’s CEO.
Nevin more than 25 years of surety industry experience and has served in various underwriting and management capacities during her career.
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, HCC Insurance Holdings is an international specialty insurance group with offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland.
Gov. Mary Fallin has appointed L. Brad Taylor as the new presiding judge of the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Court.
Taylor, who was appointed to the Workers’ Compensation Court in 2012, replaces Judge Michael Harkey as the presiding judge of the court.
A bill approved by the legislature in 2011 requires the governor to appoint a new presiding judge to a two-year term beginning Jan. 1.
Before being appointed to the court, Taylor was an associate at a Tulsa law firm and primarily practiced workers’ compensation law.
Mark Abshire of Breaux Bridge, La., and Philip McMahon of Houma, La., have been named recipients of the 2012 Stephen W. Cavanaugh Scholarship, sponsored by Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corp. (LWCC).
Each will receive the $8,000 scholarship over a four-year period.
LWCC established the Stephen W. Cavanaugh Scholarship Fund in 2006 in honor of Cavanaugh’s leadership and lasting contributions to the insurance industry in Louisiana. He was LWCC’s chief executive officer from the company’s inception in 1992 until 2006, the year he died.
Abshire is currently enrolled at Louisiana State University, where he plans to study general business.
McMahon is enrolled at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he plans to study insurance and risk management.
The scholarship fund, administered by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, provides financial assistance to deserving Louisiana students who are majoring in an insurance-related field at a Louisiana university, college or community college. Applicants must submit academic transcripts, a statement about their career plans in the insurance industry, and a letter of recommendation from a teacher or professor.
The founding donors include LWCC; Aubrey T. Temple, Jr.; Community Foundation of Acadiana; Dwight Andrus Insurance Agency; Guy Carpenter & Company LLC; Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of Louisiana; Knox Insurance Group LLC; LUBA Casualty Insurance Company; Star Service Inc.; and Wright & Percy Insurance.
InVEST, the insurance industry career education program, announced that Denise Johnson has joined its national board. Johnson is vice president and insurance producer at ECI Agency in Piedmont, Okla.
Johnson is former Independent Insurance Agents of Greater Oklahoma City president and was the first woman to chair the Independent Insurance Agents of Oklahoma executive board of directors.
At the national level, she currently serves as the state national director for Oklahoma on the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) board of directors.
Johnson continues to be an advocate in the insurance industry by lobbying on a state and federal level for important issues such as workers compensation and tort reform.
Kenneth J. Berger has been named president of Berkley Specialty Underwriting Managers LLC. The appointment is effective immediately.
Berger succeeds Steven S. Zeitman, who has been appointed chairman and will remain chief executive officer.
Berger, who joined Berkley Specialty Underwriting Managers in 2009 as president of the environmental division, has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry.
He previously served as a senior executive for several leading underwriters of environmental and specialty insurance.
Berkley Specialty Underwriting Managers is an underwriting management company providing a complete portfolio of commercial property casualty insurance products to the entertainment, sports and environmental industries.
The company underwrites on behalf of Nautilus Insurance Co. and Great Divide Insurance Co., member companies of W. R. Berkley Corp.