People – South Central

The Texas Surplus Lines Association Inc. announced the election of new officers and directors at its annual meeting in Austin on Nov. 11.

Lorrie Cheshier, vice president/branch manager at McClelland & Hine Inc. in San Antonio, is the new president of TSLA.

Other new officers are Vice President Penny Restrepo, vice president/director commercial lines, Delta General Agency Corp., Houston, and Secretary/Treasurer Shawn Fabors, chief sales officer, RISC Inc., Dallas.

New directors are: Matt Leicht, RPS Houston; Ellen McBride, TAPCO Underwriters; Barbara Partlow, Houston Surplus Lines; Andrew Fieker, CoverX Specialty, and Greg Rubel, Markel Mid South.

The TSLA Executive Committee consists of the current officers and the immediate Past President Kathy van Eeten, CRC|Crump.

CPro Associates, a Dallas-based surplus lines wholesaler and managing general agency, has expanded its binding authority unit.

Bill Buckley was named managing and directing of binding authority at CPro. He has been in the insurance industry for 24 years and has worked for such companies as Travelers, General Re, Swiss Re. Previous to CPro, he was president and CEO of GJ Sullivan in Orange, Calif.

Also joining CPro and its binding authority unit is Jan Savage. Savage has 43 years of experience in the insurance industry, holds the CIC, ASCR and CPIW designations, and is active in local community service endeavors.

Capstone Underwriters LLC announced that Roger F. Bogan has joined the group in Dallas as executive vice-president, brokerage.

Bogan will head a new brokerage department specializing in oil and gas, hard-to-place casualty and excess liability risks. He has experience and extensive networks in both these areas, and will add a dimension of expertise that will provide excellent opportunities for Capstone’s multi-state agent base.

Andy Ray also has joined Capstone’s brokerage department in Dallas. Ray has experience with excess and surplus lines underwriting and markets, and specializes in hard-to-place risks. He comes to Capstone from Midlands Management and brings more than 35 years of experience to his new position as senior commercial broker.

Capstone Senior Vice-President Stephen M. Franz retired on July 31. Franz had been with Capstone Underwriters since 2004. Prior to Capstone, he had held positions at all levels of the property/casualty insurance industry during his 42-year career.

Service Lloyds Insurance Co., based in Austin, Texas, announced that G. Steven Collier has been named the company’s director of underwriting and Jan Kearbey has been named director of marketing.

Collier is a senior-level executive with more than 32 years of success in all facets of insurance and risk management with both national and multi-line carriers. His expertise includes oversight and direction of claims, loss control and underwriting operations. He served in various managerial levels positions with American General Insurance Co., United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co., and Atlantic Mutual before joining Service Lloyds in 2000 directing the claims and loss control divisions of the company.

Kearbey is also a seasoned insurance executive having been in the industry since 1976, fulfilling executive level responsibilities in an independent agency, managing general agency, national insurance training company and a third party administrator. She began her insurance career with an independent agency in Kansas City.

Although marketing has been her primary focus since joining Service Lloyds in 2004, Kearbey also has an extensive background in claims, loss control and accounting.

LevelFirst, a wholesale broker and managing general agency based in Dallas, added Sara Baker as an insurance technician. She is responsible for handling support functions with a focus on LevelFirst binding contracts.

In addition to Dallas, LevelFirst has offices in Houston and Austin, Texas.

Select Insurance Markets LP (SIM) has added Leila Paschali to its marketing team. Paschali is based in Austin, Texas.

Her responsibility will include marketing and adding additional new agents in both Texas and Louisiana.

Paschali previously worked as a sales producer for Preferred Personal Insurance Agency for the past five years and as a sales agent for Liberty Mutual Insurance prior to that. She sold personal lines policies on auto, home and umbrella for both firms.

SIM, based Houston, facilitates the appointment of national and regional personal lines carriers to independent agents in Texas and Louisiana.

Executive Counsel Warren Byrd has been appointed to the position of deputy commissioner of the Office of Property and Casualty in the Louisiana Department of Insurance (LDI). Arlene Knighten, who has been serving as deputy general counsel, will assume the position of executive counsel.

Byrd joined the LDI in 2004 and worked primarily with the Office of Property and Casualty before being appointed to serve as executive counsel in 2006. Byrd currently serves as chairman of the Louisiana Automobile Theft and Insurance Fraud Prevention Authority and on the board of the Property Insurance Association of Louisiana. He replaces Ed O’Brien who has retired from the LDI.

Knighten joined the department in 2004 as a staff attorney and has since served as supervising attorney and deputy general counsel. Prior to that, she served as an assistant attorney general with the Louisiana Department of Justice. Knighten has served in leadership roles in numerous professional and legal organizations.