People – South Central
Alan W. Ponder has joined the Houston office of insurance brokerage and financial services firm, Higginbotham, as assistant vice president of loss control.
Ponder will apply his three-decade career in loss prevention to identify exposures and implement hazard control programs that reduce losses and contain insurance costs for Higginbotham’s clients in south Texas. He comes to Higginbotham from Willis of Texas Inc. in Houston where he was a senior risk control consultant.
Ponder is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and provides instruction as an OSHA General Industry authorized trainer, a PEC Premier SafeLand and SafeGulf trainer and H2S trainer with UT Arlington. He is involved with a number of other professional organizations, including the American Society of Safety Engineers, Houston STEPS, Food Products Association and Texas Department of Insurance Texas – Division of Workers’ Compensation.
Rick Gentry, executive director of the Insurance Council of Texas (ICT) since 1997, announced that he will retire from the association at the end of March 2014.
Prior to joining ICT, Gentry served for 15 years as the regional vice president of the Insurance Information Institute. He is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Business and the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Austin-based workers’ compensation insurance provider Texas Mutual Insurance Co. has named Woody Hill its vice president of loss prevention.
Hill will oversee the company’s ongoing initiative to deliver strategic workplace safety services that meet each of its 57,000 policyholders’ unique needs.
Hill has 30 years’ experience in workplace safety and health. He most recently served as vice president of loss control for Employers Compensation Insurance Co. in San Francisco, Calif.
A member of the American Society of Safety Engineers and American Industrial Hygiene Association, Hill also serves on the loss control committee of the Property and Casualty Insurers Association of America.
Swett & Crawford, part of the independent global wholesale and reinsurance broking group Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC), added Ben Young to its professional services practice group in its Dallas office.
Prior to joining Swett & Crawford, Young worked as a broker with Westrope where he developed his expertise in management liability, professional liability and healthcare professional liability. Most recently, Young held the position of assistant vice president with Rockhill, where his focus was on developing, underwriting, and marketing directors and officers liability.
IIAT Services Co., a subsidiary of the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT), hired Jerry Mackey as its president.
IIAT Services Co. provides services and products for IIAT members’ E&O, market and operational needs through the IIAT Advantage brand.
Mackey has been in the insurance industry for more than 30 years. His recent positions include president and CEO of Farmers Union Insurance Co. and Deep South MGA, both QBE operational entities. He also previously held various positions at Fairmont Specialty, Fireman’s Fund and The Hartford.
Mackey succeeds retiring IIAT Services President Bill Wade.
Shreveport, La.-based Specialty Risk Associates Inc. announced that Sue LeBreton joined the firm as a commercial lines underwriter.
Prior to joining Specialty Risk Associates, LeBreton worked for nine years as a senior underwriter for Southern Cross Underwriters. She also has prior experience as an underwriter with Burns & Wilcox and Zurich Insurance. LeBreton has a total of 29 years in the insurance industry.
LeBreton is based in Mandeville, La.
Houston-based Delta General Agency Corp. reported that Craig Moss joined the property/casualty insurance wholesale broker as senior transportation underwriter.
Moss has been in the insurance industry for 17 years, most recently with Brazos Specialty Risk Inc. in Dallas. He has fulfilled many roles during his insurance career, and his passion continues to be transportation underwriting. Moss feels his greatest areas of strength lie in trucking and fleets.
Michael Clingman, former administrator of the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Court, has joined the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) as a regional director. He will be based in Oklahoma.
Clingman has held a number of executive positions in state government and the private sector, including CEO of the Oklahoma State Insurance Fund, Oklahoma state budget director, Oklahoma Secretary of the Senate, Secretary of the Oklahoma State Election Board, CEO of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission. He also has directed the property/casualty lines of an insurer.
At WCRI, Clingman will be responsible for relationships, revenues and the impact of studies in a dozen states.