People – South Central

The Texas Surplus Lines Association Inc. has elected new officers and directors, including President Shawn Fabors, managing director, AmWINS Program Underwriters Inc. in Dallas.

He takes over from outgoing President Penny Restrepo.

Other newly elected officers include: Vice President Teri Brinson, executive vice president, M.D. Jensvold & Co. Inc., Houston; and Secretary/Treasurer Garrett Sprowls, general counsel/managing broker, Professional Lines Underwriting Specialists Inc. (PLUS Inc.), Austin.

New directors are: Amicia Hine, McClelland & Hine Inc., San Antonio; Chris Holzkamper, RSI International Inc., Arlington; Walter Tomlinson, Risk Placement Services, Houston; Randy Myers, Admiral Insurance Co., Austin; and Wes Rapp, Navigators Management Co., Houston.

The TSLA Executive Committee consists of the current officers and the immediate Past President Penny Restrepo, Delta General Agency Corp.

Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co. promoted Rod Labbe to assistant vice president of Loss Control, Southwest Region.

He is based in Dallas and reports to Kevin Clary, vice president of Loss Control with Amerisure.

Labbe assumes loss control leadership responsibility for Amerisure’s Dallas, Phoenix and St. Louis Core Service Centers (CSCs).

Prior to joining Amerisure in 2014 as a risk management specialist, Labbe spent more than 16 years at Federated Insurance.

Labbe holds an Associate in Commercial Underwriting and Associate in Premium Auditing designations, as well as a Certified Safety Specialist accreditation.

Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co. is headquartered in Farmington Hills, Mich.

Collinson Group appointed Yasmine Mathieu as president of Collinson Insurance Brokers Inc. (CIB).

Based in Little Rock, Ark., she is part of Collinson Group’s global broking team with associates in Dallas and London.

Collinson Group’s broking operation in the U.S. is a nationally licensed insurance broker providing accident/ health, travel, reinsurance and specialty property/casualty products across the United States.

Mathieu has over 25 years of direct, reinsurance and insurance consulting experience. Having begun her career in direct sales for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., she later joined Guy Carpenter where she managed reinsurance portfolios for the top 50 U.S. insurers.

She also has worked at Towers Watson and formed her own business, Global Risk Intermediary (GRI).

Deborah King has been appointed to the board of directors of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA).

King, of Highland Village, is vice president and chief actuary at Republic Underwriters Insurance Co. She has 25 years of experience as an actuary, much of it pricing property in areas prone to catastrophe.

King replaces the late Ronald Lawson, who also worked at Republic.

Sara Waitt, general counsel at the Texas Department of Insurance, is retiring after 24 years with the agency.

TDI Chief Clerk Norma Garcia has been named as the agency’s new general counsel and Associate Commissioner Stan Strickland becomes deputy commissioner over the TDI Legal Division.

Waitt and her staff helped finalize two large settlements for consumers this year – a $353 million settlement signed with State Farm Lloyds and an $84 million agreement with Farmers Insurance Group.

Waitt joined TDI in 1987 as a law clerk in the liquidation division. She left the agency twice to work at a private law firm. She last returned to TDI in 1999 as the head of legal services and served as general counsel under three insurance commissioners.

Garcia has been a lawyer at TDI since 1998. Before that, she worked in the Office of the Attorney General’s Financial Litigation Division.

Strickland joined TDI as a staff attorney in 1996 and has been serving as head of the Legal Section since 2011. He works closely with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and serves on the organization’s cyber security task force.

MarketScout, the national electronic insurance exchange and specialty managing general agency (MGA) headquartered in Dallas, has formed a national professional liability practice with the addition of insurance industry veteran, Laura McCormick.

McCormick joins MarketScout as senior vice president and national practice leader of the newly formed Professional Liability practice.

In her new role, McCormick will be responsible for the development, growth, and expansion of all lines of professional liability as both a wholesale broker and an MGA.