People – South Central
Karen Quirk has been named chairman and chief operating officer of San Antonio-based Quirk Group Inc., and Luis Vazquez has been promoted to president and CEO of the managing general agency and surplus lines broker, Quirk & Company.
Quirk began her insurance career at State Farm Insurance. In 1989 she joined Quirk & Company and has held several positions of increasing responsibility. Most recently she was vice president of marketing for Quirk & Company and vice president and secretary for Quirk Group. As chairman and COO of Quirk Group, she provides leadership to the board of directors in addition to serving as the liaison between the board and executives for all subsidiaries of the group.
Quirk holds the Associate of Surplus Lines Insurance designation from The American Institute for Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters.
Vazquez began his insurance career as an auditor for the international department of EW Blanch Holdings Inc. In 1996, he joined Quirk & Company and has since held a variety of management positions, most recently as senior vice president.
As president and CEO, Vazquez is responsible for overall leadership, revenue development and operational success of the company.
Dallas-based wholesale insurance broker and managing general agent, LevelFirst, announced that April Moeser has been named executive vice president.
With more than 25 years of experience in commercial insurance sales, marketing, underwriting and claims, Moeser is charged with the primary strategic and operational responsibilities for the wholesale brokerage and MGA business units.
Moeser comes to LevelFirst from Advanced E&S where she specialized in commercial property and casualty insurance products for the hospitality industry. Her experience also includes leadership roles with RCA Insurance Services, Axiom Insurance Managers, U.S. Risk and AIG.
The company also hired Lisa Sherman as services manager to support both internal and external operations.
Sherman has more than 10 years of experience in the industry including operational and underwriting contributions to RCA Insurance Group, Towerstone Inc. and Advanced E&S.
LevelFirst is owned by the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas.
L.S. Howard has been appointed international editor for Insurance Journal and Carrier Management. She is based in London.
Howard succeeds Charles E. Boyle, who retired at the end of 2015 after 17 years with the company.
Insurance Journal and Carrier Management are both publications of San Diego, Calif.-based Wells Media Group, which serves the property/casualty insurance industry.
Howard has spent more than 20 years as a financial journalist, including 18 years at the insurance news magazine, National Underwriter. In 1992, she became NU’s international editor in London, a post she held until 2003 when she was hired by GE Insurance Solutions as an internal communicator. In 2014, she joined Wells Media Group as a part-time editor.
Texas Commissioner of Insurance David Mattax made six appointments to the state’s Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan governing committee. The FAIR plan provides residential property insurance in underserved areas.
Mattax appointed three new committee members and re-appointed three others to terms that expire on June 16, 2017. The new members are:
Frank Baumann Jr. of Kingsville is a retired State Farm agent who serves on the board of directors of the Brush Country Chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association.
Byron Haney of Franklin is director of the Financial Fitness Center for the Brazos Valley Affordable Housing Corporation. Haney is a member of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors as well as the Financial Planning Association.
Mark Solomon of Richardson is the president of Assurnet Insurance Agency. Solomon is an independent insurance agent and a member of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents and Professional Insurance Agents of Texas.
John Miletti of West Hartford, Timothy McCarthy of China Spring, and Corise Morrison of Boerne were reappointed.
Dallas-based International Risk Management Institute Inc. (IRMI), appointed Joel A. Appelbaum as vice president of knowledge resources.
Appelbaum has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry. Before joining IRMI, Appelbaum was the president of the construction division for ProSight Specialty Insurance.
Previously, he worked for Zurich Insurance in North America, CNA Insurance and the Argonaut Great Central Insurance Co.
He holds the professional CPCU, ARM and AIS designations.