People – South Central
Workers’ compensation insurer, Texas Mutual Insurance Co., named Jeremiah Bentley as vice president of marketing and customer engagement.
He joined Texas Mutual in 1998 and has served in a variety of roles across the organization. Most recently, he was the senior manager of marketing and community affairs.
In 2016, Bentley led a Texas Mutual team in developing Safety in a Box, the first virtual reality tool used for workplace safety in the insurance industry. As a result of this work, Texas Mutual received the Innovation in Action Award from Strategy Meets Action (SMA), a leading strategic advisory services firm.
Dallas-based ITS, an insurance consulting and services firm, has expanded the responsibilities of Marti Daniels, who also serves as vice president of business development. Daniels assumes leadership of the company’s marketing efforts as the company expands its offerings to the insurance industry.
She will retain her position as vice president of business development, a position that includes selling ITS’s advisory consulting, testing, data migration, business analysis, project management and training services to property/casualty (P/C) insurance companies across all lines of business.
The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT) named Angela Ford as director of continuous improvement.
Ford has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, managing all aspects of technology implementation, consulting independent agencies on how to streamline their processes to work smarter, and training staff.
She started her career with Vertafore (formally known as AMS Services Inc.) where she was part of the training and consulting management team. Ford later joined Beecher Carlson, a large account risk management broker, where she served as the director of IT applications. Most recently, Ford worked for a consulting firm, helping agencies with a variety of needs.
The Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX) announced three new members have been appointed to its board of directors.
These individuals are part of a nine-member board appointed by the Texas Commissioner of Insurance. Each board member serves a three-year term, with two industry members and one public member appointed annually.
Lorrie Cheshier, vice president and branch manager for McClelland & Hine Inc., in San Antonio, Texas, joins the board of directors as an industry member. Cheshier has been with McClelland & Hine for 18 years, and has 32 years of experience in the insurance industry.
Charles “Buddy” Gillenwater was appointed to the board as a public member. Gillenwater is the risk manager for the city of Mesquite, Texas, a community of 150,000 residents and 1,100 employees. As risk manager, he works collaboratively with city departments and community stakeholders, which include local and federal governments, state officials, residents, and business interests.
Kyle Streetman, vice president of Third Party Administrative Programs (TPA) for The Littleton Group, was selected as an industry member. In his role, he manages and oversees TPA for organizations in the insurance industry from an operational and marketing aspect, and has experienced implementing technology platforms that meet the needs of his division.
These three individuals assume the vacancies of Chairman Paul Rainey, Vice-Chairman Randle Loving, and public member Cynthia Vickers, whose terms ended on December 31, 2016.
Matthew Smith has been named a director within the national sales and marketing team in the Houston office of Crystal & Company, a national insurance brokerage firm. He is responsible for business development and expanding client relationships.
Smith previously served as global account manager for strategic corporate accounts at Nalco Champion, an Ecolab company.
San Antonio-based insurance and financial services firm, SWBC, promoted Karen Meriwether to chief financial officer (CFO).
Meriwether joined SWBC in 2015 as vice president of internal audit and chief audit executive. She has 15 years of experience as the chief financial officer for major industry players such as Argonaut Insurance Co., Texas Mutual Insurance Co., and Tower Life Insurance Co.
Meriwether’s professional experience also includes serving as the director of internal audit for the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association and the Texas Fair Plan Insurance Association. Before that, she was senior vice president and chief risk officer for Argo Group.
She is a certified public accountant (CPA).