People Moves: Petty Named VP at Alera Group; Kapelka Joins IIAT

Insurance and wealth management firm Alera Group named Latischa Petty vice president of total rewards. She is based in Houston.

Reporting to Debra Martinez, chief HR officer at Alera Group, Petty will partner with leadership to ensure that Alera Group’s benefits, compensation and recognition programs are competitive and cost-effective in addition to supporting the company’s overall business strategy.

Petty joins Alera Group from Indorama, where she served as manager of shared services. Prior to that, Petty worked as the director of total rewards, benefits and compensation at Nexeo Solutions.

Based in Deerfield, Illinois, Alera Group’s over 2,500 employees serve thousands of clients nationally in employee benefits, property and casualty, retirement services and wealth management.

Neil Kapelka has joined the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas as an advantage markets coach.

Kapelka, who has more than 16 years of experience in the insurance industry, started his insurance career in 2004 with Travelers where he served as an adjuster, as well as a personal lines sales and marketing executive. During his time at Travelers, he worked with agents in Central and East Texas to enhance their business and achieve growth.

In 2019, Kapelka joined Chubb as a small business sales leader, where he supervised and trained more than 80 small commercial lines agents for Central and West Texas.

In his new role as an advantage markets coach, Kapelka will work closely with IIAT members to review their agencies’ needs and connect them with markets and resources.