The Independent Insurance Agents of Houston installed Donald E. (Woody) Woodard, Jr. as the association’s president for 2004-2005. Woodard began his insurance career in 1973 at Houstoun Stevenson and Cummings, in the casualty department. He co-founded Houstoun Woodard and Associates in 1984 and in 1992, along with three other agencies, formed Insurance Alliance where he currently serves as senior vice president and chairman of the Board of Directors.
In addition to Woodard, IIAH elected the following officers for 2004-2005: President-elect Scott B. West, Pathfinder LL&D Insurance Group; Vice President Robert E. Dunn III, Hotchkiss Insurance Agency; Treasurer Henry Childers, Insurance Associates of the Southwest; Immediate Past President Steven R. Davis, GBS Insurance Agency; and Secretary Carole Shelton.
New directors elected for a three-year term include: James (Jim) D. Cook, Pathfinder LL&D Insurance Group; Michael Hotchkiss, Hotchkiss Insurance Agency; Barbara LaRocca, Tom Baker/WSB Insurance; and Kerry Kee, The Hartford. Rose Perez, Leicht General Agency was ratified as a director for a two-year term to fill a director vacancy.
J. H. Blades & Co. Inc. (JHB) reported that after 15 years of service at JHB, Raymond (Ray) Johnson is retiring in 2005.
Johnson began his insurance career as an underwriter with the Insurance Company of North America in 1966. His career in commercial insurance spans nearly 40 years.
After leaving INA he joined Marsh & McLennan in New York and in 1974 accepted a transfer to Marsh’s Houston office. His tenure at Marsh included serving as head of the Houston office of NBA Excess & Surplus Lines. He left Marsh after 16 years to join Alexander & Alexander as senior vice president. In 1990 Johnson joined Blades, where he is a director of the firm.
Johnson has been active for more than 25 years in the Texas Surplus Lines Association (TSLA). He has been a member of the Regulatory Liaison Committee for many years and was committee chair for several years. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the TSLA.
Heath Insurance Brokers promoted Jerry Murphy to senior vice president for the company’s Texas branch. Murphy specializes in worker injury coverages, including both workers’ compensation and Texas non-subscriber insurance through open market and in-house facilities.
He has served as a non-subscription arbitrator, spoken at numerous conferences, and presented to many industry groups and associations on the subject. Murphy has been with Heath since 1996 when Heath acquired his firm.
Texas-based MaximInsurance announced the addition of two new associates to its team of insurance professionals–Allyn Roberts III and Karla Marullo.
Roberts will serve as a producer, specializing in commercial insurance. Previous to joining MaximInsurance, Roberts worked as a loan officer for Texas Residential Landing.
Marullo joins the company as a marine account representative. A former resident of Santa Fe, she previously worked for Halls Insurance and State Farm Insurance. Marullo holds dual Accredited Customer Service Representative (ACSR) designations with licenses in both personal and commercial, and life and health insurance.
Dallas-based Cunningham Lindsey U.S. Inc. (CLUS) named Karl Nann vice president and director of Property & Catastrophe. With more than 30 years of experience, Nann has held several key positions in the independent adjusting industry. He will be based at the CLUS home office in Dallas.
Cunningham Lindsey U.S. is an independent insurance services company, providing a wide range of claims adjusting services including commercial property and liability, personal lines, catastrophe response, and environmental assessment and remediation.
Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee reappointed Karen McKinney of Little Rock to the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission (AWCC). She will serve until Dec. 5, 2010.
McKinney will continue to serve as the commission’s management representative on the three-member full commission. Another commissioner represents labor’s interests, and the third serves as the chairperson.
Before being appointed to the commission in September 2003, McKinney was an administrative law judge for the commission. From April 1996 until her appointment as an administrative law judge in June 1999, McKinney was a law clerk for the AWCC.
The Target Markets Program Administrators Association has a new president–Art Seifert, founder, president and chief executive officer of Ananadale, Va.-based The Lighthouse Companies, and one of the original members of the Target Markets organization.
Seifert assumes the presidency from Glenn Clark, owner and president of Rockwood Programs in Wilmington, Del., also one of the founders of the organization.
Chicago-based commercial insurer CNA Financial Corp. appointed Craig Mense as chief financial officer. Mense will be responsible for CNA’s corporate finance department, which provides asset and capital management, investor relations, corporate accounting, financial reporting, corporate tax, financial regulation and internal audit services to the organization.
Mense comes to CNA from St. Paul Travelers, where he served most recently as president and CEO of its global run-off operations.
CNA also announced that Brenda Gaines joined its board of directors. Formerly CEO of Citigroup’s Diners Club North America, she serves on the boards of Office Depot, March of Dimes, Economic Club of Chicago and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
Topics Texas
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