People

San Antonio, Texas-based Southwest Business Corporation announced that Nick Grant has joined SWBC as the chief executive officer of the Property and Casualty Division in the San Antonio office. Grant is responsible for the leadership of that division, as well as the advancement of SWBC’s personal lines insurance presence and growing business insurance product lines.

Prior to joining SWBC, Grant was the executive vice president for Guaranty Insurance Services Inc. in Austin, Texas, over the past 10 years. His previous executive experience includes nine years with American Bankers Insurance Group in Dallas.

Millicent W. Workman joined the International Risk Management Institute Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, as a research analyst. She will be acting as the editor of IRMI’s newly acquired, Practical Risk Management, a source of background and advice on risk management.

Workman has more than 30 years of hands-on risk management experience in a variety of industries, and is currently the CPCU Society’s 2005-2006 president.

Molly Seibert has joined PWIB Texas as associate underwriter/broker. She will work out of the firm’s Dallas office. Seibert previously was associated with other insurance wholesalers in Texas and has 27 years’ experience in this field.

PWIB Texas is part of Insurance Specialty Group.

McQueary Henry Bowles Troy LLP (MHBT) announced that Hoyt Utay has joined the firm’s Dallas, Texas, office as sales professional in Personal Insurance Professionals, a division of MHBT that was formed to provide the firm’s personal lines clients with quality service protection.

Utay brings to MHBT more than 15 years of solid experience in the insurance profession. Prior to joining MHBT, he managed numerous claim teams and business operations for State Farm Insurance Company and Texas Farm Bureau.

MHBT is based in Dallas and also has offices in Fort Worth and Austin, Texas.

Miami insurance agent Alex Soto was inaugurated as the new president of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, with Robert E. Fulwider and C. Brett Nilsson assuming the offices of president-elect and vice president, respectively.

The new officers were sworn in at the Big “I” Leadership Conference in New Orleans.

Soto is president of Miami-Fla.-based InSource Inc. Soto has been active in the Big “I” nationally and in the Florida Association of Independent Agents during his 34-year career as an independent insurance agent. He is a past chairman of the FAIA and also a past director on IIABA’s national board. He has served as chairman of the Big “I” Communications Committee, Branding Task Force and other committees. He was a founder of the Trusted Choice brand for independent agents and brokers.

Fulwider is principal and president of the Ray Wuestenberg Agency Inc. in West Liberty, Iowa, and of the Fulwider Agency Inc. in West Branch, Iowa. He also is president of Bob Fulwider and Associates, a life-and-health financial-planning agency in eastern Iowa. Fulwider started his career as an independent agent in 1973. He is a past president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Iowa and currently sits on its Education Committee. He also is the only two-time Agent of the Year in IIAI history (1983, 1990) and was inducted into the Iowa Insurance Hall of Fame in 2003.

Nilsson is senior vice president for The Buckner Company, based in Salt Lake City. Nilsson served as president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Utah from 1992-93. He also served as a director on the Big “I” national board for nine years. Nilsson is a past recipient of Utah’s Agent of the Year and Young Agent of the Year awards, and he received an IIABA Presidential Citation in 2001. In 2003, Nilsson received his state association’s highest individual honor, the Burgener Award.

Texas Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin appointed Jennifer Ahrens as Health Care Provider Ombudsman for the Texas Department of Insurance. The provider ombudsman assists health care providers in their dealings with insurance carriers.

Ahrens, formerly general counsel and advisor for the Governor’s Office of Budget, Planning and Policy, is currently TDI’s associate commissioner for Life, Health & Licensing.

The ombudsman position was formerly held by Audrey Selden, senior associate commissioner of TDI’s Consumer Protection division.

The Texas Automobile Insurance Plan Association recently elected officers for 2006-2007. Terry Mack was elected chairman of the governing committee. Mack is a consultant in property and casualty underwriting operations, State Farm Insurance Companies, Bloomington, Ill. He previously served as vice chair for TAIPA.

Corise Morrison, residential market executive director, USAA; San Antonio, Texas, was named vice chair and earlier served as secretary treasurer for TAIPA.

Elected to secretary treasurer was Carol Berthold, general manager, GEICO, Washington, D.C. She also serves as chair of the TAIPA Operations Committee.

Elected to the post of second vice chair was Bill Jeter, a public member of the governing committee.

The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas announced that Kenneth Threlkeld, a long-time member of IIAT and founder of Threlkeld & Company Insurance in Tyler, Texas, was named the 2006 Republican of the Year from Texas by the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Business Advisory Council.

Threlkeld was honored earlier this year by IIAT at its 109th Annual Conference and Trade Show with the inaugural Paige Eiland Award for outstanding voluntary political action.

The Republican of the Year award qualifies Threlkeld as a nominee for the Business Advisory Council’s Congressional Medal of Distinction to be awarded later this fall.

Topics Texas Agencies Iowa Risk Management