People

McQueary Henry Bowles Troy LLP (MHBT) added Jim Anderson as senior vice president in the Dallas-based firm’s property/casualty group. Anderson will oversee the production and account management of property/casualty business accounts.

With nearly 30 years of risk management experience, Anderson has significant expertise working with retail, transportation and manufacturing clients. Prior to joining MHBT, he served as senior vice president for various large public brokers.

Colemont Insurance Brokers promoted Hardy Nix to vice president in Colemont’s Texas office.

Nix specializes in hard-to-place casualty lines, specifically general liability and umbrellas for many classes, including apartments, restaurants, night clubs, construction contractors, oil and gas, and manufacturing and fabrications.

Nix joined Colemont in 2000 after serving for six years as the branch manager for the Dallas office of Montgomery & Collins. He began his insurance career in 1982 in an MGA office where he served as a clerk and casualty underwriter before switching to brokerage operations.

U.S. Risk Insurance Group Inc. named Mark J. Siceloff as a senior broker with U.S Risk Brokers, the company’s wholesale excess and surplus lines insurance brokerage operations. He will be based in U.S. Risk’s Dallas office.

Siceloff has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience and will specialize in property and casualty coverage for the energy sector, both offshore and onshore exposures, including control of well. In addition, he will handle traditional property for real estate, habitational and manufacturing risks.

Most recently, Siceloff was the property practice leader with Energy Risk Associates Inc. in Dallas, where he managed wholesale property brokerage operations. He also has served as a property practice leader at Marsh USA, as well as in positions with Johnson & Higgins and CIBC Oppenheimer in Atlanta.

U.S. Risk also named Richard T. Schwartz general counsel of U.S. Risk Insurance Group and J. Brian Hobbs as president of Professional Claims Managers Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Risk and the company’s specialty third party claims administrator.

Schwartz joined U.S. Risk Insurance Group in 1997 and has served in a dual capacity as president of Professional Claims Managers Inc., and general counsel for the parent company. Schwartz will now focus his attentions solely on the duties and responsibilities as general counsel.

Hobbs joined Professional Claims Managers Inc. in 1998 and served in the capacity of senior claims counsel and most recently executive vice president. Hobbs will succeed Schwartz in the position of president of Professional Claims Managers Inc. He is a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association and holds a Texas Adjuster’s License – property/casualty.

Cline Wood Agency appointed Jeff Boan as Transpor-tation sales manager for the company’s southwest sales region — Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. In addition to leading Cline Wood’s Arlington, Texas, office, Boan will continue concentrating on sales.

Boan joined Cline Wood as a college intern in 2002 and started his career in sales in 2003. He opened the Cline Wood Agency office in Texas in 2004 and earned the agency’s Producer of the Year award in 2004 and again in 2007.

In addition to promoting Boan, the company said it is moving into a larger office in Arlington and adding another producer.

Headquartered in Leawood, Kan., Cline Wood Agency is a commercial property and casualty insurance agency providing insurance and risk management solutions to the transportation and agribusiness industries. Cline Wood serves clients nationwide with sales and service offices in Warrensburg, Mo.; Arlington, Texas; and Ashboro, N.C.

Colleen O’Sullivan joined the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas as the organization’s first-ever recruiting manager. Sullivan’s duties will include assisting the IIAT’s Trusted Choice independent insurance agent members in finding and hiring talented professional staff.

O’Sullivan joins IIAT from Verizon where she created a recruiting plan from scratch, establishing procedures and tracking tools, and interviewing and selecting additional recruiters. While at Verizon, she was involved in three channels — networking, retail and business-to-business — where she trained some 250 hiring managers on interviewing, candidate selection and new-hire orientations for the Gulf Coast Region.

As IIAT recruiting manager, O’Sullivan will promote the opportunities and benefits of employment in independent insurance agencies, increasing the flow of qualified candidates to members throughout Texas, and enhancing the recruiting and hiring practices of agency managers.

Sarah E. Barton joined London American Risk Specialists Inc.’s Houston office as senior property and casualty broker. She brings with her 15 years of insurance experience on both the company and retail sides.

As a senior underwriting officer with the Chubb Companies, Barton wrote both domestic and foreign middle-market lines of coverage with an emphasis on manufacturers, distributors, real estate and service companies. She then spent two years with a retail agency in upper management positions.

Austin, Texas-based Combined Agents of America LLC (CAA) has elected a new management committee for 2008.

The new 2008 management committee includes: Chairman of the Board Brent Borgstedte, president of GBS Insurance Agency Inc., Bellaire; President Don C. Jones, president of Crockett Insurance Service, president of Houston-Walker Counties Insurance Service & Crockett Financial Service, Crockett; Executive Vice President Michael Sachse, vice president of Walthall Sachse & Pipes Inc., San Antonio; Second Vice President Michael T. Siegeler, president of the Siegeler Insurance Agency Inc., Giddings; Secretary Lloyd Eisenrich, president of The Weatherby-Eisenrich Inc., headquartered in Andrews, with two other locations in Odessa, as Edgmon-Eisenrich Insurance, and in Granbury, as Insco Insurance; Treasurer Jim Norris, CEO of Henry Norris Insurance Agency Inc., Lamesa; and Past President Bill Bridges, executive vice president of Duncan, Fraser & Bridges, Pampa.

Each CAA management committee member is elected to serve a two-year term and is selected by its board of members based on their leadership abilities and contributions to the organization.

American Underwriting Managers (AUM), a managing general agency and surplus lines broker with offices in North and South Texas, added Ken Fisher as a contract underwriter/broker in its Southlake office.

Fisher has more than 25 years of insurance industry experience. For the past eight years, Fisher worked in the reinsurance business, specializing in reinsurance for the surplus lines industry.

AUM provides insurance services in Texas and surrounding states.

Karen Walker has been promoted to associate director of Transportation for Houston-based managing general agent and insurance wholesaler Myron Steves.

The company said Walker achieved excellent results while managing its Dallas Business Development Center and will continue in this role.

Walker has extensive MGA, retail, company and reinsurance experience in the area of transportation.

In addition to Houston and Dallas, Myron Steves has offices in San Antonio and Austin.

Texas-based Insurance Alliance has hired Fritz Koehler as executive vice president of Sales.

Koehler has many years of experience in the sales arena, with 12 years specifically in the insurance industry. Koehler is a Certified Insurance Counselor, Certified Risk Manager and an instructor for Dynamics of Selling.

Insurance Alliance also announced that veteran sales producer Dennis Hollander plans to retire as of September 2008 after more than 39 years in the insurance industry.

Matt Sasso, the Austin/Houston Branch vice president of CNA, recently named Insurance Alliance CNA’s Branch Agency of the Year. Along with the award, a contribution in the amount of $1,000 was made to Boys & Girls Country by CNA on behalf of Insurance Alliance.

AFS/IBEX, which provides premium financing for the property and casualty insurance industry, announced new marketing managers for the South Central region.

Linda Leos joined AFS/IBEX team in the company’s Dallas location as a Regional Marketing manager. Leos will develop and maintain the North Texas area, as well as Oklahoma and Louisiana. As the former executive director of the Independent Insurance Agents of Dallas Leos developed strong relationships in the Texas marketplace. Her background also includes experience with insurance companies and brokerage/managing general agencies.

Carolyn Johnson was promoted to Regional Marketing manager for North Texas. Johnson has 10 years of management and marketing experience with AFS/IBEX in the Dallas location.

J.T. Holsan was promoted to Regional Marketing manager for North and East Texas and will office in Dallas.

Felecia Kendall has been promoted to Internal Marketing manager for the Central region to include the Dallas office. Kendall has more than six years of experience and will oversee operations and management of client services, new product development and new technology implementation.

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