People

Pan-American Life Insurance Company, headquartered in New Orleans, announced the selection of Carlos F. Mickan as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Mickan’s appointment is effective June 20.

Previously, Mickan served as senior vice president and CFO of Principal International Inc., the International Division of Principal Financial Group. At Principal International, he managed financial relationships and activities across Latin America and Asia. As the leader of an international mergers and acquisitions program at Principal, he expanded the firm’s presence into India, Hong Kong, Mexico, Chile and Brazil.

While Mickan’s international experience and exposure is very broad, he has expertise in the Latin American markets, which are an integral part of Pan-American’s Life’s strategy. Additionally, he has assisted in the development of numerous successful acquisitions and joint ventures in Latin America. He also played a key role in helping Principal Financial transition from a mutual insurance company to a stock company, while contributing his financial acumen to significantly improve performance in the firm’s International Division.

Pan-American also announced that Kenneth C. Mlekush and Nicholas R. Rasmussen have been appointed to its Board of Directors.

Both have extensive financial services experience, including senior executive positions with prominent life insurance companies. They are filling two existing vacancies on the Board.

Mlekush most recently served as vice-chairman of Jefferson-Pilot Corporation, one of the nation’s largest shareholder-owned life insurance companies, providing financial services through a network of 2,300 independent professionals. He previously served as president of Jefferson-Pilot’s Life Companies and held other senior management positions at the company.

Rasmussen served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of American General Corporation until his retirement in 2002. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, since its founding in 1926, American General, which was acquired by American International Group in 2001, was one of the nation’s largest diversified financial services organizations and a leader in retirement services, life insurance, and consumer loans.

Fort Worth, Texas-based InStar Services Group Inc. named Carol Fischer vice president of Marketing. In her new position, Fischer will be responsible for bringing InStar services to the insurance industry. Additionally, she will be involved with the continued growth and development of end user and commercial clients.

Fischer, formerly national accounts director for Rainbow International Restoration and Cleaning, reports to Dave Demos, president of InStar. Fischer lives in Waco and will operate out of Instar’s Southwest regional office located there.

InStar Services Group is a nationwide provider of property restoration and reconstruction services to the insurance, property management and multi-family housing industries.

Property/casualty insurer St. Paul Travelers announced Kathleen Preston will join the company as executive vice president of field marketing. In this newly created position Preston will lead St. Paul Travelers’ 13 regional executives and 29 district executives.

Preston currently serves as president of the retail annuities division at Travelers Life and Annuity, which was purchased by MetLife in a transaction expected to close sometime this summer, according to a St. Paul Travelers spokeswoman. Preston oversees product development, risk management, distribution, marketing, asset retention and training.

Burns & Wilcox, a national specialty insurance wholesaler, underwriter and managing general agent, appointed Mark Temnyk as the company’s IT infrastructure manager. As IT infrastructure manager Temnyk is responsible for managing the Burns & Wilcox network and computing infrastructure and directing the IT support staff.

Temnyk joins Burns & Wilcox with an extensive IT background as both a technician and manager. His expertise includes voice and data telecommunications, server administration, business process analysis and information security.

ACE USA named Richard Vincelette senior vice president, public entity, for ACE Casualty Risk. Based in Philadelphia, Vincelette will be responsible for building ACE’s public entity capability in the United States. ACE’s Public Entity unit will provide coverages for federal, state, county, township and municipal government, special districts, government agencies and authorities, and the public education sector. The unit will specifically target individual entities and groups that finance a portion of their own risk.

Bill King was recently named president of Texas based SureTec Insurance Company, the surety underwriting subsidiary of SureTec Financial Corp.

King began his career with the Travelers in 1976. Most recently, he was vice president of ICW Surety. He managed and helped develop ICW’s Southern Region, which includes nine offices in seven states. He is a founding Board member, and the current chairman, of the Texas Surety Federation, a trade and advocacy association consisting of surety carriers and independent surety producers doing business in the State of Texas. King is also vice-chairman of the National Association of Independent Sureties.

Alan Heumann, director of the Louisiana Department of Insurance Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP), was elected to serve as one of eight members of the national State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) steering committee. Heumann will be the SHIP Steering Committee member for U.S. Health and Human Services Regions VI and VIII, representing the following states: Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

To submit information for this department, e-mail ijtexas@insurancejournal.com.

Topics Carriers Texas