People and Places

RISC, based in Dallas, promoted Beth Winstead to senior vice president in its Brokerage Department. Winstead joined RISC in 1997 as a casualty broker and has been one of its most consistent performers since that time, the company said.

Winstead has over 20 years’ experience in commercial lines. The last 18 years have been concentrated primarily in the surplus lines arena.

Heartland Marketing Group, a Texas-based managing general agent with operations in nine states, named John Harris vice president for Personal Lines – Business Development.

He will be assisting agents in the placement of personal lines insurance, from high value to mobile home, and everything else in between. He will also be responsible for assisting agents with the placement of Texas Select Business.

Harris has many years of management experience with insurance agencies and was most recently the vice president of insurance for American National Bank.

Lisa R. Martin joined Dallas-based The Republic Group as director for personal lines. Martin will be in charge of underwriting both standard and non-standard underwriting segments.

In her most recent position, she was assistant manager for Chubb’s Underwriting Center, managing the Southern and Western zones.

Texas Commissioner of Insurance Mike Geeslin appointed Banos Georgiou to the Texas Surplus Lines Stamping Office Board of Directors. Georgiou is executive vice president of Burnett & Company in Houston, a surplus lines agency specializing in marine and energy risks. He will serve as one of the Board’s five industry members, with his term expiring at the end of 2008.

The American International Group Inc. named Nicholas J. Ashooh as senior vice president of communications. Ashooh succeeds John T. Wooster, Jr. who had filled that role on a temporary basis since year-end 2005, and earlier had been AIG vice president of communications.

Ashooh will report directly to AIG President and Chief Executive Officer Martin J. Sullivan. His new responsibilities will include corporate and employee communications, publications, advertising and global branding, media and public relations, marketing communications and the AIG archives. He will also manage the communications policies, programs and activities of AIG domestic and overseas subsidiaries.

Hallmark Financial Services Inc., an insurance holding company based in Fort Worth, Texas, announced that Mark E. Schwarz, formerly CEO, will serve in the newly created position of executive chairman. Mark J. Morrison was elected as the new chief executive officer.

Schwarz will continue to serve as an executive of Hallmark as well as chairman of its Board of Directors. Morrison will also remain president, but will relinquish his positions as chief operating officer and chief financial officer.

Hallmark’s current senior vice president and chief accounting officer, Jeffrey R. Passmore, has assumed the duties of the principal financial officer of the company.

Schwarz has served as a director of Hallmark since 2001. He was elected CEO in January 2003 and served as president from November 2003 through March 2006.

Morrison became executive vice president and chief financial officer upon joining Hallmark in March 2004, was given the additional responsibilities of chief operating officer in April 2005 and was named president in March 2006. He has been employed in the property and casualty insurance industry since 1993.

Passmore has served as senior vice president and chief accounting officer of Hallmark since June 2003, and previously served as vice president of Business Development. Prior to joining the company in November 2002, he served as vice president and controller of Benfield Blanch Inc. and its predecessor E.W. Blanch Holdings Inc., a reinsurance intermediary.

Texas Mutual Insurance Company promoted Cecily Gallagher to senior vice president of underwriting and actuarial services and Mitch Walsh to vice president of underwriting systems.

Gallagher will oversee the company’s corporate and regional underwriting, loss prevention and marketing efforts as well as its actuarial function. She joined Texas Mutual Insurance Company as vice president – actuary in 1998 and was promoted to senior vice president of actuarial and business systems planning in 2005.

Walsh will facilitate underwriting process standardization, automation and training. He formerly served as a senior manager in the company’s information technology division. His responsibilities included directing business systems automation projects for the underwriting/loss prevention and premium audit/premium recovery divisions.

Watkins Insurance Group, with eight locations in Texas, announced that Matt Womack has earned his Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation. Womack has been an agent at Watkins Insurance Group’s Austin location for three years.

The CIC is considered one of the most highly recognized national professional education programs in the industry. The program entails five rigorous courses and comprehensive essay exams, which must be repeated annually to maintain the CIC designation.

Since 1949, Watkins Insurance Group has been a full-service independent insurance agency serving its clients in eight locations throughout Texas.

ACE USA appointed Scott Lambert as senior vice president, ACE Global Solutions. He will lead the ACE USA International Advantage product and underwriting team, including overseeing staff management and its overall growth and profitability. The ACE USA International Advantage unit provides international insurance products and services for U.S.-based businesses.

Lambert has 19 years of insurance experience. He most recently was with ACE Professional Risk. He joined ACE USA from AIG, where he spent 10 years.