People and Places

National Insurance Partners Inc. (NIP), a Texas-based risk management and financial solutions firm, has appointed William E. Harrison, Jr. as president.

Harrison brings 16 years of experience in the insurance industry to his position. He served as president of Coleman Company Insurance from 2000 to 2003, which was acquired by Brown & Brown in 2003. He assumed the role of president of Brown & Brown’s San Antonio subsidiary until April 2007.

During his insurance career, Harrison received IIAT’s “Young Agent of the Year” award and San Antonio’s Business Journal‘s “Forty Under Forty” award. He also was elected president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas from 2004-2005 and became State National director of Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, 2007-2010. Prior to beginning his insurance industry career, Harrison worked for Bankers Trust New York in their Structured Finance Division.

Dallas-based PWIB Texas announced that Holly Mendez has joined the firm as senior broker/underwriter. Mendez formerly was associated with other leading insurance wholesalers, having served in the industry in brokerage and underwriting capacities since 2002.

The Texas law firm of Winstead PC added two new insurance focused attorneys, Jeff Autrey and Keith Hopkinson, in its Business/Transaction Department. Autrey represents insurance and insurance-related clients on regulatory matters and corporate transactions. Hopkinson helps clients through regulatory and legislative legal matters.

Autrey began his career as staff counsel for the State Board of Insurance and eventually served as general counsel for the agency. He later oversaw the Texas Medical Insurance Trust when he worked for the Texas Medical Association. In 1987, Autrey and Winstead shareholder Forrest Roan formed Roan & Autrey which subsequently merged with Cantey & Hanger, his former law firm before joining Winstead.

Hopkinson, also formerly with Cantey & Hanger, started his practice with the nation’s largest insurance trade association, which put him in front of legislative committees and state regulators in 15 states. In 1997, he went into private practice and he joined Cantey & Hanger as a partner in 2001.

Ed Calabrese, president and chief operating officer of Hull & Co. Inc., will retire from the Florida-based wholesale broker and managing general agency on June 30 with more than half a century in the insurance business under his belt.

Calabrese began his career in New York City with the Continental Casualty Co. after serving in the Korean War with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Upon Cabrese’s departure, Mike Riordan will be named president and CEO of Hull and Co. Inc. Riordan will remain in the St. Petersburg, Fla., office.

Bob McGrew will move to Fort Lauderdale to assume the role of executive vice president and will take on the duties of the chief operating officer.

Unitrin Inc. appointed John M. Boschelli to the positions of vice president and treasurer. Boschelli oversees the company’s day-to-day investment operations, cash management and corporate finance.

Boschelli had served as treasurer since his election to officer by Unitrin’s board of directors in 2002. Prior to that, Boschelli served at Unitrin in several other capacities, including assistant treasurer, investment accounting manager, senior accountant, supervising senior auditor and staff auditor.

Boschelli is a Chartered Financial Analyst, Certified Public Accountant, and Fellow of the Life Management Institute. Professional affiliations and memberships include the American Society of Certified Public Accountants, Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants, CFA Institute, Investment Analyst Society of Chicago and the Association of Financial Professionals.

Among the brands in Unitrin’s property and casualty insurance businesses are Kemper Auto and Home, Unitrin Specialty and Unitrin Business Insurance, which sell personal and commercial insurance through a network of independent agents, and Unitrin Direct, which sells auto insurance directly to consumers.

HCC Insurance Holdings Inc., headquartered in Houston, announced that Randy D. Rinicella has joined the company as senior vice president and general counsel.

Rinicella has 20 years of legal experience and most recently served as vice president, general counsel and secretary of Dresser-Rand Group Inc.

HCC is an international specialty insurance group with offices across the United States and in Bermuda, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Property/casualty insurer Hallmark Financial Services Inc., headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, will employ the consulting services of Stephen L. Way through his company, SLW International LLC. Way is the recently retired founder, chairman and CEO of HCC Insurance Holdings Inc.

Way has agreed to serve in an advisory capacity to the board of directors and executive management of Hallmark on matters concerning business development, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and other matters as requested by the Board of Directors.

MarketScout, the Dallas-based eInsurance Exchange, announced that Jay Chase has joined the firm as chief underwriting officer and senior vice president.

Chase has more than 25 years of executive level underwriting experience at major U.S. and international insurers. The company said Chase has worked with MarketScout during the past year as a consultant.

Wholesale broker and managing general agent U.S. Risk Insurance Group named Tonya Randio as a senior underwriter in the Healthcare Division of its U.S. Risk Underwriters subsidiary. She will be located at the U.S. Risk Underwriters office in Houston.

Randio is responsible for building the company’s allied health care, medical directors, assisted living and nursing home program business.

Prior to joining U.S. Risk, Randio was an account executive at a large retail brokerage that specialized in customizing liability insurance programs for health care providers.

Matthew Brady joined Burns & Wilcox as personal lines underwriting manager with responsibility for the company’s Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston offices. Brady will be based at Burns & Wilcox’s Dallas/Fort Worth office located in Arlington, Texas.

Brady has extensive personal lines experience having spent the previous 10 years in various roles at The Republic Group, an insurance company based in Dallas. His last role with the company was territory manager.

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard P.L.L.C., with offices in Little Rock and Rogers, Ark., named Bill Bingham, former deputy commissioner for Regulatory Matters in the Life, Health, and Licensing Program of the Texas Department of Insurance, as head of its expansion into Texas.

Bingham will lead the insurance regulatory practice as counsel in the firm’s newly opened office in Austin, Texas.

Bingham brings 21 years of legal experience to the firm, representing clients on insurance-related corporate and regulatory issues before state legislatures and regulatory agencies, including life, health and property/casualty licensing and compliance matters, as well as extensive litigation experience.

In addition to serving as deputy commissioner for the Department of Insurance for the past five years, he worked as a staff attorney for the program from 1998 to 2002. Prior to that, Bingham was a practitioner for three years in Austin litigating personal and business torts, consumer protection and civil rights matters.

In 1994, he served as staff attorney in the Office of Public Insurance Counsel (OPIC) where he represented the agency in, among other matters, the development of the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan Association Plan of Operation.

Countrywide Insurance Group named Steve Cardinal as president and chief operating officer of Countrywide Insurance Services. Cardinal will oversee all aspects of Countrywide Insurance Services, a full-service agency that offers homeowners, auto insurance, renters, personal umbrella, and life insurance products to consumers and makes available a wide variety of commercial insurance products and services to businesses.

Cardinal will spearhead new efforts to hire agents in branches and call centers in an agency expansion that will expand access to Countrywide Insurance Group’s products and services to businesses and general consumers across the country.

Prior to joining Countrywide Insurance Group, Cardinal was with Allstate Insurance Company, where he led a region that included 3,000 insurance professionals and 120 financial services agents. He brings 16 years of agency sales and agency management experience, having served in several sales and leadership positions at MetLife, as well as Allstate.

Lord Peter Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s of London, has been awarded the “Personality of the Year” Award by the Brazilian Embassy and the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in the UK.

Lloyd’s noted that the “award recognizes the contribution to strengthening economic-trade links between Brazil and the United Kingdom.” He received the award at the Dorchester Hotel along with the Brazilian winner, Antonio Francisco de Lima Neto, president of the Banco do Brasil.

The winners are chosen by the Council of the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in the UK. The award recognizes Lord Levene’s commitment to the insurance and re-insurance industry in Brazil.

To submit information for “People,” e-mail sjones@insurancejournal.com.

Topics USA Texas