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Regional property/casualty insurance company, The Republic Group, based in Dallas, announced that Jim Drawert, vice president – Industry Relations, will retire June 30.
Prior to joining Republic in 2003, Drawert was president of Trinity Universal and chairman and CEO of Millers American Group. In 2005 he was honored with the Raymond Mauk Award by the Insurance Council of Texas for notable contributions to the Texas property and casualty industry.
Ron Lawson will assume the position of vice president – Industry Relations upon Drawert’s retirement. Lawson has been with Republic since 2005 and was promoted to vice president – Personal Lines in 2007.
Heather Cabra will join Republic as vice president – Personal Lines. Cabra formerly was vice president, field sales manager, for Chubb with responsibility for the Dallas personal lines department and 11 states.
Mid-Continent Casualty Co. has named H. Michael (“Mike”) Coon president and chief operating officer Coon succeeds Jim Pierce, who was named chairman and chief executive officer until the time of Pierce’s retirement in December 2010.
Coon has 37 years’ experience in the insurance industry. He joined Mid-Continent, based in Ohio and a member of the Great American Insurance Group, in 1991. Before coming to Mid-Continent, Coon worked as an underwriting manager with INA/Cigna in Dallas, Texas, and with Crum & Forster in San Antonio.
Great American Insurance Group has promoted Timothy C. “Tim” Weber and Jeffery D. “Jeff” Kohl.
Weber, was named divisional president of Great American’s Crop Division, succeeding Ron Brichler, who will continue in his role of senior vice president of Great American Insurance Co.
Weber most recently served as the divisional executive vice president of the Crop Division. He has been involved in the crop insurance industry in varying levels of responsibility with Great American for the past 21 years.
Kohl has been promoted to divisional senior vice president, overseeing the IT Infrastructure of Great American Insurance Group.
Colemont Insurance Brokers has promoted Chrys Halyburton to broker in the company’s Dallas office as part of the transportation team.
Halyburton joined Colemont in September 2007 and has since worked as an associate underwriter for Colemont’s transportation team.
He began his career with Seaboard Underwriters in 1967, specializing in commercial trucking coverages. For most of his career, he has been involved with underwriting, including serving as director of Underwriting for Transport Insurance Company; director of Transportation, Underwriting, and Marketing for Vesta Companies; and regional vice president for W.E. Love & Associates.
Hallmark Financial Services Inc., based in Fort Worth, Texas, promoted James A. Damonte to serve as president of its Heath XS subsidiary.
Damonte will have responsibility for the day-to-day operations and future direction of Heath XS. Damonte assumes the role of president from Jeffrey L. Heath, who has been the president of Heath XS since its inception.
Damonte joined Heath XS in 2004.
Heath founded Heath XS in 1991 and has more than 30 years’ experience in the underwriting, marketing and executive management of excess casualty insurance products. Hallmark acquired Heath XS in 2008.
Heath remains a minority owner of Heath XS and will continue to work for Hallmark in an executive advisory role.
Paul Sexton has joined Norman-Spencer Agency and Western Marine Insurance Services as vice president, responsible for the development of a new boat/yacht program. Sexton brings 15 years of product development and sales experience. He began his insurance career with American Modern Insurance Group in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Marsh, Berry & Co. Inc. (MarshBerry), a national management consulting and merger and acquisition advisory firm for the insurance industry, announced the addition of Bill Baker as senior vice president of the company’s newly formed Dallas division.
Baker comes to MarshBerry from Kaye/Bassman International Corp., where he was responsible for developing relationships with agencies within the insurance and healthcare markets for more than 17 years.
MarshBerry also added Ben Swann as consultant for the new Dallas division. Swann has more than eight years of experience with executive, and merger and acquisition search.
Dallas-based independent insurance claims services company, Cunningham Lindsey, has expanded Randy Gray’s leadership responsibilities to include the Catastrophe Division. Gray currently is the vice president of operations for the South Central Region.
He will assume responsibility for the Catastrophe Division from Karl Nann, vice president and director, Property and Catastrophe, who retired from the company at the end of April.
Gray joined Cunningham Lindsey in 1995 and has more than 30 years of experience in the property/casualty claims industry.
Insurica Insurance Management Network, based in Oklahoma City, announced it has hired Dillon B. Rosenhamer of Edmond, Okla., to augment the company’s surety practice.
Rosenhamer has experience in the banking industry. He most recently served as an assistant vice president in commercial lending with First Fidelity Bank (FFB) in Oklahoma City.
Rosenhamer will be working closely with Insurica bond unit veteran John R. Mackey.
In addition to Oklahoma City, Insurica has offices throughout Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, California, Oregon and Alaska.
Five business degree majors at the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, have been awarded academic scholarships from the Insurance Council of Texas (ICT).
The recipients, many of them first generation college students, were honored with $1,000 scholarships in ceremonies near the campus.
The U.T. Pan American scholarship recipients are Julia Maldonado, Sandy Salinas, Erika Marquez, Eric Leal and Sally Marie Balderas.
The students’ Insurance and Risk Management professor Steve Lovell said all of the scholarship recipients are exemplary students.
ICT has provided more than $300,000 to students and insurance and risk management programs in Texas during the past eight years.
A recent survey showed at least one out of every three scholarship recipients found a job in the insurance industry.