People – South Central

The Insurance Council of Texas (ICT) posthumously honored Ron Lawson, former vice president at the Republic Group in Dallas, with the Raymond Mauk Leadership Award during the group’s 24th Annual ICT Mid-Year Property and Casualty Symposium in Austin. Lawson died in October 2015 after a brief illness.

Lawson began his insurance career in 1986 with Safeco Insurance in Stone Mountain, Ga. He joined the Republic Group in Texas in 2004. Lawson worked at Republic for 11 years, beginning as vice president of Personal Lines and later vice president of Industry Relations, before being named vice president of Marketing in 2012.

At the time of his death, Lawson served on the board of the Insurance Council of Texas (ICT), the Board of Trustees for the ICT Education Foundation, the Association of Fire and Casualty Companies in Texas (AFACT), the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, the Texas FAIR Plan Association, the Texas Medical Liability Underwriting Association (Texas JUA), and was a member of the Agency/Company relations committee of the Independent Insurance Agents of Dallas.

The Raymond Mauk Leadership Award honors former Texas Fire Commissioner Raymond Mauk and is ICT’s highest honor.

Austin, Texas-based insurance agency network, Combined Agents of America LLC (CAA) hired Peter Cross as chief executive officer.

CAA has 53 independent agency members in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

Cross holds the CPCU, CIC and ARM designations, and has more than 25 years of industry experience. Before joining CAA, he served as managing director at ARM Risk Solutions, a division of Actuarial Risk Management — an independent member of the BDO USA Alliance. Cross also has served as managing member and senior risk consultant at an independent insurance and risk management practice that he owned and operated.

Houston International Insurance Group (HIIG) recently announced three senior management promotions.

Peter Smith has been promoted to president of HIIG’s holding company. Smith has been with HIIG since January 2015, and previously worked for more than 10 years at HCC. He will continue to oversee all property/casualty (P/C) operations, as well as handle his new corporate responsibilities.

Susan K. Swails has been promoted to executive vice president with responsibility for all P/C underwriting operations. Swails has extensive experience in P/C lines of business, particularly many of the specialty lines that HIIG writes. She joined HIIG in 2014 and previously worked for five years at HCC.

Richard W. Hitch has been promoted to senior vice president with overall responsibility for several business units — Mining, Onshore Energy, Hospitality, and two of the firm’s managing general underwriter (MGU) partners. Hitch has been with HIIG since 2014 and previously worked at W. R. Berkeley group for more than 15 years.

HIIG’s insurance company subsidiaries are Houston Specialty Insurance Co., Imperium Insurance Co., Great Midwest Insurance Co. and Oklahoma Specialty Insurance Co.

Dallas-based independent insurance agency CoVerica promoted John Sutter, Andy Bracken and Chris Sterlacci.

Sutter is now president of CoVerica Inc. He reports to Mike Sterlacci, chairman and CEO, and will oversee retail operations. Sutter has been with CoVerica since June 2012, and previously served as president and/or partner with three local agencies over his 36-year career.

Bracken will transition into a new role, chief revenue officer (CRO). Bracken will focus on mergers and acquisitions as a key part of CoVerica’s planned growth objectives. He has been with CoVerica for six years as CFO.

Chris Sterlacci becomes chief operating officer (COO) for CoVerica Agency Alliance with the charge and responsibility to profitably develop and grow this SIAA business unit. Sterlacci has served in various positions with CoVerica over the past four years and most recently served as regional vice president of the CoVerica Agency Alliance.

MetaBank named Susan Cunningham senior vice president of sales for its premium finance division, AFS/IBEX. Based in Dallas, she will lead sales and marketing in Texas and adjoining states.

Cunningham has more than 30 years of experience in the premium finance industry. Previous positions include vice president and regional manager of sales at a national premium finance company. She also served as senior vice president at an insurance brokerage.

AFS/IBEX also added Deanna Koenig as national account executive. Koenig has 30 years of industry experience.

MetaBank is based in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Topics Texas