Debra Bowers

People

Conroe, Texas-based managing general agency and wholesale insurance broker Surplus Inc. announced key promotions within its management team.

Debra Bowers was promoted to executive vice president. Bowers has 25 years of experience in the industry with 23 of these years at Surplus Inc. Bowers’ new responsibilities involve overseeing the internal operations of Surplus.

Billie Gorrell, who has been employed for 21 years at Surplus, is now senior vice president of the brokerage division. Gorrells’ new responsibilities include the management and expansion of the brokerage business.

Brenda Richardson has been promoted to senior vice president of the contract division. Richardson has 31 years of experience in the insurance industry with 14 of these years at Surplus. Richardson’s new responsibilities include management and expansion of the contract division.

Braden Brown joined Dallas-based PWIB Texas as vice president. Brown formerly was associated with other leading insurance wholesalers in the Dallas area and has experience with a retail insurance organization in Houston.

PWIB Texas is part of Insurance Specialty Group, a diversified insurance organization with operations in Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Jersey, New York and San Antonio.

H. Lee Loftis is the new director of governmental affairs at the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas. In this position, Loftis will represent the interests of the statewide association in both the legislative and regulatory arenas.

Loftis joins IIAT from the Bergfeld Agency in Tyler. Prior to that he was president of Frost Insurance Agency, Austin. He joined Frost from Nieman Hanks Puryear where he had been chief operating officer. He began his insurance career in 1977 with Lindsey Newsom in Lubbock.

Loftis joined IIAT on April 1 following the resignation of Bo Gilbert, who joined USAA as vice president of government and industry affairs in San Antonio.

IIAT also named Lea Brimberry to the new position of governmental affairs manager. Brimberry will be responsible for managing the association’s political action program and for issues analysis.

She joins IIAT from the Texas comptroller’s office where she had been an issues analyst. She will report to Loftis. Brimberry is the daughter of IIAT past president John Brimberry, of Frost Insurance Agency, Victoria.

Holly Swain Mendez has been promoted to the position of broker in Western Security Surplus’ Dallas, Texas, office. Mendez, reporting directly to Vice President and Branch Manager Kyle Stevens, is responsible for new business development, writing brokerage accounts and maintaining the high service level to WSS agents in Texas.

Mendez has a strong background in commercial lines. She began her career in 2000, spending several years at a local MGA/brokerage firm and began as a commercial lines underwriter. Her most recent position was broker/manager at CEIS Ltd.

The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research, based in Austin, Texas, announced a new slate of officers for its 2006-2007 CIC, CISR, and Academy Boards. Beginning one-year terms are:

Certified Insurance Counselors Board of Governors: Chairman Steven A. Reichman, of The NIA Group LLC, Somerset, N.J.; Vice Chairman Ralph C. Hamm, Jr., Texas AGA Inc., Addison, Texas; Member-at-Large: Kevin J. Brady, Gallagher Captive Services Inc., Itasca, Ill.; Member-at-Large R. Cleve Folger, Jr., TriSure Corp., Raleigh, N.C.; and Immediate Past-Chairman Bruce M. McCreadie, McCreadie & Assoc. Inc., Lithia, Fla.

Certified Insurance Service Representatives Board of Governors: Chairman Timothy L. McClendon, Hertel McClendon, LLP, Fort Worth, Texas; Vice Chairman Krista Tankersley, MarketScout, Dallas, Texas; Secretary JoAnn M. Clarke, JMC Insurance Consulting & Training LLC, Puyallup, Wash.; and Treasurer Steven C. Pearson, ISU Insurance Services of San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.

The National Alliance Research Academy Board of Directors: Chairman Richard K. Kerr, MarketScout, Dallas, Texas.

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association and Texas FAIR Plan Association have elected new officers for 2006.

Elected were: Chairman James Elbert, owner of Elbert Insurance Agency in Lake Jackson, Texas; Vice Chairman James Langford, vice president, Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Company, Waco, Texas; and Secretary-Treasurer Jim Wade, owner and operator of a multi-chain of Blockbuster Video stores and resident of Port Neches.

Privately held insurance brokerage group Assurex Global appointed David J. Kohl, vice president of Dallas-based Roach Howard Smith & Hunter, to its International Executive Committee (IEC).

Kohl has 27 years of brokerage and insurance carrier experience, which includes working with Fortune 1000 clients and multi-national companies. He has been with Roach Howard Smith & Hunter for eight years, helping direct the leading broker’s international efforts, and serving on technology and director and officers coverage practice groups. Kohl also serves on the executive committee for the MIT Enterprise Forum of Dallas Fort Worth.

Dallas, Texas-based BrightServ, a subsidiary of BrightClaim Inc., a provider of integrated claim solutions headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., announced that Michael Frank has joined BrightServ’s management team as senior vice president, Insurance Services. His responsibilities include the integration of client requirements, management of client’s contractor programs and BrightServ processes.

Frank has over 25 years’ experience in the insurance industry. He has spent the last 13 years spent with two major property and casualty insurers, where he gained experience as a large loss claims manager, program manager, field claims manager, and corporate officer.

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

Topics Texas Agencies Excess Surplus