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Louisiana-based insurance wholesaler, Specialty Risk Associates Inc., announced several changes to its management team.

Thomas Garland was named chief operating officer. Garland joined Specialty Risk in 2004 as vice president of Marketing and Underwriting responsible for the coordination of marketing and underwriting efforts of the home office in Shreveport, La., in addition to the branch offices in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Brad Wood and David Wood were both named assistant vice presidents.

Barb Lowe was appointed vice president of commercial underwriting. Lowe has been with Specialty Risk for more than 17 years and began her career in the retail sector before joining Specialty Risk as a commercial lines underwriter.

Texas Mutual Insurance Company promoted Lisa Corless from senior vice president of claim and underwriting operations to chief operating officer. She will oversee the company’s claim, information technology, underwriting, actuarial and premium audit functions.

Corless replaces former COO Ron Wright, who was promoted to president by Texas Mutual’s board of directors. She joined Texas Mutual in 1998 as manager of its Houston regional office claim department.

She also served as manager of the Lubbock and Dallas regional offices prior to becoming vice president of claim field operations in July 2001. In 2005, the company appointed her senior vice president of claim and information services. Last year, Corless assumed the additional duties of providing operations leadership to Texas Mutual’s underwriting and actuarial services division.

Colemont Insurance Brokers has promoted Jennifer Mier to assistant vice president in the company’s Dallas office. Prior to joining Colemont in 2005 as a casualty broker, Mier was an account executive at the Wm. Rigg Company and Hobbs Group. She specializes in construction, environmental and energy risk placements. Mier is experienced in placing and negotiating environmental, construction wrap-ups, general liability and excess liability coverages.

Higginbotham & Associates, a national independent insurance brokerage firm with Texas statewide offices, appointed Kay Kirk Tieman senior account executive for its Life Sciences Risk and Insurance Practice.

Working from Higginbotham’s Denton office, she will apply her 25 years of sales and marketing experience concentrated in the health care and life sciences industries to strengthen the firm’s production in the biotechnology and medical devises sector.

Higginbotham’s Life Sciences Risk and Insurance Practice is led by commercial property/casualty insurance brokers Ed Coker and Matt Heinzelmann.

Tieman began her career in Massachusetts with American Cystoscope Makers. She started in sales with American Scientific Products and later became a district manager for Critical Care America, a national home infusion therapy company.

Tieman has served as senior director of technology business development for the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, where she oversaw programming and business development for the chamber’s Technology Business Council and Life Sciences Committee. Tieman formed the first partnership between Dallas and Fort Worth life sciences constituents, laying the foundation for BioDFW, a regional life sciences alliance.

She was vice president of marketing for Swearingen Realty Group prior to joining Higginbotham.

Patrick J. Burke has been appointed as a senior vice president with Stephens Insurance LLC, based in Little Rock, Ark.

Burke has spent the last 30 years advising select utilities and utilities mutual insurance companies. He has designed risk coverage plans/solutions and products for utilities and mutual insurance members.

For the past 25 years, Burke has been a consultant and broker primarily to risk managers in the utility industry regarding all facets of their operational exposures domestically and in foreign ventures including Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and Australia. He has a long history of working directly with the international insurance community in the UK and Bermuda.

Early in his career, Burke worked with Commercial Union Group in general property underwriting, subsequently earning the responsibilities of chief underwriter in the marine division throughout the East. Burke transferred to Texas, where he was a Commercial Union sales representative working with local insurance agencies. He later joined Great American Insurance Cos. as a sales manager in their Texas region before becoming an insurance agent/broker.

Richardson, Texas-based America First Insurance, a Liberty Mutual Agency Markets regional company, has named John R. Tribble as vice president, Claims.

Tribble will oversee approximately 90 claims, field investigation and adjuster personnel within the company’s six-state operating territory, as well as coordinate with the Agency Markets National Catastrophe Team.

Prior to joining America First Insurance, Tribble was employed with Nationwide Insurance Company for more than 15 years. He has served in numerous leadership positions, including claims officer for the former New England Regional Operation, and most recently as associate vice president, Staff Administration in the Northeastern States Regional Operation.

Topics Texas Agencies Excess Surplus Underwriting