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The National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO) recently honored John Latham, regional president with Markel, for his contributions as an excess and surplus lines professional. He received the Charles A. McAlear/NAPSLO Industry Award at NAPSLO’s annual convention Oct. 9 in Orlando.

This award was established by NAPSLO in the 1980s to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to the surplus lines industry. The award was renamed in 1994 to recognize the Association’s first president and founding member.

Latham has 42 years of experience in the insurance industry. For the past six years he has been at Markel, where he has held several leadership roles including president and chief information officer.

Southwest Insurance Partners Inc. (SWIP) reported that Arthur Seifert has joined the group as chief executive officer of Houston-based Bunker Hill Insurance Agency (BHIA), its wholly owned underwriting agency subsidiary.

Seifert has been in the insurance industry for more than 30 years. In 1994 he founded Lighthouse Underwriters, which he subsequently sold in 2006 to U.S. Risk, headquartered in Dallas. He was chief underwriter with U.S. Risk for four years.

Seifert is a director of Target Markets Association and has also served as its president.

BHIA offers admitted and non-admitted markets for small to medium size accounts and program business.

Southwest Insurance Partners Inc is an insurance holding company based in Houston, Texas, that was established in 2007 by Stephen L. Way to make acquisitions and investments in the insurance industry. The group’s property and casualty insurance company, Great Midwest Insurance Company, is rated A (Excellent) VII by AM Best Company.

Insurance holding company W. R. Berkley Corp. has named W. Robert Berkley Jr. as president and chief operating officer of the company.

Berkley joined W. R. Berkley Corp. in 1997 and has served as its executive vice president since August 2005. In addition, he has served on the board of directors since his election in 2001. He held a number of positions in the company, including senior vice president for specialty operations, overseeing the operations of the specialty segment, and president of Berkley International.

William R. Berkley is founder of the company, as well as chairman and CEO.

David Allen Walker, president of Hartland Insurance Agency in Hartland, Mich., has been installed as the newest member of the executive committee of Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”).

Walker began his insurance career in 1979 as an agent with Guarantee Mutual Life Insurance Co. In 1981, he joined Hartland Insurance Agency as a producer, rose through the ranks, and currently serves as president and principal of the agency.

Throughout his career, Walker has been an active association leader at the state and national level. He has served on the Michigan Young Agents Council, the National Young Agents Council, the Michigan Association of Insurance Agents (MAIA) Education Committee (including three years as chairman), MAIA Legislative Affairs Committee and MAIA Agency-Company Relations Committee.

Additionally, he has served on the board of directors and as president of the Genesee County Independent Agents and the MAIA. At the national level, Walker represents Michigan as board director on the Big “I” national board of directors. He also serves on the Big “I” Professional Liability Committee and the Big “I” Advantage board.

Walker has received numerous MAIA awards including the Young Charger Award in 1986, the Aschom Education Award in 1997 and 2000, the Forsetlund Award (Agent of the Year) in 2000 and 2003 and the W.O. Hilderbrand Award in 2006 for his lifetime service and achievement in the insurance industry and MAIA.

Socius Insurance Services Inc., a San Francisco-based management liability and property/casualty insurance wholesaler hired Matt Baird as assistant vice president in its Elgin, Ill., branch office.

Baird started his career with Allstate in South Barrington, Ill. He also has worked at Liberty Mutual in Schaumburg, Ill. and American International Group in Chicago, where he was a senior underwriter, then a business development manager.

Indiana State University officials plan to name its business college for a Terre Haute insurance executive who has made a large donation helping pay for the college’s building renovation. The ISU Foundation has recommended that the university trustees approve naming for the Donald W. Scott College of Business.

Scott spent more than 40 years in the insurance business in Terre Haute, retiring in 2003 as chairman and CEO of School officials have not disclosed the size of the donation from Scott and his wife, Susan, but called it one of the largest it has ever received from private individuals.

Indiana State is spending $21 million to renovate the former federal courthouse into the business college’s
new home. The school is expected to move there in fall 2012.

Topics Agencies Excess Surplus Education Michigan Market Universities