People – Southeast

Roy Woodall, the insurance sector voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, will finally be getting involved in the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) but as an observer, not a member, for now. Woodall has been trying for more than a year and a half to become part of the IAIS, hoping for a membership bylaw change to allow a country’s stability board members to apply to be members of IAIS.

Such a proposal was tabled at the IAIS annual meeting in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2012 by a key IAIS committee.

Woodall’s office said that participation will assist him in better monitoring the IAIS’s work related to global financial stability and also in consulting with international counterparts, while leaving regulation to the supervisors.

Woodall is no stranger to the IAIS, having previously participated in the 1994 inaugural meeting and attended its public annual conference in 1998. He has also attended IAIS meetings over the years representing both the government and private sectors.

Privately-held insurance broker Lockton has added longtime Nashville healthcare professional Maggie Spalding and healthcare insurance advisor Heidi Small to its team.

Spalding has been named vice president and account executive and will be responsible for healthcare insurance program development, negotiation, placement, and service for corporate clients.

Small has been named account manager and will be responsible for providing service for healthcare insurance programs.

Spalding joins Lockton from Alliant Insurance Services where she was a vice president the past five years. She has 23 years of experience in insurance sales, service and brokerage, all exclusively working with healthcare industry clients. Prior to joining Alliant, Spalding was an area vice president with Gallagher Healthcare. Before Gallagher, she was with Aon Risk Services.

Small joins Lockton after five years with Alliant Insurance Services as an account manager. Prior to her time at Alliant, Small worked for insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher for eight years.

Markel Corp. has promoted Wendy Houser to president, Mid South region, of Markel’s Wholesale division. The Mid South region includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Houser joined Markel in 2008 and helped to establish Markel’s Mid South office. In 2010, she moved to Richmond to manage the wholesale marketing team and was quickly promoted to managing director. Houser was promoted again in August 2012 to managing director, underwriting and production and moved back to Plano, Texas, to lead the Mid South’s underwriting and marketing teams.

Houser has more than 16 years of experience in marketing and insurance. She worked as a broker for 11 years at Commercial Insurance Underwriters Inc. and Alexander Morford & Woo Inc.

Retail insurance agency EPIC (Edgewood Partners Insurance Center) said it has added Don Atkinson to its risk management consulting practice in its Southeast region, The McCart Group, in Duluth, Georgia.

Atkinson will provide client service strategy, coverage negotiations, and management of internal and external resources. Atkinson will also have a business development role with The McCart Group.

Before joining The McCart Group, Atkinson was at Liberty Mutual for 29 years. He has experience with large accounts.

EPIC has nine offices across California as well as in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York.

State Farm has donated $3 million to the conservative, pro-business think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C. to create a research chair in the name of the late political scientist and Harvard, UCLA and Pepperdine professor James Q. Wilson.

AEI Senior Fellow and Director of Economic Policy Studies Kevin A. Hassett will be the first scholar to hold the James Q. Wilson Chair in American Politics and Culture.

According to AEI President Arthur C. Brooks, the chair will support research into AEI’s founding principles of freedom, opportunity, and enterprise. For the 2014 year, the chair’s focus will be to build on Hassett’s research on the economy, tax and fiscal policy, and the federal budget.

Wilson, who died in 2012, was known for his groundbreaking studies of political behavior, organizations and regulation. He was also known for the “broken window” theory of crime control. Wilson was a longtime AEI trustee and State Farm director.

“We are pleased to honor Professor Wilson’s legacy and enduring desire for freedom and excellence,” said State Farm Chairman and CEO Ed Rust.

Before joining AEI in 1997, Hassett was a senior economist on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System, an associate professor of economics at Columbia Business School, and a policy consultant to the Department of the Treasury during the George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations.

Topics Alliant