People – West

Salt Lake City, Utah-based The Buckner Co. is making several leadership changes.

Terry H. Buckner, formerly the president and CEO, will now serve as chairman and CEO. Buckner plans to focus more of his attention now on external growth and the strategic direction of the company going forward. He took over the reins from his father and uncle in 1988.

Mark Oligschlaeger has been promoted from executive vice president and COO to president and COO. He has spent the past four years streamlining the company’s operations and will continue to do so as he takes on the additional day-to-day management responsibilities in this new role.

Christian Deputy has been named chief sales officer, a new position for The Buckner Co. Deputy will continue working with his insurance clients, but will also now be managing his colleagues in the sales force and be responsible for the organic growth of the company.

Additionally, The Buckner Co. has opened new Denver, Colo., office and named Keith Braxton president.

As head of the Salt Lake City, Utah-based commercial insurance brokerage’s Colorado office, Braxton is charged with recruiting talent, building the company’s brand in the market and seeking acquisition opportunities.

Braxton previously served as president and CEO of Colorado Casualty and Indiana Insurance Co. in addition to other executive roles in the insurance industry.

The Buckner Co. now has six offices throughout the West.

IIABCal Past President Stan Loar received the association’s Ramsden-Sullivan Memorial Award last week.

The award is the highest IIABCal gives, and a recipient is said to exemplify the highest caliber of service to the independent agency system, the insurance industry and the community.

Loar is chairman of San Francisco-based Woodruff-Sawyer & Co., a firm he joined in 1976. He served as the firm’s CEO for 13 years before to transitioning to vice chairman of the board in 2008. He became chairman in 2013.

Loar has 38 years of experience in the insurance industry, and has served in a number of central roles across his career. He has extensive international experience, including working in the United Kingdom and Germany.

He is the incoming chairman of the World Federation of Insurance Intermediaries, a board member of the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers and an underwriting member of Lloyd’s of London. He also serves on the board of Bermuda captives PAR Ltd. and AGP.

In addition to being past chairman of Assurex Global and its international executive committee, Loar was president of the Western Association of Insurance Brokers and also served as a director of the Insurance Brokers & Agents of the West (later named IIABCal). He was a board member and treasurer of the National Association of Insurance.

First American Property and Casualty Insurance Group has named James J. Court president of the company.

Court is based in the company’s office in Santa Ana, Calif. Dirk McNamee assumes the role of vice chairman.

Court has served as senior vice president and chief operating officer since 2007 and has been with the company since 1999.

Before joining First American Property and Casualty, Court held operations and information technology leadership positions with Printronix Inc. and MGE UPS Systems.

First American Property and Casualty is a wholly-owned subsidiary of First American Financial Corp.

American Modern Insurance Group named Elvia Alaniz vice president of the sales west region.

Alaniz has more than 18 years of insurance experience in marketing, underwriting and sales. She previously served as director of marketing for American Modern and assistant vice president of underwriting at ICW Group/Explorer Insurance.

American Modern offers products and services for residential property, including mobile homes and specialty dwellings, and for consumers in the recreational market, including owners of boats, personal watercraft, classic cars, motorcycles, ATVs and snowmobiles.

IFG Cos. named Dennis P. Doyle as managing director in its property department.

Doyle will be based in the Los Angeles, Calif., area and will participate in the opening of IFG’s new office in that region. He will help lead IFG’s commercial property initiatives nationally and oversee a team of property underwriters.

He was previously with Colony Specialty. Before that, Doyle worked as a senior vice president at Arrowhead General Insurance Agency. Prior to Arrowhead, he worked at Munich Re/American Re in various property-related underwriting positions, and he worked as a property/casualty underwriter at Aetna early in his career.

IFG provides property/casualty insurance on both a non-admitted basis and an admitted basis. Coverages are underwritten by IFG’s affiliated insurers: The Burlington Insurance Co., First Financial Insurance Co., Alamance Insurance Co. and Guilford Insurance Co.