People – South Central

Ranney Pageler, vice president of fraud investigations at Employers Insurance, has been named chair of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) Fraud Committee. Pageler, who is based in Austin, Texas, will serve a two-year term in this role.

Prior to being selected chair, Pageler served as vice chair of the committee. Additionally, Pageler has served on the association’s fraud sub-committee since 2010.

Pageler has more than 30 years of fraud investigations experience and has served as vice president of the fraud investigations department at Employers since 2002. His workers’ compensation fraud investigations have resulted in more than 750 criminal prosecutions in 23 states.

Prior to joining the insurance industry, Pageler was in law enforcement. He is a professional member of the International Association of Special Investigation Units (IASIU) and Southern California Fraud Investigators Association (SCFIA), and is a licensed private investigator.

Mark McCunniff has joined Bailey Insurance & Risk Management in Waco, Texas, as a commercial lines producer.

McCunniff received his Risk Management & Insurance degree from Baylor University and spent three years as a middle market underwriter with The Hartford before joining the agency.

All-Star Insurance Group Inc., a full service independent insurance agency based in Gilmer, Texas, has added Joye Cooper and Jeniffer Kitchell as agents.

Cooper will maintain an office at All-Star Insurance Group’s home office in Gilmer. She joins All-Star Insurance after 15 years as an agent at Texas Farm Bureau Insurance and six years as an agent with Allstate Insurance.

Kitchell has been named managing agent for the All-Star Insurance office located inside First National Bank of Gilmer. She comes to All-Star Insurance after managing the Holly Lake office of Watkins Insurance Group. Kitchell has been a licensed agent for 11 years and also has worked at Charles Tomberlain Insurance in Longview and Allstate Insurance in Gilmer.

All-Star has seven locations throughout the Northeast Texas area and is owned by First National Bank of Gilmer.

Dallas-based Mullis Newby Hurst LP (MNH), one of the largest writers of construction insurance and surety bonds in the Southwest, hired David Layman to head the firm’s newly opened office in San Antonio.

Layman previously served as head of contract surety underwriting for NAS Surety during the past 10 years and has more than 20 years of surety experience.

XL Group added Jay E. Smelser to its North America property insurance team as South Central regional leader, based in Dallas.

Smelser reports to Wade Pitman, senior vice president and head of North America general property, in Los Angeles.

Smelser joins XL Group from Zurich Insurance Co., where he most recently served as vice president and area property manager. His 20-plus year career also includes experience as a reinsurance underwriter, account executive specialty property broker, and a personal lines insurance agent.

Texas Commissioner of Insurance Julia Rathgeber appointed Christina Ford of Red Oak to the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) governing committee.

The commissioner also reappointed Georgia Neblett of Port Aransas, Ronald Lawson of Allen, and Edward Sherlock of Beaumont to the committee.

Ford is the risk management and operations manager for the Mesquite Independent School District where she oversees and monitors all operational risk management activities. She is a member of the National Alliance, Texas Prima and Texas Association of School Business Officials.

The Texas FAIR Plan was created by the Legislature for the purpose of providing basic residential property insurance to applicants who cannot secure coverage in the voluntary market. The governing committee issues insurance policies and endorsements to those policies in the association’s own name or trade name adopted for that purpose; and acts on behalf of all participating insurers.

The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA National) has installed new officers, each of whom will serve one-year terms that begin Oct. 1, 2014, and run through Sept. 30, 2015.

The new officers are: President Richard A. Clements of Chalmette, La.; President-elect Robert W. Hansen Jr. of Omaha, Neb.; Vice President/Treasurer Gareth W. Blackwell Jr. of Corinth, Maine; Secretary/Assistant Treasure Timothy G. Russell, of Southport, Conn.; and Immediate Past President John G. Lee, of Fredericksburg, Va.

PIA is a national trade association that represents member insurance agents and their employees who sell and service all kinds of insurance, but specialize in coverage of automobiles, homes and businesses.

Topics Texas