IIAT Introduces Officers, Award Winners at Annual Conference

The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas introduced its new officers for the coming year at its 110th Annual Conference & Trade Show, held recently in San Antonio. The organization also recognized the winners of two of its highest awards, the Drex G. Foreman Award and the Paige Eiland Award.

Frank Swingle, president of Swingle, Collins & Associates, Dallas, was elected IIAT president for 2007-2008.

Swingle founded his independent agency in 1982 following a stint with Arthur Gallagher in Dallas. Swingle was IIAT president-elect prior to becoming president. A former president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Dallas, he was elected to the IIAT board of directors in 2002 after having served in numerous committee capacities including the Committee on Legislation, the Committee on Budget and Finance and others.

Swingle has been IIAT IMPACT regional vice president for seven years. He is chair of the Budget and Finance Committee and IIAT Services Company. He remains an active member and participant on a number of company/agency boards and councils.

Garry Kaufman of Galveston Insurance Associates, Galveston, was named president-elect.

Kaufman has held leadership positions as a board member of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, and as a member of both the governing committee and board for the Texas Fair Plan Association. He has been an IIAT director and most recently served on the Windstorm and Catastrophe Response task forces. Kaufman was named Young Agent of the Year in 2003.

Bryan Shofner, president of Shofner & Associates Insurance Agency in Lubbock, was elected vice president.

Shofner joined his agency in 1986 and achieved his Accredited Customer Service Representative designation in 1993. He has been a longtime member of his local, state and national independent insurance agents associations, serving in various leadership capacities. Shofner was named IIAT Young Agent of the Year in 2001.

IIAT Executive Director David VanDelinder will retain his position as secretary-treasurer of IIAT. VanDelinder joined IIAT in 1982. Before being named executive director in 2002, he was assistant executive director and director of education.

Drex G. Foreman Award

James Elbert, president of the Elbert Insurance Agency in Lake Jackson, was named winner of the 2007 Drex G. Foreman Award, the association’s highest honor. The award is named for Drex Foreman, who served as executive director of IIAT for 30 years.

Elbert began his professional life as a Methodist minister where he worked until he and the church hierarchy finally parted ways over his belief that a church ought to be a safe haven for the disenfranchised. After leaving the ministry, he joined his dad’s agency in 1971. He remained with the Elbert Insurance Agency through his father’s death and a couple of name changes until 1983 when he left Lake Jackson and went to work as vice president and general manager at the former Jahn-Austin Insurance Agency in Galveston. Then in 1995 he returned to Lake Jackson when he bought the Bennett Elbert Agency renaming it the Elbert Insurance Agency.

Throughout his insurance career, Elbert has been actively involved with Texas windstorm issues, working to find common ground among insurance companies, agents, consumers and elected officials. He was chair of TDI’s Windstorm Depopulation Committee and a member of TDI’s Advisory Building Code Committee. He is current chairman of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association and the FAIR Plan board.

Paige Eiland Award

Tom Braniff, founder of Texas Insurance Consulting, Houston, was named winner of the 2007 Paige Eiland Award for Voluntary Political Action.

Braniff has been active in Texas politics for more than 30 years, ever since he graduated from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, where he received his undergraduate degree and legal training. He was an independent agent in the ’70s and ’80s, as an owner of Braniff & Braniff, one of the largest agencies in the Southwest. In 1989 he began Texas Insurance Consulting, a legal and management consulting practice.

Braniff is past president of the IIA of Houston and is currently Houston’s Legislative Committee chair.

The political action award was named in honor of Paige Eiland, a politically active member of IIAT and a long-serving IMPACT regional vice president.

Source: IIAT

Topics Texas Agencies Training Development