People

February 17, 2014

Laurie Infantino has been named education director of Insurance Journal’s Academy of Insurance.

The insurance education professional will focus on the quality of the instructors and the education content offered by the Academy of Insurance.

Infantino is currently president of Insight Insurance Consulting and the Insurance Community Center in La Quinta, Calif. She began her career in the insurance industry in 1971 and launched her career as an insurance educator in 1977 when she cofounded the Insurance Skills Center, which was eventually purchased by IBA West (now IIABA Cal).

Three years ago Infantino formed the Insurance Community University, an online education site similar to the Insurance Journal Academy. Insurance Community and University focuses on core technical topics and provides continuing education credits.

IJ’s Academy of Insurance provides online training on sales, agency management, coverage analysis, designation programs, claims and other topics.

Eastern Alliance Insurance Group (EAIG) appointed Steven Mansfield as regional underwriting manager, and Sandra Hodgson as regional claims manager, for its Midwest territory. EAIG, a subsidiary of ProAssurance Corp, specializes in workers’ compensation.

Mansfield and Hodgson are both based out of Eastern’s Midwest Regional Office, located in Carmel, Indiana, and report to Mort Large, Midwest Regional Business Executive.

Mansfield brings 10 years of underwriting and account management experience in workers’ compensation. He most recently served as the vice president of workers’ compensation brokerage in the Midwest for Specialty Risk of America.

Hodgson brings 32 years of claims, account management and sales experience. She most recently served as the claim manager of workers’ compensation for United Heartland.

Woody Hill
Texas Mutual Insurance Co., a workers’ compensation insurance provider, has named Woody Hill its vice president of loss prevention. Hill will oversee workplace safety services for the company’s 57,000 policyholders.

Hill has 30 years’ experience in workplace safety and health. He most recently served as vice president of loss control for Employers Compensation Insurance Co. in San Francisco.

Michelle Raue joined State Auto’s Western Region in Austin, Texas, as claims regional manager. Raue assumes responsibility for the local execution of the group’s claims strategy, claims quality and customer service. She brings 17 years of claims experience with other national carriers.

Michael Clingman has joined the Cambridge-based Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) as a regional director. At WCRI, Clingman will be responsible for relationships, revenues, and the impact of studies in a dozen states. Clingman will be based in Oklahoma.

Most recently, Clingman served as administrator of the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Court. Prior to that, he held executive positions in state government and the private sector, including CEO of the Oklahoma State Insurance Fund, Oklahoma state budget director, Oklahoma Secretary of the Senate, Secretary of the Oklahoma State Election Board, CEO of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission, and he directed the property/casualty lines of an insurer.

Rachel Ehrlich
CAMICO, a national CPA-focused insurance program for the accounting profession, has appointed Rachel Ehrlich as vice president and chief claims officer.

Ehrlich has served in various legal, claims and underwriting positions, most recently as senior vice president, U.S. casualty claims, for Navigators Management Co. She began her insurance claims career with an excess/surplus lines broker before earning a law degree.

George Burnett
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has named longtime prosecutor George Burnett as the new chief of the Workers’ Compensation, Insurance, and Social Security Fraud Unit.

Prior to joining the attorney general’s office, Burnett served 26 years as an assistant district attorney.

Matthew Weaver was named vice president of sales at CRDN, the Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network. Prior to joining CRDN, Weaver spent 20 years in the insurance industry, most recently with Allied Insurance, a subsidiary of Nationwide Insurance, in Atlanta.