People News: Texas Mutual, ICW Group, Employers

Texas Mutual Names Gates Vice President of Houston Region

Texas Mutual Insurance Company, a provider of workers’ compensation insurance in Texas, has named longtime insurance industry leader Peppia Gates as its vice president for the Houston region. Gates, who has served the company’s Houston claim office for five years, will oversee all of the company’s insurance operations, community involvement, agent relationships, and talent development for the Houston area.

Gates joined Texas Mutual in 2013 in Houston as a senior manager of regional claims. Last year, she received a leadership award from Texas Mutual for her commitment to enhancing employee growth and for developing a customized approach to meet the needs of employees in each department of the Houston region.

Prior to joining Texas Mutual, Gates served at CorVel Company and SeaBright Insurance Company. She has nearly 30 years of experience in the workers’ compensation insurance industry.

Gates has also shared her time and talent as a volunteer with several charitable organizations, including the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF). This past year, Gates led the Texas Mutual Houston office’s efforts for IICF’s Week of Giving, an industry-wide volunteer initiative bringing insurance professionals together for service projects with neighborhood and community nonprofit organizations.

ICW Group Names VonDohlen Vice President of Data Analytics

ICW Group Insurance Companies, a group of property and casualty carriers, announced the appointment of Eric VonDohlen as vice president of Data Analytics, effective immediately. VonDohlen will oversee the company’s data analytics operations and provide strategic guidance on the curation, maintenance and management of new and existing data solutions. He will be based in the ICW Group corporate headquarters in San Diego and report directly to John Novak, ICW Group’s chief operating and strategic execution officer.

VonDohlen’s passion for data analytics and decision science spans a 20-year career in the financial services sector. Prior to joining ICW Group, he served as chief analytics officer at Elevate Credit, a fintech leader in the non-prime lending space. In this position, he was responsible for all underwriting, account management, collections and fraud models for U.S. and U.K. product lines. During his tenure, he led a team of 25 data scientists and engineers and helped increase revenue 20 percent year-over-year. VonDohlen was also previously chief analytics officer at Triton Management Associates.

Employers Names Brown, as EVP, Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel

Employers, a small business insurance specialist, named Lori A. Brown as executive vice president, chief legal officer and general counsel effective January 1, 2019.

Brown joined Employers in January 2006 and served as vice president, deputy general counsel until March 2015 when she was promoted to senior vice president. As part of her responsibilities,Brown currently serves as a director of Employers Group Inc., is the assistant corporate secretary to Employers Holdings, Inc. and is the corporate secretary to all of the Company’s subsidiary companies. She replaces Lenard Ormsby in the position upon his retirement.

Prior to joining Employers, Brown was senior legal counsel of DHL Worldwide from May 1996 to April 2005. Brown brings over 25 years of experience as an attorney primarily in the areas of labor and employment, corporate governance and SEC compliance.

She will be based in Reno, Nevada.