BATON ROUGE, La.--Louisiana Workers' Compensation Corporation (LWCC) has announced the hiring of William B. Bangs IV as vice president of agency relations. In this position, Bangs will plan, direct and coordinate agency relations with insurance agents throughout the state.

Bangs joins LWCC from Innovative Risk Management in Irving, Texas, where he was senior vice president and chief operating officer. He supervised all management staff of underwriting, claims, information technology, operations and loss control. Prior to that, he was regional underwriting and marketing manager for Texas Mutual Insurance Co., managing its operations for the Dallas region.

Bangs is returning to Louisiana, where he worked previously at CNA Insurance Company in New Orleans. He served as branch president, managing a regional commercial office with responsibility for profit, underwriting, sales, loss control and agency management for the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. He also held management positions for CNA in Omaha, Houston and Kansas City.

A graduate of Columbia College in Columbia, Mo., Bangs received a B.S. degree in business administration. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy.

LWCC (www.lwcc.com) is a private, nonprofit mutual insurance company.  It is the largest writer of workers? compensation insurance in Louisiana, covering about 22,000 policyholders. The company carries an "A" (Excellent) rating from A.M. Best and, for the fifth year in a row, was named one of the top 50 property and casualty insurance companies in the nation by Ward Group, the leading authority on insurance industry benchmarking.