Florida Citizens Property Insurance Announces New CFO, Chief Risk Officer
Sep 13, 2013
Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (“Citizens”) announced today, September 13, 2013, that it has filled a pair of key positions to enhance its financial and risk oversight capabilities as it continues the process of streamlining operations and reducing exposure.
Citizens President, CEO and Executive Director Barry Gilway announced that Jennifer Montero will become Citizens’ Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Montero, a certified public accountant who has served as interim CFO since June, has been with Citizens and its predecessor organizations in various capacities since 1999.
Mr. Gilway also announced that former Citizens Board of Governors member John Rollins will become Citizens’ Chief Risk Officer. Mr. Rollins, appointed by Florida Governor Rick Scott in 2011, resigned from Citizens’ Board of Governors earlier this week. The decision marks Mr. Rollins’ return to Citizens, where he served as director of analytics from 2006 to 2007.
Mr. Gilway said the pair’s combined experience at Citizens is expected to ensure a seamless transition as the State-run insurer continues efforts to transfer policies to the private sector through depopulation and the consumer clearinghouse beginning in January 2014.
“Jennifer and John are known quantities with deep knowledge of Citizens operations and the direction we are taking going forward,” Gilway said. “They will be immediate contributors to our efforts to become a smaller and more efficient insurer.”
Ms. Montero’s career at Citizens includes positions as assistant controller, director of accounting/controller, senior director of accounting/controller and deputy CFO. She is a 1994 graduate of Florida State University (accounting) and a Florida-licensed CPA.
“As we worked our way through the interview process it became clear that what we were looking for in a CFO was standing right in front of us,” Mr. Gilway said of Montero. “Jennifer has been deeply involved in all our risk transfer efforts and brings the added advantage of institutional knowledge to the position.”
Among her new duties, Ms. Montero will oversee Citizen risk transfer program, which has successfully transferred $1.85 billion in risk to private investors from Citizens policyholders and all Floridians who insure their homes, automobiles, boats and other assets. Florida law requires these policyholders to pay assessments if Citizens exhausts its ability to pay claims following major storm activity.
In his new position, Mr. Rollins will oversee Citizens’ enterprise risk management, actuarial, analytics and product development when he begins his duties on October 14. The newly created position comes in response to an ongoing organizational review by KPMG that was commissioned by Citizens’ Board of Governor’s last year.
Most recently, Mr. Rollins was president of Rollins Analytics Inc. and vice president for public risk services at AIR Worldwide Corp, a global provider of risk modeling and consulting services. A 1990 graduate of Duke University (mathematics), Rollins earned a master’s degree in economics from the University of Florida. He is a longstanding member of state and national actuarial associations.
“I cannot imagine anyone more qualified than John Rollins to assume this role,” Mr. Gilway said. “I expect he and Jennifer will work together closely on issues such as risk transfer as we continue to seek ways to reduce the risk of assessments on all Florida policyholders.”
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