Florida Citizens Property Insurance Interim President Tom Grady Not Among Finalists for Permanent Replacement
Jun 13, 2012
During a Presidential Search Committee meeting this morning, June 13, 2012, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation Interim President Tom Grady was rejected as a finalist in the search for a candidate to fill State-run insurer’s President and Chief Executive Officer position.
Mattei Insurance Services CEO Barry Gilway and California Earthquake Authority CEO Glenn Pomeroy were ultimately selected from the small group of those being considered, which included Mr. Grady, a former Florida State Representative who also served as Commissioner of Financial Regulation.
During the meeting this morning, a motion by Citizens Board of Governors member John Wortman to add Mr. Grady to the list of finalists was rejected by a vote of 2 to 1, with Board chairman Carlos Lacasa leading the opposition.
The two recommendations will be considered by the Board during its 9:00 a.m. meeting this morning.
The Florida Current’s news coverage of the selection process, including a hyperlink to the candidates’ resumes, is reprinted below.
Interim Citizens president Grady in running to get permanent post
By Gray Rohrer, June 12, 2012
Citizens Property Insurance Corp. interim president Tom Grady could have the “interim” tag ripped from his title as early as Wednesday.
Grady, the former neighbor of Gov. Rick Scott and a former state representative, is one of five remaining candidates in the hunt to be named president of the state-run insurance company. A presidential search committee interviewed the candidates Tuesday and could make a recommendation when it meets again Wednesday. Citizens board members could vote on the recommendation when they meet later that day.
Board members picked Grady as Citizens’ interim president in March after Scott Wallace‘s resignation in January.
Besides Grady, the four other candidates have long experience in the property insurance industry:
* Scott Donovan, executive vice president of Odyssey America Reinsurance Corp., has more than 15 years of experience at the executive level for private insurance companies.
* Barry Gilway, president and CEO of Mattei Insurance Services, worked for seven years as an executive with financial services company Zurich North America and spent eight years as an executive of Maryland Casualty Group, a property insurance subsidiary of Zurich.
* Richard Palczynski, founder of Seatower Insurance Consulting Services, has more than 24 years of executive-level experience with private insurance companies.
* Glenn Pomeroy, CEO of the California Earthquake Authority, has regulation experience with the North Dakota Insurance Commission and worked as a regulatory relations and compliance consultant for private firms.
Whoever takes the helm at Citizens on a permanent basis will do so during a time of political turmoil over the company’s rates. Citizens board members will conduct a workshop on July 16 to help draft rates for new customers that would be actuarially sound. Those rates would likely break the 10 percent cap on rate increases imposed by the Legislature. Several lawmakers have already spoken out against a plan to exceed the 10 percent rate hike limit and vowed to pass bills to cement the cap in place.
During a meeting later in July, board members could decide to “decouple” the rates for new business from those for existing policies. The rate request would then go to the Office of Insurance Regulation for a decision on approval or denial.
Related Research: View the résumés of Citizens presidential candidates.
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