Making the Case for the Industry

In 1984, a small band of insurance communications professionals gathered in Phoenix for what we called the Insurance Communications Summit. I was a panelist, along with the likes of Sam Friedman, George Nordhaus, Ron Vinson and many others who, for the first time, were coming to the understanding that we actually had a shared mission and a shared set of challenges “representing a much maligned, misunderstood, monster sized, adverse-to-paying claims, consumer unfriendly, Byzantine-regulated, state-by-state variable, required by law or contract product-based, monolithic industry, fraught with unreadable documents and weighty sets of adverse provisions; 32,000 agencies and brokers with different names, 2,000 different carriers, and a ratings system that required consumers to hold a PhD in analytics to comprehend. And that’s not so bad next to the tasks faced by the communicators for the funeral home operators association of Florida, the beachfront modesty advocates of Rio de Janeiro, or the Sicilian actuarial society,” I mused. These many years I must say I have grown to see the smart, acceptable arguments the industry can and does make for itself to an unwilling, uninterested world and do appreciate the men and women who carry the “gospel” of insurance’s desirability, its relation to social behavior and its enabling powers to our citizenry. The principal institution responsible for this mission is the I.I.I. It is not always successful, but it has been a bulwark against ignorance for many years, like an ongoing communications summit all its own. For the last decade or so, Bob Hartwig has been the advocate in chief at I.I.I. and has been an industry fixture mirroring the results of the P/C business to itself again and again, and bringing to clinical light the industry’s trends and to the implications of its data. And he has done so most articulately and convincingly. Now he is leaving to join the faculty of the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business after serving as the president of the I.I.I. since 2007. Bob was the I.I.I.’s chief economist before becoming its president. Prior to joining the Institute, he held a number of key roles at Swiss Re, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) and the United States’ Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Bob received his PhD and Master of Science in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Back to academe, he will become a faculty member in the University of South Carolina’s Finance Department. The University of South Carolina has the fourth largest undergraduate Risk Management and Insurance (RMI) program in the United States, according to reliable estimates. He will teach courses in risk management, insurance and corporate finance, including courses in the Moore School’s highly regarded professional MBA program. Holder of a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation, he will also become co-director of the Moore School’s Risk and Uncertainty Management Center. “Bob Hartwig has done an extraordinary job as president of the I.I.I., and finding a successor to fill his shoes will be a daunting task,” said Bruce Kelley, president and chief executive officer of EMC Insurance Companies in Des Moines, Iowa, and chairman of the I.I.I.’s board of directors. “Under Dr. Hartwig’s leadership, the I.I.I. bolstered its position as a thought leader in the industry and expanded dramatically the audiences who have access to the I.I.I.’s award-winning editorial content, data and subject matter expertise. More than ever before, the I.I.I. is excelling in its mission to improve the understanding of insurance—what it does and how it works.” Members of the I.I.I.’s board will serve as part of a search committee to find the I.I.I.’s next president, Kelley added. “My decision to leave the Institute was an extremely difficult one. I love this job, this industry and the daily thrill and privilege of working with amazing people both at the organization itself and throughout the I.I.I.’s membership,” Hartwig stated. “At the same time, I have throughout my 23-year career in the insurance world always maintained strong ties to the academic community. After 18 years at the Institute, now is the right time for me—both personally and professionally—to make a change. I am truly looking forward to my next important role—attracting and educating young talent to this vitally important industry. I have been very fortunate to lead an organization with many talented individuals, allowing the Insurance Information Institute to develop a stellar reputation worldwide in the industry. I am also very proud to say I will leave the Institute with its largest membership ever, and positioned for future success.” All the best, Bob, and thanks for getting a tough job done so well. SA