Fmr DFS Head, Maria Vullo Looks to AG Post

Maria Vullo, former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, has been rumored and reported to have plans to enter next year’s race for state attorney general,  not too surprising to those who know her and marvel at her strengths and determination. The AG’s job will be vacant starting in 2023 because the current Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, has announced her intention to run for governor next year against Kathy Hochul, instead of campaigning for re-election.

Door is opened. There are others seeking the post as well, including State Senator Shelley Meyers of Westchester, but Maria has what they call the “creds”. Prior to serving as the head of DFS, Vullo had been chief of the economic justice division at the state attorney general’s office. She spent the bulk of her career at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP where, in addition to corporate litigation, she was a leader of the firm’s pro-bono efforts on behalf of Planned Parenthood. She also won a $745 million judgment against Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic on behalf of Bosnian women raped by Serbians in the Balkan conflicts of the early 1990s.

Since leaving DFS in 2019, Vullo has run her own financial advisory firm. She has begun forming a team and is expected to announce her candidacy formally later this month.

If she does so, this College of Mt St Vincent (Bronx) alum will have at least one vote. … Applied Underwriters Chairman Steve Menzies has cut his latest of many deals – see story in this issue – and is now in the brave new sphere – stratosphere – of aerospace and related businesses….. Congrats to the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”) and its new leadership, Kansas’ Bob Fee, president of Fee Insurance Group Inc. in Hutchinson, as 2021-22 Big “I” chairman at the recent Big “I” Fall Leadership Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Fee has held numerous positions at both the state and national level for the Big “I.” At the state association level, he has served on the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents (KAIA) Board of Directors and as the Kansas director on the national association board. He has also served on several KAIA committees, including the Government Affairs Committee, and was the 2007-2008 KAIA president. At the national level, Fee has served on the Government Affairs Committee and the Trusted Choice® Board of Directors, including a term as the Trusted Choice board chairman. He received the Big “I” Chairman’s Citation in 2011. Bob Rusbuldt, Big “I” president and CEO hailed the new volunteer leader:  “We are fortunate to have him at the helm as the independent agency channel continues to face the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Fee says a hallmark of his chairmanship will be enabling the association to be nimble. “Independent agencies have gone above and beyond the past year and a half in serving their communities through tough times, and that same resilience will carry us through the rapid-fire changes our industry is undergoing,” he says. “During my term, we’ll focus on moving forward and remaining responsive to both challenges and opportunities.” John Costello, USI Insurance Services, Rochester, New York, was installed as Big “I” chairman-elect and Michael McBride, Mason-McBride Inc., Troy, Michigan, became vice chair. Fee succeeds chair Jon Jensen, of Correll Insurance in Spartanburg, South Carolina, who will remain on the Big “I” Executive Committee for an additional year as immediate past chair. SA