3rd generation of leadership steps in at Brown & Brown

J. Powell Brown took the helm at Brown & Brown Inc. last week.

J. Powell Brown officially took the helm at Brown & Brown Inc. last week, ushering in the third generation of family leadership at the 70-year-old Daytona Beach, Fla., agency.

Unlike his father, Hyatt Brown, who took over the family agency in 1961 shortly after graduating from college with a degree in insurance, Powell Brown, 41, took a slightly different route to the top.

Upon graduating from the University of Florida with a degree in economics, he joined the Continental Insurance Co. in Atlanta as a commercial property/casualty underwriter. Three years later, in 1993, he attended Duke University to obtain his master's in business administration. During the summer of 1994 he went to New York to work for wholesaler Tri-City Insurance Brokers. It wasn't until 1995 that he joined Brown & Brown as a producer in its Daytona Beach, Fla. office.

Mr. Brown said that while he always thought he wanted a career in insurance and at Brown & Brown, he wanted to be sure. “I wanted to go do something else so I would hopefully bring something to the table other than a warm body when I started,” he said.

From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Brown served as profit center leader for the agency's Orlando, Fla., retail office and was named a regional executive vp in 2002. He was named president in 2007 and added the title of chief executive officer last week upon the retirement of his father, who remains non-executive chairman.

Powell Brown said he has no intentions of changing what has made Brown & Brown so successful.

“We're truly a middle-market insurance agency...with a very decentralized model that we think works very well,” he said. Acquisitions will continue to play a big part in the agency's growth, as will its quest for talent.

“Our business is about good people,” he said. “We think it's good people who have gotten us to this level and it will be more good people to get us to the next level, and the next level,” he said.

Observers say that while Powell Brown has some big shoes to fill, he's the right person to lead the agency.

“Hyatt is a unique individual in this space, and he's a really hard act to follow, but...Powell is not new to the job,” said Keith Walsh, analyst with Citigroup Research in New York. “He's practically been running the company, at least in my view, for the past couple of years.”

“That the board supported Powell for that position, to me, that means Powell is ready,” said Ken Crerar, president of the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers.

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