Tom Grady, current interim president of Citizens Property Insurance and a neighbor and political ally of Gov. Rick Scott, will not become the company’s permanent president.
On Wednesday morning, Citizens’ presidential search committee forwarded two names to the full board for consideration as president. Grady, who has been interim president since March, was not included.
According to information presented by a national search firm and the committee, the top two candidates for the job were Barry Gilway, CEO of Mattei Insurance Services, and Glenn Pomeroy, CEO of the California Earthquake Authority.
UPDATE: Gilway was selected to be Citizens' new president, in a unanimous vote.
Board chairman Carlos Lacasa asked the search committee to forward those two names to the full board, which will interview the finalists and select a president on Wednesday.
John Wortman, a board member appointed by Scott, made a motion to add Grady’s name to the list of finalists.
Lacasa objected, and said he’d be open to allowing the search firm to list the rankings of all five candidates to see where Grady landed.
Wortman said that was “unfair,” and claimed that this is why it’s difficult to get good public servants to apply for work in Florida. A representative for the search committee said that Gilway and Pomeroy were far ahead of the rest of the pack. The search committee voted against adding Grady's name to the list of finalists.
The full board interviewed both finalists and selected Gilway on Wednesday.
Gilway will join a tumultuous company in the middle of hurricane season. In an interview with the board, Gilway touched on the touchy issue of rates.
“Absolutely sure that rates are not adequate within (certain) counties,” he said. “We have to get rate adequacy.”
But he said hiking rates in places like South Florida, “has the potential of completely destroying both home building and retail sales.”
@ToluseO
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