BARRY GILWAY
PRESIDENT, CEO & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE, JACKSONVILLE
Citizens Property Insurance, with 1,100 employees, is the state’s residual property insurer, providing insurance to eligible policyholders who can’t find coverage in the private market. In 2020, Citizens had direct written premiums of $1.2 billion. Gilway, an infantry platoon sergeant in Vietnam, led several major insurance companies before becoming Citizens’ CEO in 2012. He was able to reduce the number of Citizens policies from 1.5 million to just 420,000 in 2019, but the last several years have seen the number of policies increase again.
| EDUCATION | Akron University (BS) |
| WORRIES ABOUT | Citizens and private insurers have seen an explosion of litigation that has hammered the private market and caused our policy count to grow by more than 4,500 new policies a week. Left unchecked, Citizens could again become the state’s largest property insurer, which puts our policyholders and other Floridians on the financial hook when a big storm hits Florida. |
| SABBATICAL TOPIC | I would become a master scuba diver. |
| READING | The Titanic Secret, by Clive Cussler |