Previous choice had second thoughts and backed out
BATON ROUGE -- State Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said today he intends to hire a Michigan insurance executive to replace John Wortman as chief executive officer of the state-run Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
Insurance Commissioner Jim DonelonDonelon said he will meet with the Citizens executive committee Monday to tell them his choice for the job is Richard Robertson, who has run a Citizens-like program in Michigan.
Robertson has been general manager of the Michigan Basic Property Insurance Association based in Detroit since 1990.
Donelon spokeswoman Lori Cherry said that Robertson and Donelon will meet with the committee on Monday, mainly to work out terms of his compensation package. She said Robertson will then go before the full Citizens board at its August meeting for final ratification.
State law and Citizens operating policy give the insurance commissioner the sole authority to hire and fire top Citizens executives. Donelon said weeks ago he wants input from the board in the hiring process.
"He (Robertson) is experienced and has been running a comparable operation (to Citizens) in Michigan for 20 years," Donelon said. "He has reduced the number of policies in its program from 240,000 at its peak to about 30,000 now. . . . He has a lengthy work experience at doing the job."
Donelon's first choice for the job was Charles Angell of Birmingham, the chief actuary and acting deputy commissioner with the Alabama Department of Insurance.
After Angell accepted the job, he had second thoughts and told Donelon he would stay in Alabama for personal and family reasons.
Wortman, 69, indicated as early as November he wanted to retire. He has said he will stay on to ease the transtion to his successor.
Sixteen candidates applied for Wortman's job, and Donelon narrowed the field down to five finalists.
The other three finalists were: Vijay Ramachandran of Metairie, Citizens' vice president for staff operations; Steve Cottrell, Citizens senior vice president and chief financial officer; and Stephen Korducki of Scottsdale, Ariz, president of Risk Patrners, an insurance consulting firm.
Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5810.