BATON ROUGE -- A top-ranking official of the Alabama Department of Insurance has been named by Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon to be the new president and chief executive officer of the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Donelon said today that after reviewing the applications and resumes of five finalists, he has settled on Charles M. Angell of Birmingham to replace John Wortman as president of Citizens. Angell is...
BATON ROUGE -- A top-ranking official of the Alabama Department of Insurance has been named by Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon to be the new president and chief executive officer of the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon names new CEO for Citizens Insurance.Donelon said today that after reviewing the applications and resumes of five finalists, he has settled on Charles M. Angell of Birmingham to replace John Wortman as president of Citizens.
Angell is now chief actuary and acting deputy commissioner of the Alabama insurance department, Donelon said.
Donelon said he will meet with the Citizens executive committee in the next two weeks to discuss a compensation package for Angell. From there, he will ask the Citizens board to ratify Angell's hiring and pay package at its August meeting.
According to state law and the Citizens operating policies, Donelon is responsible for hiring and firring top-level managers at state-run insurer of last resort.
Wortman, 69, said as far back as November that he wanted to move out of the job. He said he will stay until his successor is in place to ease the transition.
"We are very pleased with the quality of applicants we had and are extraordinarily pleased with the candidate we selected," Donelon said. He said that Angell came highly recommended by Wortman, who has known Angell and worked with him years ago.
Donelon said that Angell's 35 years of experience in various facets of the insurance industry make him qualified to run Citizens. He said that Angell is from a coastal sate that has dealt with hurricanes and has run Alabama's equivalent of Citizens.
Angell could not be reached for comment.
Angell holds a bachelor's degree in math from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and a masters degrees in math from the University of Maryland. He has also done advanced coursework at the University of Cincinnati.
A total of 16 individuals applied for the job, including two executives now with Citizens: Vijay Ramachandran, Citizens vice president for staff operartions for the past two years; and Stephen Cottrell, Citizens' senior vice president and chief financial officer since May 2008.
The other two finalists for the job were: Stephen Korducki of Scottsdale, Ariz., president of an insurance consulting firm known as Risk Partners; and Richard Robertson of Northville, Mich., who has been employed as the general manager of the Michigan Basic Property Insurance Association since September 1990.
Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5810.