Workers’ compensation wonk Alex Swedlow will become the fourth president of the California Workers’ Compensation Institute following the announced retirement of J. Michael Nolan as president of the group.
Nolan’s retirement is effective May 1. CWCI’s board of directors named Swedlow, CWCI’s executive vice president for research, as his successor.
Nolan, who is 67, said the retirement comes at a time when he wants a sabbatical and it follows a busy and highly public period during which CWCI served as an information provider and consultant as California lawmakers and worker’s comp stakeholders worked to revamp the state’s unwieldy system.
“I feel in some ways I’m going out after you win the World Series,” Nolan said, adding that he’s happy to be passing along the reigns to Swedlow. “It’s his time to step to the plate.”
Effective April 2 Swedlow becomes the fourth president at CWCI in nearly 50 years. Swedlow formally joined CWCI in 2000 as executive vice president of research, focusing on helping to provide data for the 2002-2004 and 2012 California workers’ compensation reforms.
Swedlow was an independent consultant to CWCI from 1988 to 1999. In 1998, he served as the systems architect and project manager for the Industry Claims Information System Project.
Like Nolan, Swedlow’s message on the leadership change was focused on California’s new workers’ comp law, Senate Bill 863, and ensuring CWCI stays out in front on tracking changes trends created by the sweeping reform as well as changes coming to the healthcare system from the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act.
“I think what the board has signaled in asking me to step into this role is a doubling down on our research and data development,” Swedlow said.
Nolan joined the Institute in 2001 as successor to former president Ed Woodward. His insurance career spans more than 40 years, including 10 years at Argonaut Insurance, where he was senior vice president, general counsel and secretary.
Nolan also testified on workers’ comp issues at public hearings of the California State Legislature and administrative agencies, including last year’s workers’ compensation reform hearings.
“It’s been an amazing ride, but the ride has been a cycle,” Nolan said. “We’ve had the worst of times and the best of times. And depending on which stakeholder community you’re from, your best may be somebody else’s worst.”
Not too long after Nolan took the helm of CWCI, workers’ comp combined ratios were reaching epic proportions, hitting roughly $6 per $100 of payroll around 2003 when he steered CWCI through the millennium’s first round of workers’ comp reforms.
“After that the cost per $100 of premium plummeted,” Nolan said, adding, “from the insurance industry standpoint they were good years.”
After earning his law degree from Georgetown University in 1971 Nolan went to work for a string of insurance groups and holding companies working on securities laws, acquisitions and divestitures, and eventually got licensed to practice law in Maryland, Virginia and California.
Following his retirement from CWCI and a short sabbatical, Nolan intends to reenter the insurance industry or corporate-regulatory law field.
“It’s that time in my life where one chapter closes and another chapter starts,” he said.
Oakland-based CWCI was established in 1964, and is a private, nonprofit organization of insurers licensed to write workers’ comp in California, as well as public and private self-insured employers, who serve as associate members.
Topics California Workers' Compensation
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