Farewell Tribute to PCI’s Lawson, Ramirez

Jack Ramirez’ tenure as president of the National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII) and of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), the merged organization that he was so instrumental in creating, can be summarized in three words: urgency, innovation and results.

Ramirez understood that members needed access to high quality and timely information to help run their businesses just as much as they needed effective political advocacy. He completely revamped the way the association produced, distributed, and cataloged information and spearheaded the creation of the association’s Web site.

He knew that membership growth was the key to increasing the association’s political effectiveness. While he was president, NAII added 186 companies to its membership, growing from 556 in 1996 to 742 just before the merger with the Alliance of American Insurers earlier this year.

Once of his first projects he tackled when he became president of NAII in 1996 was to create the association’s grassroots program. His experience as a legislator drove home the point that the most influential advocacy groups backed up their direct lobbying efforts with contacts from “back home.”

When Ramirez began his career with NAII as senior vice president of federal government affairs, he let it be known that a consolidation of company trade groups would be best for member companies and the industry. He worked tirelessly for the merger of NAII and the Alliance, and his perseverance paid off with the formation of PCI in January 2004.

Harvey Pierce is chairman and CEO of American Family Insurance Group.