Byrne Elected to Succeed Clements as Integro Chairman

John (Jack) Byrne, who has led Fireman’s Fund and its former parent company, White Mountains Insurance Group, as well as GEICO, has been elected chairman of the board of the New York- based brokerage Integro. Byrne, who joined the board in 2005, succeeds Integro’s co-founder and chairman, the late Robert Clements.

John Clements, also a member of the Integro board since the firm’s founding, was elected vice chairman.

Early in his career, and with an actuarial background, Byrne joined Travelers Insurance Co., steadily advancing to leadership positions. He burnished his reputation with the turnaround of a struggling GEICO, which he joined as CEO in 1976. Under his leadership, GEICO staved off insolvency to become profitable and was subsequently sold to Warren Buffett.

Byrne and Buffett made history again with Fireman’s Fund, which was the largest IPO of its time. Byrne continued to lead White Mountains Insurance Group, a financial services holding company, after the sale of its Fireman’s Fund division to Allianz of Germany in 1990.

John Clements is the managing partner of Tara Partners Ltd, a private investment partnership that was a co-founder of Integro Ltd. and co-founder of Ironshore Inc. From 1995 until 2005, he was a principal of MMC Capital, Inc. (now Stone Point Capital LLC), a global private equity firm.

Clements has served as a director and represented the founding investors in various “start-up” insurance companies, including Advisen Ltd., Altus Ltd. (now part of Arch), American Strategic Insurance, Global Specialty Risk, Inc. (now part of AIG), Ironshore and James River Group, Inc. He was also involved in the creation of Axis Capital Holdings.