Florida’s Citizens Announces Staff Changes to Enhance Risk Oversight

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation on Friday announced it has filled a pair of key positions to enhance its financial and risk oversight capabilities as the state-created insurer continues the process of streamlining operations and reducing exposure.

On Friday, Citizens President, CEO and Executive Director Barry Gilway announced that Jennifer Montero will become Citizens chief financial officer. Montero, a certified public accountant who has served as interim CFO since June, has been with Citizens and its predecessor organizations in various capacities since 1999.

Gilway also announced that former Citizens Board of Governors member John Rollins will become Citizens Chief Risk Officer. Rollins, appointed by Gov. Rick Scott in 2011, resigned from the board Monday. The decision marks Rollins’ return to Citizens, where he served as director of analytics from 2006 to 2007.

Gilway said the pair’s combined experience at Citizens will ensure a seamless transition as the company continues efforts to transfer policies to the private sector through depopulation and the creation in January of the consumer clearinghouse.

“Jennifer and John are known quantities with deep knowledge of Citizens operations and the direction we are taking going forward,” Gilway said in a statement. “They will be immediate contributors to our efforts to become a smaller and more efficient insurer.”

Montero’s career at Citizens includes positions as assistant controller, director of accounting/controller, senior director of accounting/controller and deputy CFO.

Among her new duties, Montero will oversee Citizen risk transfer program, which has successfully transferred $1.85 billion in risk to private investors and off the backs of Citizens policyholders and all Floridians who insure their homes, automobiles, boats and other assets. Florida law requires these policyholders to pay assessments if Citizens exhausts its ability to pay claims following major storm activity.

In his new position, Rollins will oversee Citizens’ enterprise risk management, actuarial, analytics and product development when he begins his duties Oct. 14. The newly created position comes in response to an ongoing organizational review by KPMG commissioned by Citizens Board of Governor’s last year.

Most recently, Rollins was president of Rollins Analytics Inc. and vice president for public risk services at AIR Worldwide Corp, a global provider of risk modeling and consulting services. He is longstanding member of state and national actuarial associations.