You’ve been in the commercial insurance industry for nearly 30 years. You’ve started insurance agencies, sold them, started other insurance agencies as well as forming a successful IT company Dynamic Solutions Group and a temporary staffing business, Labor for Hire. Obviously, you are not afraid of change or challenge. What motivates your business philosophy?

My partners and I have opened businesses where we saw opportunities to provide professional services to business owners. Most often, these were cases where we felt their needs were not being met. With all of these businesses, we have sought to earn the confidence of our clients to provide a service which would allow business owners the time to focus on their core business. We have been fortunate enough to work for some outstanding clients who were building great businesses.

You grew up in Clearwater. What made you decide to get involved in the insurance industry?

My father spent his career working for an insurance company based in Connecticut. He had a great vision on the insurance industry and shared this with me while I was growing up. He was passionate about the insurance agency business, a service business where you could develop long term relationships with business owners. After starting the first five years of my career working for two separate insurance companies, I took the opportunity offered to me by three Clearwater businessmen to manage their insurance agency. I was later offered this agency and purchased it in 1985. I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work for Warren Hughes, Peter Brown and Sandy Lloveras. They gave me my start in business.

At CCF&N you’re the managing partner with responsibilities that include recruiting, strategic planning, and implementation. What does that entail?

Our industry is a people business, first and foremost. Our responsibility to our clients is to hire, train and retain high quality employees to work for our clients. We have also been very fortunate to have successful business owners such as Pat Carlisle, John Fields, James Nichols and Mike Devereux join our organization as partners. These men have exceptional talents in our industry which have made the strategic planning and implementation of our business plan much easier. When USAmeriBank became our partner three years ago, they shared with us their vision of creating a financial services firm well beyond what any of my partners and I had envisioned. We are enjoying working together to build an outstanding organization. I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to work as the managing partner for a group like this.

How do you define success?

For me, success is exceeding the expectations of our clients, vendors and employees. When customers choose our firm to represent their insurance and risk management needs, we take this very seriously. We feel we owe this same level of respect to the insurance companies who allow us to represent them in the marketplace. Our employees work very hard to exceed the expectations of both our clients and insurance companies. If we can exceed their expectations, we will have achieved success.

What three business principles are most important to you?

Ethics, diligence and self-discipline are the three most important principles. Business owners, insurance companies and our employees have high expectations of us. This is the single most important character trait in our agency, the ability to conduct ourselves by moral principles. We must also exhibit great diligence, being attentive and persistent in our daily business activities. And finally, there is no substitute for self-discipline. We are dealing with the financial well-being of our clients’ business. We have been fortunate enough to hire and retain some outstanding employees who have the self- discipline to do their best each and every day. If our agency has the proper ethics, diligence and self-discipline we will exceed the expectations of others.

Who inspires you?

I am inspired by entrepreneurs. We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to work for entrepreneurial business owners every day in our agency. These are the men and women in our society who are creating jobs, wealth and opportunities. The chance to work with them every day is a gift. The creativity and genius of these entrepreneurs will never cease to amaze me.

You’re the managing partner in a highly competitive industry that some may consider “rough and tumble” yet colleagues describe you as self-effacing and unfailingly kind. How does that work in this industry?

In order to succeed in the service industry you need to check your ego at the door. The stars in our world are our clients. In order to get the very best out of our associates we need to motivate, encourage and teach them. The world is full of examples of leaders who have been able to do this without being disrespectful or egocentric.

What is your number one priority in terms of your client?

We want to meet the expectations of our clients. On our clients’ behalf, we are handling transactions that shelter them from a great deal of risk. If we can successfully handle this for these clients, it frees them up to do what they do best. We work hard on the risk transfer and risk management so they can work hard to build their organization.

How would you like people to think of you?

Hopefully, they view me as a person who cares a great deal about them. I enjoy working with people and endeavor to work hard enough for them so as not to disappoint them. My relationship with others is very important to me.

In five years where do you want company to be?

All of our partners would like to see CCF&N continue to evolve to become one of Florida’s finest insurance agencies. We would like our agency to be viewed as one of the more desirable places for those interested in the insurance agency industry to seek employment. We need to continue to improve each and every day in order to stay ahead of the high expectations of both our clients and insurance company partners.