Lydecker to Replace Dunbar at Florida’s Citizens’ Board; Murray Moves to Seaglass

A Florida insurance executive will soon join the board of governors for Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

Charlie Lydecker was formerly president of the retail division of Brown & Brown Insurance, one of the largest brokerages in the U.S., and is now CEO of Foundation Risk Partners. He was named to the Citizens board in late May by Florida’s chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis. He replaces Marc Dunbar, a Tallahassee attorney and gaming lobbyist whose term ends Aug. 1.

Lydecker may take over sooner than that: He will attend his first board meeting July 13, according to news reports.

“Charlie Lydecker is a consummate insurance professional with more than three decades of experience, including property and casualty,” Patronis said in a statement.

Lydecker left Daytona-based Brown & Brown in 2017 and launched Foundation Risk Partners, which quickly became one of the largest commercial insurance brokers in the country, according to news reports. His appointment should help quell concerns that Citizens’ board members have not had enough experience in the insurance business.

The Florida Association of Insurance Agents early this year urged lawmakers to adopt Senate Bill 1728, which would have required that board members have at least 10 years in property and casualty insurance, or with a trade association. The bill, which addressed a number of other issues in Florida’s insurance market, passed the Senate but died in the House during the regular session of the Legislature, which ended in March.

After he left Brown & Brown, the company in 2018 sued Lydecker and others affiliated with Foundation Risk Partners, accusing them of working to create a competing insurance firm while still employed at B&B.

The defendants in the suit responded that B&B had, in fact, betrayed longtime executives by promoting the chairman’s son to be CEO in 2009.

A judge dismissed most of the suit’s allegations in 2019.

Seaglass Names Murray RM Consultant

Seaglass Insurance Group, a managing general agent domiciled in Florida, has appointed Esther Murray as risk management consultant.

Murray was previously safety management consultant for MEMIC, Maine Employers’ Mutual Insurance Co., a workers’ compensation insurer based in Maine.

The move will help Seaglass specialize in providing workers’ comp coverage for the healthcare sector, Seaglass CEO Tod Austin said in a statement.

Topics Florida