After decades working in the business on which he has leftsuch a monumental mark, Pat Ryan still loves what he does—andexcels at it because he is ever mindful of the impact his efforts,in insurance or otherwise, will have on others.

“The insurance industry is very dynamic; the business ischanging all the time,” Ryan tells NU. “It’s sofragmented, so global, so multidimensional that it allows forpeople to develop creative solutions to current and anticipatedproblems that allow [your company] to be differentiated.”

Exercising that ability for identifying and solving insuranceneeds was one of the keys to Ryan’s success in engineering thegrowth of Aon from a startup in Chicago to one of the world’slargest insurance and reinsurance brokerages—a multinationalpowerhouse that operates in 120 countries, has 61,000 employees andregistered $11.3 billion in revenue in 2011.

In 1964, when he founded what was then known as Pat Ryan &Associates, “our mindset was to build a national sales-distributionsystem that started as a managing general underwriter for what isnow CNA; and the thought was to build that role as an MGU and takeit geographically from Chicago into the southwest over a five-yearperiod, effectively nationalizing it,” he recalls.

In 1971, Ryan took his firm public in order to finance his goalof diversifying the company’s offerings. He expanded by acquiringGlobe Life and four insurance-brokerage businesses in 1976 and theJames S. Kemper insurance agencies in 1981.

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But the following year came the watershed deal, when RyanInsurance Group merged with Combined Insurance Co. of America andhe took over as CEO from W. Clement Stone. Five years later, thenew entity became known to Wall Street—and the rest of thefinancial world—as Aon (Gaelic for “oneness”).

Over the next two decades (Ryanserved as CEO from 1982-2005), Aon acquired some well-known namesin the insurance and consulting industries, among them the BenfieldGroup and Alexander & Alexander, in addition to suchinternational players as Hudig-Langeveldt and Frank B. Hall.

The globalization of Aon, which Ryan notes “took place over arelatively short time,” is one of the professional achievements ofwhich he’s most proud. He adds that he takes equal pride in thequality of Aon’s people.

Ryan’s other points of pride throughout his years at Aon’s helmare “the way we came through on some crises.”

One of the darkest days of his career—and the nation—occurred onSept. 11, 2001 when 176 Aon employees were killed in the attacks onthe World Trade Center. It wasn’t long after that Ryan decidedmedical benefits were to be extended to the immediate families ofthose employees whose lives were taken, and that their children’stuition would be paid.

Another test of Aon’s fortitudecame in 2004-2005 when Aon, along with other brokers includingWillis and Marsh, found themselves under the microscope ofthen-N.Y. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer as well as attorneysgeneral in Connecticut and Illinois over the practice of insurers’contingent commissions to brokers.

In March 2005, Aon agreed to a $190 million settlement to bepaid over 30 months to policyholders allegedly damaged by thecompany's actions.

Admitting no wrongdoing, Ryan said at that time in a statementthat the company “now has these investigations behind us” and notedthat “we do not agree with a number of allegations in thecomplaints.”

Ryan retired as chairman in 2008—but he couldn’t stay away frominsurance for long. In 2010 he formed Ryan Specialty Group (RSG), aglobal organization designed to deliver specialty services toinsurance agents, brokers and carriers alike.

After all he’s accomplished, how does an individual like Ryanwant to be regarded? He pauses thoughtfully for several beatsbefore answering the question.

“I’d like them to remember me as someone who if people neededhelp, that I’d be able to help them, whether personally related orprofessionally. That’s the bottom line for me.”