We're going to miss Joe. No, not our currentvice president: Joe Plumeri, outgoing CEO of Willis GroupHoldings.

Willis Group recently announced that Plumeri will be steppingdown as CEO in January. The firm is bringing in Dominic Casserley,a senior partner at New York-based consulting firm McKinsey &Co., to replace him during a transition period of about sixmonths—with Plumeri in the role of non-executive chairman throughJuly 2013.

Anyone who has met Plumeri knows he is an energetic individualwhose personality can fill a room. For those of us in the press, hewas a breath of fresh air in a typically reserved industry,offering great quotes and never being shy about expressing hisopinions.

In his dozen years as CEO, Plumeri brought Willis out of itsdoldrums as a minor, silent player among the world's majorinsurance brokers and reinvigorated the firm. He took charge of thebrokerage in 2000, walking into a staid, blue-blooded Britishinstitution that was nearly 200 years old—and had just lost morethan $100 million the year prior.

“From day one when I got here I think there was thirst for avision that did not exist,” Plumeri told me in June when Iinterviewed him for an NU feature honoring him as one of our “Legends of Insurance.” Herecalled the staff as “beaten-down and told it wasn't very good.”To motivate them again, “I simply told them something that theywanted to feel.”

He immediately set about shaking up the corporate culture, andthe changes he brought about were both super-sized and enormouslysuccessful.

Plumeri took the company public in 2001, and he saw thecompany's market capitalization double over his first eight years.In 2008, the firm acquired one of the Top 10 insurance-brokeragefirms, Hilb, Rogal & Hobbs, in a $2.1 billion deal—firmlyestablishing its presence in the U.S.

For years, Plumeri was a prominent voice against the practice ofinsurers' contingent commissions to brokers.

Before Eliot Spitzer, New York's attorney general in 2005,brought the hammer down on Marsh & McLennan Cos. overcontingent commissions, Plumeri was already openly critical of thepractice. If memory serves me right, his initial criticism was thatthey were a detriment to a sales culture that should remain hungryfor new sales opportunities and commissions.

When Spitzer began questioning Marsh's practices, Plumerivoluntarily gave up contingent commissions, saying that they shouldbe banned throughout the industry. Ironically, years later, Willisreversed course, announcing just this past February that it wouldbegin taking contingents on its Employee Benefits business.

Coverage contracts was another subject about which he wasparticularly vocal. Plumeri long argued that it was ludicrous foran insurer to issue coverage to an insured and not have a contractin place for an extended period of time.

“Willis has long held the belief that contract certainty is oneof the basic principles of service and should be adopted across theindustry,” he said in 2008, applauding the efforts of New YorkState Superintendent of Insurance Eric Dinallo for instituting arule requiring insurers to have contract certainty in place withina year. “There is absolutely no excuse for policies to be deliveredmonths after their inception, an all too commonplace practice inthis business.”

And while Plumeri's outspoken nature may not have always madehim a favorite among his peers, being known for raising questionsover ethics and industry practices isn't a bad legacy atall. 

Neither is his widely known penchant for having an open-doorpolicy as CEO—to the degree where he actually removed the door fromhis own office to make the point, in typically over-the-top Plumeristyle. It was a gesture that spoke volumes about his managementapproach.

“The first point you learn about leadership is that it is notabout you,” he told me. “Leadership is just the opposite of whatpeople believe. If you are a real leader, you appreciate the factthat the people you have the good fortune to inspire and the peopleyou have the good fortune to motivate are the [ones] who make thesuccess of the company, not you.”

So Joe, we'll miss you. But I wouldn't expect him to disappear.You never know: With his ownership interest in two minor-leagueteams, maybe his next venture could be helping the Yankees onceagain win a World Series.