Title: President & CEO, Argonaut Group

First Career Choice: After law school, Mr. Watson aspired to bean energy investment banker, but the market crash in 1987 derailedthose plans.

How He Got Into Insurance: “I grew up in the business,” Mr.Watson says, noting that his grandfather formed a life insuranceagency, which his father later turned into a commercial broker.

His father–Mark Watson Jr.–later started an MGA and subsequentlybought an insurance company, where Mark III worked during thesummer and learned about reinsurance. The exposure helped him landhis first job out of law school with Kroll & Tract, arbitratingretrocessional agreements.

The experience prompted Mr. Watson to suggest that his father,the CEO of Titan, reorganize his claims organization from alitigation perspective, where he would go on to serve as executivevice president until 1998.

Prior to joining Argonaut, he co-founded Aquila CapitalPartners, a Texas-based venture capital firm.

What Keeps Him Up At Night? Argonaut's CEO doesn't mind talkingabout the early days when “bet-the-company” issues consumed histime. But now that the financial issues are smaller, million-dollarones that could cost a quarter's worth of income at most, he sayshe's dreaming of ways to build on success–literally.

While the management team has many battle scars, tough times andsleepless nights are behind them. But “I dream about the companyall the time,” he says.

Industry Role Models? “When you're not the number-one person,and you're one of those people who dreams about it, then you thinkabout how you'd do it. So I used to copiously study everythingSteven Way of HCC and Bill Berkley of W.R. Berkley did back in the90s.” Mr. Way, an Argonaut shareholder, is now a mentor andfriend.

Worth Noting: Argonaut is also involved in quota-sharereinsurance deals with HCC–which, like Argonaut, has been an activeacquirer (albeit in different specialty areas, such as professionalliability, surety, accident & health, and MGA deals). HCCranked as the 20th-largest E&S insurer based on 2005 E&Spremiums according to A.M. Best.

W.R. Berkley, which struggled and restructured its regionaloperations back in 1999, is the sixth-largest E&S insurer.