Kitzman Named South Carolina Insurance Director
NU Online News Service, Feb. 2, 3:46 p.m. EST?South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford today named small business founder Eleanor Kitzman as his selection to fill the Cabinet-level position of Department of Insurance director left vacant by Ernst Csiszar.[@@]
Mr. Csiszar, abruptly resigned in September of 2004 to become chief executive officer of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, an insurers' lobbying group based in Des Plaines, Ill. At the time, he was also serving as National Association of Insurance Commissioners president.
An eighteen-year veteran of the insurance industry, Ms. Kitzman is founder and former president of Driver's Choice Insurance Services, a South Carolina auto insurance business created in 1999 with five employees and one office that now employs 45 at five locations.
"What I've always looked for in this process are people who bring a business approach to government and who look out for the taxpayers' bottom line," Gov. Sanford said. "That's particularly critical at an agency like DOI that's so closely tied to our economic development efforts as a state."
In addition, he said, it's critically important that "folks in this process be willing to show intellectual curiosity and think outside of the box in questioning the status quo with respect to state government. Eleanor has all of those qualities in addition to a broad base of institutional knowledge, and I think she's uniquely qualified to help grow our insurance industry, given the fact she's been a small business success story in that industry herself."
A resident of Columbia, S.C., Ms. Kitzman was involved in helping reform South Carolina's auto insurance laws in 1997, testifying before the South Carolina General Assembly and advancing reforms that have helped make our state more competitive on this front, according to the South Carolina Office of the Governor.
Ms. Kitzman said Gov. Sanford had refocused South Carolina's government "back on providing value to the taxpayer. I'm honored that the governor has asked me to join his team and look forward to helping his administration advance changes that will make our state more competitive."
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