Editorial

The titles have moved around a bit, but the names are the same. Longtime Florida Underwriter Editor Michael Adams has stepped back from that role, and I have assumed those responsibilities.

The other people you have come to know — Advertising Sales Manager Joe Maty and Contributing Editors Sharon Moorhead and Phil Galewitz — will continue in their respective roles.

I've met many of you over the years, either in person at various insurance meetings and conventions or by phone while working on stories for this magazine. For those of you I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting, a bit about my background: I started my insurance career back in the early 1980s when Gil Waters hired me to be the public relations manager at FCCI. Gil was a demanding boss, but one of the best teachers a person new to insurance could possibly have. He had a great love of this business, and was one of the most inventive and forward-thinking people I have ever met. (For those of you who know Gil, he is still very much around, firing off letters to the editor of the local Sarasota paper, and rallying troops for various causes.)

Following similar positions with other companies, I left the larger corporate world in 1993 and formed my own public relations and consulting business. Over the last 15 years, I have worked with a variety of industries, but insurance-related companies always seemed to be at the top of the list — some national, some regional or statewide, and some mom-and-pop operations. My involvement with National Underwriter, Florida Underwriter, and other sister publications spans from manning the PR desk at FCCI back in the day, to being a contributing editor for the past decade or so, to this new position. I also have edited the annual Workers' Compensation Desk Manual for the Florida Workers' Compensation Institute's Jim McConnaughhay for many years.

As a public relations and business development consultant, my modus operandi was first and foremost to listen to the client, ensure that what he wanted made sense from a business and marketing standpoint, and then deliver the product. I hope to bring that experience and collaborative outlook to this new undertaking.

To that end, I am actively seeking your input. I encourage you to join in the editorial discussions in a variety of ways. Letters to the editor are always welcome, as are media releases about your company — new products, staff changes, corporate activity. A significant editorial opportunity exists for contributed articles. Who better to review new products, offer insight into market conditions, or discuss the joys and tribulations of running an agency than our readers — the people who deal with these issues every single day?

I'm not an insurance agent. I am, however, a communicator, an observer, an interviewer, an investigator, sometimes a critic, but always a booster, of all things insurance. Let's talk.