J. Hyatt Brown is the chairman – and for over 50 years, the driving force behind – Brown & Brown Insurance.
B&B was founded by Brown's father and a cousin in 1939 as Brown & Owen. The name changed to Brown & Brown in 1955, and J. Hyatt Brown joined the firm in 1959 after his graduation from the University of Florida. He bought the agency in 1961 and took the company public in 1993 via a merger with William Poe's Poe & Associates of Tampa. He assumed full control of the new entity in 1993. The family lineage continues at the company's dual headquarters with son J. Powell Brown as current president and CEO, based in Daytona Beach, and son P. Barrett Brown as profit center leader of the Tampa retail operation.
Renowned for a 14-year run of double-digit bottom-line growth, successive years of increasing dividends, and customer retention rates above 90 percent, B&B ranks as one of the largest independent insurance intermediaries in the U.S. The company currently employs 5,200+ people in 180 locations.
Given his remarkable career in Florida's insurance market and the political arena (he was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 1972 to 1980, and Speaker of the House from 1978 to 1980), Brown has a unique perspective from which to view our industry.
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